Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 1144 - 972: Party Whip Candidate

Chapter 1144: Chapter 972: Party Whip Candidate

Although they had found the right path, Tencent’s gaming division could only be considered to be in its infancy in 2005.

Forget about the whole world; even within China’s gaming market, it was just "little brother"!

Ahead of Tencent were companies like Shanda Games, NetEase, ZT Online, Jiucheng, and Jiuyou!

Any one of these five companies held a much larger market share in the gaming sector compared to Tencent.

However, Little Brother Ma was confident and believed that with another three to five years, he could break into the top three rankings among domestic gaming enterprises!

After all, his company had Tencent as a powerful traffic magnet, an advantage that other companies did not possess.

The only potential problem was not finding or developing a blockbuster game.

In the end, players in the gaming market came for the games, and no matter how much traffic you have, if you can’t retain or convert the players, it’s futile.

Those higher-ranked gaming companies all had representative games with core competitive forces.

But Wang Ye did not rush the growth; he simply observed and let Tencent develop on its own. As long as the general direction was correct, the company would eventually thrive.

"By the way, how is the Facebook project coming along?" Wang Ye asked.

Facebook Inc had already reached a collaboration agreement with Tencent to jointly establish Facebook China Company, with Facebook providing technology and licensing while Tencent supplied the hardware, personnel support, and handled the operations.

Tencent held the majority of the shares.

This was also to comply with domestic regulations and avoid future complications.

When it came to the Facebook project, Little Brother Ma’s smile grew even brighter. Facebook was a piece of his "online social empire" puzzle that complemented Tencent’s software without competing against it.

Given that Facebook was experiencing robust growth abroad, and imitators had already emerged in China, Little Brother Ma was also very optimistic about Facebook’s development in the country.

Of course, the most important aspect was the control that Tencent had over Facebook China Company!

In the future, once it developed, the biggest beneficiary would be Tencent Company.

"Progress is going smoothly. The server room and everything else are ready, and it has passed two rounds of technical testing. It can officially go online for operations very soon.

When the time comes, we’ll do pop-up promotions through Tencent software and have also secured homepage advertisements from several major portals, as well as search engine ads."

Anyway, when that time arrives, every person in China who goes online will know that such a website exists!" Little Brother Ma said with full confidence.

This was his assurance.

When promoting a new Internet project, owning massive traffic allowed Tencent to achieve great results at a very low cost.

Other Internet companies did not have this advantage...

Wang Ye nodded. For him, the future financial returns from his investments in Internet companies like Tencent, JD.com, and Facebook were no longer significant.

Even without these investments, the wealth he could accumulate from his other physical enterprises was already more than he could spend in several lifetimes...

Now, what he valued more was perhaps personal influence, as well as his development in the political arena...

After all, being just a wealthy businessman could sometimes be more of a curse than a blessing, and might even bring immense trouble.

One only had to look at the former Russian oligarchs to see...

Nearly none of them remained active now.

Khodorkovsky had retired behind the scenes and was busy with philanthropy.

A Bu, on the other hand, had taken refuge in London and rarely returned to his country. His role as Governor of Chukotka was more of a safety net, perhaps.

A Bu didn’t make much money in Chukotka; on the contrary, he spent quite a bit there.

He financed many infrastructural improvements for the regional government, all out of his own pocket!

According to him, it was giving back to his hometown elders, but in reality, it was virtually a monetary donation to the state in exchange for his own safety...

Other oligarchs fared even worse; their downfalls were mostly tragic.

One could say that in Russia today, there was only one person who could truly be called an oligarch—Wang Ye!

Moreover, the wealth he controlled far exceeded that of the older generation of oligarchs.

Just looking at the range of companies under his banner told the story: energy, minerals, aviation, automobiles, Internet, investments...

In fact, how much Wang Ye’s actual net worth amounted to was a question that no one could answer!

Not even Wang Ye himself had an exact figure.

But everyone in the know understood that the amount was truly staggering...

Commanding such a significant fortune, Wang Ye’s continued safety was due to more than his identity as a mere businessman.

He not only held a high position with considerable power but had also entangled his interests with several of Russia’s most potent forces through various means.

By now, he could virtually be described as "fully fledged," and those who dared move against him were few and far in between. Before making a move, they needed to weigh whether they could withstand Wang Ye’s counterattack!

Of course, without major conflicts of interest, nobody would rashly target Wang Ye.

After all, there were not many qualified to challenge him to begin with...

......

After handling matters with Tencent, Wang Ye’s trip back to China came to a successful close.

Having revealed the secrets that weighed on his mind for several years to his parents, Wang Ye felt a sense of relief. As for whether his mom and dad could digest the news quickly, that was beyond his control...