More fuel the flames of war overseas
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “nuclear race” (ID: Coreesports), Author: Zhang Yi Nan.
Bytedance dropped coins again. On April 13, Jinghe learned that Bytedance had acquired Youai Huyu.
The latter is a mobile game developer focusing on two-dimensional RPG and strategic categories. Its representative works include “Idle Girl” and “Red Alert OL”. Hu Bing (Ace), CEO of Youai Huyu, published a letter from all members entitled “Creating Happiness with Happiness”, officially announcing that Youai Huyu has joined the Bytedance game family. In the letter from all the staff, Hu Bing said that the most important reason for the overseas market to choose to join the byte is: “We believe that the game industry has entered the era of great navigation.
The game of the future must not only serve players in one region, but also serve global players. This point is also very consistent with the globalization thinking of the day and night. “
Tencent byte battle, small manufacturers are forced to stand in line
Actually, it doesn’t take long for you to break the circle with love and entertainment. In the second half of last year, Youai Entertainment’s self-developed product “Red Alert OL” was stopped by Tencent, and there was a lot of trouble. You know, Tencent has the agency right for the national service.
At that time, there was an announcement on the official Weibo of Ai Huyu. The announcement stated that before the second anniversary of “Red Alert OL”, the R&D team worked overtime for 2 months and was ready for the 2nd anniversary celebration.
However, on the occasion of its 2nd anniversary, Youai Huyu learned that “Red Alert OL” could not be updated with new content. Competitive inquiry of Qimai data found that the total revenue of “Red Alert OL” was estimated to be US$1.26 million during the 1.5-month period since November 23.
Looking at the length of time, the estimated income during the three-month period when the work is stopped is estimated to be $4.21 million. The suspension period coincided with the 2nd anniversary celebration, which was the best time to increase the turnover. However, Tencent stopped changing, resulting in a loss of nearly one million dollars in vain.
There is speculation that there may be two main reasons for Tencent’s suspension of “Red Alert OL” incident: Tencent and Youai Huyu have differences in sharing; Youai Huyu has been invested by Bytedance, which is one of the big manufacturers. The contradiction between.
Money is at hand, why did Tencent choose not to make money? It’s hard to come true is the drama of the CP war channel. Putting this factor aside, it may be more intriguing to have a shareholder background in Ai Huyu. In September last year, Bytedance invested in Youai Huyu, accounting for 5.9%.
In addition, through its wholly-owned subsidiary “Stop to Perfection”, it also acquired a company under Youai Huyu. Make upCoincidentally, shortly after byte joined, Youai Huyu was told by Tencent that “Red Alert OL” could not update the content.
One mountain cannot tolerate two tigers, and BYTE’s shareholding may create a gap between Tencent and Youai’s mutual entertainment. Tencent put pressure on it, which meant that small and medium-sized manufacturers would stand in line.
Acquisition of Mutong, byte releases the ability of money
As we all know, Byte is making every effort to scan for game companies.
On March 19, Chaoxi Lightyear issued an announcement announcing the establishment of Chaoxi Lightyear Fantasy Fund. This was once regarded as a landmark move by BYTE to increase its investment in the game business.
Three days later, on March 22, Yuan Jing, CEO of Mutong Technology, issued a letter to all employees, announcing that Mutong Technology had reached a strategic acquisition agreement with Chaoxi Guangnian. After this acquisition, Mutong Technology will maintain independent operations, and in the future will integrate Bytedance’s overseas operating experience to jointly develop the global game market.
Mu Tong’s masterpiece “Endless Showdown” was released on the Android platform globally in July 2016. The iOS version was released in November of the same year. Up to now, there are more than 135 countries and 19 language players competing on the same stage in endless duels, with more than 90 million monthly active users.
Mu Tong’s MOBA mobile game “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Endless Showdown)” set a record for domestic mobile games to go overseas. It is obvious to all. It has reached the top 10 best-selling results in the App Store in 13 countries around the world (including the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and other countries); it has reached the top 10 best-selling results in 53 countries around the world.
