Hong Kong's new giants

Chapter 607 [Information Technology Giant]

Back in Xiangjiang, it is already mid-May, the real estate in Xiangjiang has entered the final stage of madness, and various records have been crazily refreshed:
The 330 residential units in East Point City, Tseung Kwan O received more than 27000 registered subscriptions within three days, breaking the highest record of registered subscriptions in Hong Kong's history, with an oversubscription of 88 times and frozen funds of 95 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Entertainment Building was sold for HK$39.6 billion at a unit price of HK$2.2 per square foot, setting a new record for office sales.

In early March, Sino Land and its major shareholder, the Huang family, won a piece of non-industrial land in Siu Sai Wan, Chai Wan at a high price of 3 billion, setting a record for Hong Kong government land auction (excluding bidding projects).

The British Hong Kong government, facing retreat, then sold two sites at Jute Road Gold in Stanley and Huanhai Street in Kowloon at prices of 55 billion and 60.6 billion respectively.

Crazy real estate records were set one after another, and the prefectures and cities in Xiangjiang seemed to have reached their peak.

With such a good market, New Era Group's shipments are naturally smooth, and the price is very ideal.

Take the four buildings of Legu Real Estate acquired in the late 80s as an example. At that time, the cost price was only 10 billion Hong Kong dollars. In addition to the later merger and reconstruction, the total investment was only a little over 30 billion Hong Kong dollars; but now, the four buildings are sold in total. 108 billion Hong Kong dollars, which can be described as a huge profit.

The same is true for the Entertainment Building. When the August 4th stock market crashed, it was only worth 5 million Hong Kong dollars. Afterwards, it cost 9 million Hong Kong dollars to rebuild, and the total cost was only 39.6 million Hong Kong dollars. It was sold for [-] billion Hong Kong dollars. That’s not counting, the rate of return on the rents collected in these years is amazing.

Within five months, New Era Group has cashed in 5 buildings, 3 shopping malls (two more are being prepared for sale), and three mid-level luxury housing projects (there is No. 1 May Road in preparation), making a profit of nearly 300 billion ;
At the same time, the New Era Group had almost nothing at the official land auction;

There are various indications that the New Era Group is 'bearish' on the property market in Hong Kong. The media reacted one after another and began to report on the actions of the New Era Group.

And when the New Times Group announced that it had acquired a 102% stake in 'Vale' in Brazil at a price of HK$16.3 billion and entered the field of mineral investment, the Hong Kong media was in an uproar.

A lot of media wanted to inquire about the news, and finally Chen Bin, the president of New Era Group, came forward and accepted a simple interview.

It's still a cliché:

"For New Times Group, Heung Kong is too small, so seeking global investment is inevitable."

"Judging from the previous overseas investment projects of New Era Group, they are undoubtedly very successful."

"Xiangjiang is still the headquarters of New Times Group, and the group has no intention of reducing Xiangjiang's investment. Taking IFC as an example, the investment in the entire project is as high as 460 billion Hong Kong dollars, and New Times Group holds 6% of the shares. This investment alone is huge. There is investment in Cyberport.”

Although there are some loopholes, the prefectures and cities of Xiangjiang still go their own way, and have not restrained themselves because of the abnormal behavior of the New Era Group.What's more, in some people's eyes, New Era Group is just 'not chasing high'.

New Era Group.

Chen Xiaofen came to Lin Zuhui's office to report on the work.

"Boss, sell 1 May Road later this month, leaving the two best units."

The two largest and best units are reserved, of course, because Lin Zuhui wants to keep them for future use, including the second floor of Diligende Pavilion, leaving two top-floor duplex units.

The other two mid-level luxury housing projects did not have any residential units, and they were all sold out.

Lin Zuhui nodded and said with satisfaction: "It's progressing well! What about other housing projects?"

Chen Xiaofen said: "The situation is also very good. By the end of June, I am confident that 5000 residential units will be sold, accounting for 80% of the annual sales target."

