“Here we go! Cheers!”
Jasper and Hudson clinked their wine glasses in midair.
On the morning of the second day after receiving the good news, Hudson— representing Terizone Inc.—officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Waterhoof City branch of ICBC.
Hudson leaned toward Jasper and said with great enthusiasm, “Are online games really so lucrative? We’ve done so many promotions during this period—if things don’t work out, we’ll be a laughing stock in everyone’s eyes.”
Jasper responded, grinning, “This is an absolute 100 billion-grade blue ocean market; its potential just hasn’t been fully realized yet.
“United Legends will be our stepping stone to success!”
Hudson had complete confidence in Jasper’s discerning eye. When he heard Jasper’s comment, he immediately inquired eagerly, “Do you think Terizone could do it?”
Hearing this, Jasper immediately recalled his past life. Domestic gamers had described Terizone games through an ad slogan, “No cash, no chance.”
With a light laugh, Jasper answered, “It’s doable. Once United Legends becomes a hit, we’ll talk.”
The domestic online gaming market was undoubtedly a large one, with a market value of over 100 billion dollars. It was absolutely impossible for a single company to monopolize it.
This was the consensus Jasper and Malcolm Malibu had reached after communicating with each other.
They decided to follow Procter & Gamble’s example by establishing more sub-brands.
Most people were not aware that Rejoice and Head & Shoulders—competing rivals in the shampoo market—were actually both Procter & Gamble products!
Their objective was to generate confusion among consumers.
When buying, consumers would frequently choose between these two brands; it was rare for them to consider a third choice.
Similar methods were practiced by Pepsi and Coca-Cola, both of which were brands under the Coca-Cola Group.
The same principle could be applied to the domestic online gaming market. If Jasper could use Sena to acquire 30% of the market, the addition of Terizone Inc. and its vast number of subscribers meant that he could garner at least 70% and above of the entire market!
…
On the second day after the signing of the agreement, Terizone Inc. obtained the interface provided by ICBC with no trouble at all.
Truth to tell, it was rather incredible—the interface was only a string of key codes and an IP address.
Terizone had rushed to set up the completed platform and then had begun intensive testing.
Of course, a few issues had still emerged during the process. After all, this was unprecedented—it was the first time in the country that a bank had provided a private enterprise with access to its internal interface, so there were bound to be some hiccups.
However, these issues were resolved smoothly by technicians from both ICBC and Terizone who worked frantically overtime to deliver the necessary solutions.
Good news had also arrived from Sena. A version of the completed game had been finalized; once it had gone through internal testing, it would be ready for open beta testing at any time.
Jasper, who was in Waterhoof City, had personally gone to try it out, thereby satisfying his obsessive interest in internal testing. After ensuring that the game had been written according to his specifications, Jasper knew it was ready for testing.
“Tonight at 7 pm, we will officially launch the first nationwide free open beta test!”
Standing in Sena’s Waterhoof City office, Jasper looked at Mr. Adams, Jack Tanner, and the others present, before giving his order.
There was nothing unusual about his statement. Everyone nodded and made note of it.
His next words, however, threw everyone into confusion as if they had been struck by lightning.
“Have 50 extra server groups on standby. Once the main servers are full, add those extra servers.”
Mr. Adams was standing to one side; when he heard this, he was instantly bewildered.
“50 server groups? Are they only for backup?”
To them, what Jasper had requested was overkill. It felt as if they were going fishing by a lake; a packet of bait was obviously enough but Jasper insisted on bringing along 10 elephants.
What were they fishing for—fish or dinosaurs?
“Mr… Mr. Laine, that’s very wasteful, ” Mr. Adams said, furrowing his brow and glancing at Jasper. His manner indicated that he thought this was not worth doing.
“Although I understand Mr. Laine is expecting great things from United Legends, what’s the rationale behind 50 backup server groups?
“We can set up a gaming region with just one server group, and each region will be able to accommodate at least 25,000 players online simultaneously!
“50 server groups would mean 1.25 million people. To even think of getting 1.25 million people online on the first day of open beta testing? That’s absolutely impossible.”
The entire meeting room went so quiet one could hear a pin drop. Apart from Mr. Adams, no one dared to question Jasper’s decision upfront, no matter how ridiculous it seemed.
Sure enough, Jasper furrowed his brows.
Seeing this, Mr. Adams sneered. Shaking his head, he said to the people next to him in Corean, “Just look—a layman is a layman. He doesn’t even understand the basic concept of numbers, and already he wants to have 50 extra servers. If this were Coreana, we would have been the laughing stock of the country.
“This would only happen with a Mainlander who has never experienced the world beyond his own oyster,” someone next to Mr. Adams commented with a snicker.
“A server group can only host 25000 players?” Jasper found this rather inconceivable.
However, he immediately responded.
It was 2001, and technology was still far less advanced than that of later generations. Naturally, server performances were also very weak.
“If that’s the case, please prepare 70 server groups then,” Jasper instructed.
