1905 movie network feature He was only 24 years old when he gained widespread attention with "The Wedding Dress of the Kingdom of Heaven". A year later, he became an "idol male god" who fascinated thousands of girls.

"Does it feel like reaching a peak? I’m a little confused." Looking back at that unforgettable past, Ming Dao lamented in an interview with the "Dialogue" program of the 1905 film network. "At that time, I didn’t think it was a peak or not. [Popularity] was a more complicated thing. For example, someone recognized me and became my long-term state."

Seven or eight years after the performance of "The Prince Turns into a Frog", the scripts handed to Ming Dao were all idol dramas. He starred in "Love Mage", "Star Apple Paradise", "Angel Lover" and other works, further establishing his status as an "idol male god".

In the public’s memory, he has been rooted in the "Boss Tyrant" track for a long time.When it comes to whether he wants to jump out of the "comfort zone", Ming Dao’s response is very direct: "It is useless for me to consider, at least in me, it is completely the result of the choice of market laws".

In recent years, Mingdao has had many attempts. He has acted in comedies, musicals, and studied live broadcasts, and his identity has become diverse. In the complex waves of the times, if you don’t advance, you will retreat. Stick to your original intention and be yourself, Mingdao is so self-comforting.

Mike, the gentle and humorous "ex-husband" in "The Future", recently returned to the public eye as an elite figure in suits and ties. In the face of audience comments, he admitted that he would pay attention, but not much, "I go out to work, and I go home when I get home.

"To me, the word’Ming Dao ‘is a job, not an identity. My job is acting, that’s all."

"Try Comedy"

"The Future of Massive" tells the story of Ma Shang (played) searching for hope in despair. In middle age, Ma Shang encounters a marital crisis, bears heavy debts, and reaches a desperate situation in life. Corresponding to this is his ex-wife and current wife, Mark, who wears famous brands and drives luxury cars without the slightest pressure of being ravaged by life.

The story is wrapped in comedy with the core of tragedy. After the director initially cast Bao Bell as Ma Shang, he hoped to find a Taiwanese actor to combine with his Northeast style, thus forming a sharp contrast. Therefore, Ming Dao joined the crew and tried a rare comedy performance.

A lot of the comedy baggage in the play comes from Bao Bell, especially the homophonic stems and small details. "Northeast Comedian" gave "Taiwan Puppet Male God" a lot of fresh excitement.

Ma Shang had a car accident in the tunnel, and when he woke up, he wanted to express his anger, but he didn’t expect to be answered by Mark, and the original inelegant words turned into intermittent lines, "I’m super, super, super, super lucky". Ma Shang, who couldn’t hide his anger, wanted to beat Mark, but he didn’t expect Mark to humorously take the "weapon", which formed a strong contrast effect.

"The script doesn’t say who is joking or joking, and a lot of ideas come from Bao Bell, but I don’t have many ideas." Ming Dao, who calls himself an ideal performer, is used to doing his homework, and is more of a listener on the set, not deliberately adding or cutting plot.

He wrote a biography of Mike early on: "He was adopted by a very good family from an early age, and he was gentle and enthusiastic. When he was a teenager, he learned about his background, which was a little difficult to accept, so he ventured outside, and when he grew up, he returned to the normal track of life."

Ming Dao gave Mike a lot of background settings, giving him the rationality of his behavior and explaining the root cause of his desperately trying to save people in the tunnel. He was adopted and cherished the interpersonal relationships around him.

Creating biographies of characters has always been a way for Mingdao to enter the role.

"When I played my first role, I didn’t know I had to do these things, and I didn’t need to do them at that time. When I was in the idol drama, I was at that age, and it was enough to watch myself. After a few performances, I realized that I couldn’t act the same."

The accumulation of experience and the growth of age have made Ming Dao more and more aware of the physical clarity of behavior for everyone he plays, even in the face of the same role, he also hopes to perform a different taste.

"Overbearing President"

"’The Kingdom of Heaven’s Wedding Dress’ turned me into an idol actor, which was a big turning point." At the age of 24, Ming Dao rose to fame in the film and television industry with the role of "Cheng Hainuo", which changed his destiny ever since.

Contrary to his image as a spendthrift in film and television, Ming Dao was born into an ordinary family, and he would take advantage of the winter and summer vacations to help his family sell dried fish and turn the vegetable market into a playground. During his growth journey, he was surrounded by neighbors who ran for life, not the social elites who were well-dressed.

If "Cheng Hainuo" still had some similarities with Ming Dao, then "Shan Junhao" came from two completely different worlds.

Ming Dao admitted frankly that among all the roles he had played, "Shan Junhao" had changed him the most.

In his original life, there were no business elites in suits and ties, nor rich young masters like "Shan Junhao". In the first episode of "Prince Turns Frog", Ming Dao, who wore a black suit and got off the luxury car, became the dream lover of countless girls. The audience praised him without hesitation, he had his own aristocratic temperament, and his every move was elite.

Little did he know that in order to perform the scene from getting off the bus to entering the hotel, he once ran to the door of the hotel to study how wealthy people got out of the car and walked.

As "Prince Turns Frog" broke the ratings record of "Meteor Garden" and set off a whirlwind of drama chasing in Asia, Ming Dao also gained a place in the field of idol dramas with his handsome appearance, and "Boss Ba" became a solidified label on his body. Seven or eight years after "Prince Turns Frog" aired, almost all the scripts handed to him were idol dramas, and he also contracted the public’s expectations for "Boss Ba" through works such as "Love Magician", "Star Apple Paradise" and "Angel Lover".

"Overbearing CEO actually has nothing to do with’overbearing ‘."

Looking back at his past roles, Ming Dao was a little helpless. He didn’t understand why everyone would interpret the character’s behavior as "overbearing". Take Shan Junhao as an example, he was just a person who thought things very clearly, and there was no such thing as overbearing or not overbearing. Ming Dao didn’t think about this at all when he performed.

Asked whether he wanted to step out of his "comfort zone", Ming Dao’s response was straightforward: "It’s useless for me to think about it. At the beginning, I didn’t want to act in idol dramas. The choice of actors is more based on market positioning. It’s hard for others to see the other side of Ming Dao, and I can’t always give you a Tai Chi."

During the interview, Ming Dao was sincere and helpless.Unlike most actors, who felt that fantasies were meaningless, he never dreamed of playing a certain type of role. "It’s not that playing a murderer completes the transformation, nor that suddenly becoming thin can become a good actor who pays for the play. If he plays a murderer, he is still in love? What if he plays a domineering president, but he doesn’t fall in love? So is the role meaningful?"

Mingdao, who had studied engineering, was extremely logical, and his vision of things always seemed to follow a specific engineering program. He cared more about how the outside world viewed his inner self than how he looked forward to the role.

"Fighting Fame"

For a long time, Ming Dao was fighting against fame."It’s not that I don’t want to be famous, of course I want to be famous, so that I can work more and earn more money." Ming Dao’s point of confrontation was to seek self-reconciliation.

From a grassroots background, he never imagined that he would become an actor, nor did he think that he would become famous, nor did he think that the price of fame would be that he could no longer walk into McDonald’s alone to buy a burger, nor could he walk down the street without being recognized.

He used to love riding a motorcycle and enjoying the pleasure of speed. But after becoming famous, even though the thick hard hat had blocked the contours of his face, he still couldn’t escape the sharp-eyed passers-by chasing him and shouting "Mingdao".

More than once on the road, passers-by would pull his backpack from behind. Although he knew that the other party was out of uncontrollable excitement, for a long time, he would still feel distressed about it, "As time goes by and I get older, I get used to it.

Ming Dao has been on the road of performing for 22 years.Whether it was a domineering president or an idol actor, no matter what label the public attached to him, when he was mentioned, everyone would still think of his amazing characters and classics that he had interpreted.

A few years ago, Ming Dao appeared in an entertainment variety show. A group of young actors sat in the audience, and everyone sighed. Watching his works grow up, even the instructor in the guest seat said politely, "Brother Ming Dao, my seniority is deeper than mine."

At that time, Ming Dao on the stage couldn’t help but joke about himself. After many years of debut, a friend told him, "Ming Dao, you may not be able to play the male lead in the future." After speaking, there were obvious tears in his eyes, and his voice began to choke, and then he explained that the first performance handed over on the variety stage was his first play that year (2019).

In our conversation, Ming Dao admitted that he had been in a state where the stock of works was small, and he wanted to participate when he saw a good film, but he would also feel regretful if he missed it.

"A low point depends on how you define it. If you measure it by how many films you make or how high or low your audience ratings are, there are indeed lows. But in my whole life, I’ve been filming, and lows are hard to define."

"To me, the word’Ming Dao ‘is a job, not an identity. My job is acting, that’s all."

Perhaps many people don’t know that Ming Dao has another name, Lin Chaozhang, which is the base color that really belongs to him.

