On the weekend, Cheng Qi came home and helped Xu Lan cook. When he mentioned that Cheng Feiyang was not at home again, Xu Lan said, "Your cousin is always like this, flying around. I'm used to it. He's often not at home."
Xu Lan added, "I heard from your mother that you were in the newspaper again. My, our Cheng Qi is really becoming more and more amazing!"
Cheng Qi's reputation as a college student entrepreneur is no longer limited to his own school. With the spread of the Lianzhong platform, the Lianzhong platform has grown stronger. Over the new year, the number of people online at the same time reached 5,000, and there were 50,000 registered users, which alarmed the media. It has become the largest online gaming platform in China, and its development is even greater now. In fact, it is also because Cheng Qi's Normal University has not had a good employment rate in recent years. I don't know which school leader, while visiting Europe and the United States, saw the developed American alumni culture, came up with an idea when he came back, and immediately contacted the publicity department to release Cheng Qi.
Humans are social animals and all have circle thinking. The so-called personal connections have always been the indispensable soil for exchanges among those who hold information and resources, just like the alumni culture of American universities across the ocean, which forms a chain of its own.
Someone has conducted a survey and found that in the past decade, Harvard University's average alumni donation rate has reached more than 23%, while Stanford University's donation rate is even higher. This is a kind of culture and also a strategic investment. The school relies on donations from the alumni association to cultivate talents with high-quality resources, and these cultivated alumni talents may eventually become their friends or employees. The donors gain the friendship of the school and this group, get spiritual honor, and also gain personal connections accepted by people of the same status as them.
Even if we don't talk about the United States, there is also campus culture in China. For example, for some schools, people remember not their humanistic environment and teaching philosophy, but who came out of there, which industry leader or leader. Naturally, you can gain influence in various aspects and real resources.
Cheng Qi's Lianzhong platform can be said to be the leader among current websites of this type, and as a result it has been widely publicized in the media. Therefore, among domestic Internet entrepreneurs, some people have given Cheng Qi the nickname "The Second Young Master of the Southwest" based on his martial arts.
It’s just that the two young masters from the southwest refer to the two young “geniuses” in school who founded Lianzhong, Cheng Qi and Ren Qi.
It was indeed the talented technician Ren Qi who had been obsessed with computers since his youth who was in charge of technology, and Cheng Qi who was in charge of strategy and operations. The two were reported extremely well in the media. This was the time when the Nasdaq technology network stocks in the United States were booming. Under the influence of this craze, domestic media were also exploring typical cases of this trend.
The keywords "school students", "young people working hard" and "Xichuan Province's entrepreneurial model when the Internet boom came" made the media very excited and they firmly grasped these highlights for reporting.
Now, the aunties in the corridors of residential buildings may not care who Cheng Qi is, but as long as they are in front of their own children, they will definitely say the same thing: Look, he started a successful business when he was in college, but you, you, you are lazy and eat all day long...
The reason why Cheng Qi’s Lianzhong was able to develop so well was because of the advantage in time.
While Xu Lan was cooking in the kitchen, Cheng Qi said to Cheng Ran, "Our Go section is not as popular as chess and card games. It is also difficult to develop. After all, there are already Go sites operated by Microsoft, IGS in South Korea, and Aer in Taiwan. I used your idea and used the celebrity effect for marketing."
Glancing at Xu Lan who was cooking, Cheng Ran smiled and said, "Go on."
"My dad knows the vice president of the Rongcheng Go Academy. His son is Zheng Hao, a professional Go player. We said we would give him some money and ask him to help build our Go club to attract people and teach them how to play Go. Rongcheng is known as the 'Go City', but in fact, there is a serious shortage of reserve talents. Zheng Hao is one of the few professional Go players. So when we mention Zheng Hao, everyone here knows who he is."
Cheng Ran nodded. The reason why Go in Chengdu was becoming increasingly unpopular was that not enough attention was paid to the cultivation of young people. In the professional Go world where it was said that only one Go player could be produced among three thousand Go learners, young people who learned Go were destined to take more risks than their peers.
