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

Bytes don't want chicken ribs,

For Tencent, it may be a delicious duck neck.

Douyin's parent company sells and sells.

Tencent buys, buys, buys.

ByteDance sold another game project, this time by Tencent.

Recently, Shanghai Aojue Digital Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of ByteDance's Chaoxi Lightyear, has undergone industrial and commercial changes.

Shanghai Moju Digital Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the original wholly-owned shareholder, Chaoxi Lightyear, withdrew, and Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Tencent, was added as a shareholder and wholly-owned shareholder, and at the same time, the company's main personnel were changed.

Shanghai Aojue Digital Technology Co., Ltd. was established in January 2017, and the legal representative is Ren Zhiguo.

Its operation of "Dragon's Breath: Silence" is very well-known in the gaming circle.

"Dragon's Breath: Silence" will receive the version number in January 2024, and has not yet launched a national server version.

The game will be launched overseas in the second half of 2023, and will be available on both mobile and PC platforms.

According to SensorTower data, the mobile terminal of the game is estimated to have a turnover of about 38 million yuan in the first month, and by the end of 2023, the cumulative revenue will exceed 300 million yuan.

Tencent has sold byte "parts" many times this year.

Founded in 2019, Sunrise Lightyear is a game development and publishing business brand under ByteDance.

In November 2023, it was reported that Chaoxi Lightyear will carry out a large-scale business contraction, and will seek divestment of games that have been launched and performed well while ensuring operation; For projects that have not yet been launched, except for a small number of innovative projects and related technology projects, they will be shut down.

Subsequently, Chaoxi Lightyear responded that there will indeed be business direction and organizational adjustments, and will focus more on the exploration of some innovative games and related technologies.

However, at the same time, it will also do a good job in the continuous operation of the products that have been launched to fully protect the rights and interests of players.

In January of this year, the media reported that Chaoxi Lightyear was in talks with Tencent to sell a number of games.

In March, it was reported that some of the game business that ByteDance had laid off had been taken over by Tencent, and former ByteDance employees had joined Tencent's newly established subsidiary.

In May, Tencent's China Ruyi announced that the company reached an agreement with two sellers (Chaoxi Lightyear and Beijing Youyi) to acquire 100% of the shares of Beijing Youai Mutual Entertainment Technology Co., Ltd. for 259 million yuan.

After the completion of the equity transfer, Youai Mutual Entertainment will become an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of China Ruyi.

From October 17, 2021 to October 17, 2025, Tencent will be the exclusive agent in China, responsible for the distribution, operation and promotion services of "Red Alert OL", and Youai Entertainment will enjoy a revenue share.

According to the 2023 financial report, Tencent holds more than 40% of China Ruyi's shares, and is an important controlling shareholder of the company and one of the top five customers.

However, ByteDance is not giving up on the gaming business.

At the end of May this year, Byte officially announced that the new business head Zhang Yunfan will also serve as the person in charge of Youai.

At the same time, Hu Bing, the head of ByteDance's Youai Division, issued an internal letter saying that he was about to "take a vacation" for personal reasons.

Subsequently, Youai Mutual Entertainment restarted the "Youmingzhi" project.

When Zhang Yunfan's appointment was officially announced in May this year, he said in an internal letter, "Starting today, the game business has entered the second phase." ”

But why are you still a seller?

What are the similarities and differences between Tencent and Byte in terms of development scale and strategic layout in the game business?

What does the gaming business mean to Bytes?

After Zhang Yunfan joins Byte, what will be the breaking point of Byte's game business?

In this regard, Yang Xinyi, a reporter from the Daily Economic News, had an exchange with Shule, and the monkey thought:

Byte's chicken ribs may be a delicious duck neck for Tencent.

Tencent's layout is multi-threaded operation, relying on the ability to expand in all categories of games, and for studios and small and medium-sized game companies with development potential, they dare to follow the "venture capital model".

On the other hand, although it is also not bad for money, there is no game top card that can stand at present, and it must concentrate on doing big things in the single product category at the moment, and at the same time, due to the fact that the existing tracks have been piled up in the red sea.

At present, it seems that Byte's game strategy may focus on some niche categories such as steampunk and national style two-dimensional to make breakthroughs, in order to be unique, truly detonate a category, and let Byte rush into the front line at one time.

The reason why Byte gave up on the game business and couldn't let go, and picked up the state of not being able to lose, also has its own reasons. Namely:

Byte traffic needs more conversion, and games are the best conversion direction for content traffic, which is clear to bytes, and Tencent's past from a social + content platform to a game brother has also proved that this path is feasible.

This reboot is not a resurrection on the spot, but may change the strategic direction on a large scale, from Tencent-style wide cultivation and thin harvest, to the direction of UGC games (user-generated content) triggered by NetEase's egg boy party.

At this moment, ByteDance should still move towards accumulation, explore high-quality games, and conform to the general trend of UGC games, VR games and high-quality games, as well as the reproduction of its own successful experience in overseas e-sports games in China, rather than simply following the trend to make blockbusters.

At present, Byte has a huge amount of content traffic and overseas traffic, which are all catalysts for games to take off, but only if there are strong game products in order to become a game manufacturer.

Just like Tencent, which also has social traffic, relied on DNF to become the top player in domestic games in 2009, and it was not until many years later that it used "Glory of Kings" and "Peace Elite" to truly confirm its status as a major game manufacturer.

Bytes will naturally not let go of this gold mine, but the mining method can no longer take the road of extensive planting and thin harvest at this stage, and must establish a stable top brand, and not just look at revenue.

Of course, a professional manager can't change the general trend, only innovation is the "wall breaker".

Judging from Zhang Yunfan's resume, he may also provide reference for ByteDance's game development from the trial and error experience of Perfect World's film and game linkage and game going overseas.

But innovation is more important.

For the time being, ByteDance is only restarting the game product on a small scale, but the specific strategic intent has not really been exposed.

Perhaps, the centralized blasting of single product categories will be the way for bytes to break through. But that's just a prediction.

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