Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 366: The Lingering Aftereffects of the 1024 Digital Festival
Afternoon.
Pei Qian woke up from his usual nap, caught up on an episode of an anime, and looked up—it was only a little past three in the afternoon.
It was still early, but over at the company, there didn't seem to be much for him to do.
All the projects were still in development. After Chang You's report that morning, no one would likely be coming in to give updates anytime soon, so President Pei found himself with nothing on his plate.
"Maybe… I should go back to school and study?"
"Finals week is coming up fast. Forget reviewing, I haven't even borrowed anyone's notes yet."
"Yeah, I'll find some time to have Ma Yang photocopy his notes for me."
Pei Qian shut down his computer. Off work!
He figured he'd head back to campus, find a study room, and cram a bit—at least to make himself feel less empty lately.
As he walked out of the office, he saw everyone staring intently at their screens, looking busy and hardworking.
As for whether they were actually working hard… who knows.
That's the downside of being the boss, you never really see your employees' most authentic side.
Tang Yishu, meanwhile, had just finished taking care of Yin Tang and was now sitting quietly at her desk, reading and studying.
Pei Qian couldn't help feeling a little ashamed.
Look at that junior—so devoted to studying!
I should really learn from her!
With a firm "go study" resolve, Pei Qian left the company.
Suddenly remembering something, he turned back and said to everyone, "You've all worked hard, if there's nothing urgent, feel free to clock out early!"
No one responded. Everyone still looked like they were buried in work.
Pei Qian sighed quietly. Man, in moments like this, he really wished some brave soul would stand up and leave early with him!
With a bit of regret, Pei Qian took the elevator down, walked out of Shenhua Prestige, and headed toward Handong University.
As he walked, he somehow turned into the Moyu Internet Café Handong University Branch.
He found an empty seat, sat down, and booted up the computer—purely out of instinct.
"Huh? What's going on? How did I end up here?"
"Wasn't I supposed to go study?!"
"..."
"Whatever, I'm already here. Might as well check out what new games are out lately."
"I am, after all, a game designer. Collecting material in my spare time is just as important as studying."
The desktop was filled with game icons—mostly popular titles of the moment.
Among them were the test version of GOG and the "Unlimited Play Edition" (the so-called 'Ma Zong special edition' after being modified by Dream Fulfillment Ventures), mixed in with all those popular games.
But as Pei Qian's eyes swept over the sea of icons, before he even had time to register what games they were, he suddenly felt that something was… off.
That strange feeling didn't come from the desktop—
It came from the display board at the entrance of the café!
A strong sense of crisis suddenly surged in Pei Qian's chest. He hurriedly stood up and went back to the entrance to take another look at the display board.
There was a beautifully printed poster on it. The headline read:
"Let's Squad Up This Christmas Eve — ROF Prebuilt PC Mega Sale!"
The main image on the poster was a fully assembled PC, looking extremely flashy. The shiny ROF logo on it was especially eye-catching and tempting.
Below were different pricing tiers: 8,599; 12,599; and 16,599 yuan!
Still three tiers—but those prices…
Pei Qian rubbed his eyes. These weren't the prices he had set before!
Pei Qian took a closer look at the configurations below and realized that they were largely the same as before, just with some components slightly upgraded.
On top of that, they were throwing in some small freebies. The most valuable one was a USB flash drive, plus a few smaller goodies like cable ties, a mouse pad, and keyboard cleaning gel.
And they even bundled everything into a package, calling it—very grandly—the "Christmas Eve Upgrade Gift Pack."
Pei Qian was speechless.
This was so forced!
Just look at that slogan: "Let's squad up on Christmas Eve."
The single-dog energy was practically slapping him in the face.
Pei Qian wasn't particularly into Western holidays, but… spending Christmas Eve gaming together? That felt like something only single people would do, right?
This was clearly just awkwardly riding the holiday hype for the sake of marketing.
But… damn, it actually seemed to be working.
There was a line of eye-catching text on the poster: "Limited quantity in this store: __ / 500."
And now, plastered in front of it, was a number: 428!
That meant that just around the Handong University branch alone, over 400 units had already been sold!
And Moyu Internet Café wasn't just this one location, other branches were probably running the exact same promotion…
Originally, the three pricing tiers Pei Qian set were roughly on par with—or slightly higher than—the market prices of individual components. After bulk purchasing, costs dropped a bit, but profit margins were still pretty slim.
On top of that, with the random upgrade policy, this round of promotions was basically a money-losing operation.
After the 1024 Digital Festival, prices had already been raised to 8,999; 12,999; and 16,999 yuan.
At those prices, many consumers no longer felt it was such a "good deal."
Sure, considering home delivery and after-sales service, it was still worth buying. But the earlier promo had already "pre-spent" a lot of consumer enthusiasm, so short-term sales were lukewarm and didn't trigger any major alarms for Pei Qian.
But now, Zhang Yuan had cleverly bumped the specs up just a little, added some freebies, and then shaved the price down just a bit…
Creating the impression that this bundle was insanely good value!
For buyers, the cost-performance ratio was still great—arguably even better than before—since the freebies were all practical items. And with bulk purchasing, those gifts cost far less than if customers bought them on their own.
Meanwhile, for the ROF prebuilt PC business, the profit margin was still very healthy.
Which meant that the reputation built up over the past two months was probably about to explode thanks to this Christmas Eve promo!
Pei Qian started to panic. Had they already sold a ton?
He was just about to go back inside the café to ask a staff member when a pleasantly surprised voice came from behind him:
"President Pei?"
