Chapter 625: The Hot Arcade Machine

On the first day of the premiere, the feedback in the cinema was good, and many media also interviewed the audience and got very good conclusions. This immediately attracted the attention of many media, and many reporters were also very optimistic about this new movie of 20th Century Fox;
The next day, some newspapers in Los Angeles also gave very high reviews to Enter the Dragon: Street Storm. The reviews in these newspapers are also an important basis for many viewers to decide which movies to watch. If they all praise the movie, they are likely to buy it and try it out, and vice versa.
Of course, the most important thing is the box office, but in this era, there is no efficient information flow speed of the Internet, and box office statistics cannot be counted in one day or a few days. Generally, there will be statistics after a week, and then after the movie is taken off the shelves;

However, even if the theaters do not know the overall data, they can still decide how many screenings to schedule based on their own performance and feedback from the industry, and the various data of "Enter the Dragon: Street Storm" are all perfect.

Yang Wendong, Zou Wenhuai and others also knew about this situation. In a good mood, they immediately invited all the more than 100 Chinese employees who had studied and worked in Los Angeles for more than half a year to come to the InterContinental Hotel to enjoy the various services there, all for free.
Compared to the box office revenue of the movie, these are just a fraction.

It will take at least one or two months for the total box office results of a movie to come out. The American market is so large that even the release times of movies in the East and West are not exactly the same. This is different from Hong Kong movies.

While cinemas in many cities were busy preparing for the release of "Enter the Dragon: Street Storm", Yang Wendong once again came to a large warehouse in Silicon Valley.

"Are the 600 arcade machines here the first batch we need to sell?" Yang Wendong asked, looking at the items displayed in the warehouse.

Wang Zhiqun replied: "Yes, Mr. Yang, these were produced in Hong Kong in October and then sent to the United States. They just arrived two days ago."

"The speed is a bit slow. Next time, we can consider directly using air transportation. Time is also a cost." Yang Wendong said after thinking for a while.

The price of air freight is more than ten times that of sea freight, but sea freight is not cost-effective in all cases. If the time saved is long enough to allow the company's capital turnover to be faster, then air freight is obviously cost-effective.

In the past, Apple phones were assembled in mainland China and then shipped to the United States by air. Otherwise, if they were shipped by sea, even if it was free, Apple would lose money.

Wang Zhiqun agreed: "Okay, Mr. Yang, I will discuss this matter with Cathay Pacific."

Yang Wendong asked again: "Have these devices been tested?"

Wang Zhiqun replied: "They have all been tested in Hong Kong, but after transportation, we still need to test them again in the United States. Only after they are confirmed will they be sent out."

"Have you found the customer?" Yang Wendong asked.

Wang Zhiqun shook his head and said, "There are basically no customers at the moment, because our selling price is as high as $1800, which is two or three months' income for many normal people. The bar is simply unwilling to buy it, so I can only say that I will put the game machine there first, and then the bar customers will charge to play the game, and then send someone to open the boxes every day, and split the money in half."

"Well, this is indeed the only way to start." Yang Wendong nodded and asked, "But if this is the case, it will require a lot of labor costs, right?"

Wang Zhiqun said: "In the short term, it's nothing. We are all our own people. We just need to do a little more work. One person is responsible for 20 units, so we need 30 people.

But in the long run, we still have to sell the game consoles to the boss. It is the boss's job to make money in the future, and we only need to make money from the game consoles themselves."

Yang Wendong said, "Okay, let's try this first. Let's choose an American bar and see if people there like this game."

Wang Zhiqun smiled and said, "Okay, there is a bar on Rodeo Drive that was bought by Lin Youqiang. It is specially used for testing games. We can go there and take a look."

Rodeo Drive is a famous commercial avenue in Los Angeles. It has a developed economy and many tourists. The bar culture in the United States is full of bars, so naturally there are many bars on this avenue.

"Bought a bar? That's convenient." Yang Wendong nodded, he didn't care.

This kind of thing doesn't cost much. Generally speaking, the person in charge who is far away overseas has the right to do this kind of thing, but it still needs to be reported to the headquarters office. There is no need to apply deliberately, just mention it;
And this kind of thing is even less likely to end up on Yang Wendong's desk, otherwise he would be very busy.

