Only After I Was Reborn Did I Realize That I Had Childhood Sweethearts
Chapter 256: Mei Fang’s Three CardsMei Fang didn’t actually have any particularly outstanding business talent. He simply had a general understanding of the fundamental development trends in the gaming industry, gained from his previous life. That’s why he invested so much money into maintaining C Site after discovering that B Site (Bilibili) didn’t exist in this world.
Many people might think that if Mei Fang merely wanted to establish himself in the gaming industry, he could have directly created a gaming-related platform, like emulating TapTap or Steam to make a name for himself. Why bother with the cumbersome task of creating C Site?
The reality is that such an approach would be almost pointless.
Creating a gaming platform wasn’t a new idea that only became apparent to capitalists ten years later. By then, the market for platforms had already been monopolized by major players.
As is widely known, the reason Tencent ultimately defeated Shengqu Games[1], once a dominant domestic giant, was not only due to strategic missteps by Shengda’s founder Chen Tianqiao. Even though Shengqu introduced many outstanding games from overseas, its user acquisition costs were extremely high, and it simply couldn’t compete with Tencent’s QQ, which was an enormous traffic platform.
Relying on the QQ platform, whether it was developing games or publishing them, Tencent could easily capture a large wave of potential users. The advantage this brought was almost immeasurable.
In the early 2000s, the gaming industry was in a phase of wild growth. Each company had its flagship game, and gaming platforms were mostly limited to card game halls and various pirated game websites. Later, with the popularization of smartphones, different phone brands became new platform channels, offering their own app stores for installing games.
Only during this period did some truly original gaming platforms emerge, often relying on mobile emulators, but most of these platforms didn’t last long. They were either absorbed by channel providers or became niche spaces, havens for nostalgic or cracked games. The ones that succeeded, like TapTap, didn’t do so on their own but were supported by their parent companies, such as XD Network and Valve. XD Network profited handsomely during the era of web and online games thanks to the foresight of its founder, Huang Yimeng. Valve, on the other hand, owns many world-renowned games. These two companies are prime examples.
Just as Steam was vital to Valve and TapTap was to XD Network, trying to build a successful platform without a highly acclaimed first-party game is not very ideal.
Mei Fang was still too young and didn’t have the resources to achieve this, so he chose a different path, using C Site’s massive traffic as his starting point.In fact, C Site was still relying on the income from Mei Fang’s games to sustain itself. However, due to another bandwidth upgrade and the official establishment of the company, which had increased various investments, the company was now starting to show signs of monthly losses.
Although Mei Fang still had a substantial net worth of tens of millions and the unbeatable trump card of Bitcoin as a reborn person, as he has emphasized before, there’s no need to reveal these trump cards prematurely.
For now, he would play the cards he was holding, especially since the cards in his hand were already incredibly powerful.
These three cards, coded as Xi, Yuan, and Fang, represent the three primary business lines in Mei Fang’s layout.
First was the Xi card, representing C Site under the banner of Lin Xi Technology.
The Xi card was the foundation of everything, regardless of whether Lin Youxi revealed their identities or not.
C Site, as a platform, was the incubator for all intellectual properties and cultural trends. No matter how much money it burned, Mei Fang was determined to keep it firmly under his control.
The second card was the Yuan card, also known as the music card.
Xia Yuan’s music career had the support of Mei Fang’s copied works, and could quickly go viral through C Site’s traffic.
Moreover, Xia Yuan’s songs weren’t purely in the ACGN style, so they could also attract traffic to C Site in reverse, bringing in a new group of users.
However, Mei Fang didn’t lower the difficulty of becoming an official member despite the surge in user visits. In fact, he even updated and optimized the membership criteria several times.
Back then, B Site’s biggest mistake was that after rising to prominence through ACGN content, the management team tried hard to promote de-anime-ization to make B Site appeal to a wider audience.
While this was indeed the trend for making more money, it also left a batch of true ACGN fans homeless like mice.
Mei Fang didn’t need his C Site to become as mainstream as B Site in his previous life; he only needed it to be large enough to encompass his gaming audience.
As for promoting cultural trends or whatever, let this life’s A Site bear that responsibility to their heart’s content. His ambition wasn’t grand; he simply wanted to leave a pure haven for the ACGN fans.
The Yuan card wasn’t just a music card for Mei Fang; it’s also about having a mascot.
C Site would never degrade, and Xia Yuan would never enter the entertainment industry. This meant she would be free from the pressures of endorsements, maintaining public image, and dealing with talent agencies. Mei Fang didn’t need her to be involved in any of that.
Under these premises, monetizing this Yuan card wasn’t an easy task. They could only rely on concerts and albums to slightly replenish funds. Xia Yuan’s popularity would move forward along with C Site.
The third card was the Fang card, which was the game card of Ximilu Games.
Currently, Mei Fang’s financial resources were completely dependent on the support from Fang card. C Site’s powerful user base was also indirectly nurturing Mei Fang’s games, bringing in more potential users. Yuan card was also currently serving a similar function.
The effect even far exceeded expectations.
Currently, Cloud Journey had only been developed for PC, released on both C Site and Steam. Mei Fang’s promotional video had drawn a wave of Steam players, but sales were low. The game, priced at 36 yuan (around $5), had only sold less than 1,000 copies in total after a week of release. Given that mobile payment platforms like Alipay were still in the early stages of adoption, this was understandable.
C Site and Ximilu Games had limited influence overseas, so in order for Mei Fang to make big money on Steam, he would have to wait.
However, the first-week sales on C Site were far more impressive than on Steam, thanks to the convenience of being able to use C Coins for payment. In just one week, 20,000 copies were sold.
It’s worth noting that this was China in 2012, and the true golden age of Chinese indie games wouldn’t arrive until the “Indie Light”, the release of indie hits like ICEY[2] and Lost Castle[3]. Mei Fang had already become a pioneer and a trailblazer in this era, becoming a pioneering figure in the Chinese indie game industry.
The gaming community is generally very forgiving of games made by high school students. Initially, it was expected that Mei Fang’s latest game would be just another casual, fun little game. However, players were pleasantly surprised to find a game that excelled in music, storytelling, and art. How could the gaming community not be excited?
Beyond hailing Cloud Journey as a beacon for domestic indie games, they even dubbed Mei Fang as the “Child of Light,” eagerly anticipating his future creations.
Those who had been fiercely debating whether Fangbao was worthy of Yuanbao, especially among the male demographic, quickly became Mei Fang’s supporters after playing his game. Suddenly, no matter how cute the girl was, Fangbao seemed more appealing, and many began following Mei Fang’s account.
Currently, Mei Fang’s own account, 【Defiant Little Fang Fang】, had 30,000 followers on C Site. While this was still far from Xia Yuan’s 300,000 followers, it was enough to consider him a rising online star in 2012
In conclusion, Mei Fang’s decision to play all three of these cards at this point wasn’t just a random strategy but a calculated move for the future of the Xi card, the foundation of his plans.
And this weekend, he’ll be representing Lin Xi Technology to formally discuss the Series A[4] funding for C Site with Tencent’s highly secretive strategic investment department—CVC (Tencent Industry Co-prosperity Fund).
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