In fact, there is such a situation in Hong Kong: In May last year, the Hong Kong government released a message - during the period from January 5 to May 1994, 1 residential real estate projects approved by the government to sell uncompleted properties can provide residential buildings. There are more than 1996 units, but as of May 5, only 62% of the units have been launched on the market, and the remaining 4% of the units have either not been launched or are reserved for internal subscription.

That is to say, many real estate developers may not sell their real estate, so they keep it in their hands to collect rent, or choose an opportunity to resell it.

Now that the market is so good, New Times Group doesn't care so much. It completed 5000 residential units in the first half of the year, which is obviously "dumping" (6200 residential units are planned for the whole year).

Of course, there is a big gap in the property market in Xiangjiang, which can be absorbed even if tens of thousands of residential units are launched.If there hadn't been a financial crisis in Southeast Asia, Xiangjiang's bubble would not have popped so quickly.

Lin Zuhui thought for a while and said: "This progress is not bad, but we will try to sell another 1200 units in July and August, and strive to complete this year's goal ahead of schedule."

Chen Xiaofen has already guessed some thoughts of the boss, probably because the boss thinks that the property market in Xiangjiang has risen too fast and is about to enter a period of adjustment, so they are sold out ahead of time.Of course, as for the sharp drop in the financial crisis, even Lin Zuhui's closest people would not have guessed it.

"no problem!"

After Chen Xiaofen left, Lin Zuhui showed a smile, knowing the historical trend feels great.

New Times Group has not only cashed out office buildings, shops, and residences at high prices, but has also been striving to sign long-term contracts for rent in the past year. Of course, they are trying their best to sign long-term contracts, which are not mandatory.

Media Building.

Lin Zuhui sat in the office and listened to the work report of the presidents of the four major subsidiaries of Wanhui Media Group. He was very satisfied with the results.

At present, Wanhui Media has four major businesses: media, animation, games, and software.

The media department is an old-fashioned business. Although Xiangjiang experienced the "media war" in 1995, the paper media was in a slump; however, Wanhui Media is still the largest media group in Xiangjiang. The second "Economic Daily", "Ming Pao" for intellectuals, the best-selling magazine "Men's Wear" and many other best-selling paper media.

In the animation department, with four major IP Japanese manga-style comics and the new best-selling comics that followed, Wanhui Comics has become famous all over the world, and it has also driven the transformation and progress of the entire Xiangjiang comics industry.

The game department has produced many classic works so far, representing: "Pokémon" series, "Resident Evil" series, "Legend", "Age of Empires", etc. The entire game department has as many as 500 employees, becoming the world's largest A very famous game company in the world.

The development of the software department is even stronger. At present, the number of employees has reached 1000. In addition to software development, outsourcing business has also been carried out.

When Luo Bencheng, president of the Comic Business Department, finished his report, Lin Zuhui handed him a piece of paper and said, "Someone gave me an idea and hoped that Wanhui Comics would complete it into a complete work. You organize a project team."

Luo Bencheng was ecstatic in his heart. One must know that Wanhui Comics can achieve today's results, and the four big IPs hand-picked by the boss are absolutely important.Although, in the past few years, they have flocked to some good works and achieved some achievements overseas, but the four major IPs are like gods, although these four IPs are also divided into big and small gods.

"No problem, now we have a lot of talents, and local talents are enough to complete it!" Robbencheng said confidently.

Lin Zuhui nodded. He also knew that in recent years, Xiangjiang has attracted a lot of local "manga-style" editor-level talents, especially the three major serial IP works, which have already joined the local editor-in-chief and screenwriter.These three major IPs have a characteristic, that is, where they are released, they are released in the name of the studio, and they do not highlight a certain person. It is also considering that the Japanese main writer has suddenly succumbed. Of course, there has been no dispute yet. Probably those Japanese The editor also knew that Wanhui Media only let them work part-time from the beginning.

Luo Bencheng looked at the information on the paper, and suddenly fell into it.

""Death Note", reasoning style comics"

There is not a lot of information, Lin Zuhui does not want to rack his brains to recall "Death Note", so it is enough to make a general style; whether it can surpass the original work of the previous life is not so important, what is important is to take this IP as his own .

