23: Chapter 23: Preparing to Develop the Game, League of Legends

"Boss, if there's nothing else, we'll head off first."

Zhao Lei recovered from the shock of the one-billion acquisition just now, rubbed his face vigorously, and prepared to walk out.

Too many things had happened this morning; he needed to go make a cup of coffee to calm down.

Lin Xiao also adjusted his glasses and followed behind Zhao Lei.

"Wait a moment."

Qin Mo's voice came from behind them.

He sat back down in front of the computer, his fingers still tapping away on the keyboard. The light from the screen reflected on his face, his expression extremely focused.

Zhao Lei and Lin Xiao exchanged a look, wondering what else the boss had to say.

The two stood at the door, waiting for about two minutes.

The office was very quiet, with only the sound of keyboard clicks.

"Boss, is there anything else?"

Zhao Lei couldn't help but ask.

Qin Mo didn't answer immediately; he tapped the keyboard a few more times before turning the monitor around to let them see the content clearly.

On the screen was a product proposal document, with a line of text in the title bar.

"Douyin Livestreaming Feature, Internal Beta Proposal."

Zhao Lei leaned closer to the screen to read it, then looked up at Lin Xiao. Lin Xiao had finished reading as well, and their expressions changed almost simultaneously.

It wasn't pleasant surprise, but worry.

"Boss, you want to do livestreaming on Douyin?"

Zhao Lei's voice unconsciously lowered a few notches, as if he were afraid of being overheard by the new employees at their workstations outside.

"No, Boss, livestreaming and Short Video are not the same thing."

"No one had done Short Video before; it was a blue ocean. We were the first to rush in, so we could play however we wanted."

"But livestreaming is different; that battle was fought and won long ago."

"Douyu and Huya, plus a covetous Bilibili, have cleanly divided the livestreaming market among themselves."

"Douyu was acquired by Tencent, and Tencent is also the largest shareholder of Huya. If Bilibili can still drink some soup in the cracks, it's only because they have exclusive ACG content."

"Anyone else wanting to wedge themselves in wouldn't even be able to find the door."

Lin Xiao adjusted his glasses and took over the conversation.

His voice was calmer than Zhao Lei's, but his brow was just as tightly furrowed.

"Zhao Lei is right."

"Over the past few years, when livestreaming platforms were burning money to fight, batch after batch collapsed. Those that survived all had backing."

"For us to rush in at this time is equivalent to taking the company's funds to fight a battle where others have already cleaned up the battlefield."

Qin Mo leaned back in his chair, and only after both of them had finished speaking did he open his mouth, unhurriedly.

"Who told you that Douyin's livestreaming and the livestreaming on Douyu or Huya are the same thing?"

Zhao Lei was stunned for a moment.

Qin Mo turned the screen back and moved the mouse across the document a few times.

"The core of Douyu and Huya's livestreaming is the streamer."

"Users open a livestreaming room to watch a specific person; if the streamer isn't online, the room goes dark."

"If a streamer jumps ship, the fans follow."

"The platform's initiative is always held in the hands of the streamers, which is why Douyu and Huya have been poaching each other for years, burning billions without creating a moat."

"But Douyin's livestreaming is different."

He paused.

"The core of Douyin's livestreaming isn't the streamer; it's the content."

"When users swipe to a livestreaming room on Douyin, it's not because they follow that streamer, but because the Recommendation Algorithm determines they are interested in the visuals of that room."

"Whether a streamer can get popular on Douyin doesn't depend on which guild they signed with, or how many fans they had on other platforms, but only on whether their livestreaming visuals can make people stop swiping."

"Just like our current Short Video."

Lin Xiao's expression shifted.

"You mean, applying the Recommendation Algorithm to livestreaming distribution?"

"Yes."

Qin Mo nodded.

"Douyu and Huya's livestreaming recommendation method is a list display. The platform pushes streamers to users, and only those ranked at the top get exposure, but the ranking is determined by signing fees and guild resources."

"Douyin's livestreaming embeds the Recommendation Algorithm into the information feed, letting users see real-time footage of livestreaming rooms interspersed while they are swiping through Short Video."

"Whichever room has a high retention rate and interaction rate, the algorithm pushes it to more people who might be interested."

"So, strictly speaking, Douyin's livestreaming isn't traditional livestreaming, but an extension of Short Video."

Zhao Lei scratched the back of his head.

He looked at the proposal on the screen again, his expression changing from worry to contemplation.

"Put that way, it really doesn't seem like the same thing."

"Just do as I say."

Qin Mo turned the screen back and closed the document.

"In the early stages, do an invitation-only internal beta. The first batch should only be open to creators with over 100,000 followers. Embed the livestreaming entry point in the information feed; don't make it a separate livestreaming channel."

"Once it's running smoothly, then open it up fully."

Zhao Lei and Lin Xiao nodded simultaneously.

They didn't ask any more questions because Qin Mo's explanation just now had made the logic very clear.

What he wanted to do wasn't to compete with Douyu and Huya for the existing market, but to redefine the distribution rules of livestreaming using the algorithm.