　　Recently, NetEase’s flagship martial arts game Against the Water has once again announced detailed plans around the fourth anniversary expansion, one of which is quite exciting.

　　That is, the anti-water cold will officially open the image quality iteration plan during the fourth anniversary, and will benchmark or even surpass the well-known stand-alone 3A games such as "Black Myth: Wukong", and upgrade the image quality of existing games in a short time.

　　In fact, NetEase’s flagship martial arts game has been praised by players for its excellent graphics.

　　Not long ago, the Anti-Water Cold development team made a major upgrade around the ice surface. In the game, it is actually difficult to present the ice surface well, because the light transmittance is different under different degrees of icing.

　　For example, on the ice surface of West Lake, the temperature is not low enough, and the thickness of the ice layer is relatively thin, allowing you to clearly see the fish swimming under the ice surface.

　　In some extremely cold places, the ice layer is thick, so it is impossible to see the underwater scene, which is difficult to figure out. Therefore, in the past, game manufacturers generally used the form of textures to solve the problem.

　　The ice surface generated by the map has no change and no soul.

　　So the programmers in the development team decided to make a new one themselves.

　　Its principle is based on the physical simulation method, which is used to model the refraction reflection and scattering of ice materials and light when passing through ice.

　　They also took into account ice cracks, bubbles, and other phenomena to achieve a better rendering effect.

　　It can be said that the sticker ice in most games in the past was fake paper ice, and under the ice of the cold rivers and lakes, you can even see swimming schools of fish.

　　Not only that, but the constant changes in day and night light, cloudy and sunny weather make the same scenery look different at different times, and the beauty presented is also different.

　　But in fact, against the current cold has never been a game that satisfies the status quo. The development team has always hoped to bring players a sensory experience that goes beyond the limitations of the end game and the limitations of the times.

　　Therefore, the image quality upgrade can be said to be one of the ambitions against the cold from the beginning. As for how big this ambition is, you can understand it after reading the picture below.

　　Players can directly see the weeds and dead leaves in the cracks of the tiles, the patterns and tree shadows on the tiles, and even the wood grains and mottles on the eaves.

　　Objectively speaking, the image quality improvement map released by the current cold water, while using the most advanced technology, also integrates a lot of Eastern ethereal and distant artistic conception, which is quite a "quality explosion".

　　A small detail may go unnoticed, but a good game is made up of these details.

　　In order to make this inconspicuous ice scene look more "real", the development team worked hard for several months, which seemed to be a bit "thankless".

　　However, the anti-water cold technical team has well presented the concept of daring to be the first in the world, always committed to exploring the most cutting-edge graphics technology, and constantly challenging the limits of hardware and algorithms. They scoff at the so-called "cost performance of R & D", and only want to bring real, more real, and surpassing real game images to players.

　　This is also something they are still pursuing in the future.

　　As for the breakthrough in artistic style and scene refinement this time, let’s wait and see how players at home and abroad will perceive it!

Author | Huang Qingchun

In the past month (December 15, 2023 to January 15, 2024), user acquisition through ads market, social platforms, game live streaming host/game media almost all fell under the "Yuan Dream Star" marketing offensive:

On the input side, the fixed-file press conference said "the first phase of ecological incentive investment is 1.40 billion yuan, and the long-term investment is not capped". On the first day of the launch, the user acquisition through ads material was placed in more than 27,000 groups, which was 50 times that before the launch, and more than 600 stars were invited to promote;

Linkage end, WeChat Channels, QQ, Tencent News and other traffic entrances work together to promote, 6 "Honor of Kings" joint fashion free, and joint B station, Douyin, Douyu, Huya, Kuaishou, Weibo, Xiaohongshu and other platforms to carry out "Star Dream Partner" incentive plan.

Data Source: Diandian Data

Tianmei, Tencent’s major IP push, the outside world can clearly feel the importance of the entire Tencent in this game;Even some media have called "Yuan Mengzhixing" "Tencent’s next extremely important battle", or it will become its next "trump card".

However, the anomaly is that the "Yuan Dream Star" that Tencent has put on the stage so much is not a long-dormant heavy self-research masterpiece, but a party casual game that runs into the venue – after two rounds of confidential testing, the first exposure (September 20), the first test (September 28), the second test (November 17), and the open test (December 15) were quickly completed in more than three months.Such efficiency is still rare among domestic game makers, let alone as large as Tencent.

This makes one wonder why a party game makes Tencent so concerned and anxious.

Tiger Sniff believes that the pattern of Tencent is no longer limited to the vision of a game company. The reason why "Yuan Dream Star" was raised to the group strategy is to a greater extent that a certain trend and potential energy are loosening the entire Tencent’s future development channel – "Egg Party" covers the skin of the game and leverages the young market through the UGC (User Generated Content, that is, user-generated content) ecology, which truly touches the foundation of Tencent:Social relationship chain.

Following this logic, Tencent’s above actions are reasonable:The stability established by Tencent in the past is being loosened in the process of content and channel gaming. "Yuan Dream Star" is no longer limited to a single game category, and Tencent is betting not just on a party game, but on the next generation of social scenes.

Why did Tencent smash the "party"?

Since NetEase’s "Egg Party" detonated the party track, the entire gaming industry knew that the dormant Tencent would take action sooner or later.

On the one hand, CITIC Securities analysis, the essence of the party game is a mild multiplayer competitive game, due to the low threshold, fission propagation characteristics, easy to birth phenomenon-level large DAU (Daily Active User, the number of active users) game; while the domestic casual game has reached more than 800 million users, but the supply of party games is still small, so it is the blue ocean track in the mobile game segment.

Moreover, Tencent has been coveting party games for a long time – previously, Tencent has laid out the party track through a number of external collaborations and investments, such as investing in Synopsys, the developer of "Beast Party", cooperating with Nintendo to introduce Switch National Bank and Nintendo party games (such as "Mario Kart 8" and "Super Mario Party"), Tencent-backed Epic Games also acquired "Jelly Bean Man" developer Mediatonic’s parent company Tonic Games Group in 2021.

June 2023 QuestMobile data, growth contribution rate = APP year-on-year increment/secondary market year-on-year increment

On the other hand, "Egg Party" pushes up the DAU step by step through the player’s UGC ecology – Tiger Sniff learned that in September 2023, NetEase "Egg Party" completed the "Double Billion Achievement", that is, MAU (Monthly Active User, monthly active user) broke through 100 million + the total number of maps accumulated 100 million; as of December 2023, "Egg Party" has over 500 million registered users and 30 million DAUs.

In view of this, "Yuan Dream Star" is intentionally or unintentionally targeting "Egg Party" from the game category, launch time, and targeting the crowd, which can be called a precise sniper by Tencent for NetEase – on the day of the launch of "Yuan Dream Star" born with a golden spoon, not only WeChat and QQ spared no effort to set up a platform, but also platforms such as B Station, Douyin, Douyu, Huya, Kuaishou, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu came to join the audience, and won the first place in the App Store free list in two hours.

Generally speaking, new games are launched in two ways: "hot start" and "cold start". The survival of the cold start project depends entirely on the market data. "At the beginning, the cold start’Honor of Kings’ almost died, and it was originally called’Hero’s Trail ‘. When it was changed and re-launched halfway through, the expectations were not so high, and the result was a steep upward curve." A person close to the "Honor of Kings" project said to Tiger Sniff.

As for the hot start, it is mostly accompanied by a grand press conference + traditional hardcore alliance channels (Huawei, Lenovo, OPPO, vivo and other app stores) + new live broadcast platforms (Douyin, Kuaishou) + old live broadcast platforms (Douyu, Huya) + community (B station, TapTap) release momentum –Such a big battle is mainly due to the particularity of the "Yuan Dream Star" category: the party track is already a fully competitive field, and the new product iteration speed is fast, and the hot start is conducive to occupying the minds of vertical users.

"There is another important reason for the launch of" Yuan Dream Star "carpet shop, which involves the issue of sniping and counter-sniping between companies – the launch of" Yuan Dream Star "is not small, and the momentum will only be even worse in the first week of its launch, but NetEase, Lilith, Heart, Eagle Horn and other game manufacturers are also pushing new party games, and they are bound to grab the launch time and media schedule. In order to ensure the spread of high expectations, Tencent must’sweep goods’." A practitioner explained to Tiger Sniff that the logic of "Yuan Dream Star" carpet launch is to ensure that it will not be exposed by competing cards such as "Egg Party".

Now, from the "Yuan Dream Star" has been on the line for a month, at least from the market performance point of view is still competitive – data points show that the iOS end of the flow, December 15 to January 15 during the "Yuan Dream Star" total revenue of 138 million yuan (Tiger sniff to Tencent related people to verify, the other side said that the actual data is not limited to this), more than the "Egg Party" over the same period of 110 million yuan total revenue, in many new tours of a ride out of the steep climbing curve.