Pei Qian turned around. Sure enough—it was Zhang Yuan!
Zhang Yuan looked busy, but there was a genuine, from-the-heart happiness in his expression.
"President Pei, I was planning to surprise you, but you found out first."
"So, what do you think of this Christmas Eve promotion? We've been quietly preparing this event for a long time!"
Pei Qian felt utterly drained.
These people… every single one of them loves giving me 'surprises.'
So not relaxing at all!
Thank goodness I found out early. Christmas Eve is tomorrow—if I try to stop this now, maybe there's still time to salvage things…
Pei Qian asked, pretending to be casual, "So… how's the campaign performing? How much stock do we have left?"
Zhang Yuan beamed. "Stock? There's no stock left—we've sold everything!"
As he spoke, he somehow produced a "Sold Out" sticker from nowhere and slapped it onto the poster at the entrance, covering up the 428 number.
Pei Qian's vision went dark.
Sold… everything?
Weren't there tons of stocking points, plus that massive warehouse on the outskirts of Jingzhou?!
Pei Qian could hardly believe it. "How could it… sell out this fast?"
Zhang Yuan smiled. "President Pei, it's not like everything was sold just these past few days. Don't forget—there was Singles' Day, too!"
"This is all thanks to the 1024 Digital Festival you organized earlier, President Pei. It gave the ROF brand real visibility. Without that promo, breaking into the market would've been genuinely difficult!"
"After the 1024 Digital Festival, I kept thinking about turning ROF into an online brand as well. Sure, in other cities we don't have the door-to-door delivery and full-machine warranty advantages from Against the Wind Logistics, but compared to those so-called 'martyr-wall prebuilts,' our machines use solid components and honest pricing. That's still won us over some customers."
"Of course, our sales can't compare to those 'martyr-wall' prebuilts. One certain prebuilt PC brand hit over ten million in sales within just 40 minutes during Singles' Day. We didn't even come close to a fraction of that."
"But don't worry, President Pei—I'm absolutely not jealous of them. I'll always remember your teachings and make sure ROF remains consistent and honest, never cheating customers!"
"Anyway, our word of mouth has been steadily fermenting over this period, and sales have been climbing bit by bit. This Christmas Eve event just happened to help us clear out a big chunk of inventory in one go."
"We sold a batch online during Singles' Day, another batch during Double Twelve, and now another batch in this promo."
"Right now, our warehouse is basically in emergency mode. I'm already contacting suppliers for urgent restocking!"
"Honestly, we were too conservative with inventory back then. If we'd stocked more, that would've been even better…"
Pei Qian's face went dark in an instant. His whole mood collapsed.
So that's what it was—the aftereffects of the 1024 Digital Festival had finally hit!
And the aftershock was brutal!
After that promotion, Pei Qian had stayed alert for a while. But since ROF prebuilts didn't show any explosive growth, he got busy with other things and slowly forgot about it.
He never imagined that the moment he stopped paying attention, things would spiral like this!
Pei Qian asked, "So… what's your plan next?"
Zhang Yuan thought for a moment. "Set aside some money to restock inventory, and then dump the rest straight into marketing! Next, I'm planning to boost our online store metrics—buy some orders and positive reviews—to steal some business from those 'martyr-wall' prebuilts."
"And of course, I'm also planning to hand in part of the profits this time. After all, ROF has been receiving subsidies from HQ ever since the brand was born. Now that we've finally turned a profit, it only makes sense to contribute some back as a gesture."
Pei Qian hurriedly raised a hand. "Absolutely not!"
Zhang Yuan: "?"
Pei Qian cleared his throat and said, "Tengda Group doesn't lack money. Don't even think about that."
"Buying fake orders and fake positive reviews is also a no-go!"
"Sure, it's an unspoken rule of online stores, but it's still falsifying data. We can't do that kind of thing!"
"If you ask me, take all the money we've earned and use it to stock up inventory! Isn't that huge warehouse still not full?"
"Whatever we earn, we spend on inventory—every last bit. Don't be stingy!"
"And also, these kinds of promotions seriously overdraft our future sales potential. Don't run them too frequently, got it?"
"From now on, the only time we're allowed to do price-cut promotions is during the 1024 Digital Festival. At all other times, the prices absolutely cannot be messed with!"
Pei Qian had no other choice.
ROF had already made money—what could he do about it?
Whether it was spending on ads or turning in profits to HQ, both were unacceptable outcomes for Pei Qian.
So—stock up. More inventory.
After this round of promotions, pretty much everyone who wanted to buy had already bought.
At this point, if they stopped advertising, stopped discounting, and went crazy with stocking up—converting all cash into piles of PC components sitting in warehouses—those assets would naturally depreciate over time.
At the same time, with prices no longer as attractive, the number of consumers willing to pay would definitely drop sharply.
Sell one unit? Then stock up one more.
As long as they stocked up enough, they could ensure there was no idle cash left on hand!
Pei Qian wasn't even hoping ROF would lose tons of money anymore. As long as all the profits were somehow spent, he'd let it slide!
Zhang Yuan was a bit dumbfounded. "President Pei, if we stock up this much, the sales pressure will be huge… and if we can't run promotions anymore, what if it doesn't sell…?"
Pei Qian waved a hand. "It's fine. Just do it this way! If the warehouse isn't enough, rent more. The secret to growing an industry is to never leave cash sitting idle—understand?"
Zhang Yuan opened his mouth, hesitated, and finally nodded after a long pause. "U-Understood."
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