American History 1988
Chapter 364 - 353 Cash Cow

Chapter 364: Chapter 353 Cash Cow

"Boss, great news!"

Today, just as Dean had walked into the Bit office, Thomas, who had been waiting there, immediately came up to report the good news with excitement.

"What great news?" Dean, who had been busy discussing Netscape’s IPO with Wall Street these past few days, appeared to be in a good mood as well.

"This is from the bank yesterday, regarding the payment transactions for Toktok games."

Thomas handed over the first-hand data he had prepared; he had rushed to the company at seven in the morning, all for this fax.

"Our Flash game went live?" Dean’s eyes lit up.

"Exactly, yesterday was the first day, and we inserted the push ads into the chat windows."

"From the feedback from the server, it looks like about 20% of the online users clicked on it."

This ratio was actually very high, as a 10% ad response rate in the industry would already be considered successful.

Therefore, when Dean heard that 20% of online users had clicked into the Toktok game, he immediately took interest.

His gaze casually swept over the report, and he saw a number that surprised him immensely, "1.036 million US dollars?!"

"Yeah~!" Thomas could no longer hide the smile on his face, and for a moment, he was almost dancing with joy.

"Shit, I admit that this number is very surprising to me." Dean looked over the report again to make sure he hadn’t misread it.

It wasn’t that he was overreacting; he was used to seeing financial reports in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but it was this small million-dollar figure that excited him inexplicably.

The reason was simple; this was cash flow from the first day of a web game.

The first day! Well, considering the Flash game’s lifespan of several months or even a year, how could Dean not be excited?

That meant potential revenues of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. And what was their investment?

Dean paced eagerly around the office a few times, rubbing his chin; his mind was brimming with countless ideas.

"Thomas, this game..."

"World of Zombie Apocalypse"

"Right, World of Zombie Apocalypse, how many players does it have now?"

"Backend statistics show approximately 360,000, with 70% of players staying longer than an hour."

For a web game, these figures were already very impressive, though Thomas didn’t yet realize what they meant.

"360,000..." Dean silently did the math; Toktok’s current registered users had surpassed three million, and the number was still growing rapidly.

Thanks to AOL’s move to a subscription model, Toktok’s daily active user count ranged between 1.3 and 2.5 million.

Yesterday’s daily active users were probably around 1.8 million, with 360,000 players generating 1.036 million dollars in revenue.

Averaged per player, that was about 2.9 US dollars.

"So our first-pay promotion is working well, isn’t it?" A smile had already appeared on Dean’s face.

"Boss, you’re simply a marketing genius!" At this moment, Thomas’s flattery flowed out like it cost him nothing.

"Almost half of the players contributed 1 US dollar in in-game recharges.

The remaining 40% were attracted by the 6-dollar first-time purchase offer, and according to player feedback, they are very satisfied with the content of the packages."

Thomas was simply amazed by such marketing strategies; look, they not only earned money but also gained player approval.

When did the gaming community’s money become so easy to earn? Weren’t the magazines and forums always sneering at game developers?

"As long as we offer value-packed packages, we won’t worry about a lack of buyers.

The most important thing is our game is free to play, let’s first attract the players."

As a former game enthusiast, Dean knew exactly what players wanted.

Spend money, fine, but not begrudgingly.

If you want to make money and yet put on airs, treating players as if you’re doing them a favor, who else are they going to criticize but you?

Moreover, Toktok’s game has another big killer feature – it’s free to play.

In America, where copyright consciousness is strong (mainly to avoid lawsuits), paid games have been the industry norm.

From game cartridges, to PC game discs, and even coin-operated arcade games,

each type of game had its own payment method, but there were no free games, except for those created by individual enthusiasts.

Real gaming companies rarely ventured into this field.

Because the paid game market was already mature, and the risk of developing free games was too high.

That’s why, when Toktok released a free game, they achieved a retention rate of over 70%.

It was astonishing, especially to the younger players, who couldn’t resist such an offer.

As long as they clicked and engaged with the game, they would step by step fall into Toktok’s well-designed consumption traps.

First, attract users with 3D ads, then design the initial levels to be relatively easy.

After giving players a taste of the game, stealthily increase the difficulty.

Just a little short of defeating the Boss? No problem, we have the 0.99 dollars for 3 lives, resurrection diamonds.

Ah, the next level’s Boss is even tougher? No problem, check out my Fire Kirin edition AK47.

dollars is a deal, 6 dollars is no scam.

Apart from these, we also have other useful items: experience potions, skill points, pet companions...

Starting with a dog each, doesn’t scavenging through the apocalypse feel exhilarating?

See, there are too many options.

