bioinnovel Chapter 503 Japan also wants to act as an agent?
Chapter 503 Japan also wants to act as an agent?
Zhou Mingzhe and Chen Mo returned from North America two days later than originally planned.
It wasn't that they encountered any trouble; after visiting three cities, they stayed an extra day in Los Angeles to meet with a local company that operates esports venues. After the meeting, they felt they had gained a lot, so they arranged to meet with the company's business team again the next day.
When Lu Ran received the news of their rebooked tickets at headquarters, he didn't say anything, only reminding them to take a break and not work non-stop.
Chen Mo came to the office that afternoon after returning.
He was wearing a light gray short-sleeved shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, and carrying a bulging manila document bag. After sitting down, he patted the bag and said, "This trip to North America has been more fruitful than expected. We've covered the network infrastructure and user payment habits in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. The tech team tested the latency of more than a dozen nodes, and the data is quite good. The main thing is that the West Coast is more suitable for main server nodes, while the East Coast can be covered and distributed through CDN."
Lu Ran poured him a glass of water and pushed it towards him: "Have you seen them at EA?"
"Yes, we met. Morrison met with us in Los Angeles; he was also there on a business trip, so we chatted for over an hour." Chen Mo took a big gulp of water and continued, "EA's operational capabilities in North America are indeed solid, with a distribution network covering almost all mainstream online gaming platforms and offline retail outlets. However, their operating costs are significantly higher than those of the European companies. Their marketing expenses and customer service team operating costs in North America are noticeably higher than in Europe. If we calculate based on their revenue sharing ratio, our actual net profit might be lower than in Europe."
After listening, Lu Ran seemed thoughtful: "Then how much room for negotiation do they have?"
"I asked Matthew. He said Morrison mentioned at dinner that exclusive agency rights are their internal bottom line and they won't budge on that in the short term. But the specific revenue sharing and agency terms of more than three years are negotiable, it just takes time for them to go back and reassess."
Lu Ran thought for a moment, then tapped his fingers lightly on the edge of the table twice: "Then let's wait. They'll contact us again when they've figured things out. We can't rush things in the North American market, but we must maintain the initiative. We absolutely cannot let them get away with the exclusive agency deal; once they give in, it'll be much harder to negotiate later."
Zhou Mingzhe also came in the afternoon.
His luggage was still in the car, but he carried a backpack into the office. His black sneakers were covered in a layer of West Coast dust, and he looked a shade darker than before he left.
After sitting down, he began by saying, "We've already selected the server nodes in North America. San Francisco has the lowest network latency, and the bandwidth between it and the links to China and Frankfurt is sufficient. If we decide to deploy, with hardware procurement and environment debugging, it should be up and running in three to four weeks at most."
Lu Ran nodded: "Then let's proceed directly once the technical solution is finalized. Don't skimp on necessary expenses; if the initial infrastructure investment is in place, we'll avoid a lot of trouble later."
The two chatted in the office for about half an hour.
Zhou Mingzhe recounted several amusing anecdotes from his time running around to various channels in San Francisco and New York, with Chen Mo occasionally chiming in to add to the story. The atmosphere was much more relaxed than during the formal report.
After the two people left, Lu Ran leaned back in his chair, about to go over the day's events, when his phone lit up with a message from Chen Mo.
"Oh, right, Mr. Lu, there's one more thing I forgot to mention. On my way back from North America, I received a call from Yamamoto at the airport."
Lu Ran paused for a moment, his thumb holding the phone.
Yamamoto, the head of Sakura Games' China branch, is the Japanese guy who got thrashed by TUTU in their last head-on fight.
Lu Ran asked, "What did he say?"
"He said he wanted to schedule a time to talk about a collaboration. He didn't go into too much detail about what kind of collaboration it was, but what he implied was that he wanted to distribute TUTU's games in the Japanese market. His tone was quite polite, quite different from the last time we met. He was clearly more approachable. I told him I was on a business trip and would contact him again when I got back, and then I hung up."
"So what do you think?"
"The fact that he proactively called me, someone who left Tencent, indicates that he no longer has enough resources. Sakura Games suffered a major setback in the Chinese market, and its domestic market in Japan is shrinking. They urgently need to find a new growth point. They have seen the success of TUTU's games in China and Europe. If they can obtain the agency rights in Japan, it will be a sure-fire way to make money for them."
Lu Ran sat up straighter, holding his phone.
