Stone Interaction Wu Gang: "Slow" live well 1 years income 200 million

Stone Interactive CEO Wu Gang soak Game industry 18, mobile phone game industry 13 years of Wu Gang, in some people's eyes always "self-confidence is a bit crazy", and Wu gang himself has never covered up the confusion of the industry and some of the participants dissatisfaction, and often use microblogging, blogs and other outspoken. "If you think what they're doing is representing the industry, I'm sorry, please don't put me and them together." He said indignantly. What he calls "the set" refers to a common practice in the industry--a few people who make a product in a few months, make millions or tens of thousands of dollars quickly in a few months, and then quickly do it again. Wu Gang's game company rock Interaction is a completely different approach: Dozens of hundreds of people, years to make a product, and slowly achieve a monthly income of millions of to tens of millions, this lasted two or three years. "This is my favorite, but also good at playing." "In the past 18 years, Wu Gang has developed a total of 6 games, and the stone interaction set up 7 years, a total of two games (if not a game through the concept and design output), one is the 2008 launch of the Magic theme of large-scale multiplayer role-playing game of the contract, One is the 2009 launch of a large multiplayer strategic strategy game "World War II". This rhythm is in most companies, and may have died many times before. After the rise of web games and mobile games, the threshold for game development has been drastically reduced, with a flood of speculative inflows that have revolutionized the industry's popular operating patterns. A swarm of developers must grab a product that is not obvious and recover costs before their opponents, so the channels of discourse and fees soared, and the success rate of individual products dropped sharply, in order to maximize the overall benefits or even just recoup the investment, developers have to launch faster and more new products, so reciprocating- Even so, the real money is only a few. But the "slow" stone is alive and well. Despite the absence of new products, stone revenues last year still reached 200 million yuan, continuing the 30%-40% growth over the past few years, with gross margins between 40% to 50%, and net profits likely to exceed 50 million yuan. "They have a lot of precipitation and accumulation, do it comfortably, unlike we in Guangzhou, must work 6 days a week, more than 10 hours a day." Wangdong said he is the founder of Forgame, one of China's largest web game companies, and is now trying to extend its position to the mobile gaming world. There is no model of what is inferior, only the ability to match or not. The forgame who believe in fast-beauty also live quite well, the company's revenue last year may exceed 2 billion yuan, while net profit margins are equivalent to rock, because of its factory management in game development, its own partial distribution channels and the development center in Guangzhou, where employees have higher input-output ratios. "There are two main models, one is to slowly out, strive for each is fine, one is fast out, not necessarily every departmentis a boutique, but can be adjusted through rapid iteration to fine, forgame good at the latter mode. "Wangdong said. But just as fast mode is not fun, it is not easy to make a lot of money slowly. "We want to stand up and make money, and we have to work harder, more tired and harder than the companies that are on their knees," he said. Wu Gang said. Specifically, Wu gang made the following strategic tactics for the rock: first, to maintain the stability of the staff. At present, the rock has a total of about 160 employees, and 100-160 people have been on the scale for more than 4 years, of which more than 4 employees work more than 50%, which in the mobile gaming industry is very high turnover is a remarkable achievement. As an incentive, the company rewards employees with a 20%-30% net profit every year. Wu Gang believes that the fundamental problem of the change of company status in this industry is personnel, only people with inheritance, the product can inherit, so as to retain users. "You can't ask employees to have long-term service plans, but they can't afford to give them long-term consideration." A person's growth has a rising period, there is a bottleneck, you can not in his bottleneck, you do not need him. "But that makes rock one of the most expensive companies in the industry." According to the current Beijing gaming industry average pay level, stone a year's manpower costs may reach tens of millions of yuan, and the company 3,000 square meters of office space every year is a small amount of expenditure. The second principle was followed by the introduction of a new product or expansion of the workforce only when the gross profit margin was not less than 40% per cent, and every new employee contributed no less than the average income contribution. "We do not want 1 billion yuan of annual income, but the profit margin is very low, but to 100 million yuan income, but the profit margin is very high." We do not want to be the winning companies, many of which are labour-intensive, and a 5% rise in costs may be unbearable. "As a remedy for high cost and long cycle development patterns, rock always tries to improve the life cycle of each product." For example, it is not like most mobile gaming companies, a game developed, immediately through the overwhelming advertising and channel more incentive, in exchange for the rapid growth of game revenue, because if not, will soon be abandoned by the channel. "We'd rather let it grow through Word-of-mouth," he said. Wu Gang believes that the benefits of this are two, one is to save most of the advertising and channel costs, the majority of the current game developers have to spend up to 80% of revenue for advertising, channels and other costs, and the stone is only 40% of this ratio, and the second is that the user is more viscous. As a supplement, stone is always careful to run a variety of versions of existing products, so that virtually every year a new product comes out. For example, the contract first launched in 2008 based on the Symbian platform version, 2011 years before the launch of the web game version, "World War II" in 2009 launched the first version of the Web game, and then launched in 2011 Mobile version-First of all, the iOS version, was the beginning of the explosion of smartphones. Of course, the prerequisite is that the rock must find and developProducts