Shengda is living a good life.
"Dan Nian, the penguin has actually gotten this far. This CEO Shen is really something else."
Chen Danian looked at Chen Tianqiao and said, "Brother, we should speed up our IPO process."
Chen Tianqiao nodded: "The cold wave is over, spring is coming. Let's call a meeting with management before the Lunar New Year. After the IPO, I'm planning to abandon Legend. Those Koreans actually want to raise the price, damn it!!! Anyway, I don't want to make games. Once I've got the money, my online Disney plan will begin!!!"
That's right, for Chen Tianqiao, the legendary cash cow was nothing more than a money-making tool, and the kind of tool that looks particularly disgusting. He absolutely believes that games are a cancer, harming teenagers.
In 1999, Chen Tianqiao and his brother Chen Danian founded Shanda. Their goal was clear from the beginning: to create an online comics community. In the years that followed, Chen Tianqiao would often mention the goal of creating an "online Disney." Unfortunately, this goal remained elusive until he left Shanda.
His dream was to combine online literature, animation, and film to create an online paradise—that is, Bilibili (B站). However, Shanda needed money to support it, so it ventured into gaming and became the distributor of the Korean game "Legend."
The year after founding Shanda, Chen Tianqiao received a $3 million investment from China.com, a relatively smooth start. However, in 2001, Chen Tianqiao took a liking to the game "Legend of Mir," but China.com did not have a positive outlook on it, leading to their departure and parting ways.
At that time, Chen Tianqiao only had $300,000 in hand, which he used to acquire the exclusive agency rights for "Legend 2" and then he had no money left.
Fortunately, Chen Tianqiao eventually promoted "Legend 2" through cooperation with internet cafes, which led to the arrival of the "Legend" era, making Chen Tianqiao and Shanda famous overnight.
It is said that Chen Tianqiao earned several hundred million yuan in net profit in a year. The Shanxi coal boss got addicted to it and directly deposited 100 million yuan, and there was a dedicated customer service to support him.
The legendary game "Crazy Chaoyang" was wildly popular from 2000 to 2004; 98% of men who went online played it. Now, most people who play this game are at least 40 years old.
After that, Shanda entered a period of rapid development. It took only two years to get out of the predicament in 2002 and successfully list in the United States, with a market value of 6.5 billion RMB. Chen Tianqiao was named the richest man in China because of his Shanda shares. This marked the beginning of Shanda's expansion era.
After Shanda's IPO, Chen Tianqiao remembered his dream: an online Disney. Driven by this goal, Chen Tianqiao used the money earned from Shanda to launch a large-scale acquisition spree, acquiring many now-famous companies, including: Qidian.com, Hongxiu.com, Yanqingxiaoshuo.com, Jinjiang Literature City, Rongshuxia.com, Xiaoshuo.com, Xiaoxiang Academy (seven major original literature websites), as well as Tianfang Tingshu.com and Yuedu.com.
In addition, it also owns three book planning and publishing companies. After its frenzied acquisitions, Shanda Literature quickly became an unparalleled oligopoly.
Unfortunately, Chen Tianqiao's ambitious online Disney ultimately benefited others. After burning through countless sums of money, the nascent online Disney became a mere illusion. The entertainment system he painstakingly built yielded disappointing returns, and later, Qidian.com, along with Shanda Literature, was acquired by Tencent, becoming someone else's cash cow!
Chen Tianqiao later responded in this way: "As for the dream of a digital Disney, I want to ask everyone, does a digital Disney just represent animation and comics? I believe that a digital Disney should represent creating happiness, enjoying happiness, and making happiness sustainable in the ultimate sense. I believe that only the brain can answer this question. At that time, we will create a world where there is no distinction between virtual and reality."
After that, returning to the gaming industry where Shanda originated, they discovered that the core business of gaming was gradually declining, while competitors like NetEase and Tencent were growing stronger. At this point, Shanda's decline seemed inevitable, and Chen Tianqiao, the founder of Shanda, foresaw the company's future, so he chose to leave.
Shanda went public in the US in 2004, but was privatized and delisted in 2014. In just ten years, Shanda went from its peak to its decline. Its founder, Chen Tianqiao, resigned from all positions at Shanda, becoming an investor and no longer running the company. After Chen Tianqiao's departure, the original Shanda executives also left one after another, and Shanda's decline from that point onward was irreversible.
From its glory days to its decline, Shanda's lifespan as a company wasn't long, but as an internet company, it was remarkably long. And perhaps it shouldn't be called a decline now, but rather a mediocre one. The once-glorious Shanda still exists, just without its former status.
If we delve deeper into the reasons for Shanda's decline, then the problems should primarily be sought internally, rather than due to external factors. One could even trace the decline back to its founder, Chen Tianqiao. As the founder who single-handedly brought Shanda to its peak, Chen Tianqiao's contributions to the company are undeniable. However, his dream of creating an online Disney ultimately led Shanda down the path of decline.
As a company that started with games, Shanda's founder Chen Tianqiao did not further develop Shanda's games after the company's successful IPO. Instead, he focused his energy on his dream, constantly acquiring companies, hoping to build an online Disney.
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