Free is the most expensive, and this law is especially true in the gaming industry.

Of course, for now, Toktok’s approach isn’t too unsightly, so there’s no need to worry about reputation problems.

But this model has been validated; Flash games have great potential.

"Thomas, start pop-up promotions for all users from tomorrow."

Dean finally decided to unveil his trump card, whose power was much greater than traditional advertising.

Because of its one-click accessibility, users just needed to lightly click their mouse to go straight into the game interface.

As for traditional advertising, it started with receiving information, then learning about the product, and finally deciding whether to add it to the shopping cart.

In this process, who knows how many potential customers would be lost.

But Toktok could not change the game; there was only a pop-up window between the user and the product.

"Boss, do we need to advertise ’World of Zombie Apocalypse’ on other platforms?"

The first day’s high revenue had Thomas’s ambitions swelling; he even thought about challenging those pay-to-play games.

"No, we’re not like those game companies; they are professionals."

Dean’s words almost had Thomas clamping his mouth shut.

Boss, doesn’t that just boost others’ prestige?

"Toktok’s web games are different from theirs," Dean said, smiling as he saw Thomas’s resentful eyes.

"There’s no need to challenge the pride of the entire industry. We just need to make a fortune quietly."

What Dean wanted was money, not the reputation for challenging game companies.

"Of course, we still need to advertise."

Thomas’s eyes lit up.

"But not for Toktok games, but for Toktok itself."

"Toktok itself?" Thomas was confused.

"That’s right," Dean felt the timing was just right. "We’ll focus our advertising on the Toktok software.

All online platforms, Yahoo, Price lists, AOL... start placing ads about Toktok.

Don’t leave out other traditional media, newspapers, television, outdoor posters, etc.

We want to push the free Toktok software into every corner of the world!"

’World of Zombie Apocalypse’ became a blockbuster upon release because it was backed by Toktok’s platform.

Limiting advertisements solely to the game was too narrow-minded a view.

The free Toktok soil is fertile; by making the plate bigger, naturally, the meat inside will increase.

Now with major ISPs launching monthly services, it’s the best time for Toktok to expand its territory.

Even better, there are no competitors, as no other software company offers such a service on the market.

As for the outdated Plato System, it had long been abandoned by the times.

A software giant like Bit could develop instant messaging software that put 90% of similar products to shame.

It wasn’t just because of the company’s strong technical foundation but also Dean’s forward-looking product design vision.

Whether in terms of technical superiority or aesthetic angle, Toktok is the best software of the current era.

With ample server resources and a customer service team, Bit had defeated all potential competitors.

There’s no time to hesitate; now was the time to press on the victory and dominate the chat software market.

Previously, due to cost and revenue problems, Dean had not invested in advertising for Toktok.

But now, with the gaming business as a cushion, Bit was ready to go all out.

"Plus, advertising only for Toktok can also serve to confuse our competitors," Dean’s calculations went further than that.

Thomas was initially puzzled, but he quickly began to widen his eyes.

"Boss, as long as we don’t publicly disclose the game’s financial report, others won’t be able to figure out the market’s potential?

If we promote the free Toktok, not only can we confuse their focus, but we can also secretly expand the potential user base of the game?"

"Exactly!" Dean snapped his fingers. "Not to mention anything else, we can at least delay them for a quarter."

As a publicly-traded company, Bit had to publish financial statements every quarter. By then, the gaming business might also become crystal clear.

But this window of opportunity should be enough for Toktok to secure a dominant market position.

Even if other companies wanted to enter the market by then, it would probably be too late.

"OK, I’ll get on it right away." Thomas was now full of drive.

This year, the consumer division might even turn a profit.

"Don’t forget to launch more flash games quickly, covering all kinds of genres.

If we’re short-staffed, recruit developers with gaming experience.

In any case, gaming is a solid business, and we should scale it up."

Dean was contemplating the establishment of a Toktok gaming center, clearly, the initial trial had yielded unexpectedly high feedback.

Given this, it was time to treat this business as a career.

"Our HR department is already on it; the second and third Flash games are expected to roll out next month."

Unlike traditional games, Flash games not only had low costs but also short development cycles.

Take ’World of Zombie Apocalypse,’ it was produced in just over two months.

The production cost was even less than half a million US Dollars, unbelievably cheap.

Yet such a seemingly hastily made product featured smooth graphics and controls.

As players gamed, it felt like watching an animation with intact actions and sound effects.

The incredibly low production costs created over a million US Dollars in cash flow for the consumer division on the first day alone.

Such lucrative returns made even Dean excited.

They must develop, aggressively develop; Bit’s market value might just rely on it to rise.

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