Data Source: Diandian Data

However, "Yuan Dream Star" has only been launched for more than a month, but "Egg Party" has been running for 20 months (launched on May 27, 2022) – the latter has not only completed the staging of the market structure, but also some users’ minds have been formed.Even "Egg Party" has become a phenomenal IP for party games.

In the face of such a situation, "Yuan Dream Star" chose to confront "Egg Party" head-on, hand-to-hand combat, even if Tencent used the power of the group to invest resources and link all channels and platforms that could be mobilized, but the game was not a pile of resources that could explode, otherwise Tencent would not be seven or eight years later. "Honor of Kings" is still a revenue trump card.

Moreover, "Jelly Bean Man", "Goose and Duck Kill", "Egg Party", and "Beast Party", these representative party games each have their own advantages, and have already divided up a lot of party players in the market. How can Tencent catch up and run a differentiated upward curve?

In this regard, people close to Tencent IEG (Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group) analyzed the strategy of "Yuan Dream Star" to Tiger Sniff:

First, "Dream Star" has targeted the promotion direction to a "family fun game" –This is not a product that only targets the young market. "Yuan Dream Star" has established a more universal goal to target the full client base and full circle coverage;Taking a step back, even if "Dream Star" can’t hit the core user base of "Egg Party", this game still has a differentiated audience.

"Tianmei has chosen to incorporate strong social networking and mainstream gameplay, including the cooperation between" Star of the Dream "and" Honor of Kings "," Crayon Shin "," Kung Fu Panda "and other leading IPs, in order to bind the brand’s mind to more pan-users and pan-circles, and quickly absorb the fan groups behind different IPs into potential party game players." An industry insider analyzed to Tiger Sniff.

In other words, in terms of strategy, "Yuan Dream Star" reserves a back hand, and also wants to break down some player groups that "Egg Party" has not shaken, targeting users of all ages, to penetrate them and become a new addition.

DataEye, a third-party research institution, calculates the user composition of "Yuan Dream Star" in the first month

Secondly, the sewing ability of "Yuan Dream Star" is very "Tencent": the core gameplay of the game is the pass mode, but it integrates the strengths of each family, and the shadow of the shadow makes players feel the shadow of eating chicken + QQ speed car + CF + Werewolf + King + Jelly Bean Man + Egg Boy party, and in the recent "Mountain and Sea Adventure" new season preview shows that "Yuan Dream Star" plans to add ball bumper cars, bubble wars, go-kart mode, and tower defense gameplay to the game – you know,The series of gameplay integrated by "Yuan Dream Star" has led the trend. After all these gameplay are integrated into one game, "Yuan Dream Star" is no longer just a party game, but more like a game square.

"Party games is just a concept, or a container, and there is no standard for what gameplay should be in it. From its definition, it can be included in the game that is suitable for everyone to play together. The extension of the party is very large, and it must be constantly dug." A game producer said to Tiger Sniff.

The above producers further pointed out that in recent years, there has been almost no new single gameplay in the game market (unless there is a change brought about by technology), and new games are all stitching together various gameplays – following this logic, the underlying logic of new games is a mathematical problem: what gameplay to capture a group of users, and what IP to capture a group of users.The difference is that some people have made subtraction, some people have made addition, and some people have even made multiplication.

"There is no one-size-fits-all formula to get this math problem right (that is, to ensure the success of the game). Whether it should be subtracted, added or multiplied depends only on the product and the market." He stressed that the domestic game industry has been changing drastically in recent years, especially the obvious reshuffle of some large DAU products. To succeed, we must keep pace with the times.

A battle that Tencent cannot lose

Tiger Sniff has previously written that party games such as "Jelly Bean Man: The Ultimate Knockout Tournament", "Among Us" and "Goose and Duck Kill" have successfully verified the huge potential of social communication. The reasons why "Egg Party" came from behind and successfully "penetrated" the post-00 group are divided into two levels:

On the one hand, "Egg Party" has come up with high-quality art design, superimposed its relaxed and casual game rhythm, strong interactive game social gameplay (can challenge racing, survival, individual points, team theme levels, while combining two-player cooperation, 2v2 confrontation, asymmetric competition and other gameplay), captured the hearts of many young gamers –These game scenes are undoubtedly a new "social currency" for the post-00s who value self-expression and have a stronger sense of group identity.

QuestMobile calculates the age distribution of egg users in June 2023

On the other hand, the UGC system derived from "Egg Workshop" in "Egg Party" has greatly broadened the boundaries of game exploration, not only providing players with the convenience of freely creating levels and self-made maps, but also fully mobilizing players’ creative collisions and sharing more secondary content.

The reason behind this is that there is an obvious change in party games. Before, the entire industry was casual and light games such as chess and cards to complete user education, and then heavy games to complete the harvest. Now the whole logic is different –Light games can also be made to complete the harvest, just like casual party games were originally low-stickiness games, but the gameplay richness of "Egg Party" and the entire game are becoming more and more complex, and casual parties can also be like heavy games.

Another change is that the difference between the RMB players of "Egg Party" and ordinary players and the difference in game experience is not so big. Strictly speaking, "Egg Party" is not a pure NetEase style game – NetEase specializes in big payment design, while "Egg Party" is a big DAU + low payment threshold in terms of business model. It follows the path of "Honor of Kings", and the logic has changed.

Take NetEase’s "Against the Cold" and "Naraka: Bladepoint" as an example, the character’s weapons and skin have circulation attributes, and there are tens of thousands of three-way transactions. It mainly promotes the scarcity of external equipment, but "Egg Party" mainly promotes fun, weakening the competitiveness –To a certain extent, the success of "Egg Party" has given NetEase the opportunity to break through and reflect on its own capabilities.

Based on the above analysis, if the success of "Egg Party" is UGC first, and the game is just a shell, then how "Yuan Dream Star" surpasses "Egg Party" has become a proposition that Tencent games must face – difficult, but crucial.

Looking at the review, after products such as "Crossing the Wire", "League of Legends", "Dungeon and Warrior" established the status of Tencent’s PC era, it rode the social (WeChat & QQ) and entertainment territory potential in the mobile game wave – Tencent games identified several promising game categories, a large number of horse racing projects squeezed into these tracks "gambling explosion", good at grafting the group’s resources into its own business system, through investment, joint research, and self-research to promote the rapid growth of gameplay, technology, and user ecology in different periods.

Data Source: Game Committee, Gamma Data

Even with the expansion of Tencent’s game industry-wide investment territory, the channel is likely to follow the mobile game era and quickly establish track control capabilities in the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) and shooting (including FPS/TPS/tactical competition, etc.) categories.

At present, Tencent games are facing a situation of internal and external troubles:

In terms of Tencent, the two cash cows in hand, "Honor of Kings", have been in operation for more than 8 years, "Game for Peace" has been online for nearly 5 years, and it has been more than 7 years since the explosion of chicken gameplay in 2017. However, the entire IEG has been unable to come up with a new explosion, and the two-dimensional trend led by "Yuan Shen" in 2020 and the party trend led by "Egg Party" in early 2023 are all passive followers. Tencent has long been anxious.

In terms of external competition, rising stars such as miHoYo ("The Original God"), Lilith ("The Awakening of Nations"), Moonton Technology ("Mobile Legends: Bang Bang"), IGG ("Kingdom Era"), Habby ("The Legend of Bow and Arrow") have occupied the top of the sub-category through a product with hundreds of millions of flowing water, and even gained good water in the global market.However, Tencent has become increasingly passive in leading new categories.

Moreover, the old rival NetEase is further strengthening its deterrence through new games, taking the 2023 summer as an example, GameLook statistics show that NetEase ("against the water cold mobile game", "egg boy party", "peak speed", "all-star streetball party") 4 new games have eaten more than 40% of the new game market, while Tencent ("Adventure Island: Legend of Maple"), Byte ("Crystal Core"), miHoYo ("Star Iron") The three giants’ new game flow only accounts for more than 30% of the new game market.

The situation is like this, Tencent naturally sees it in the eyes and is anxious in the heart – so, with the power of the group to launch "Yuan Dream Star" positive "hard" "Egg Party", if this "shot" is misfired, Tencent’s morale will inevitably be severely dampened –Therefore, "Yuan Dream Star" has become a battle that Tencent games cannot lose.

Of course, there are many game practitioners who are optimistic about the next market performance of "Yuan Mengxing", after all, leisure competition + big DAU is Tencent’s strength; but people close to Tencent IEG said that there is no DAU goal for "Yuan Mengxing" now:

On the one hand, the growth and accumulation of party games is a long-term cyclical work, and short-term results after going online are difficult to "determine life and death". At least this Spring Festival can see more possibilities;

On the other hand, Tencent’s various gaming businesses operate in a diverse manner and have different expected goals, making it difficult to determine the evaluation criteria.

