Chapter 216: Chapter 216

Unlike the tense situation in the apocalypse, the development in the modern world had been smooth and steady. For newly emerging technology companies like Future Technology, the government had been supportive as they have given the green light to Jiang Chen in most areas of development.

Of course, the reason why the local government took a such a stance was obviously due to the hundred million in tax amount Future Technology paid each month.

Who wouldn’t mind putting a money printer in their home? It was a political achievement. And Future Technology had only been formed how long ago? If it continues to grow, there will be a possibility that an internet giant, like Penguin, would form during their tenure.

On the other hand, because of the continuous growth of Future 1.0’s user base, the domestic users had broken the 200 million mark, and the multi-language international users had broken the 400 million mark.

The rise of Future 1.0 drew in the attention of business elites from all industries who had an acute sense for the smell of cash, and all kinds of proposals for partnership came forth like snowflakes. Because of this, Xia Shiyu had been busy all over the place since the president of the company would always disappear…

Even people outside of the industry knew that in the internet age, traffic is king. This could be seen through ridesharing, take out, or other businesses using the O2O(1) model. Companies were willing to invest heavily in marketing just to draw in traffic.

But there was no need for Future 1.0 to spend that much since it was at the forefront of the artificial intelligence and performance enhancement industries. There were no competitors right now that could compete with Future Technology, so there was only one choice.

Because of their monopoly in performance enhancement, after operating for free for two months, Future Technology “shamelessly” changed the service to a paid subscription model. New users would receive two months of free trial, but on the third month, if they wanted to continue enjoying the service, they must spend 10 RMB to upgrade to VIP1.

To put it in simple terms, if you wanted to enjoy the speed of a 2000 smartphone with a 1000 smartphone, then you better pay the 10 RMB subscription fee.

Would people pay for performance enhancement? The answer was, “Certainly”.

Think of all the games and apps that are originally unable to run on your phone. Due to the performance enhancement service of the Future 1.0, your phone would no longer become a scorching brick when you play games, and neither would you have to worry about your battery life when you watch a movie. Would you be able to go back to that kind of phone experience?

A fee of 10 RMB per month was much cheaper than getting a new phone.

Of course, when the subscription service was introduced, the forums were filled with negative opinions. The users that hadn’t paid for VIP voiced out that it was fraud—they didn’t know there would be a fee when they downloaded. Some people even stated that if it changed to a paid service, they will delete Little White.

But that was only a small amount of people trying to shift the publics’ opinion. Although there were a lot of users expressing their dissatisfaction, those came from a few IPs only. Even if they use their butts to think(2), it was obvious that they must be an internet army hired to shift the public’s opinion.

A lot of paid users who upgraded to VIP1 stood on Future Technology’s side:

“Is 10 RMB a lot? It’s not even the price of a meal.”

“Service is not an obligation, why complain so much? Delete it if you want to, don’t drag down the average user’s intelligence.”

The users who haven’t paid held an indifferent opinion. As long as the service was worth the price, they didn’t mind spending the money. If they could afford a phone, why would they care about 10 RMB?

Would the people who were causing a fuss really delete Future 1.0?

The VIP1 domestic users who upgraded that month surpassed the 200 million mark, and the insanely high percentage of paid users destroyed the QQ membership service.

The market had given its answer.

As for the international market, it went relatively smooth. Since they were already used to paying for apps, and because no cracked version existed, most of the users accepted the fee of 2 USD a month.

Just one membership service in the app brought billions of revenue to Future Technology.

The insane ability to rake in money stunned Wall Street, leaving the venture capitalists who were unable to get a cut of this piece of pie in despair… all this despite Jiang Chen never mentioning that he would take in venture capitalists.

It was an honor. Jiang Chen became the first man to be in the headlines for Wall Street Journal twice in just half a year — a man from Hua, nonetheless.

On the other hand, although the performance of <New Era> paled in comparison to the stunning performance of Future 1.0, it was still able to achieve jaw-dropping results.

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First of all, the <New Era> player base had reached over 50 million, and the concurrent users almost broke the 10 million mark.

The auction house, cosmetics, warehouse expansion, and a series of other revenue generation method quickly turned intellectual property into cash. The super game design translated into user retention. Now on any subway, or in any university classroom, the fine animation of <New Era> could be seen.

The game editor provided by Yao Yao was immensely powerful. Almost anything that could be imagined could be implemented into the game. The <New Era> project team had increased to a group of 40 people, with 20 responsible for creating new content and the rest focused on character design, costumes, plot, and missions.

Whether it was about game content or playability, it was all flooded with positive praises and, after a period of marketing, the international version also came online.

Based on Xia Shiyu’s report, the international users had exceeded the eighty million mark, and it was steadily increasing.

Although the $200 million profit was a bit lackluster when compared to Future 1.0, it still exceeded that of its competitors by far.

It was, after all, $200 million in profit, not revenue.

Even though a lot of mobile games could break the $100 million mark in revenue, because of the expenses for research and development, in addition to the bad debts and many other factors, it was considered profitable if thirty percent of the revenue turned into actual profit.

A mobile game with $200 million profit was a miracle.

Due to the popularity of the game, a lot of famous clans entered <New Era>, and smaller game clans also sprouted like bamboo shoots after the rain. The popularity of the game also led to the growth and development of other related industries.

For example, live streaming professional matches…

A lot of third-party platforms had come to Future Technology in the hopes of forming a partnership with them on the game <New Era>. In regard to this, Future Technology opened its doors and welcomed all potential partners.

…

“Sohu wants to form a partnership based on Future 1.0 and <New Era>, with a joint venture for a new kind of streaming platform for <New Era>.”

“What do you think about this proposal?” Jiang Chen said sluggishly as he lied on the sofa.

“Hard to recover the investment in the short term, but it would expand <New Era>’s influence and increase user retention—”

“Thank you so much!”

As if she had already expected Jiang Chen to say that, Xia Shiyu, who was sitting in the office, facepalmed.

“… Okay, also, Dalmer Corporation’s representative had arrived in Wanghai as they wish to discuss a partnership. Because of the identity of their representative, based on etiquette, you would have to personally meet him.”

“Dalmer Corporation?” Jiang Chen paused as he never heard this name before.

Xia Shiyu on the other side of the phone also paused.

“The Maybach S600 you are driving is from Dalmer corporation.”

[ Now that’s embarrassing! ]

Jiang Chen scratched his face to cover his embarrassment,. He really didn’t know much about cars.

“Ahem, who is coming?” He decided to change the topic.

“Carmen Rothschild.”

1. O2O: “Online to offline”. Any e-commerce service that provides services online to aid the user with a better offline shopping experience. The “services” could be in the form of ‘discounts’, ‘information’, ‘coupons’, etc. For example, the website Groupon is an O2O site: it provides discounts *online* for *offline* things, such as “Up to 52% off Nail Services”.

2. “Even if you use your butt to think” is an expression stating how obvious something is.