If you want to make female friends realize the charm of men, the best way is to really focus on it, not pretending.

So early the next morning, Gu Biao took his bodyguard Li Lianjie and rushed from Los Angeles to the Bay Area by plane, he wanted to sincerely inspect the progress of the game console business and listen to the report about Ma Zai.

This is the first time Gu Biao has taken such a short-distance plane since he came to the United States, and he can't help but feel a little emotional: If the United States is like China in the future, it would be easy to have a high-speed rail, and what kind of plane would it take for 800 kilometers.

But this is doomed to be impossible, because the United States is vast and sparsely populated, and the penetration rate of private cars is high, and the railroads are doomed to suffer huge losses, so they can only engage in high-priced landscape trains.

"Applejack, don't mind giving me another two days as a bodyguard and carrying my luggage. When the domestic "Shaolin Temple" and the "Terminator" here are released, you may be a big star. Approaching the landing of the plane, Gu Biao joked with Li Lianjie half-jokingly.

"Why, I know how the 'big star' came to be - it's all the result of Google's cultivation. In the future, there will be more big stars begging to give you a cameo bodyguard but can't get it. ”

Gu Biao raised his hand to stop: "Eh, don't be presumptuous. I'm also here to study this time, so it's not easy to make too much pomp. When I graduate, I'll definitely get a full-time bodyguard team. ”

Without further ado, Gu Biao took Li Lianjie out of San Francisco International Airport, and Shi Yuzhu was already waiting there for the pick-up.

"Mr. Gu, Ajie, this way. Shi Yuzhu beckoned the two to get into the car, and then drove them to the company in person.

Shi Yuzhu has been following Gu Biao to the United States for more than a month, and under Gu Ao's authorization, he registered and established a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tiankun Entertainment in the United States, and also hired more than a dozen key employees, connecting the daily work with Sony's shipping channels and domestic shipment documents.

Of course, the sales profit does not go from this company at present, nominally it is just a company that provides technical and after-sales services, and then provides some business contacts by the way. Therefore, there is no question of tax avoidance.

To this day, Gu Biao's industrial model does not need to think too much about tax avoidance, and the exemptions and exemptions given to him by China and the preferential treatment in Xiangjiang have not expired. Gu Biao estimated that even if he wanted to engage in "offshore companies" in the future like Silicon Valley people and later generations of domestic Internet people, at least it would be after 1984.

When the time comes, it will be nothing more than the loss of China's business to the Cayman Islands and the business of the United States to the Bahamas, and everyone on the earth will understand it.

Cousin Lu Guangfu should also graduate from Columbia University by then, and Gu Biao can leave all the capital structure matters to Lu Guangfu to worry about.

Columbia University's bachelor's degree in finance and master's degree in international business law are not good at this point, and the book is in vain.

Let's talk about the present.

The reason why Gu Biao asked Shi Yuzhu to open Tiankun Entertainment's subsidiary in the United States to San Francisco is also because Sony's headquarters in the United States is still here. Gu Biao's shipping channels mainly rely on Sony, of course, he has to hug his thighs nearby.

To be exact, Palo Alto, located in the southern part of the Bay Area, where Stanford University is located. It is now the heart of Silicon Valley, just over 20 kilometers from San Francisco International Airport, about the same distance as the core of San Francisco. Before the advent of the Internet era, the Stanford neighborhood was the heart of Silicon Valley.

Some officials who have a later impression of Sony may wonder: Isn't Sony's headquarters always located in New York?

This is actually a misconception, before the Plaza Accord in 1985, Sony was still a very pragmatic electronics company with a strong focus on technology and industry. Because the shipping cost advantage of Japanese-funded products is still there, I am very diligent, and the headquarters of the electronics giants are basically located in California.

However, after the Plaza Accord, the yen more than doubled against the dollar in three years, and he soon discovered that it was better to export capital than to engage in industry, so Sony was not exempt from the vulgar and moved its headquarters to New York and embarked on the road of buying, buying, buying, buying.

Gu Biao is now cooperating with a 1.0 version of Sony.

……

More than half an hour later, Shi Yuzhu drove along Route 101 to Palo Alto and took Gu to visit the subsidiary with only a few offices.

"This month, how are our game consoles selling? Do you have any channels with Sony?Do you have any ideas?" Gu Biao sat down on the sofa in the reception room, and picked up the report to read as he asked.

Shi Yuzhu reported: "It's not bad, the prepared inventory is basically digested. Earth Defense is the best seller, with a backlog of several thousand units waiting to be shipped.

'Adventure Island' is second to all, and the stock is sold out, and the momentum can be maintained for at least three months. But the sales of the older 'Bomberman' and 'Pac-Man' are worrying - I groped for a month and found that the US market could not apply the previous market ideas at all.

Women in the United States basically don't play games, and even games with cute graphics can't attract female consumers, including 'MapleIsland', which is 90% consumed by men. This conclusion is the result of my personal visit to several cities, and I have also asked our after-sales technical service personnel to follow up, which should reflect the real data. ”

Gu Biao closed his eyes and thought for a while, obviously not satisfied with this answer, and asked rhetorically:

"It can maintain hot sales for three months - at present, Han Ting supplies you with about 10,000 units a month, right? I mean the four games combined. At present, an arcade machine is a net profit of 200 US dollars, at most 300, and Sony's channel fees are also included.

