From obscurity to worth tens of billions, the "game life" of a top student at Tsinghua University

“If a game cannot be exported, we will not make it.”

“Living in China, a country with 1.4 billion people, it is impossible to achieve remarkable achievements without superhuman efforts and dedication... …”

“The United States is a cultural center, or a highland. Only by occupying the commanding heights can we make good games.”

——Chi Yufeng

In 2006, Chinese artist Liu Yifei and supermodel Lin Chiling joined forces to endorse the Xianxia online game "Perfect World". Their otherworldly temperament made this game so popular that it quickly "captured" the hearts of millions of players. The well-made "Perfect World" has also become another "god-level" online game after "World of Warcraft" and "Legend".

The outstanding performance of the online game "Perfect World" has made the team and company behind it famous. All the praise naturally fell on the company founder Chi Yufeng.

In 1971, Chi Yufeng was born in an ordinary working-class family in Xiangyang, Hubei Province. Although his family background was average, his parents gave Chi Yufeng all the love.

Chi Yufeng did not "indulge" in his parents' love, but moved forward. In the end, he was admitted to the Chemistry Department of Tsinghua University with excellent results, completing his return to his parents.

After entering Tsinghua University, Chi Yufeng was extremely shining and was a celebrity in Tsinghua University at that time. Because he is a top student with both good character and academic performance, in addition to the admiration of the girls, he is also praised by the teachers.

What impressed him most was selling newspapers and opening factories. At that time, the Internet was not as popular as it is now, and newspapers were one of the main sources of information. Selling newspapers on campus is a good business, but he felt that selling newspapers in front of the stall would delay his studies, so he came up with the idea of ??"automatic newspaper vending".

He used a big box, put the newspaper inside, and wrote a slogan: "Automatic newspaper vending, 30 cents per copy, please pay voluntarily to get the newspaper." Although it is not a complicated design, it can be It was such a novel sales model at the time that other schools later followed suit.

This model allows him to earn more than 300 yuan a month. He is very happy and can cover several months of living expenses.

When he was in his senior year, he saw an advertisement for factory technology transfer. He happened to have some spare money, so he decisively bought it.

He formed a partnership with several classmates and spent more than 10,000 yuan to buy the equipment and technology of the factory. In the end, I found that I had been deceived, and the equipment I bought was far from the manufacturer's demonstration. It was not the case at all.

Similar to the franchise stores in today's society, they are highly publicized. Only when they wait to join the franchise do they realize that most of them have become lambs to be slaughtered, and they can only admit that they are unlucky.

After graduating from college, Chi Yufeng was assigned to Guangzhou Langqi Procter & Gamble Company. This is a detergent manufacturing company, and his chemistry major is very suitable for him. He started as a technician when he entered the company.

A few months later, the company leaders wanted to find an assistant to the general manager. When they saw Chi Yufeng, who had a degree from Tsinghua University, he immediately decided to appoint him and also provided opportunities for training abroad.

Unexpectedly, Chi Yufeng refused on the spot and resigned. He told his leader: "I have wanted to start a business for a long time. I came to the company to learn the management methods of large international companies and prepare for the future. I Sooner or later, you have to leave the company, so don’t bother to train me. I will leave even after I come back from abroad.”

In 1995, the Internet storm swept across the country, and computers and the Internet became a rarity. Take a look. At this time, Chi Yufeng took action again. In an ordinary shop in Shenzhen, he started a computer assembly business and named it "Hong En Computer". He earned hundreds of thousands of yuan in one year.

Just when business was booming, Chi Yufeng made another surprising move: he stopped doing it and looked for new opportunities.

In this way, after more than a year of hard work in business in Shenzhen, Chi Yufeng returned to Beijing.

When he was selling computers in Shenzhen, he discovered that many consumers of popular computers in China did not know how to operate them, and many people could not even turn them on.

His keen insight allowed him to detect another business opportunity: why not make a set of software to teach consumers how to use computers?

So, in 1996, Beijing Hongen Education Technology Co., Ltd. was born, and the products developed are still fresh in our memory: "Everything is worry-free", "Unimpeded", "Creation of the World", "Say What You Want" English" etc.

Although the name is "Everything is Carefree", in fact everything is difficult at the beginning. At that time, there was no extra money to start a business and hire professionals to dub the software, so Chi Yufeng did the dubbing and narration for the software himself. I guess many friends have noticed that sometimes there is the sound of car horns in the background of the software. That's because they're not professionals and sometimes the recording quality isn't good at all.

But this did not affect consumers' enthusiasm for purchasing at all. The products sold well and had an excellent reputation. In just three years, it was rated as the number one educational software brand in China by the China Software Association.

At the end of 1997, several students from Tsinghua University came to Chi Yufeng and showed him a simple 3D game, hoping that Chi Yufeng would invest in them.

Chi Yufeng’s eyes suddenly lit up: Can online games still be so exciting? He was moved! I am determined to make game software and join the game family.

Chi Yufeng’s style of doing things is to implement them immediately when he has an idea and not to be sloppy. In just 2 years, Hong En has launched two 3D games, "Freedom and Glory" and "Freedom and Glory 2".

This is also the earliest 3D online game in China. It was a great success once it was launched and was deeply loved by players.

In 2001, Chi Yufeng, who had made a prosperous career in the software industry, won the title of "Top Ten Outstanding Young People in China's Software Industry".

Seeing that games are so popular with the public, Chi Yufeng accelerated the pace of game development.

He felt: Since we want to make games, wouldn’t it be better to set up a game company specifically to develop and operate games?

In the same year, the 3D online game "Perfect World" was born. Chi Yufeng never expected that this game would become a masterpiece that conquered players at home and abroad. Comparable to "World of Warcraft" and "Legend" at the same time.

"Perfect World" was so successful that it instantly made the company and the team popular. Chi Yufeng struck while the iron was hot and mobilized personnel to increase game research and development efforts. In the past few years, many online game works have been launched, such as "Wulin Gaiden", "Zhu Xian 2", "Red Cliff", "Fantasy Zhu Xian", etc.

Each game can attract a large number of players and has an excellent reputation. The company grows bigger and bigger for a while.

In 2007, with the huge success of the game industry, Perfect World was listed on NASDAQ in the United States and became a listed company. That year, overseas game exports exceeded US$20 million.

But when he saw South Korea's game export volume of more than 1 billion US dollars at that time, Chi Yufeng sighed: "Compared with the Korean game industry, there is still a big gap."

< p> It just so happened that those few years were also a period of rapid development of network technology, and many online game companies were born in China.

Chi Yufeng felt the pressure after other Internet companies such as Shanda Network, Sohu Changyou, Giant Network, Tencent, and NetEase Games rushed to launch their own game works.

Since then, Perfect World has begun to engage in multiple business sectors such as film and television production, e-commerce operations, and game research and development.

In particular, the movie "Love Is Not Blind" produced by Perfect Company achieved a box office of 350 million yuan with a production cost of less than 10 million yuan, which is even more staggering.

He once again proved himself with his forward-thinking vision. After years of accumulation, Perfect World has become a huge business empire integrating film and television, games, entertainment, e-commerce, and e-sports, with a market value of hundreds of billions.

Chi Yufeng ranks among the world's richest people with a personal worth of more than 30 billion. He has fulfilled his promise: "To start a business, you must do things to increase wealth."