He thought for a moment, then held the phone back to his ear and sent a voice message: "You help me make an appointment with him, but this time it's my turn to ignore him for two days. The fact that he called you means he's already in a hurry. People in a hurry can't negotiate good terms, so let him be in a hurry a little longer."
The next morning, Chen Mo gave Lu Ran a brief report on the situation he had investigated with Yamamoto.
The two sat in the office and talked for more than ten minutes. Chen Mo said that Yamamoto's side was very sincere on the phone, saying that Sakura Games was willing to make a more favorable arrangement on the revenue sharing ratio than the European agent.
Chen Mo did not give a direct response at the time, only saying that he would talk about it after he returned and reported back.
"I don't plan to let them handle the Japanese market." Lu Ran put the cup back on the table. "It's not because their conditions are bad, it's because I don't want to cooperate with Japanese companies. What was Sakura Games' attitude when they entered the Chinese market? They thought Chinese players were easy to fool, so they used leftovers from the Japanese market to fob them off. Now they can't hold on anymore, and they're trying to hitch a ride on a tuk-tuk? There's no such thing as a free lunch."
Chen Mo nodded and said, "I understand. So, I'll just reject Yamamoto's offer directly?"
"Refuse. But don't be too polite, but don't be too rude either. Just say that TUTU's current overseas strategic focus is not on the Japanese market, and we are not considering licensing or distributing to them for the time being."
Chen Mo nodded and noted it down: "Okay, I'll get back to him this afternoon."
Yamamoto's reply came faster and more urgently than expected. That evening, Lu Ran received a message forwarded by Chen Mo, saying that Yamamoto had asked again on the phone, his attitude was more urgent than during the day, and he even offered to accept a lower profit share.
After reading the message, Lu Ran let out a cold laugh.
He rummaged through the fragmented information in his mind that intersected with his past life and this world.
Sakura Games is a company with deep roots in Japan, and its founders' family has extensive connections in the Japanese business and political circles.
He recalled seeing a brief piece of information in an industry report that said the founder of Sakura Games shared the same surname as the family of a major war criminal who invaded China during World War II.
He opened his computer browser and searched for that surname. After searching for about ten minutes, the results were clearer than expected.
That family did indeed have a marriage alliance with the founding family of Sakura Games after the war. Although they were not direct blood relatives, that surname itself was a symbol of prominence in Japan.
This single connection is enough to stir up quite a storm in the domestic public opinion arena, especially when combined with the background of Sakura Games' previous attempts to enter the Chinese market, the impact on public opinion is considerable.
He picked up his phone and created a group chat for Chen Mo and Zhou Mingzhe, sending a message: "Don't just give Sakura Games a simple rejection. Don't they want the Japanese distribution rights? Let them taste the bitterness of public opinion first. Do you still have the screenshots of the internal emails Yamamoto sent before? And the scanned copy of that memo?"
Chen Mo replied quickly in the group chat: "I have backups of both the emails and memos; I've kept them and haven't deleted them. Are you planning to release both of these together?"
"Release it in batches. First, anonymously send the contents of the memo to a few gaming media outlets and let them generate buzz on their own. Once the topic is being discussed on the TUTU community, then release the screenshot of Yamamoto's internal email to create a contrasting effect. Don't mention the marriage between Sakura Games' founding family and a war criminal's family; that's too sensitive. It's more damaging for the media to dig it up themselves than for us to say it. Once the media digs it up, the topic will be firmly established. At that point, Sakura Games will face enormous public opinion resistance if they want to cooperate with any game company in China."
Zhou Mingzhe replied in the group chat: "With your actions, you're leaving them no way out."
"I don't intend to let them die completely. The Japanese market is their own territory, and TUTU can't enter it in the short term. But I want to keep the Chinese market closed to them forever, so that whenever they hear the word 'Chinese,' the name 'TUTU' will automatically pop into their minds, and let them know that the Chinese game market is not their backyard that they can come and go as they please."
After the message was sent, the group was quiet for about half a minute, then Chen Mo replied with "Okay", and Zhou Mingzhe replied with a thumbs-up emoji.
Lu Ran put her phone on the table, stood up, walked to the window and looked at the strings of streetlights that lit up the street below. Her lips twitched, but she suppressed them.
Sakura Games brought shame upon itself; one can't blame him for being ruthless.
He was originally just a game developer.
But if someone insists on taking advantage of him, then he can only make those people remember that jumping around on his territory will come at a price.
In the future, the name "Japan" will no longer be allowed in the world of 🎮 (potentially Japanese).
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