It's like whether to participate in the professional chess tournament, which is more difficult than getting into Tsinghua or Peking University, or go back to school? To become a professional chess player, you have to give up one or two years of study. Under the current pressure of further study, if you fail to become a professional chess player and then turn back, your peers are destined to be two years ahead of you. Going to the capital to become a professional chess player costs hundreds of thousands of yuan a year, and ordinary families can hardly afford such a desperate gamble. Therefore, this area will be without talent for a long time in the future.
"If you put up a post saying Zheng Hao is coming to compete, will anyone believe it?"
"It's very simple." Cheng Qi smiled mysteriously, "You'll know after you fight."
"We posted a notice, but no one believed it. I gave myself a high-ranking account and played against him. He let me play eight pieces, and I lost. It wasn't intentional... When I lost, many onlookers said I was letting him win on purpose. Then they asked a Go master recognized by our community to play against him. He let him play four pieces. That person's online name is "Feng Qingyang", a famous online master who often appears on several other Go sites. When he lost, he immediately became popular, and many people from other sites rushed to challenge him. Everyone believed he was Zheng Hao."
Cheng Qi took a sip of water and said, "Later, we will set up our Lianzhong club and look for other Go sites to challenge. It will cause a sensation in the Go world and countless people will join us. Zheng Hao has also contacted several professional Go players. Who doesn't want to make money? Let them come to Lianzhong to teach and earn money. We only need to take some commissions."
"Several players came over later, including Ma Chun, Yu Hua, Hu Ling, and the beautiful chess player Yang Xing. Our popularity soared. Later, I found that they all spontaneously played chess on our chess forum. If you log on to the Internet and see now, our Lianzhong Club is so arrogant, killing people everywhere. Countless groups of Go sites came to "take revenge"."
Cheng Ran was speechless. He didn't expect that just by giving Cheng Qi a marketing idea, he would develop this "jianghu" into such a great success.
Strictly speaking, although he is a shareholder of Lianzhong, he has complete control over the operations of Cheng Qi and only gives some suggestions. Unlike Tianxing Daoguan and CQ, the financial statements have to be reviewed by him.
If Cheng Ran wants to be lazy, he can just leave these to his elder brother.
Xu Lan prepared the food. The bacon, sausage, twice-cooked pork slices, and braised chicken were served on the table. The aroma was so delicious. Cheng Qi ate the thinly sliced sausage and ate it with rice, muttering, "Aunt, I like your sausages. They are so delicious with white rice."
The two brothers ate their food. Cheng Qi wanted to wash the dishes, but was stopped by Xu Lan.
Cheng Ran thought about it and went to the balcony.
Cheng Qi also followed, and on the balcony, Cheng Ran said, "Go ahead, my mom can't hear you, what's the matter now?"
Cheng Qi thought for a moment before saying, "We are running out of money."
Cheng Ran suddenly realized that Cheng Qi's Lianzhong had more and more people online at the same time, and it was developing faster than CQ. In addition, he had to recruit new staff for maintenance. Cheng Qi said that Lianzhong now had nearly 20 employees, and there were also costs for lines and servers. The expenses were increasing day by day. It was estimated that the cash flow from the board games alone could not support them, and it even greatly compressed Cheng Qi's savings. If he had not been at the end of his rope, he would not have come to ask for help.
Cheng Ran thought for a moment and said with some surprise, "Didn't I ask Li Mingshi to introduce the leader of the telecommunications department to discuss ISP revenue sharing with you?"
ISP revenue sharing is almost the first profit-making method created by Lianzhong in Cheng Ran's previous life. Because of dial-up Internet access, telephone bills are paid on time, and the telecommunications company divides the revenue according to the accumulated value by counting the time each user stays on Lianzhong. This is a lot of money, at least enough to support Cheng Qi's development in the early stage.
Even the share of the profits we have received now is still a considerable amount. There are precedents for this.
"That's the problem," Cheng Qi said, "We didn't get the money. The other party made it clear that they would not do this for us. Even if we go bankrupt, it has nothing to do with them."