Love? The Reborn Me Just Wants to Obtain Rewards
Chapter 922 - 381: The First Richest Post-90s Individual_2

Chapter 922: Chapter 381: The First Richest Post-90s Individual_2

The success of *King* gave everyone at Tencent an illusion — the horse-racing strategy is the ultimate way forward, far superior to Alibaba’s centralized model.

Thus, the Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG) began replicating this path.

They acquired four of the top five game livestreaming companies in the market and attempted to secure Xingyu in their grasp to fully integrate the entire industry chain.

Did Li Chaohui fail to reach an agreement with Su Huai only due to pricing issues?

No, pricing was just one aspect; he wanted more shares as well.

Su Huai could have offered a discount in exchange for Tencent’s resources, but there was no way he would agree to give Tencent 30% or more equity — that was the real point of contention.

Today, Ma spent his time emphasizing how optimistic he was about Xingyu. At its core, though, it wasn’t about negotiating price but demonstrating his sincerity toward deep cooperation.

"I can give you more shares, but, Mr. Ma, are you prepared to allow Xingyu to become a de facto external branch of IEG?"

Su Huai’s question left Ma momentarily speechless.

After a long pause, Ma sighed and said, "Your confidence is truly breathtaking."

Su Huai shrugged. "Because taking down Douyu and Huya isn’t hard. As long as you don’t show favoritism and give me another year, Xingyu can dominate the entire industry and then expand into gaming and esports."

Ma was intrigued. "Do you have a concrete plan?"

"I do, but I can’t share it with you."

"Hahaha!"

Ma burst into laughter and then shifted the topic. "If it’s just 10% equity, then we’d have to show favoritism."

Su Huai again made a bold statement: "You can’t handle it."

"Oh?" Ma turned his gaze to the distance, masking the ripple of emotion in his eyes, and said nonchalantly, "What do you mean by that?"

Su Huai wasn’t just bluffing; he had the facts to back his words.

He replied with a carefree smile, "In the information stream sector, *Toutiao* (Today’s Headlines) is racing towards 100 million daily active users, yet Tencent still hasn’t clarified the differentiations among *Daily Quick News*, *QQ Highlights*, and *QQ Browser Highlights.*

In the B2B services sector, Alibaba Cloud already operates as an independent company, fully capitalizing on the cloud boom, while Tencent Cloud is still fragmented within its business units as just one of many services.

In the short video field, Tencent owns 15 products scattered like grains of sand, yet combined they still can’t compete with either Kuaishou or Douyin alone.

With so many fronts already lost, how much energy do you still have left for the livestreaming arena?

Even if you did, on those platforms that are entirely incapable of sustaining themselves, how exactly would they challenge my Xingyu?

Mr. Ma, times have changed. Your horse-racing model no longer works. Insisting on dragging Xingyu into the ring will only result in us claiming it all, while IEG is sidelined.

Just settle for being a financial investor. Livestreaming as a sector—you folks just can’t master it."

Though Su Huai’s words were harsh, Ma had no rebuttal. His proprietary platforms were indeed like "prodigal sons" who couldn’t hold their ground, and his investments were now cornered by the rise of Xingyu.

But he didn’t lose his temper. Instead, he heaped praise on Su Huai while continuing to probe for information.

"Xingyu is indeed impressive, which is precisely why Chaohui and the others are so eager to collaborate with you. Do you really think this industry can’t accommodate both of us developing together?"

"It can." Su Huai raised an eyebrow. "As long as you only focus on earning IPO profits and don’t try to interfere, then it can."

"You, you... too young and hot-headed."

Ma patted Su Huai on the shoulder and laughed softly.

This wasn’t a lecture, just a sigh.

Before Su Huai could respond, Ma quickly followed up with another question: "Do you truly believe Tencent’s current horse-racing strategy is no longer suited to this era?"

Su Huai’s punch hit air, but he didn’t mind.

When dealing with someone at Ma’s level, what did it matter if he was hard to handle? That’s exactly what made it interesting.

Besides, Su Huai wasn’t aiming for an outright victory. A draw would suffice.

He relaxed his posture and shared a few sincere thoughts.

"It’s not entirely incompatible with the era; it’s just unsuitable for certain tracks.

Take short video and livestreaming platforms, for example—they both prioritize content creation and are people-centric. Let me give you an analogy: if you dismantled your Qidian Chinese Network, broke its authors into 15 parts, and scattered them across 15 platforms to write, would your horse-racing strategy still work?

In the content creation domain, only by consolidating resources can you achieve economies of scale.

Livestreaming is no different. The problem isn’t that there are too few platforms but that there are too many. If there were only three giant platforms, would Xingyu have had the opportunity to rise?

But now that Xingyu has risen, our goal is to invert the hierarchy—leaving only three platforms in the market, and those three platforms will be chosen, controlled, and dominated by us."

Ma stared at the exuberant young man, filled with a sense of awe and astonishment he couldn’t put into words.

Su Huai’s explanation was simple yet struck at the heart of the matter.

The content creation industry isn’t about individual products—why play horse-racing?

Fragmentation only invites others to pick you off one by one, not to mention the massive resource attrition it causes.

Ma almost instantly accepted Su Huai’s logic and began reflecting on it.

In truth, even without Su Huai’s input, by September 30th of this year, Tencent would have initiated an internal reform, dissolving the "horse-racing" system starting with "merging similar projects."

But since Su Huai had brought it up, Ma acknowledged the favor.

"Thanks for the reminder—it really resonated with me. And also..."

Ma gave a thumbs-up. "Your ambition far exceeds mine at your age. Truly impressive!"

"Thank you."

Su Huai was polite for only a second before winking playfully. "So, want to join the ride? You guys can’t handle livestreaming—I’ll be your pilot!"

...

In May, Xingyu and Tencent reached a deep cooperation agreement.

Xingyu spun off its overseas subsidiary to become an independent entity, offering Tencent 20% equity in the newly formed Xingyu.

In return, Xingyu acquired 20% equity in both Douyu and Huya, 15% of Xinli, 10% of Yuewen Group and Tencent Video, as well as 2.5 billion US dollars in cash.