The above-mentioned person further reiterated that Tencent IEG (including Tianmei Studio Group, Photon Studio Group, Rubik’s Cube Studio Group, and Northern Lights Studio Group) has its own layout and business promotion rhythm when it cuts into new products, and is not intentional to benchmark "Egg Party" as the outside world said. "Tencent’s style will not catch a wave of popularity in a certain category and gameplay in the market immediately; when a certain gameplay is popular, it will pay close attention to market changes in the early stage and invest in some start-up teams. Later, there will be projects based on market judgment, business needs, and meeting players."

　　[PConline Talk]A person uses too many mobile phones, and there is like a mourning hall in his heart, offering sacrifices to classic interactions that have passed away. – To Qingming Festival.

　　"Qingming cold food is good, spring comes with a hundred flowers blooming". The annual Qingming Festival is coming, and in this season of cautious pursuit and mourning, we might as well reminisce about those classic interactions on our mobile phones.

Meizu dots

　　Meizu’s small dots are a beautiful memory of many people’s classic interaction with domestic mobile phones. When the MX2 was first released, its exquisite texture really amazed many people. At that time, the small dots took a breath, a light and a extinction, making the originally cold mobile phone seem to be endowed with spirituality, which is not only full of smart beauty, but also cool technology.

　　Before the appearance of Meizu’s small dots, Android was still almost all mediocre three King Kong keys. When the M9 switched to the Android system, Meizu redesigned the three King Kong keys. The return key is an arrow, the menu key is a square, and the Home key is a solid rounded rectangle. We still see similar concepts on many mobile phones today.

　　When it came to MX2, Meizu radically changed its thinking and launched small dots, which were not only beautiful, but also practical. The combination of many functions, such as tapping to return to the homepage, long pressing to turn off the screen, pressing and holding to swipe up to return, and double clicking to wake up the screen, is simply an amazing idea.

　　Later, with the rise of fingerprint recognition sensors, the paranoid Meizu had to put fingerprint recognition on the front of the phone, so they had the same commendable waist circle button. The classic small dots began to gradually disappear from Meizu’s mobile phone after the MX4 Pro, becoming a beautiful scenery in people’s memories.

Nokia Side Slide Unlock

　　When it comes to Nokia, in addition to smashing walnuts and blocking bullets, you may also think of the Carl Zeiss camera, the boot interface with big hands and small hands, and the side-swipe unlock mentioned in this article.

　　In the eyes of many people, Nokia is a period of warm green years like a movie screen. It is the throb of youth typing love letters blindly on the table, the steady and stable sound of falling from the fifth floor and still ringing familiar bells, and the boredom of taking it out of the pocket again and again to unlock, lock the screen and lock the screen.

　　Back then, we didn’t have so many secrets. We needed all kinds of passwords, patterns, fingerprints, and irises to protect our phones. Simply, we were like Nokia’s side-swipe unlock.

BlackBerry Trackball

　　BlackBerry was once the dominant mobile phone, dedicated to maximizing the productivity of mobile phones. The QWERTY full keyboard and trackball are its shiny symbols. People’s yearning for business elites and the unique design of BlackBerry make BlackBerry always shrouded in a cool glow.

　　When it comes to trackballs, many people will unconsciously associate the little red dot on the Thinkpad keyboard, both of which are classic designs that pay tribute to productivity. Trackballs are to mobile phones what mice are to computers. You can choose or click on the screen flexibly. Not only BlackBerry, but also HTC’s flagship phones back then. This design was used from the original HTC G1 to the G9.

　　Later, with the rise of full-touch mobile phones, this function began to gradually withdraw from the stage of history. In fact, in some aspects, trackballs are more accurate in positioning and navigation than directly touching the screen.

Full keyboard and side swipe keyboard

　　Back in the day, when a QWERTY keyboard was launched from the chubby body of a side-swipe phone, it was a super mini PC. The side-swipe keyboard phone still looks so cool that if you type with a side-swipe keyboard on the street now, it will definitely cause a burst of screams.

　　When Nokia and Motorola were still sitting at the top of the industry, they launched many classic models, such as the first-generation King N97 and the well-deserved milestone Motorola Milestone (Milestone). The reason why this design became popular at the time was far more than its refreshing appearance. In today’s words, it was obvious that it could eat with its face. Talent. For example, when handling a large number of text tasks, the QWERTY keyboard works better when paired with the touch screen to handle tasks.

　　Obviously, the side-swipe keyboard is a cool and practical function, why did it finally leave us? In this era of lightness, the internal space of the mobile phone with an inch of land can no longer accommodate the module of the side-swipe keyboard component. Now the side-swipe mobile phone can only lie in the dusty drawer with the memory of youth for people to remember.

Conclusion

　　Time is too fast, and the once beautiful things have been buried in the depths of time. But memories are not the shackles that hold us back. In the world of science and technology, moving forward is the greatest pleasure! Forget the peak standing behind you, in order to run to the next higher peak.

??? What should I eat at night without gaining weight? The food I eat before going to bed should be carefully selected. First, the calories should not be too high, which will not cause weight gain. Second, it is best to choose foods that can promote sleep and improve sleep quality. The military doctor recommended the following 20 foods. If you are hungry before going to bed, you can eat them properly.

????Green fruit and vegetable juice

????Sometimes you feel hungry is not really hungry, but because your cells are dehydrated and your brain is misled to send out wrong signals. Drinking a glass of natural green fruit and vegetable juice can not only replenish water in time, but also effectively solve hunger. At the same time, it can slowly release fructose, which has the effect of relaxing nerves and promoting sleep. Green apples, carrots, celery, green grapes, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage, etc. are all good ingredients for making green fruit and vegetable juice. Cut them into small pieces, add some milk, honey and a little ice cubes, and then smash them with a blender to drink.

????Probiotic yogurt

????Don’t think that eating dairy products before going to bed will make you fat! Yogurt is rich in probiotics, which can keep fat accumulation, promote fat decomposition, and have unexpected slimming effects, especially to help remove lower body fat. Moreover, probiotics can also regulate the balance of intestinal flora, eliminate spoilage bacteria, promote toxin excretion, improve intestinal immunity, and play a detoxification and beauty effect. If you don’t need to stay up late, it is also recommended that you add some fruits to make fresh fruit yogurt with sleep effect. Bananas, papayas, kiwis, tomatoes, etc. are all fruits with sleep function. Cut them into cubes and mix them into yogurt. You can also sprinkle 8 American almonds.

????oat

????Oats, like potatoes, help clear your gut of sleep-disrupting acids and relax your nerves for a gentle sleep. First, oats prompt your body to release an insulin that helps tryptophan reach the brain, where it is converted into serotonin, telling the brain "it’s time for bed." Second, oats release glucose at a constant rate during sleep, maintaining blood sugar balance and preventing nightmares while you sleep, as studies have found that nearly 40% of nightmares are triggered by low blood sugar. Boil a small bowl of oats and add a little honey to taste for a delicious and healthy midnight snack

????Coarse grain pumpkin porridge

????Traditional Chinese medicine believes that pumpkin is warm in nature, can moisturize the lungs and nourish qi, is a wonderful product for nourishing blood, and has a special cosmetic effect on women. Therefore, Zhang Zhidong, a famous minister in the Qing Dynasty, suggested that Empress Dowager Cixi use pumpkin for supper to keep young and beautiful.

????grape

????Grapes, grape juice and wine contain a kind of resveratrol, which is a natural substance that can lower cholesterol. Animal experiments have also proved that it can lower cholesterol and inhibit platelet aggregation, so it is one of the best foods for patients with hyperlipidemia.

????Organic tomatoes

????If you can’t keep your mouth shut and eat super, then tomatoes are your night savior. Rich in dietary fiber (which helps probiotics grow in the intestines) and pectin, tomatoes can fill your stomach and stimulate the brain’s satiety center, while also removing acidic metabolic waste from the intestines, helping you complete intestinal detoxification during sleep. In addition, the unique lycopene in tomatoes has powerful antioxidant properties, which can fight off excess free radicals and help the skin fight aging.

????brown bread

????White bread isn’t healthy. Whole wheat bread doesn’t taste good. Try brown bread. It’s made with wheat gluten. Even if you’re picky about food, you won’t dislike the taste and texture. It’s also rich in anti-inflammatory factors and dietary fiber. It also clears your gut of sleep-disrupting acids and benefits the growth of probiotics in your gut. Make a simple, thin sandwich with black bread and cucumber. It’s healthy and delicious.

????corn

????Corn is rich in calcium, phosphorus, selenium, lecithin, vitamin E, etc., all of which have the effect of lowering serum cholesterol. Indians have almost no hypertension and coronary heart disease, which is mainly due to their staple food of corn.