Finally, Lin Zuhui said: "The core focus is still on the serialization of "Detective Conan", "Pokémon", and "One Piece". These three big IPs are enough for us to eat for 100 years, so we must pay attention to them."

The peripherals of the animation industry are too big, such as theatrical versions, movies, figures, toys, T-shirts, etc. Man Fai Comics’ annual net profit is as high as 15 billion Hong Kong dollars, which is the reason why piracy is rampant.

Robinson nodded and said, "Okay!"

Next, came the game department—Gao Kelin, the president of The Ninth City.

In the United States, a game studio only has 30 people, and the Ninth City has a full 500 people, which can be described as a strong army; of course, many of them are fresh graduates who have just graduated from Xiangjiang, and the Ninth City is just recruiting and training. .

There are a lot of people, but they are not idle. The ninth city has a lot of work tasks and projects. In order to better sales, the company divides the game department into: console/handheld game department and PC game department. There are many major departments; under the two major departments, there are many working groups.

"Boss, the sales volume of "Age of Empires" in the United States has exceeded 130 million, and the total global sales volume is 300 million sets."

Lin Zuhui said in a good mood: "Okay, this result is better than the brother company Blizzard Entertainment's "Warcraft"!"

Gao Kelin nodded, and said: "The growth rate is indeed faster than that of "Warcraft", but the pricing is quite different, but I believe that the global sales volume must be much higher than that of "Warcraft."

Lin Zuhui nodded. He owns four game development companies, namely: Kingsoft (ancillary business) in the Mainland, Blizzard Entertainment, Activision, and The Ninth City.

Among them, Blizzard Entertainment is still the development trend of the previous life, "Warcraft" series, "Diablo" series, "StarCraft" series;
Activision, Lin Zuhui added "Counter-Strike" and "The Sims" to this company, especially "The Sims", the best-selling PC game in the previous life, it is said that all versions sold hundreds of millions of copies.

Kingsoft, under the advice of Jingwei Capital, Rebus established a game business department, and successively developed "Revelation of Zhongguancun" and "Legend of Sword and Fairy".

The Ninth City has developed too many games. "Age of Empires" has entered the research and development stage in 1995, and it was officially released in the United States through Activision last Christmas.Afterwards, it was successively issued in Japan, Mainland China, South Korea, Xiangjiang and other regions.

This game that was supposed to belong to Microsoft was cut off by Lin Zuhui just like that.

"How is the online version of "Legend" going?" Lin Zuhui asked again.

As early as last year, "Legend" had already released a PC version, aiming to grab the copyright first.The online version is limited due to the current network speed, and has been working hard to advance.

Lin Zuhui remembered that the world's first online game "Online Genesis" appeared this year in his previous life.

"It's officially released this summer, but this version is a bit rough, and the quality is very different from the PC "Legend". But the boss can rest assured that the version of "Legend" will continue to be updated until it reaches the state you mentioned!"

Lin Zuhui said with satisfaction: "Very good, let's do a rough test first, and then slowly update the version later!"

"Yes, many technologies have not yet been realized, but we have plans, so we are very confident in being the world's leading game developer!"

Siege, killing monsters, PK, thousands of people online and other technologies are indeed difficult to realize technically for a while; however, network technology has developed rapidly in recent years, and the previous life "Legend 1" appeared at the end of 1998.Of course, "Legend 2" is really famous, and it was not officially opened until 2000.

Lin Zuhui said: "That's right, we have 500 R&D personnel, and we must make full use of them. Online multiplayer online games are a major trend in the future game industry, so we must maintain a world-leading position in this regard."

In this life, he must stop the development trend of Korean games, and make Kim Dae Jong's so-called 'cultural nation' a 'joke'.At the very least, the mainland will act as an agent for Heung Kong's online games in large numbers.

"Well, we divide the R&D personnel into the 'studio' model and implement the internal incentive model. I believe that more and more classic games will be created."

