Chapter 183 Digital Entertainment Industry
Hao Heshan was astonished: "March overseas?"
"Yes, my country's culture is broad and profound, and many IPs, both modern and ancient, are worthy of being developed into excellent online games. Let's not talk about online games, just the chess and card games you're developing now—do you think foreigners don't play them? Mahjong is already popular in Africa. Go also has a strong foundation in Southeast Asia, and poker is even more popular worldwide. As long as you load the language module and find local channels for promotion and distribution, there will still be a large audience for these games."
Hao Heshan asked doubtfully, "But the Internet conditions in China are far worse than those in Europe and the United States. Southeast Asia and Africa really don't have any Internet infrastructure."
"Then we'll start developing Northeast Asia and single-player games." Lin Ruoyan thought, and it made sense. Back in the book, the internet wasn't as advanced as it used to be. Domestic internet wasn't widespread, and many industries that relied on it couldn't thrive. However, within a few years, smartphones would dominate the mainstream market, and the development of domestic mobile networks would ensure nationwide coverage. Not only above ground, but also in the subways. This latecomer infrastructure advantage was more advanced than that of established capitalist countries, benefiting the people.
"That's right. The internet infrastructure in the island countries and the peninsula is better than ours, so they still have a demand for chess and card games." Hao Heshan was thinking about adding language modules for neighboring countries to the existing chess and card rooms and then promoting them on major portals. This would definitely require additional staff, at least someone who knows the relevant languages to maintain the website on a daily basis.
So, is opening a new company just to take advantage of the preferential policies of the industrial park? Mr. Lin looked at him with such eagerness, but could he really take on such a heavy responsibility?
"By the way, regarding the Central D region, when developing web games, we must consider the possibility of changing the language in the future and the idea of multi-cultural compatibility, and recruit some Arabic-speaking talents." Lin Ruoyan was not speaking casually.
Web games will gradually decline in China, not because people no longer like them, but rather because new content is emerging, computers are becoming more advanced, and internet speeds are getting faster, from a few kilobits per second to 100-1000Mbps broadband in just a decade or so. At that time, online gaming was only comfortable with large-scale 3D rendering. However, there are many countries around the world with less developed internet networks, where infrastructure development is slow and online gaming needs differ from those in China.
At the same time, those countries do not have the technical ability to develop games on their own. They want to play games, but they cannot accept the vulgar cultural output of Europe and the United States. So in the real world, there is a group of people who specialize in reskinning some domestic web games, giving them the skin of heroic stories in the Arabic world, and dumping them overseas.
The production cost of this kind of web game is very low, and it is basically a skin-changing and krypton gold routine. However, the wealthy people in oil-producing countries are crazy about it, playing it with krypton gold, and easily making hundreds of millions of dollars.
Also, more than ten years later, a group of people who play games will also like short videos. Why not start developing a video platform now?
Lin Ruoyan thought about it and decided not to bring up this idea for now. Throwing out so many concepts at once, Hao Heshan might have to work overtime until he vomited blood. His hair had become visibly thinner this year.
"Boss Lin, I don't quite understand what this Arabic-speaking talent thing means." Hao Heshan understood everything else, but when he talked about that completely unfamiliar world, he couldn't quite grasp it after pondering it for a long time. "Back then, in the neighboring countries influenced by our culture, they could still promote chess, cards, and mahjong. But Arabic speakers have a completely different cultural system from us. How can they play chess and cards?"
Since Hao Heshan had thought about this, and Lin Ruoyan really wanted to develop for the overseas online game market in the future, she patiently explained, "Their culture naturally has its own heroic legends. We create stories like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West in our own cultural circles, and they resonate with the Northeast and Southeast Asian communities. We can just use them directly by changing the language module. In the Arabic-speaking world, would they accept the proposition that a small person goes through hardships to become a great hero? Or a story about a god reincarnated as a human, ultimately defeating the demons of the world and returning to godhood?"
Hao Heshan thought for a moment and nodded, "I'll have someone research this topic first. I plan to focus on the domestic market first, and then explore the Northeast Asian market. I've never been involved in exporting before, so I might have to rebuild a team, including someone proficient in foreign languages and cultures. This will take time."
Lin Ruoyan had originally wanted to explain the initial steps in more detail, but she hadn't realized Hao Heshan already had his own plan. As expected of a tech giant, he naturally had his own logic and methods. Others only needed to suggest a general idea, and he would refine it on his own.
This is so worry-free!
Lin Ruoyan smiled and said, "We'll take our time with these things. However, if your tech company sets its sights on overseas expansion from the start, it might be more compliant with the higher-ups' wishes and lessen the competitive pressure at home. You should also communicate more with the industrial park's management about these details in the future; they should be able to provide you with more support."
Lin Ruoyan looks at this issue from the perspective of future generations. Since the beginning of the millennium, the country has vigorously encouraged cultural creation and its own original animation and digital entertainment industries. It is not just to protect its own spiritual home, but to have a big logic of cultural output. It is a long accumulation from nothing to a quantitative change and finally a qualitative change. Only then will there be the glory of domestic games that are popular all over the world 20 years later.
"Also, Mr. Lin, you mentioned smartphones at the beginning. Every time we develop new software, you repeatedly remind us to pay attention to the possibilities of mobile phone applications. I have been paying attention to the developments abroad. There are already signs in North America and Europe." Hao Heshan mentioned again.
Lin Ruoyan suddenly remembered Wu Chenghao, the blind date she'd met at her first banquet. She hadn't contacted him since then, but she'd unexpectedly bumped into him last year while traveling in Europe. He seemed to be attending a seminar on a related industry. Otherwise, why not ask Hao Heshan to learn from him?
Hao Heshan is an expert in the field of computer software programming. Wu Chenghao may be more professional in talking about the future development of mobile phones and the trends of related domestic industries.
So she gave Wu Chenghao's contact information to Hao Heshan.
After chatting with Hao Heshan, she called Wu Chenghao again, intending to just tell him that Hao Heshan would contact him in the future to discuss some professional issues.
She said, "Mr. Wu, do you still remember me? Lin Ruoyan."
How could Wu Chenghao forget? Ever since that meeting in Europe, he'd been obsessed with Lin Ruoyan. Lin Ruoyan had already given him the "nice guy" card, and he knew they weren't destined to marry. But Lin Ruoyan's son, Lin Mengxi, was a genius. He'd been extra careful and added Lin Mengxi's Penguin account.
Lin Mengxi was no stranger to him and would ask him from time to time for information about mobile phones and artificial intelligence. When she was studying relevant data books, she would also ask him if she didn't understand something.
This made him have to have a fantasy, could it be that Lin Ruoyan asked Lin Mengxi to ask?
Lin Mengxi is quite the "Sea King." He has dedicated groups on his Penguin account, with notes and names added based on their expertise. Whenever he encounters a problem in a particular subject, he sends a group message to all relevant friends. He's not limited to just domestic friends; he met quite a few during his time in Europe. Later, he and Hua Mengmeng learned how to bypass the firewall and access overseas forums. They've since met some more people tailored to their needs, adding them as friends using various European and American chat apps.
So every time he asked a question, he didn't expect anyone to answer immediately. It was enough for those he asked the question to answer. If there were multiple different answers, he could compare and study them and absorb all of them.
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