Blue Harbor in the past two years: the transformation of the hand tour to seek independent development

Blue Harbor Online (hereinafter referred to as "Blue Port") president Mingxiang a mobile phone with a text message: "A total, our team after careful consideration to make a decision, Blue Harbor does not consider the sale of matters, we still hope to seek independent development, perhaps bumpy road ahead, but only hope for peace of mind! ”

Blue Harbor CEO Wang Feng took a look, "very good, very polite, hair." "To know, for this message, he has been entangled for two or three months, until the end of the night of the negotiations, many friends at the dinner to persuade him:" A good deal, from the bar. "Of the 6 potential buyers, the highest bid has arrived at 1.8 billion yuan, which is a big number," he said.

"For the first time in my life, I felt so miserable that I had to give up my own company." "Entrepreneurship more than 6 years, in many things, Wang Feng is not just beginning so idealistic." Some realistic dimensions exist, he can get 600 million yuan, and his "brothers" will also have a good day.

He decided to cede his choice to his partner, who, in the face of investors and several buyers, called in two other co-founders, and three voted to determine the fate of the company, which happened the night before the message. And the final result gave him a big surprise, three "NO".

Wang Feng naturally refused all the offer, he actually does not lack this opportunity. But the difference is that this time the protagonist is Blue Harbor, it is considered enough to change the pattern of hand tour (mobile game) that player, and at the beginning of 2012, the value of the Blue Harbor is plainly only Wang Feng himself.

Therefore, the acquisition of abortion has become an interesting footnote to this script, two years ago, when Wang Feng first told the board that the future of Blue Harbor would be a hand tour company, he privately also calculated: "Do not good, big deal again turn back, do the end of the tour (2012 relative to the ' page Tour ' produced a term, the full name is ' Client games, that is, the traditional relying on the download client, on the computer games online game. Tens of millions of yuan a year profit, with a few buddies dividends, what can not? ”

Transition

The 2011 is a bad day, COO Wang Lei's sudden departure, even to the board began to believe that the Blue harbor speculation: This is the most second-rate end-travel company is out of control. "The board members also questioned me, how even coo have gone?" "Wang Feng is not taboo at that time, he would like to Biching," mercenary world "more than 120 people's research and development team developed a full 4 years, only the research and development costs spent 45 million yuan, the later advertising costs also have 35 million yuan," but only the cost of playing flat. "It can be said that the game brought down the Blue Harbor."

At that stage of Wang Feng almost lost the momentum to continue, he saw the Blue Harbor is a "too neat Big Mac", in the slightest he imagined the entrepreneurial company that the temperament. The three partners in charge of different fields report to him daily as usual, "what we are talking about will ultimately be managed." Wang Feng said, "Do you know the kind of CEO ' is hung up ' feeling, I am the enthusiasm of the CEO is a lot of management structure of the details to cut." ”

This is the most confusing place for Wang Feng, after the Blue Harbor started, he was in full compliance with those around the big guys to give him advice. In a way, he even hinted at himself to eliminate the feelings of rejection.

Until the day finally came, "mercenary world" let him know that the pressure on the years can not be redeemed, Blue Harbor has been unable to break through the market in the end. and Hot Page Tour (web game) market has already started, "Immortal Way" and other single income billion products is no longer a rarity, Blue Harbor seems to have missed a wave.

Wang Feng had to make a decision. This is not difficult, in his character, in the page to kill the Red Sea and the layout of the future of the hands of the two roads, he will certainly choose the latter, "entrepreneurship should be driven before the trend." "It was the most important lesson he had spent 4 years in the end of his trip to school," he said.

From this point of view, COO's resignation has become a series of opportunities for change. Wang Feng is very strongly aware of the company to be lighter, on the one hand, from the original organizational structure, let the new company more flat, but also more concerned about the product, on the other hand, the development process of the game is also lighter, when doing the end of the tour, a project often needs to Bai people and at least two years of research and development time, which in the page tour and hand swim unimaginable.

He is adamant, "Happy mainland" was sealed, close to the release of the "totem" even if the video data exposed by the player, also be called off. Before and after the Spring festival in 2012, there were only less than 400 people left in Blue Harbor and half. "But my real feeling is that every reduction of 100 people, the efficiency of the company will have a qualitative change." Now the company has become smaller and more specialized. ”

Wang Feng broke the framework of research and Development Center and Operations center, the relevant personnel flattened to a project team, so that each project has a corresponding research and development managers, operations managers, customer managers, master planning and so on. Internal discussions about products are becoming more frequent and expanded, and even customer service is involved.

He puts more attention on the product, which he thinks is a good condition. At the beginning of 2011, he pushed Mingxiang to the front desk and focused on the corporate strategy, "but in fact the founder of the game company should definitely put the product first and put the strategy second." ”

Internal resistance is obvious, even if the organisational structure makes it easier for engineers to get a sense of satisfaction, because their results will be known at the first time. But a company's inertia thinking hard to reverse, Wang Feng requirements are still very high, blue port transformation is not a simple platform transplant, stop the main end of the product is enough to explain the problem.

