Wind Rises 2005

Chapter 570 The Darkest Hour
The global popularity of "Plants vs. Zombies" has once again brought a sea of ​​traffic to Twitter.

The number of new users is growing rapidly, visible to the naked eye, and comes from all over the world.

In addition to Twitter, Zynga has also become the biggest winner.Not only has a phenomenal product been harvested again, but the company's revenue has also increased significantly.

The payment rate of the game "Plants vs. Zombies" will make the entire game industry envious.

Not only is this game making money, but the revenue of the farming game "Farmville" has also increased significantly, which really makes Mark Pincus smile from ear to ear.

Although "Farmville" is ostensibly the flagship service of the Twitter website, the product is developed and operated by Zynga.

All revenue from the game is divided proportionally between the two companies.

The most important thing is that it is Zynga that takes the lead. Twitter only takes 30%, and the remaining 70% is equally divided between Zynga and [Dafeng Interactive Entertainment].

This model is limited to the game "Farmville" because this product is deeply bound to the Twitter website, but "Plants vs. Zombies" has a more complex set of distribution rules.

Overall, "Plants vs. Zombies" only needs to give Twitter 5% of its game revenue.

After all, "Plants vs. Zombies" is not played on the Twitter website, but has another client. How could it use the same profit distribution mechanism as "Farmville"?

In a word, everyone is for profit, so naturally they will fight for every cent.

Now that "Plants vs. Zombies" has also created miracles, Zynga can be said to have "two major artifacts" in its hands.

Although the copyrights of these two great products belong to [Dafeng Interactive Entertainment], Mark Pincus is not worried at all about what the copyright owner [Dafeng Interactive Entertainment] will do.

After all, the boss of [Dafeng Interactive Entertainment], the young investor from China, is the largest shareholder of Zynga.

Seeing that the situation is so good now, Mark Pincus can't wait to see the day when Zynga and Twitter will exchange shares for mergers and acquisitions.

And according to the gossip revealed by the beautiful investor Jennifer a few days ago, the good days are approaching.

The popularity of "Plants vs. Zombies" not only made Mark Pincus overjoyed, but also made the four Twitter giants once again become the most handsome people in the American venture capital circle.

But while some are happy, others are worried. Facebook, as its biggest competitor, is currently shrouded in a large dark cloud.

Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, Facebook headquarters, CEO office.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg was looking at a document handed over by partner Dustin Moskowitz with a headache on his face.

This is the latest statistical report, just released.

The document clearly shows a comparative analysis of the operating data of Facebook and its fatal enemy Twitter in the past week.

For these commercial confidential data, you also need to pay a certain fee.

Although the document shows that Facebook still leads in terms of total number of registered users, the advantage is no longer so obvious.

And for a website, the most important operating data, DAU (daily active users), ACU (average number of people online at the same time) and DAOT (average daily online time of active users), etc., Facebook can be said to have completely lost. Completely.

If Facebook hadn't developed a few years earlier than Twitter, and there were still many loyal Facebook users in universities around the world, the data gap would have been even more ugly.

But even so, looking at the terrible data in front of him, Xiaoza's heart almost dropped.

He never imagined that Facebook, which had a first-mover advantage and stronger capital strength, would be overtaken by Twitter so quickly.

Not only Zuckerberg did not expect this, but all the investors who invested in Facebook did not expect this to happen.

Unfortunately, the data in the profit report has not been released yet, otherwise Xiaoza’s phone number would have been inundated with calls.

Who could have predicted a year ago that Twitter, which had just been founded, would achieve extremely astonishing growth with a series of cool operations and humble games.

Especially in the past six months, it has been extremely unfavorable. It has quickly completed the road that Facebook took several years to travel.

What is even more worrying is that Twitter has also launched services similar to Facebook, and coupled with those mini games that make users addicted, Facebook has little hope in the next competition.

At this moment, Zuckerberg felt that his head was shrouded in a dark cloud, and he was really helpless to face the current situation.

Because of the gap in products and services, today's outcome has already been doomed. If Facebook did not have major innovations, it would be impossible to make a strong counterattack.If this trend continues, it will take less than a few months for Twitter to complete its success.

By then, Facebook will be surpassed by its competitors in all aspects, and it is even possible that there will be a one-sided crushing situation.

This was a situation that Xiaoza couldn't accept no matter what. He was so anxious that he almost went bald.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is Facebook's darkest moment, and if it cannot get over it, it will completely fail.

As the saying goes, there is no room for two tigers in one mountain, and the bigger the track, the less room there is for two giants.

If it cannot win this battle, the best outcome waiting for Facebook is to be acquired by Twitter.

But depending on the situation at hand, the best outcome may be a luxury.

Because Twitter has also launched a similar personal homepage service, there is no need to acquire Facebook to continue the trend.

Unless Facebook can turn the tide, launch a series of new products and services, and once again pose some serious threats to Twitter, there will be no value in being acquired.

Although this possibility exists, Xiaoza-san cannot do it.

If he had the ability to fight back with products and services, how could he sit back and watch Facebook fall into its current situation.

Zuckerberg felt aggrieved because Twitter shouldn't be so powerful.

Fortunately, he has not read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", one of the four famous Chinese novels, otherwise he would have to sigh: "How can you be brilliant when you are born with excellence".

The person that Xiaozai hates the most is Mark Pincus, no one else.

Because that guy was originally one of the investors in Facebook's Series A financing, but he chose two super products, "Farmville" and "Plants vs. Zombies," to cooperate with Twitter.

This makes Zuckerberg confused no matter what, why does that guy do this?

After learning about the situation, he even made a special phone call to question Mark Pincus, only to receive a wave of pushback from the other party.

What a shame. If I had known earlier, I shouldn’t have given Zynga so much traffic support, allowing Mark Pincus to become bigger and stronger with chess and card games.

But after careful investigation and analysis, he quickly discovered the problem.

Because both Twitter and Zynga have the same angel investor behind them, it's not difficult to understand.

Xiao Zha regretted a little. He should have invested a small sum of money in Mark Pincus.

Otherwise, Zynga would not have fallen into the arms of its competitors, and it would have actually given Twitter an extremely powerful weapon.

But there is no regret in the world about taking medicine, and it is too late to say anything now.

Zuckerberg didn't know that Mark Pincus was just a tool man and couldn't decide who Zynga would cooperate with.

Nowadays, Facebook has reached a stage of life and death. There is no time for Xiaoza to worry about it, and it must actively deal with it as soon as possible.

So he immediately ordered to his partners: "Dustin, quickly increase investment in advertising and consolidate your advantage at all costs.

At least in the next two months, we cannot lose, and I will figure out the rest. "

"Okay, Mark!

In fact, there is no need to worry too much, at least our basic base is still there, and Facebook’s loyal users are still very stable. "

Dustin looked at classmate Xiao Zha who was about to cry, and could only kindly comfort him.

Before the partners even left the office, Zuckerberg couldn't wait any longer. He picked up his phone and started making calls.

He contacted all Facebook shareholders and board members and planned to hold a temporary emergency meeting.

But everyone was notified, but one of them was missed-Mark Pincus.
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PS: There will be another chapter later. I may replace it later. Please understand.

(End of this chapter)