Even if it was just facing the “Orthodox” MOBA mobile game “League of Legends Mobile Game”, “Endless Duel” still performed strongly. SensorTowers data shows that in February 2021, the work received nearly 6.4 million downloads, an increase of 10.8% compared to January.
In Southeast Asia, the largest overseas MOBA mobile game market, the game still ranks first in the mobile game download list. As of February 2021, the work has received nearly 400 million downloads in the global App Store and Google Play, 67% of which are from the Southeast Asian market.
“Endless Showdown”, which is well-known in the southeast market, has a national level comparable to the domestic “King of Glory” and is also known as the “King of Glory” in Southeast Asia.
Perhaps because of this, Mutong and Tencent have been in constant lawsuits all the year round. In 2017, Riot GamesIn California, the United States sued Mutong for infringement, including the latter’s three games “Mobile Legends: 5V5 MOBA”, “Mobile Legends: Bang bang” and “Magic Rush: Heroes”.
Riot Games requested Mutong Technology to pay a total of US$150,000 (approximately 1.02 million RMB) and immediately cease operations. Mutong responded that “Mobile Legends” is a self-developed game with independent intellectual property rights. In July 2018, Tencent sued Xu Zhenhua, the legal representative of Mutong Technology, for violating two commercial competition contents of “no disclosure” and “commercial prohibition”.
Byte’s acquisition of Youai Huyu and Mutong Technology have one thing in common, that is, they have had disputes with Tencent. This is also seen as a positive signal to Tencent. Whether it is or not, Byte has increased the intensity of its action on the game track over the past two years.
Wealthy, self-willed
When buying a game company, ByteDance is very serious. Not long ago, ByteDance also invested in Linzi Huyu. Going forward, Byte has successively acquired Shanghe Network and Shanghai Mokun. In June 2019, it launched the self-developed “Oasis Project” for moderate to heavy games.
In August of the same year, BYTE took over the auto chess mobile game “The Art of War: Infinite Evolution” from Hero Interactive Entertainment. Judging from the timeline, the Bytedance medium-to-severe game has been developed for nearly 2 years. However, in terms of performance during the period, the development of Bytedance’s mid-to-severe game business has not been smooth. Some people even think that it will take two or three years before Byte can produce results.
Facts have proved that changes are faster than imagined. On October 15, 2020, a new version called “Ragnarok RO: The Birth of a New Generation” (hereinafter referred to as: RO New Generation) was launched simultaneously in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and achieved the top spot within a week.
It is worth mentioning that on July 31 last year, Fuchun shares announced that the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Shanghai Junmeng and Gravity authorized Relaternity to distribute Shanghai Junmeng’s self-developed mobile game products in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Ragnarok RO: The Birth of a New Generation.
According to a person familiar with the matter, Relaternity is a subsidiary of Bytedance’s mid-to-heavy gaming business. At the same time, at the beginning of this year (January 8), BYTE became a shareholder of Gem Air, the developer of “Ragnarok RO: The Birth of a New Era”.
We learned that among the four previous investments by ByteDance in game companies, except for the unreleased games of Shenluo Interactive which was acquired in November 2020, Microgames MYBO, Stop Yu Zhishan, and Gem Aldu is related to BYTE’s overseas game business.
In August 2020, Beijing Youyi Technology, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ByteDance, became a shareholderShanghai Microlab Culture Communication Co., Ltd., whose product is Microlab Games. Microlab Games is a developer focusing on European and American casual mobile games, focusing on overseas markets. Its products include “Tetris”, “Starry Nuts”, “Bouncy Seed” and so on.
Hashimoto Kanna appears in the TV commercial “Idle Girl”
In addition, Mutong Technology and Youai Mutual Entertainment, which are wholly-owned by Byte, are added. It is not difficult to see that Bytedance is working hard to build a game business map overseas. The Byte Game flag has been inserted in Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea. Who will be the next stop?