Looking around the warehouse, he saw many technicians from Hong Kong debugging equipment. Yang Wendong also personally participated in playing with a few machines. The content was still a bit boring for him, so after playing for a while, he left.

At night, Yang Wendong, Wang Zhiqun, Aying, several assistants and bodyguards came to an underground bar on Rodeo Drive;

Lin Youqi explained, "Mr. Yang, every inch of land on Rodeo Drive is worth a lot of money. The first floor is basically full of luxury stores. Although the bar business is okay, it can't compare to these industries. Therefore, many bars on prosperous avenues in the United States are on the underground floor."

"It's okay. Bars usually need to be secretive." Yang Wendong naturally wouldn't care about this: "But since it's ours, we have to pay attention to fire protection." Lin Youqi smiled and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Yang. The Los Angeles government has very strict control over bars. It's the same here. We strictly require fire protection issues. For our bar, making money is not the first goal. As long as we don't lose money, we will still invest a lot in fire protection."

"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded, and then said: "Give each of us some low-proof wine and some drinks to taste, and the security department will provide the drinks."

Although he doesn't really like drinking, he can still drink very low-proof alcohol as a beverage, and it's okay to taste it occasionally;
Sometimes in life, you have to try something new, as long as it is not dangerous.

"I'll arrange it." Lin Youqing agreed.

Yang Wendong and others sat in front of the bar counter. From the side, they could see the six arcade machines lined up in a row in front of them. Many white men were watching curiously. There were two people playing each arcade machine at the moment.

"Ted, hurry up, it's my turn to play now."

“Matthew, do you think I’m as fast as you? Men can’t say they’re fast.”

"Fuck, let's have a one-on-one duel later to see who is better."

Many people were laughing nearby, while many were standing in line, gesticulating and directing the operator on what to do.

The game is charged by time. Regardless of whether you win or lose, as long as you toss a coin, you can play for a certain amount of time. However, the two players in the game will have a score, and this score is often the driving force behind the competition between the two sides.

The bar staff served Yang Wendong and the others drinks, and Yang Wendong just watched from the bar counter. Many people were still willing to put in 25-cent coins to play the game for a while, and some even came to the bar counter to exchange them.

25 cents is not a lot for the average American, and this is a bar. People who come here are not all rich, but their economic conditions are generally not bad.
Assistant Aying was also holding a notebook and a pen, recording the amount of money invested in several machines. After an hour, she said, "Mr. Yang, these six machines made a total of $6 in one hour."

"That's 4 dollars per hour, on average." Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "It's past 8 o'clock in the evening, the most active consumption time. Bars stay open until midnight, so even if it's 4 times the current hour, then the average daily income is 24 dollars?"

Lin Youqi replied: "About the same. The consumption in the evening is not as much as it is now."

Wang Zhiqun said: "The electricity cost per night is about 10 kWh, which is only a few dozen cents. It is not very expensive. According to this data, the bar owner can make back his investment in more than two months."

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "You can't calculate it that way. Many customers of this kind of small business are repeat customers. They will come to drink repeatedly, but they may not play this game repeatedly. If you give a discount, it will probably pay off in four to five months. For the bar owner, it will be very cost-effective."

For many small businesses, their main customers are the people around them. If they buy regular food or fruits, the more and more stable regular customers, the better. But if they only sell occasional new products, such as milk tea, people will stop eating it after a few times, and the business will fail.

This is a summary of the business experiences of some of Yang Wendong’s friends in his previous life.

"It's not bad to be able to make back the investment in four or five months." Lin Youcheng said: "There is no such good business in the world."

"It looks good at the moment." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Then we will distribute the arcade machines that are used during the day to bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, so that the bar owners can see the money-making power of our products.
If you can make enough money in front of them, they will be willing to spend money to buy it in the future.”

Generally, it’s good enough for a business to make back its investment within two years, but arcade machines are different because this thing will be updated very quickly and new games will come out. But once the new games are more interesting, who will still play these old games?
However, it is not the time yet. Yang Wendong's Changxing Industrial now controls everything, but theoretically other game companies will be born, and there will be others even if Atari is not there.

By then, it might be an era where hundreds of countries compete for supremacy.

Wang Zhiqun agreed and said: "Okay, I will arrange it right away. These arcade machines will be delivered to the bar areas tomorrow."

"Okay, then I'll wait for your good news." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)

previouscatalognext