????potato

????Potatoes are considered the most nutritious natural slimming food, which is neither fat nor cholesterol, and has very low calories (only 21% of the same weight of rice). They are also very rich in soft dietary fiber, which can bring a high sense of fullness (3 times that of white bread of the same volume, and 6 times that of rice of the same weight). Eating some potatoes before bed will not only not cause weight gain, but also make you sleep more sweetly, because potatoes are rich in alkaline compounds. As for the cooking method, nutrition experts recommend that you steam, boil or mash potatoes.

????pasta

????Pasta itself, made from wheat, is a low-calorie, healthy dish, with the high-calorie portion only in the sauce. So as long as you make a low-calorie, healthy sauce, pasta becomes a non-fattening delicacy. Food experts have the secret to making low-calorie pasta sauce, which is to dice carrots, soybean sprouts and tomatoes, add some rain dew soy sauce and olive oil and stir well. You can also add some white-boiled chicken breast minced meat on this basis.

????chives

????In addition to calcium, phosphorus, iron, sugar and protein, vitamins A and C, chives also contain carotene and a lot of fiber, which can enhance gastrointestinal peristalsis, have a good laxative effect, and can eliminate excessive nutrients in the intestines, including excess fat.

????garlic

????Garlic is a mixture of sulfur-containing compounds that reduce blood cholesterol and prevent blood clots, helping to increase HDL.

????shiitake mushroom

????Shiitake mushrooms can significantly reduce serum cholesterol, triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein levels, and regular consumption can increase the relative increase of high-density lipoprotein in the body.

????mashed soybeans

????Soybean mash is actually the leftover bean residue after beating soy milk, which is a good ingredient that must not be wasted. It has multiple functions of sleeping, slimming and detoxification. It is rich in phytoestrogens like soy milk, which can make you feel relaxed; it is also rich in oligosaccharides, which can promote the growth of probiotics in the intestines, regulate the metabolism of fat and cholesterol, reduce the accumulation of acidic metabolic waste in the body, and help the intestines detoxify; it is also rich in minerals calcium, soy protein and soy fiber, which are catalysts for body fat burning.

????American Almond

????Many nutrition experts recommend American almonds as a night snack, not only because it is easy to eat and has obvious satiety, but also because the cell wall structure in American almonds blocks the body’s absorption of fat, which can prevent you from gaining weight. In addition, American almonds are also rich in tryptophan, which can calm nerves, and magnesium, a mineral that relaxes muscles, which can help you improve sleep quality. If you want to make the taste richer, you can also make "almonds + raw peanuts + raisins" into mixed nuts to eat.

????apple

????Apples have a very good lipid-lowering effect because they are rich in pectin, fiber and vitamin C. If you eat two apples a day for a month, most people’s blood LDL cholesterol (which is bad for the heart) will be reduced, and the blood HDL cholesterol, which is good for the heart, will be increased. Experiments have shown that about 80% of patients with hyperlipidemia have lower cholesterol levels.

????carrot

????Carrots are rich in calcium pectinate, which is excreted from the stool after working with bile acids. To produce bile acids, the body must use cholesterol in the blood, which in turn prompts the level of cholesterol in the blood to decrease.

????onion

????Onions contain prostaglandin A, which has the function of dilating blood vessels and lowering blood pressure. It also contains dilute propyl trisulfide compounds and a small amount of sulfur amino acids, which can prevent arteriosclerosis in addition to lowering blood lipids.

????Winter melon

????Eating winter melon regularly can remove excess body fat and help you lose weight.

????Kelp

????Kelp is rich in taurine. Food fiber alginic acid can reduce blood lipids and cholesterol in bile. (202nd Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army)

On January 18th, at the Eco Thousand Sails Sailing Ceremony held this afternoon, Huawei announced that the NEXT Hongmeng Galaxy Edition System Developer Preview Edition is open for application.

IT House learned from the press conference that Huawei HarmonyOS NEXT Hongmeng Galaxy Edition will launch the developer beta program in Q2 (second quarter).

Hongmeng Galaxy Edition will be realized.

Huawei has launched the NEXT Developer Preview Beta recruitment on January 15, and currently supportsHUAWEI Mate 60Mate 60 Pro, Mate X5 model registration. The HarmonyOS NEXT Developer Preview will no longer be compatible with open-source applications, only supporting kernel and system applications.

Huawei also revealed that it expects to have 5,000 apps completed native Hongmeng development by the end of this year.

Huawei announced that it has launched the 7 billion + RMB "Shining Star Plan" to continue to encourage ecological innovation such as Hongmeng native applications, meta services, and SDKs.

Related reading:

"Huawei Releases HarmonyOS NEXT Hongmeng Galaxy Edition, Developer Preview Open Application"

"Huawei Hongmeng Galaxy Edition system interface debut: HarmonyOS NEXT new control center, colorful color scheme"

"Huawei HarmonyOS NEXT Developer Preview Official Page Launched, Key Development Features Announced"

On June 8, Beijing time, the first nine satellites built by Geely Holding Group for future travel were launched earlier this month. Geely’s Zhejiang Space-Time Daodaoyu Technology Co., Ltd. is responsible for the development of these satellites, and its CEO Wang Yang said that compared with Elon Musk’s plans for SpaceX, the company’s ambitions are much more modest.

The nine satellites were launched into orbit on June 2 aboard a Long March 2C rocket, making SpaceX one of the first Chinese companies to begin assembling a constellation of satellites pioneered by SpaceX, which already has more than 2,000 satellites in orbit.

"We all have a background in car manufacturing, and we all want aerospace technology and satellites to give back to car manufacturing and travel," Mr. Wang said in an interview on Tuesday. "The difference is our goal of making satellites."

SpaceX is putting its Starlink satellites into orbit to build a constellation of internet services as a low-cost alternative to long-range land-based systems that are vulnerable to interference. SpaceX also launches rockets for global satellite operators, the US military and NASA.

In contrast, Spacetime Daoyu’s ambitions are more modest. Wang Yang said that Spacetime Daoyu expects to have 72 satellites by the end of 2025 and 168 satellites by the end of the decade.

"While we want to provide the ultimate travel experience for our users, SpaceX is more focused on low-latency broadband and providing high-speed broadband access to 7 billion people around the world," Mr. Wang said.

Space-Time Daoyu is following in the footsteps of Chinese rival Galaxy Aerospace, which in March put six satellites into orbit. The satellites weigh an average of 190 kilograms and are China’s first projects to develop constellations in low-Earth orbit.

"Compared to Starlink, China’s constellation is small," Global Times said in a report on the launch, adding that China "will step up efforts to promote the application and transfer of space technology in the next five years".

Wang Yang said that Spacetime Daoyu plans to do its part to open up the network to other brands, and more information will be announced within three months.

"Geely’s future partners will not be limited to Geely’s ecosystem and car brands," he said. "We are also building partnerships with other industries."

"Big factories should lower their profile, so that they can do a good job in the’big ‘business of’a few taels of silver’ among all living beings."

Author/Xuan Qing

On the night of November 27, Didi Chuxing experienced "system paralysis". The Didi Chuxing APP in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and other places could not be used, and the map could not be loaded. Some netizens said that after using Didi to call the online car-hailing, the APP suddenly could not be used, and the driver could not find the passenger. On the morning of the 28th, Didi Chuxing issued an apology, saying that after the technical team repaired overnight, some Didi online car-hailing services had been restored.

This Didi system crash is a total paralysis. Not only the user side cannot be used normally, but also the driver side and Didi’s intranet have problems. It is reported that the functional paralysis lasted for nearly 12 hours, which is also the longest failure of Didi Chuxing in recent years. It is identified as P0 level (P0 level failure is the most serious, with the greatest impact, and important functions related to core business are not available).

It was not until the 29th that Didi officially released the investigation results, saying that the cause of the accident was "the failure of the underlying system software", and all services of the Didi App have been restored.

So far, the first large-scale technical obstacles for the largest online car-hailing company on the whole network have been temporarily ended.

Interestingly, after an Internet company suffered a major failure of network technology and calmed down the storm for two days and one night, it triggered an "avalanche" effect.

01

Credit plummets, runs begin

After the incident, perhaps Didi’s public relations response to the crisis was lagging behind. When users did not receive reliable feedback at the first time, there was a panic of cashing in. The topics of "a driver’s income exceeded 69 billion yuan" and "some Didi drivers began to withdraw cash" suddenly rushed to the hot search, triggering a chain reaction.

On the afternoon of the 28th, some Didi drivers began to withdraw cash and advertise it in the internal group.

"Everyone in the group is saying that Didi has collapsed. It’s not a problem of a few cities. The situation of collapse is still varied. Some people can’t open the map, some people can’t hear the voice instructions, and some people have been cancelled more than a dozen orders for no reason." The driver reported that due to system obstacles, he is very worried about illegal deduction points and misjudgment, so he will not take orders easily.