In fact, Gokling is curious that he hasn't submitted a game to his boss yet, because the idea is so good.For example, in "Legend", although many technologies have not yet been realized, he believes that all technologies should be realized within two years at most.

After Gao Kelin left, Lin Zuhui wrote "Miracle MU" on paper. Unfortunately, he only played Legend back then, and he didn't play this game much.However, Lin Zuhui had no intention of relying entirely on himself.

His idea is that since 1998, The Ninth City has developed at least five online games at the same time, including "Legend of Blood" and "Miracle MU". As for the other three games, the company has independently developed them.

And after the millennium, games such as "Audition", "Adventure Island", "Running Kart", "Dungeon and Warriors", and "Cross Fire" will be developed in turn.

Of course, what Lin Zuhui is confident about is not his memory, but the strength accumulated in the game by The Ninth City.For these games, even if they have played for a while, they still have incomplete memory and can only be used as a reference for the R&D team.

The advantage of The Ninth City is that it has beautiful graphics (inheriting the drawing skills of Wanhui Comics), strong technology (accumulated over the years), and wide distribution channels (Activision is a large game publisher, and Kingsoft is also an agent in the mainland).

Finally, at the beginning of 1998, Xiangjiang listed "Cultural Establishment of Hong Kong" as a major policy, which will surely bring greater development opportunities for Hong Kong's game industry.

The last president who came in to report was Liu Songcheng, president of Netflix Software.

The reason why Netflix has thousands of employees is because Netflix has entered the "software OEM" mode. At the same time, Netflix has also developed a large number of software, such as ICQ, stock trading software, music software, Stone Smart card system, as well as YAHOO (Xiangjiang), Netflix software also provides enterprise Internet services, helping enterprises to open Internet business, etc.

In short, Lin Zuhui is not worried that raising so many people will lose money. Only one ICQ software is currently worth 8 million US dollars!

In fact, not only did Netflix not lose money, but it made a good profit.

Just signed a large contract of 1.5 million yuan with the smart card company under the subway company, that is, the "smart payment system" contract.At the same time, this business can also develop overseas and inland, which is a big cake.

After listening to Liu Songcheng's report, Lin Zuhui said with satisfaction: "The development is good! By the way, I plan to build a portal website oriented to the Greater China region, to provide overseas and the world with information on "knowing China affairs", and to serve the Greater China region and overseas. The global Chinese in the Chinese-speaking community provide "Chinese fashion life" and e-commerce services, including tourism, culture, science, academics, art, fashion, games, news, sports, entertainment and other projects. You should prepare the project team first. I hope that the products will be available next year. Listed!"

Although Yahoo's business in Hong Kong is managed by Netflix, it is someone else's website after all; moreover, Yahoo will not be able to hand over its mainland business to Netflix in the future, so it still has to have its own portal in Greater China .

Liu Songcheng knows that the boss is a giant of the Internet, and behind many well-known Internet companies in the United States, there is the investment of the boss.Therefore, he is not surprised at all by the boss's vigorous development of Xiangjiang's information technology industry, but is very happy.

"Okay, I'll start preparations right away!"

Lin Zuhui nodded and said, "There's no need to rush. I'm planning to go public early next year, so I'm well prepared; this website is called Sina. You should first go to mainland China, Taiwan and other Greater China regions to register domain names."

Grab a name first!

"Ok"

Lin Zuhui nodded. More than half a year of preparation time is enough. The strength of Netflix software is far from being comparable to that of mainland companies.

In fact, Lin Zuhui is not interested in the benefits of the portal, but because he needs to lead the development of Xiangjiang's information technology industry.Of course, Lin Zuhui himself would be very happy if he took the opportunity of TOM.com from Li Chaoren in his previous life.

Moreover, Sina.com targets the Greater China region (inland policy is not a problem), and if it goes public, it can also reap a lot of wealth, which can be used as driving funds to drive the development of Xiangjiang's information technology industry.

And Netflix will undoubtedly become a world-class information technology giant, and ICQ is also one of its signs.

(End of this chapter)