that have a long cycle of operational potential. And now, Wu Gang think he found, specifically, is "heavy, can keep the user for a long time, can let a lot of players in the inside generate a lot of communication and interactive Network society." In the case of World War II, which was launched in 2009 and is still creating a bonanza for the company, the game allows users to play a variety of roles in production, research, trade, etc. in the process of capturing and managing a city, which caters to the diverse social roles of mature users aged 30-40. The iOS version of the game has long occupied the top spot of the App Store's China revenue, with monthly revenues from overseas and China still reaching $1 million trillion last year. Wu Gang intends to continue to use this group of users as the main target, because they usually have high viscosity, repeat pay rate is also relatively high. For Wu Gang, it is also important that the choice of slow growth is not a whim (which does not have a sustainable motivation), but a hobby and fun of the game. "I am already 38 years old, basically also have to solve food and clothing, clothes and clothing worry-free, why still in such a hard industry do not go, I think is out of love and love, which let me put down any short-term and speculative thinking." The middle of the 90 's, or Beijing, a high school student Wu Gang, out of the hobby of programming and the wave of Zhongguancun rolling internet trend of ambition, gave up the usual road test university, because it would probably mean that he had to leave Beijing and Zhongguancun (he called himself high School is "poor"). Subsequently, he has set up two games companies (one of which is a famous mobile phone game developers in a number of red, 2004 was grand to tens of millions of yuan acquisition), a mobile phone application software company, and eventually absorbed in 2008 merged his wife Cao Hong in 2006 founded the Stone, formed the current stone interaction. But it's not going well. There was a time when Wu gang was seen as a model for failed game developers. "He is the first Chinese game industry to be scolded by users garters developers!" "recalls Wu Gang's early experience," Zhou Kaiyuan, founder of the online cake brand Mikamika. Like Wu Gang, he was one of the veterans who entered the game industry in the 90 's and was involved in the creation of the game portal 17173. What he refers to is even Wu gang himself is considered "complete failure" works-his game debut "Blood Lion". 16 years ago, when Wu Gang took care of the need for sales channels, forced to present this imperfect product in front of hundreds of thousands of of users, the huge expectations that had been created by the overwhelming advertising hype (which is said to be the first time the gaming industry has used mass media for advertising) have evolved into extreme disappointment, anger and crusade, The 19-Year-old boy's life fell to the bottom. But now, in the eyes of Zhou Kaiyuan, Wu Gang and his stone interaction has been a model of boutique game developers. "He's very good at technology and user experience, and very focused on detail." "he said. Wu gang himself never concealed the lesson of this bitter failure. "No matter how well you run the market,means to cover up, rubbish is rubbish. "Rock rarely advertises and is promoted through third-party channels, but also with this experience, he believes in users ' love of rock, they can love the contract, the World War II, and will love the next product of rock." He said his ultimate goal was to burnish the rock as the world's top studio at Pixar, the founder of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Pixar is a series of technology and art of the classic animation producers, including "Toy Story", "Finding Nemo," and so on, 2006 to 7.4 billion U.S. dollars sold to Disney. "I hope that even with our names removed, users will know at first glance that our product, like a good magazine, still knows who you are, even if the name is hidden." "To achieve this, the products of stone must be washed out of China, which needs to be accepted by the mainstream values of Europe and the United States, which is clearly a short board for Chinese companies." However, Wu Gang believes that the core user groups of stone focus on the mainstream values and the mainstream values are very close to the United States and Europe. At present, more than half of the income from rock is from overseas, which is the best evidence. Stone in overseas to take the same as the domestic strategy, regardless of the choice of the country is to make money, will give its agents uninterrupted support. The only time it took a shortcut was to co-operate with the Japanese game giant Gree, but the cooperation that had been pinned down was proved to be a failure. "We've been delayed for more than half a year, and this lesson has taught us not to be superstitious to big partners, but rather to work with startups like us," he said. In addition, the stone also began to try to output its game concept and design ideas. At the end of last year, the company launched its first "killing of the Three Kingdoms", developed in partnership with Third-party developers, which was conceived and designed by the rock, and the partners were responsible for development and implementation. Wu Gang's explanation, this is the stone "brain more than, physical deficiency," a complementary strategy. However, after the game on the line, the performance did not meet Wu Gang's expectations, the current monthly income of only 3 million-5 million yuan, and "World War II" in the same time after the online has been tens of millions. Wu Gang attributed this to the chaotic situation of the "Three Kingdoms" concept in China. "We have done well overseas and have entered the top 10 in Taiwan and have a good reputation," he said. You should wait and see. Another product we will launch at the end of the year has been developed for two years, and we have used all our capabilities! For Wu Gang, the next one is always the biggest challenge. "The difficulty of the stone model is that because of the long development cycle of each work, if you can not ensure that each of the works are fine, there may be income limbo, and the cost is relatively high, which may bring some pressure." "Wangdong said. As a supplement, stone is always careful to run a variety of versions of existing products, so that virtually every year a new product comes out. For example, the contract was first launched in 2008 based on the Symbian platform version, 2011 years before the launch of the