In other words, we went to great lengths to get Sony to give us a shipping channel, and we only made $8 million in net profits during the windfall period? Counting the subsequent 'long-tail income,' it shouldn't have reached 20 million -- why is the U.S. market so small? In terms of population, income level, and acceptance of video games, the U.S. market is at least three times that of the U.S. market! The way you play now, it seems that the U.S. market is less than twice as much as the U.S. market!"

People who do big business have clear goals and expectations, and they will not be satisfied just because they are willing to make money or grow.

If there should be high growth expectation, and the actual growth rate is not so high in the end, it should be reviewed.

Just like the later generations of QQ selling games, profits and sales increased by less than 40% year-on-year compared with the previous year, which will be considered a "failed answer" by the capital market, and then the stock price plummeted, and MIH, a major shareholder who has held shares for more than ten years, panicked and sold.

Looking at the lively Li Lianjie on the side, he couldn't help but feel that Brother Gu was really stern.

Unexpectedly, his subordinates helped him make money, but he was not satisfied, and he was disgusted that the expansion rate was slow and the growth rate of making money did not meet expectations.

Fortunately, Shi Yuzhu has seen the world and has been in prison, and in order to win the opportunity to steal out and start again in the future, he has worked hard to read business management books, all of which were obtained from outside the prison in the Special Administrative Region for a lot of money, even harder than when he was studying mathematics at Zhejiang University.

Therefore, his questioning of Gu Biao still has a bit of anti-pressure ability.

"Mr. Gu, as I said, there is a problem of low activity of female players, which cannot be changed in the short term. It is impossible for us to fight against an enemy that does not exist. ”

Gu Biao was unrelenting: "Even in Yueben, the consumption of female players is less than 20%, I don't think this factor can lead to such a big deviation - I want quantitative analysis, not qualitative." In this way, you can show me the market distribution chart of shipments, and then mark the population, per capita income, and consumption of each target market state and city. I'm going to see which one is lower. ”

Shi Yuzhu hurriedly apologized, saying that he had not made statistics in this regard.

"Then give you half an hour, hurry up and sort it out. Gu Biao said a word, and broke his leg below.

Shi Yuzhu hurriedly found a sales assistant and a financial statistician, and the firing line was busy with a hand-drawn report and added the data of the dimensions that Gu Biao wanted to see.

Gu Biao glanced at it a few times and found a problem.

"New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago – the four megacities have similar initial penetration figures as they did when they first entered the market. However, the follow-up market is obviously inferior. Haven't you analyzed the reason for such an obvious gap?"

Shi Yuzhu said embarrassedly: "But this is a normal phenomenon - the same is true of the market, and Tokyo has the fastest popularity. And the 'operators' are the most active. The United States is much more sparsely populated than the local population, and medium-sized cities are of course slower to respond.

It's not going to be 'what's trending in New York', and even the operators are much slower to respond, and it's good to spread it to Atlanta. ”

Gu Biao nodded: "Okay, even if this is a normal phenomenon caused by the structure of the American market - then, as the head of marketing, have you considered how to sink the channel in this environment?

You must know that Atari's accumulation and technical response speed in the field of video games are much faster than Nintendo's. After we become popular, we don't even have a first-mover advantage for three months, and we will face Atari's personal copycat! When the time comes, with the other party's strong channels, if we don't rush out, that's the end of it. I can only 'get a vote and leave', and I can't argue with Atari anymore. ”

Shi Yuzhu was so excited that his face turned red, gritted his teeth, and said sadly: "Of course I have thought of a way, but I dare not guarantee it, and it requires some preliminary investment." ”

"But it doesn't hurt to say that. ”

Shi Yuzhu paced back and forth anxiously for a few steps, then went back to his office and brought a memo. There are not only notes, but also a lot of cut out photos.

Then, Shi Yuzhu also turned on the big TV in the reception room, tuned to a certain channel, and then began to explain.

"Mr. Gu, this thing was just discovered after I came to the United States. I also made a special research, and in the United States, it should also belong to the new thing that has just appeared - there is an organization called HSN, which is Home-Shopping-Netork, or 'Home Shopping.com'.

The agency rents a channel on Florida TV to sell things directly, and at present, if it does not rely on satellite TV, only a few cities such as Miami and Oakland can receive it, so I opened a satellite TV in order to study the potential of this thing. Don't equate this thing with a domestic TV commercial, it takes much longer, and it will repeatedly render the use effect, the contact information of the seller, and the delivery channel in the program. It can be ordered directly. ”

Gu Biao interrupted: "I know, isn't this just TV shopping, let's talk about the point." Let me tell you first, arcades are not retail products. And the current sales of this show should be very high. ”

Shi Yuzhu: "Of course I know it's not a retail product – I believe that if it's retail, it won't work very well." Because ordinary consumers are not so bold and believe in the credibility of TV mail order, only enterprise-level customers are more likely to trust. As you said, any new business model must be easier for 2B customers to believe in first, and then it will slowly be transmitted to 2C.

If we modify the model of TV shopping and change it to 'TV solicitation franchisees', it will definitely be more promising than the pioneer. We can make a short video and interview the arcade owners who were the first to introduce the Tiankun Entertainment game console, let them show up, and get permission to look at their operating income statements, and tell the operators of entertainment venues in small cities that they are in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago...... How much money did those colleagues who brought in 'MapleIsland' and 'Earth Defenders' earn!"