The most important thing is that some time ago, Didi changed the withdrawal rules. Drivers with level L1 cannot withdraw cash every day, which makes some drivers very angry: "Now there is a problem with the system again, and our attendance points are affected. If the account money is less, who can tell?"

There are also drivers who hope to take advantage of the "loophole" in the system to withdraw cash as soon as possible. "The maximum withdrawal is 3 times on the same day, and each time it does not exceed 5,000 yuan. If someone wants to take the opportunity, they can withdraw as much as they want." Even if they can’t bring it up, they also consider transferring to financial management to buy Didi’s own "Didi Kumquat Treasure". In short, they cannot keep all the funds in the account.

This is not the first time that Didi owners have questioned the withdrawal rules, but the system paralysis has once again touched the sensitive nerves of drivers who have run wild due to the "overlord clause".

It is unfair that so much money is being put into the Didi system for free. Previously, many drivers claimed that they were not given withdrawal rules when they registered with Didi, nor were they told whether the funds in their accounts were eligible for deposit, nor did they sign relevant agreements.

Over the ownership of funds and safety issues, Didi has been unable to establish a trust relationship with the majority of drivers. There was a post on the Internet of "clever withdrawal" and "looking for withdrawal loopholes", which also shows that the two sides are in a state of departure from defense.

02

The trick behind the withdrawal

While Didi drivers are frantically withdrawing cash, many netizens are also reflecting on how to ensure the safety of funds if the online car-hailing platform is paralyzed. At present, major online car-hailing payment and capital account platforms have restrictions on withdrawal time and quota.

Some platforms even play "trick". Some drivers find that when using a certain platform, if they choose to withdraw cash, the system will display "need to wait", and when the time is up, it will become "outdated"; some drivers want to withdraw and cancel the account, but the customer service says that the withdrawal is limited to 20 minutes, and if they want to cancel, they must have "zero balance".

Such as disordered withdrawal time, delayed arrival of money, and indiscriminate deduction of performance are common problems in the current online car-hailing market. No matter what kind of business model, old drivers have also begun to be vigilant, because the "harsh" of online car-hailing platforms in terms of money is often a precursor to the collapse of the company. Such as Zebra, Yidao, Wanshun, Jiqi and other online car-hailing platforms, there have been situations where "it is difficult to withdraw cash, there are many tricks, and playing tricks".

Previously, there was a "partner model" that was popular in the car circle, that is, the driver signed a water withholding agreement with the leasing company and paid the service fee. The online car-hailing aggregation platform deducted the running income from the driver’s account to the leasing company’s account every week, and the leasing company earned this running money. This low-threshold rent has attracted a large number of small white drivers to join the small platform, but many people report that only the account balance can be seen at the settlement, and there is no withdrawal permission. The leasing company will return the remaining after the fee is deducted the next month.

Autonavi Maps and Baidu Maps are typical "aggregation platforms". On Autonavi alone, more than a dozen online car-hailing platforms have been aggregated, but the safety factor of these small online car-hailing platforms is too low. From consumers placing orders to drivers receiving orders, and then to the platform settling funds for drivers, there is no problem with this closed-loop transaction itself. But since leasing companies involve capital precipitation, it is likely to form a so-called "capital pool".

According to industry sources, the online car-hailing platform has touched the "second settlement" red line of supervision by transferring customer funds without obtaining the "Payment Business License" and then settling the settlement with the platform’s secondary merchants by the online platform. There are potential operational or financial risks.

According to relevant data, there are currently 330 online car-hailing platform companies across the country that have obtained business licenses, but September data shows that 59 platforms have not transmitted data for more than 180 days. Most small and medium-sized online car-hailing platforms do not have "payment business" licenses. Many are on the verge of elimination, and the safety of funds is even more difficult to avoid.

As insiders say, many small ride-hailing platforms use the "guise of the Internet" to lure drivers into joining, but in fact they are doing illegal fund-raising.

03

Platform versus driver

From a deeper perspective, the "twisting" relationship between online car-hailing platforms and drivers has become more and more intense. "No matter which platform, the draw is more than 30%. And there are a lot of tricks in the delivery of orders." A driver who went to Beijing’s online car-hailing revealed that now the commission of Didi, Baidu and Autonavi has been continuously increased, and there have been problems such as opaque delivery orders, long-distance delivery orders, mandatory delivery orders, and no delivery orders during peak periods.

"This year’s business is too difficult, the number of orders is reduced, the commission is too high, and there are all kinds of algorithmic traps." Mr. Liu, an online ride-hailing driver, said that many platforms will "kill the goose and get the egg", and continue to take up the ante when they know that the driver is not making money or losing money.

"The platform knows very well that many Xiaobai drivers have signed a one-year lease contract, and even if they can’t do it, they will insist on expiring for one year, so the company has no fear." Mr. Liu said that no matter which city in the country, the online ride-hailing algorithm is suppressing the enthusiasm of drivers, and drivers are more willing to choose to take orders.

Users are not immune to the platform’s confrontation with drivers. Many users find that the cost of hailing a taxi during peak periods is one to three times that of usual, and even if the fare continues to increase, few drivers take orders. "During peak periods, we only take large orders over 20 kilometers, and we do not take short-distance orders." Some drivers said that when the platform’s commission is too high, they will start to take selective orders, so as not to "run more, lose more."

From the point of view of Didi withdrawal, there are many thunder in the growth of the online car-hailing platform, which is "picking up wool" from each other. When it is a win-win situation, each company is happy, and when it is in trouble, they are rushing away. How to cultivate a well-regulated, honest and compliant online car-hailing market requires the patience and sincerity of the platform.

Didi said in its latest announcement that the relevant losses will be calculated normally, and the payment will be made up one after another, and the driver’s word-of-mouth value and travel points will also be calculated normally, and the display will be resumed one after another. To show its sincerity, Didi’s "10 yuan apology subsidy" has been distributed across the network, hoping to restore its word-of-mouth. This is also a reassurance for everyone.

We hope that the big factories will lower their stance. Because only in this way can they do a "big" business of "a few taels of silver" among all living beings.

Zong Qinghou’s legendary business life ended.

On February 25, Wahaha released an obituary saying that Zong Qinghou, founder and chairperson of Wahaha Group, died at 10:30 on February 25, 2024 at the age of 79 due to ineffective medical treatment.

After hearing the news, many Hangzhou citizens spontaneously came to No. 160 Qingtai Street, the former headquarters of Wahaha, to lay flowers for the legendary entrepreneur. Among the many bouquets, someone brought him his favorite Wahaha products.

"There will be 1,000 Hamlets in the eyes of 1,000 people, and there will be 1,000 Wahaha in the eyes of 1,000 people," Zong Qinghou described the importance of Wahaha to him. "But for me, there is only one Wahaha. It is all the dreams of my whole life, all the meanings, values, labels and symbols, and it is the proof that I have existed in this world."

This gray six-story building has almost carried Zong Qinghou’s life. Since the "School-run Enterprise Distribution Department of Shangcheng District, Hangzhou" sign was hung up in 1987, Zong Qinghou has come to work here almost every day for the rest of his life without business trips. It is also an important meeting place for him. Media visits often find that Zong Qinghou has worked for more than an hour and slept in the office the night before.

This is the starting point of everything in Zong Qinghou, and it is also the beginning of the story of Wahaha.

At the age of 42, he started a business and created a beverage empire

Zong Qinghou first entered this small building in 1987.

In April 1987, 42-year-old Zong Qinghou with a courage, with 140,000 cash, contracted the uptown school-run enterprise distribution department, by dropshipping soda, popsicles and stationery paper earned a penny.

Many years later, Zong Qinghou recalled the scene at that time, because he did not dare to spend the only 140,000 yuan, the distribution department simply painted the walls, bought a few office desks and chairs, and opened.

This year was a turning point in Zong Qinghou’s life. In July 1987, Zong Qinghou used the sales payment of "China Pollen Oral Liquid" and a bank loan of 50,000 yuan as the original funds to establish Hangzhou Baoling Children’s Nutrition Food Factory, which processed "China Pollen Oral Liquid" for Hangzhou Baoling Company, and started Wahaha’s entrepreneurial process. At the end of November of the same year, the filling workshop with a daily output of 10,000 boxes was completed at No. 160 Qingtai Street, Shangcheng District. That year, the total sales volume was 4.36 million yuan, and the profit was 222,000 yuan. In 1990, Wahaha’s sales revenue exceeded the billion yuan mark, and the profit exceeded 20 million yuan.

Mr. Zong always described his success as "catching up with a good era."

In 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee was held, which opened the curtain on China’s reform and opening up. The surging tide came, and in the agitation brought countless opportunities to the times. At that time, Zong Qinghou was 33 years old. After more than 10 years of "manual work", he succeeded his mother to get a job in a school-run factory in Hangzhou.

