Zhang Shule is a columnist for People's Daily Online and People's Post and Telegraph

Wang Sicong can't do it,

Can He Youjun handle it?

Pushing the tower is a kind of victory.

But what if it can't be pushed down?

Then it became the Leifeng Pagoda that suppressed the White Lady.

What Wang Sicong didn't do back then, He Youjun, the son of the "gambling king", is going further.

This time, he's ready to push the tower.

Tear down the "Leifeng Tower" that made the rich second generation sink into the sand.

And it's the hardest one: the esports club.

Not long ago, NIP Group, an esports company of which He Youjun is chairman and co-CEO, officially submitted a prospectus to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to list on the NASDAQ.

If the listing is successful, He Youjun will become the helmsman of "China's first e-sports stock".

Before Star Racing was mighty, people had seen the domestic e-sports operators Hero Sports VSPN and Netscreen Culture have failed IPOs, and the former star e-sports companies FaZe Clan in North America and Astralis Group in Denmark have gone from their peak to delisting and many other e-sports gloom pasts.

More importantly, back then, Wang Sicong and other rich second generations full of topics stirred up the magnificent wave of e-sports, and now most of them have been classified as a pool of peace.

Looking back at the history of domestic e-sports development, we can find that in the current 100 billion industry, the original "players" are just a group of rich second generations.

In 2011, when "games" were still called "poison", the so-called "e-sports" was not recognized by society at all.

It was also this year that the Dota esports team CCM won the championship of Warcraft 3 in China. But behind the scenery, the CCM boss was depressed because of the broken capital chain of the boss, the salary was broken, and the mood was sluggish, and the night of winning the championship also became the time when the team was disbanded.

But a dramatic scene happened, on the night of CCM's victory, Wang Sicong, the "son of Wanda", announced the acquisition of CCM for $6 million and changed its name to the IG team, and officially announced on Weibo: "Enter strongly and integrate e-sports." ”

Wang Sicong's series of operations have also attracted a group of rich second generations to pour into this track one after another.

Zhu Yihang, the founder of EDG Club, is the son of Zhu Mengyi, chairman of Pearl River Trading Group and chairman of the board of directors of Hopson Development Group Co., Ltd.

For example, Hou Geting, the gold lord behind the OMG team, is the son of Hou Jianfang, chairman of the Eagle Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Group.

Jiang Xin, the owner of the Snake esports club, is the son of Jiang Quanlong, executive director of China Rare Earth Holding Group.

The second generation has made it possible to "make a lot of money playing games", but it is only possible.

2017 was a turning point for China's e-sports, and the domestic e-sports market began to accelerate its specialization, internationalization, commercialization and sports.

This year, Wang Sicong's Pulse Capital was dragged down by LeTV, and the capital chain suffered a heavy blow, and then he began to withdraw from the e-sports market.

The rich second generation who followed him into this market also withdrew one after another.

How much was lost, no one can say.

At the same time, bigwigs in various industries such as JD.com, Kuaishou, Li Ning, and Sina began to enter e-sports, form e-sports clubs, and attack deeper areas of e-sports.

It's just that whoever opens an e-sports club will lose money, and it can only be said that the prospects are broad.

It's just that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the rich second generation? No, there is also a seeded player: He Youjun.

Why did the rich second generation fail?

He Youjun, is there any hope for success?

What is the future of esports clubs?

In this regard, China News Weekly reporter Shi Hanxu had an exchange with Shule, and this monkey thought:

The rich second generation is young, and it is not surprising to play the market of young people. It's just that the attack is out of position, misplaced.

Previously, Wang Sicong, the son of Wang Jianlin, and Jiang Xin, the son of Jiang Quanlong, the "king of rare earths in China", have all been involved in the e-sports industry. The "second generation" entered the e-sports game, and its past failures are already very revealing, namely:

At that time, in addition to their personal hobbies, the investment ideas of the rich second generation also took a fancy to the possible development of e-sports.

For example, Wang Sicong has successively laid out a large number of related e-sports peripheral fields such as e-sports halls, game companion games and game live broadcast platforms.

However, with the gradual cooling of game live broadcasting, this wave of rich second-generation investment in e-sports has slowly disappeared after e-sports entered Asia.

The fundamental reasons why e-sports, a young business, is not as easy as imagined are:

E-sports is not spectacular enough, it is still a niche vertical, and it is difficult to break the circle.

Related peripheral businesses, such as live broadcasts, e-sports halls or sparring, are still derivatives of the game industry, and have not really become e-sports sports, and it is difficult to break through the scene.

At the same time, e-sports clubs, as the middle of the e-sports industry chain, can neither compete with upstream game manufacturers and event organizers who manipulate copyrights, but can only let the upstream "fish and meat".

Therefore, from the perspective of e-sports clubs alone, their development model can only rely on large-scale expansion and multi-event participation, but it is difficult to constitute the opening conditions for profit scenarios, and they are often reduced to workers and propagandists who become the copyright owners of e-sports games, with low profits.

In this context, if He Youjun's Xingjing Weiwu is successfully listed on the NASDAQ, it will be the first stock in China for the company itself and the Chinese e-sports industry, and it is also rare in the world, and its symbolic significance is greater than its practical significance.

At present, the overall pattern of the domestic e-sports industry has not stepped out of the vertical market segment of the game industry, and has not really realized the industrialization of sports.

The successful listing of the e-sports club represents that e-sports, as a sports project, has an opportunity for real industrialization, and can expand the scene to more derivative chains through the form of clubs, and strive to get out of the control of game copyright owners.

Specific to the attack position of the push tower, it is to bring goods.

I have to say that the most successful business model of the e-sports business at present is precisely the live broadcast of goods, which is the "meat muffin" that a certain e-sports player brought live broadcast to survive more than ten years ago.

As a result, it not only formed a stalk of "meat muffins save e-sports", but also set the live broadcast industry on fire, and set a sample for the follow-up live broadcast.

Domestic e-sports clubs also rely on their own sponsors and platform advantages to share the pie by bringing 3C products, and there are also ways to try to break the wall through trendy play methods such as e-sports star cards.

On the whole, the biggest challenge for e-sports clubs is how to activate the enthusiasm of fans through their achievements and form a sports-oriented pan-entertainment boom, just like the commercial show industry chain of sports stars.

But the premise is to get out of the niche and make it known to the public.

All in all, esports is still awkward right now.

For the upstream and downstream of the industry, e-sports is regarded as a short-term traffic entrance.

Especially for game manufacturers, it is more about publicity and promotion, and indirect solicitation.

Due to the lack of fierce physical collisions in ball games such as football and basketball, the viewing of e-sports events is not strong, and it is difficult to break the circle from the e-sports fan base.

In addition, esports enthusiasts also need to bear the criticism of "playing games" and "losing their minds", which is more difficult to turn into a popular sport than traditional sports.

E-sports clubs, if they want to change this dilemma, there is still a lack of opportunities at present, and it is best to hurry up and bring goods.

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