Just as he had redefined Short Video with the algorithm back then.

"Alright, then we'll go get busy. For the livestreaming side, I'll have Old Zhou's product team build the prototype first. For The Rap of China, I'll go urge the business team to sign, striving to finalize the contract this week."

Zhao Lei turned to leave.

"One more thing."

Qin Mo called him back.

Zhao Lei turned back again.

"Go help me poach someone."

Qin Mo pulled open a drawer, took out a business card, and pushed it across the table.

The business card was a bit old, with slightly curled edges; it clearly wasn't something he had just received recently.

Zhao Lei picked up the card and glanced at it; the foreign name on it made him frown.

"A foreigner?"

Zhao Lei looked up at Qin Mo.

"Boss, who is this?"

Lin Xiao turned his head to look, and upon seeing the name, he was taken aback. He adjusted his glasses, his voice filled with a bit of uncertainty.

"I think I've heard of this name."

"The producer of dota, the foreign game designer who developed the original map for dota."

The foreigner on the business card Qin Mo gave was named IceFrog.

In this world, as the designer of the dota map, he already had some renown.

But compared to the previous life, it was still far from catching up.

"It's him."

Qin Mo nodded.

Zhao Lei still hadn't reacted.

"The producer of dota? Why poach him? We aren't in the game business."

"Who says we aren't doing games?"

Qin Mo leaned back in his chair, the corners of his mouth lifting as he suddenly laughed.

From the very beginning.

He never thought about just making a Douyin.

There are so many internet products missing in this world, and the concepts are so backward; if he only focused on Douyin, it would be too boring.

"Just doing Short Video is too monotonous."

Qin Mo paused.

"I want to turn Inspur Technology into the world's largest internet company."

The office went quiet for a moment.

Zhao Lei and Lin Xiao looked at Qin Mo simultaneously, trying to find a trace of a joking expression on his face. They didn't find one.

"Boss, are you serious?"

Zhao Lei looked at the business card in his hand, then at Qin Mo.

"Make games? We haven't even hired a single employee related to games; the company is full of people making apps."

"That's why we need to poach people."

Qin Mo took IceFrog's business card back from Zhao Lei's hand, placed it on the table, and tapped it twice with his fingertip.

"Now that Douyin has gained momentum, the speed of capital return is faster than expected, and manufacturers are coming back one after another. After the livestreaming feature goes live, our cash flow will step up to another level."

"Taking advantage of this window period, it's time to prepare for the next step."

"But the gaming track..."

Lin Xiao's voice was somewhat hesitant.

"It's completely different from the Short Video industry; the development cycle is long, the investment is large, and the risk is much higher than software."

"I know."

Qin Mo looked at the name on the business card, and scenes of the league of legends World Championship from his previous life flashed through his mind.

The Bird's Nest stadium was packed, an AR dragon soared from the center of the stage, and hundreds of millions of people were watching a match on their screens simultaneously.

That was the pinnacle of the esports industry, one of the most valuable IPs in the gaming industry.

But in this world.

The games with the most players globally were dota and CS, with the most primitive graphics, although both games had sequels preparing to launch in the last two years.

But their influence was still far from comparable to the league of legends of his previous life.

After all, neither game had a global tournament to this day; all matches were small-scale collisions between players.

Esports.

In this world, it was just a fairly niche industry.

"IceFrog is still abroad. After dota was acquired by Tencent, he was kicked out of the game for dota 2; he and his current team can only do some outsourcing."

The only difference between this world and his previous life was that Tencent had acquired dota very early on and launched an independent client.

"This point in time is the best time to poach him."

Qin Mo pushed the business card back in front of Zhao Lei.

"Contact him, tell him that the game I want to make isn't just a single game, but an entire esports ecosystem."

"Have him bring his core team over; he can name his terms."

Zhao Lei took a deep breath and put the business card into his pocket.

Although he didn't understand what an esports ecosystem meant, he still chose to believe.

"Alright, I'll go contact him."

"But Boss, our company is doing Short Video, livestreaming, and now games; the spread is so wide..."

He didn't finish the rest of his sentence, but the meaning was very clear.

Qin Mo picked up the cold soy milk on the table and took another sip.

"But these contents are essentially connected."

"What we want to make isn't a piece of software or a game; it's an ecosystem."

"Short Video for traffic, livestreaming for monetization, games for retaining users; every step is the foundation for the next."

"If it's just Short Video, it's too monotonous; we must build an ecosystem like Tencent."

He set down the cup and looked at the skyline outside the window.

"Tencent offered one billion to buy it today because they only saw Douyin."

"When they see the whole chessboard, one billion won't even count as a fraction."

Zhao Lei and Lin Xiao exchanged a look and didn't speak again.

The two turned and walked out of the office, closing the door behind them.

In the hallway, Zhao Lei took the business card out of his pocket and looked at the name and contact information on it again.

"IceFrog."

He carefully put the business card back into his pocket and patted his chest, as if afraid it might fly away.

"Our company is really going to become a game company."

Lin Xiao adjusted his glasses and smiled for once.

"Not a game company, an internet company."

"The boss said, the largest in the world."