Soon, the surging tide brought a big wave, rushing Zong Qinghou to the forefront of the times. In 1986, the state issued relevant regulations, proposing to "implement a variety of forms of management contract responsibility system to give operators full operating autonomy." The wave of reform and opening up was booming, and Zong Qinghou became the first to eat crabs.

In 1991, the small building at No. 160 Qingtai Street in Shangcheng District had a new name – Hangzhou Wahaha group company. Under the matchmaking of the Hangzhou Municipal Government, Zong Qinghou paid more than 80 million yuan to merge the old state-run factory with a factory area of 60,000 square meters and more than 2,000 employees – Hangzhou Canned Food Factory, creating a miracle of "small fish eat big fish". Three months after the company was established, the original loss of more than 40 million yuan of Hangzhou can factory turned into a profit, sales revenue, profits and taxes more than doubled, the second year sales reached 400 million yuan, net profit of more than 70 million yuan.

In that exciting era, everything was new. In 1994, Zong Qinghou proposed the "joint sales system" at the dealer conference, requiring first-level dealers to pay a "security deposit" in advance. After the payment is settled every month, Wahaha will continue to ship. After the sale, Wahaha returns the "security deposit" and gives dealers rebates. He also formulated a strict price difference system. Each first-level dealer must strictly implement the corresponding sales price, so that "everyone makes money".

Wahaha’s development trajectory has also become a microcosm of the big era.

In 2003, Wahaha’s revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan, making it the fifth largest beverage producer in the world. In 2012, Wahaha entered the revenue 50 billion club and reached its peak in 2013. According to public data, in 2013, Wahaha’s revenue was 78.20 billion yuan. In 2014, Zong Qinghou set a goal of 100 billion yuan. With the rapid development of Wahaha, Zong Qinghou became the richest man in China three times during 2010-2013.

Over the past 30 years, Wahaha has grown into a huge beverage empire. According to Wahaha’s official website, the cumulative sales in 35 years are 860.10 billion yuan, profits and taxes are 174 billion yuan, and taxes are 74.20 billion yuan. Wahaha has 81 production bases and 187 subsidiaries in 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country.

The products cover more than 200 varieties of packaged drinking water, protein beverages, carbonated beverages, tea beverages, fruit and vegetable juice beverages, coffee beverages, plant beverages, special-purpose beverages, canned food, dairy products, medical and health foods, among which purified water, AD calcium milk, nutrition fast line, eight treasure porridge are well-known national products.

"I’m not a capitalist, I’m an entrepreneur."

There are many entrepreneurs who have risen to the forefront and become trendsetters of the times, and Zong Qinghou is particularly different.

The financial writer Wu ****** once described meeting Zong Qinghou in the 1990s in "The Shanjia Man of Hangzhou": He had the face of a typical Hangzhou man, square, gentle and lacking in features. He spoke a little shyly, and when he liked someone, his only expression was to keep passing you cigarettes.

As a representative of Zhejiang businesspeople, Zong Qinghou was low-key and gentle. Even Wahaha seems to have inherited this trait from him.

In an interview with The Paper, Yang Yiqing, director of the Zhejiang Merchants Museum, believes that Wahaha’s corporate management model is very unique and can be summarized as "four nos" – that is, no loans, no listing, no vice president, and no real estate.

"He didn’t touch all the popular industries in various periods, including real estate, financial investment, and the Internet. The valuable thing is that Zong Qinghou has always adhered to his main business, and he is very confident. There is no unified model for enterprise management, and there is no standard answer. Only those that suit him are the best," Yang Yiqing said in an interview with the media.

On CCTV Finance’s "Dialogue" program, when asked why he did not choose to sell expensive products, Zong Qinghou, who is already in his 70s, answered 11 words: "I am not a capitalist, I am an entrepreneur." Referring to the reason why he did not choose to go public for so many years, he said that Wahaha is not short of money at present, and if there are projects that require large capital investment in the future, he will also consider going public. But if it goes public, it is necessary to be responsible to shareholders. It is not good for shareholders to raise money without increasing the efficiency of the enterprise.

In Zong Qinghou’s view, the real economy is the foundation of a country’s economy and the lifeblood of our country’s economy. The virtual economy is produced in the real economy and should also serve the real economy. Entrepreneurs should sink their hearts into doing business and lead the transformation and upgrading of the real economy with innovation.

Therefore, Zong Qinghou also had a famous economic dispute with Ma Yun.

In 2016, when discussing "the deep reasons why China’s manufacturing industry is facing a cold winter in 2016" and "how to revive the real economy" on the "Dialogue" program, Zong Qinghou was asked what he thought of the five major changes proposed by Ma Yun: "new retail, new manufacturing, new finance, new technology and new resources".

At that time, Zong Qinghou’s answer was: "Except for new technology, everything else is nonsense. [Ma Yun] himself is not [engaged in] the real economy, [can] make something." New technology is what the real economy should pursue, and can help the manufacturing industry from the low end to the high end.

Afterwards, when Ma Yun attended a political and business event in Nanjing, he also talked about the debate between the real economy and the virtual economy. He believes that the real economy and the virtual economy are not antagonistic relationships. Entrepreneurs must not live in yesterday and complain about tomorrow. "It is not technology that makes you eliminated, it is backward thinking that makes you eliminated, it is unwillingness to learn and self-righteousness that makes you eliminated… It is not that China’s real economy is not working, but your real economy is not working." This is considered Ma Yun’s response to Zong Qinghou’s criticism.

A month later, Zong Qinghou and Ma Yun publicly shook hands for a group photo, thus ending the "virtual and real economic dispute".

Just as Zong Qinghou chose to do the real economy, Zong Qinghou always has a sense of "down-to-earth" constancy. Since starting his business in 1987, Zong Qinghou has maintained a consistently diligent schedule for more than 30 years: working nearly 16 hours a day, going to work at 7 am, and leaving work at 11 pm.

Zong Qinghou’s early experience of working hard from the bottom also made him very thrifty. He is known for his deeds: personal consumption of 50,000 yuan per year, choosing economy class by plane, choosing a second-class seat by high-speed rail, and often not bringing secretaries and assistants on domestic business trips. Because he wears cloth shoes all year round, Zong Qinghou is also known as "the richest man in cloth shoes".

"If my’destiny ‘is to smooth the cracks and scars between the poor and the rich, if it is to present a kind of values and possibilities that enable young entrepreneurs to find their way and see even a glimmer of light, I will definitely feel that this is valuable and worth paying for without hesitation," Zong Qinghou said.

Looking for a new direction

However, in recent years, people have noticed that Zong Qinghou has undergone some changes.

Zong Qinghou, who had always claimed that he would not retire, began to take a back seat. Zong Qinghou, who had always said that he would "never go public", relented. Zong Qinghou, who had always refused E-commerce LIVE, not only started Douyin live broadcast, but also opened several e-commerce platforms at once.

At the same time as these changes, Wahaha "stagnated". In 2013, Wahaha’s revenue peaked at 78.30 billion yuan. However, just as Zong Qinghou announced in 2014 that he would hit the 100 billion target, Wahaha’s revenue plummeted to 49.40 billion yuan in 2015. Since then, Wahaha’s revenue has been hovering below 50 billion yuan, and it will not be until 2021 that Wahaha returns to the 50 billion yuan club.

In the process, Wahaha, a leader in the industry, gradually lost its advantage. In 2001, Nongfu Spring surpassed Wahaha in the market share of bottled water, and has been in the industry for many years since then. At other tracks, brands such as Wanglaoji, Jiaduobao, Master Kong, and Yili are eyeing each other, while new brands such as Yuan Qi Sen Lin have emerged with concepts such as "0 calories" and "0 sugar". Wahaha’s voice was drowned out.

Today, when it comes to Wahaha, the public’s impression is still mostly in Nutrition Express and AD calcium milk. Many people think that its products lack innovation and are not young enough. At the same time, Nongfu Spring has broken through the beverage circle with the Oriental Leaf series of tea drinks, gradually gaining the upper hand in the competition with Wahaha.

In the age of the internet economy, Zong Qinghou, who is in his infancy, seems to be getting farther and farther away from his consumers. Wahaha needs to change, and Zong Qinghou has to seek change and find a new way out.

For Wahaha, the addition of Zong Fuli is a kind of thing, and the establishment of an e-commerce platform is naturally the same.

In 2018, Zong Fuli took the initiative to join Wahaha Group as the head of the brand public relations department, in order to make Wahaha younger. Under Zong Fuli’s younger strategy, Wahaha replaced Wang Leehom, the spokesperson for more than 20 years, with a younger Xu Guanghan; Nutrition Express launched a limited colorful version and launched a limited makeup. Under Zong Fuli’s leadership, Wahaha began to cross the border and appear in more young people’s favorite circles. In recent years, Wahaha has launched AD calcium milk-flavored milk heart moon cakes, launched a joint juvenile ice cream with Zhong Xuegao, and launched a joint pH 9.0 soda with POP MART. It has also entered the e-sports circle and cooperated with League of Legends Professional League (LPL) officials and teams.