In the middle of 2011, he "forced" the 3D project team several cores spent 3 months, made a name "crazy hit the Hamster" Hand tour. A few months later in the Apple App Store on the line, more than 20 consecutive days in the first place in the free download list, nearly 560,000 of the download, and did not promote.

This in the interior caused a lot of repercussions, "we have reached two conclusions, the first is the Blue Harbor do hand tour is likely to accumulate a large number of users, the second is the strategy of blue port should be based on intelligent terminals, at that time terminal development trend has been very obvious." Wang Feng said.

But the hand tour is still an uncertain business model, in "Crazy hit the Hamster" on, Wang Feng did not want to understand how to make money.

So, Wang Feng sensibly chose to enter the page first, patiently waiting for the opportunity to travel, "2012 for the Blue Harbor, is a key transition." ”

Force

But the Blue Harbor on the page tour is surprisingly good, by July, the proportion of page travel revenue has been more than half, according to the plan, at the end of 2012 this figure will reach 70%.

Blue Harbor's organizational structure has also been further clarified, the establishment of 4 business systems, End-to-end travel and page tour two major revenue-generating departments to upgrade to the business center, and the establishment of a dedicated hand tour and overseas business Division has also begun to operate. That year, the Blue Harbor on-line four section hand swims.

The media are guessing that the future of Blue Harbor will be a page tour company, Wang Feng has been talking about "page tour will be the last of the PC Internet dividend", and then page travel income enough to redefine the Blue Harbor, but he has not said that the transformation direction of Blue Harbor is a page tour.

He knew that if he insisted on a tour, Blue Harbor would have another "misfortune", "this area is too crowded and market rules have been destroyed." The most important thing, of course, is that the terminal revolution is irreversible. ”

Wang Feng in the interior to do a year of preheating, in an internal speech meeting, he talked a lot of opponents swim opinion, "I told them to stand in the tuyere, pigs can fly up, but stupid pig not." "The trip to the Blue Harbor has brought a respite, but Wang Feng believes that a full turn to the hand tour is a smart decision."

At the end of 2012, he began to take the initiative to locate Blue Harbor. At the launch of the light of Dawn, he mentions for the first time that all future projects in Blue Harbor may be hand-swimming. In December, the newly established mobile division was canceled, and Wang Feng explained afterwards that "it is not necessary because Blue Harbor is a hand tour company." ”

At this time, Blue Harbor's first hand tour masterpiece "The Sword of Kings" has been developed for a year, nearing the end, Wang Feng in fact has been waiting for it. February 2013, the game landed Android platform, hit, download more than 6 million, monthly income of nearly 15 million yuan.

So in April, Wang Feng can not wait to announce the full transition of Blue Harbor Tour news. Since then, the "Sword of the King" Performance broke the Blue harbor inside the expectation, by August, its user breakthrough 20 million, the monthly water reached 45 million yuan. This battle, Wang Feng has laid the status of the river, but also let the internal clarity of the new strategy is correct.

But the start of the hand tour is far more complex than the end of the tour and the page tour, the intervention of the capital market makes the whole markets foul. "The Hand Tour market will be 10 times times more brutal than the end of the tour, I am not optimistic about a large number of hand tour entrepreneurs today, they think that do 5, 6 games can make money." Wang Feng said.

The ecological chain has also undergone a great change, from a single product development and operation quickly became the era of division of Research and Development and channel business. Only a few years ago, the Blue Harbor in the national city to do internet cafes to promote, in the major game portal to hit ads, a game of the promotion costs on average more than tens of millions of dollars. But now with UC, 91, 360 and so on, it does not need to consider how to operate the game.

But Wang Feng still saw the potential of a huge risk, "developers in the era of page tour has no right to speak, coupled with the rampant product plagiarism, finally, we can only suppress their own profits." According to him, there are company Shanzhai "Sword of the King", plus a Japanese animation of the skin, and finally to channel business accounted for 90%, their own profit only 10% of the 9:1 proportion and channel to discuss cooperation.

In this year's Shanghai game show, he shouted to the platform business, "Be sure to keep the 55-divided bottom line." ”

August, the Blue Harbor announced a market activity, claiming to be in the next 50 days to take out a value of 10 million yuan of 5,000 mobile phones for marketing. "Can't play the Sword of the King", Lose 2000 pieces! ”

After deciding not to sell, Wang Feng has a bigger plan, he set up a distribution center, is expected to issue at least 5 products in the year. "If our next" sword of the firmament "has a similar performance as the Sword of Kings, then by the end of the year our monthly income will be over billion. ”

But the problem is facing a more disorderly market environment, Wang Feng also has a great deal of unease, "I can not use the experience of the end to predict the development of hand travel." ”

Remember at the end of 2007, when Wang Feng founded Blue Harbor for the first time on a large scale to see the media, he threw a now look ironic three-year strategy-three years annual income of more than 1 billion yuan, the company market value of more than 10 billion yuan. and 6 years later, when he first had the opportunity to lead an industry, he chose to be conservative.