web game version, "World War II" in 2009 launched the first version of the Web game, and then to 2011Launched the mobile version-first of the iOS version, which was the start of the smartphone explosion. Of course, the prerequisite is that the rock must find and develop products that have a long cycle of operational potential. And now, Wu Gang think he found, specifically, is "heavy, can keep the user for a long time, can let a lot of players in the inside generate a lot of communication and interactive Network society." In the case of World War II, which was launched in 2009 and is still creating a bonanza for the company, the game allows users to play a variety of roles in production, research, trade, etc. in the process of capturing and managing a city, which caters to the diverse social roles of mature users aged 30-40. The iOS version of the game has long occupied the top spot of the App Store's China revenue, with monthly revenues from overseas and China still reaching $1 million trillion last year. Wu Gang intends to continue to use this group of users as the main target, because they usually have high viscosity, repeat pay rate is also relatively high. For Wu Gang, it is also important that the choice of slow growth is not a whim (which does not have a sustainable motivation), but a hobby and fun of the game. "I am already 38 years old, basically also have to solve food and clothing, clothes and clothing worry-free, why still in such a hard industry do not go, I think is out of love and love, which let me put down any short-term and speculative thinking." The middle of the 90 's, or Beijing, a high school student Wu Gang, out of the hobby of programming and the wave of Zhongguancun rolling internet trend of ambition, gave up the usual road test university, because it would probably mean that he had to leave Beijing and Zhongguancun (he called himself high School is "poor"). Subsequently, he has set up two games companies (one of which is a famous mobile phone game developers in a number of red, 2004 was grand to tens of millions of yuan acquisition), a mobile phone application software company, and eventually absorbed in 2008 merged his wife Cao Hong in 2006 founded the Stone, formed the current stone interaction. But it's not going well. There was a time when Wu gang was seen as a model for failed game developers. "He is the first Chinese game industry to be scolded by users garters developers!" "recalls Wu Gang's early experience," Zhou Kaiyuan, founder of the online cake brand Mikamika. Like Wu Gang, he was one of the veterans who entered the game industry in the 90 's and was involved in the creation of the game portal 17173. What he refers to is even Wu gang himself is considered "complete failure" works-his game debut "Blood Lion". 16 years ago, when Wu Gang took care of the need for sales channels, forced to present this imperfect product in front of hundreds of thousands of of users, the huge expectations that had been created by the overwhelming advertising hype (which is said to be the first time the gaming industry has used mass media for advertising) have evolved into extreme disappointment, anger and crusade, The 19-Year-old boy's life fell to the bottom. But now, in the eyes of Zhou Kaiyuan, Wu Gang and his stone interaction has been a model of boutique game developers. "He has a great skill and user experienceExcellent, very attentive to detail. "he said. Wu gang himself never concealed the lesson of this bitter failure. "No matter how good a market operation you use to cover up, rubbish is rubbish." "Rock rarely advertises and is promoted through third-party channels, but also with this experience, he believes in users ' love of rock, they can love the contract, the World War II, and will love the next product of rock." He said his ultimate goal was to burnish the rock as the world's top studio at Pixar, the founder of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Pixar is a series of technology and art of the classic animation producers, including "Toy Story", "Finding Nemo," and so on, 2006 to 7.4 billion U.S. dollars sold to Disney. "I hope that even with our names removed, users will know at first glance that our product, like a good magazine, still knows who you are, even if the name is hidden." "To achieve this, the products of stone must be washed out of China, which needs to be accepted by the mainstream values of Europe and the United States, which is clearly a short board for Chinese companies." However, Wu Gang believes that the core user groups of stone focus on the mainstream values and the mainstream values are very close to the United States and Europe. At present, more than half of the income from rock is from overseas, which is the best evidence. Stone in overseas to take the same as the domestic strategy, regardless of the choice of the country is to make money, will give its agents uninterrupted support. The only time it took a shortcut was to co-operate with the Japanese game giant Gree, but the cooperation that had been pinned down was proved to be a failure. "We've been delayed for more than half a year, and this lesson has taught us not to be superstitious to big partners, but rather to work with startups like us," he said. In addition, the stone also began to try to output its game concept and design ideas. At the end of last year, the company launched its first "killing of the Three Kingdoms", developed in partnership with Third-party developers, which was conceived and designed by the rock, and the partners were responsible for development and implementation. Wu Gang's explanation, this is the stone "brain more than, physical deficiency," a complementary strategy. However, after the game on the line, the performance did not meet Wu Gang's expectations, the current monthly income of only 3 million-5 million yuan, and "World War II" in the same time after the online has been tens of millions. Wu Gang attributed this to the chaotic situation of the "Three Kingdoms" concept in China. "We have done well overseas and have entered the top 10 in Taiwan and have a good reputation," he said. You should wait and see. Another product we will launch at the end of the year has been developed for two years, and we have used all our capabilities! For Wu Gang, the next one is always the biggest challenge. "The difficulty of the stone model is that because of the long development cycle of each work, if you can not ensure that each of the works are fine, there may be income limbo, and the cost is relatively high, which may bring some pressure." "Wangdong said.