In order to keep up with the pace of the times, both Zong Qinghou and Zong Fuli have made many attempts, but the effect is not obvious. According to media statistics, in the past two or three years, Wahaha has launched more than 300 new products, but basically they cannot escape the fate of going offline at the speed of light. In recent years, Wahaha has been jokingly called the fastest company in the industry for "making babies" because of the fast speed of introducing new products. But the new big single product has not yet appeared.

Who will take over? Hangzhou state-owned assets once sought to withdraw

Zong Qinghou always had one wish – to turn Wahaha into a century-old store.

However, seeing his age getting older, Zong Qinghou began to think about the issue of succession. In 2023, on the CCTV financial "Dialogue" program, Zong Qinghou once again talked about the issue of succession: "You always have to train young people and successors. After I leave, he can continue to let Wahaha develop healthily and become a century-old store." Because it is impossible for me to keep it a century-old store. "

At the end of 2021, Zong Fuli became the vice chairperson and general manager of Wahaha Group, responsible for daily work, and Zong Qinghou remains the chairperson of the group. For Zong Qinghou, he is still waiting for a more mature opportunity.

On the show, Mr. Zong revealed that he was already gradually preparing for the shift. "Why do I have to revamp the process, the post responsibility system, and modify and improve the rules and regulations?" he said. "It is to let every employee know what he should do, to what extent, what he cannot do, what responsibilities he should take, and what compensation he can get."

In the eyes of the outside world, it is a foregone conclusion that Zong Fuli will inherit the Wahaha business empire left by Zong Qing.

On February 23, Hangzhou Wahaha E-commerce Co., Ltd. underwent an industrial and commercial change, and Zong Fuli succeeded Zong Qinghou as the company’s legal representative, executive director, and manager. Earlier, in 2021 and 2022, Zong Fuli began to serve as directors of related companies in succession. After entering 2023, Zong Fuli served as directors of related companies under 14 Wahaha Group.

From the perspective of shareholding structure, Zong Qinghou is the founder and chairperson of Wahaha Group, but he is not the largest shareholder of Wahaha.

According to Tianyancha, Hangzhou Shangcheng District Wenshang Travel Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. holds 46% of Wahaha Group’s shares, making it the largest shareholder of Wahaha Group. Behind it is the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hangzhou Shangcheng District. Zong Qinghou himself holds 29.4% of the shares, and the remaining 24.6% of the shares are held by the Wahaha employee shareholding platform. As Zong Qinghou’s only daughter, Zong Fuli has the opportunity to inherit the 29.4% stake held by her father. But she is still not the largest shareholder of Wahaha, and the matter of taking power requires the cooperation of the Wahaha employee shareholding platform.

In fact, as early as May 2006, Zong Qinghou said that it was not difficult to negotiate with the Hangzhou State-owned Assets Administration about the exit of his 46% stake in Wahaha Group. However, due to the "Dawa dispute", the talks between the two sides were forced to be suspended.

In 2023, there is a signal that Hangzhou state-owned assets intend to withdraw again. According to the bidding information inquiry platform Xunbiaobao information, in July 2023, Hangzhou Shangcheng State-owned Investment Holding Group invited tenders for the equity value evaluation and legal services of the 46% equity held by Hangzhou Wahaha Group. Among them, Wanbang Asset Appraisal won the bidding for the equity value evaluation service, while Guohao Law Firm won the bidding for the legal services of equity disposal. It is not yet known whether Wahaha Group is still negotiating this part of the equity. If this part of the equity is taken over by an external institution, Zong Fuli will take over, or it will face greater challenges.

Will Wahaha, which is "not short of money", go public?

When the owner of Wahaha Group changed from Zong Qinghou to Zong Fuli, whether Wahaha would go public became another outstanding issue.

Compared to her father, who went to the United States to study in junior high school until she graduated from college, Zong Fuli has her own way of dealing with the world – directly and insisting on herself. In company management, she attaches more importance to systems and rules and does not exclude listing.

In May 2017, China Candy, a former Hong Kong-listed company, announced that New Baili Financing would make a voluntary conditional cash offer for and on behalf of the offeror Ever Maple Flavors and Fragrances Holdings Limited (Hengfeng Holdings) to acquire all the shares in the entire issued share capital of China Candy. The only ultimate beneficial owner of the offeror, Hengfeng Holdings, is Zong Fuli. This move was also interpreted by the outside world as Zong Fuli’s attempt to go public. This also triggered speculation about the listing of Wahaha Group. Wahaha Group denied this and said that the acquisition was Zong Fuli’s personal behavior and had nothing to do with the company.

However, the offer ultimately lapsed. On July 14, 2017, Zong Fuli posted a statement on her Weibo about the "lapse of the cash offer with China Confectionery Holdings Co., Ltd." The statement said that for the company, this was a positive and constructive exploration, which provided valuable experience for the company’s future layout in related fields.

On different occasions, Zong Fuli talked about the issue of listing with an open attitude. In 2019, Zong Fuli, who is the chairperson of Hongsheng Beverage Group and the head of Wahaha Group’s brand public relations department, once again responded to her views on listing when participating in the People’s Daily Online "Ask" program. "If you are not a listed company, people will have doubts about your investment. Although we are also a big brand company, others will think that a listed company is a company with a clear and standardized process, and will be more at ease to negotiate with you. Because we have never encountered a process of capital integration. In the current market and industry environment, any large-scale development of an enterprise is operated through capital means."

Zong Fuli believes that in the future, only by combining with capital markets will it go further, which is what every company has to do. "I also want to see what capital means can bring us."

In recent years, with Zong Qinghou’s relaxation, Wahaha Group’s listing has attracted more attention, but each time Wahaha Group has denied the listing rumors.

In fact, in the current shareholding structure, it is difficult for Wahaha Group to go public. According to public information, since Wahaha implemented the employee shareholding plan in 1999, the number of shareholding shareholders has exceeded 15,000. According to the relevant regulations of IPO, when the company to be listed applies for listing, the employee shareholding plan needs to be penetrated by shareholders, and the final number of shareholders after penetration shall not exceed 200. Under the background of Wahaha Group’s "family culture", it is conceivable that it is difficult to optimize the number of shareholding of 15,000 people to less than 200 people.

Wahaha is still 63 years away from becoming a century-old store, and its road is still long.

With the official launch of Geely Galaxy L7, Geely Galaxy’s exclusive retail system has also been updated.

On June 5, the "Opening Ceremony of Geely Galaxy 100 Stores" was held in Xi’an. On this day, 225 exclusive Geely Galaxy stores opened simultaneously in multiple cities, reaching users across the country at "Galaxy Speed".

It is expected that within this year, Geely Galaxy will achieve a channel scale of 650-700 exclusive stores.

According to reports, Geely Galaxy has adopted a new channel ecosystem of compound franchise authorization for its new retail system.

In terms of agency distribution system, Geely Galaxy fully empowers dealers in talent management, service standards, and digital operations, and jointly builds user centers (4S stores), experience centers (city exhibition halls), and display spaces (supermarket stores) with partners to create a more transparent car purchase environment and a more efficient and convenient car purchase experience for users. At the same time, Geely Galaxy will set up a number of brand centers (4S stores) in the CBD areas of first- and second-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou.

At the same time as channel innovation, Geely Galaxy has created new service standards around users.

In terms of store management, Geely Galaxy has developed a unified and rigorous service management system, and has comprehensively improved service standards through regular training and assessment, service quality evaluation, and in-store counseling.

At the talent level, Geely Galaxy formulates expert development plans such as test drive experts, experience experts, and delivery experts, and provides corresponding professional services for users at different stages of car purchase in the store. At the same time, 100% full-staff advanced training is used in store talent training to form high-standard service quality from the source of talents, and eliminate the chaos of "unprofessional and poor attitude".

At the daily operation level, considering the pain points of high communication cost and asymmetric information in the traditional 4S model, Geely Galaxy specially created a "digital exhibition hall" to connect the full link of user car purchase by digital means, and realize the double improvement of service efficiency and user experience. Users can skip the annoying bargaining process and place orders directly through the online payment platform to visually track the status of the vehicle anytime, anywhere.

At present, the first model of Geely Galaxy series, Geely Galaxy L7, has been fully launched in major exclusive stores, achieving "delivery on the market".

In addition to the Geely Galaxy L7, this year’s Geely Galaxy series will also launch new models including the intelligent electric hybrid car L6 and the pure electric model E8, which will continue to bring high-value travel experiences to users.