NABC Do you want to read Chapter 211? I have a big treasure here.
Do you want to read Chapter 211? I have a big treasure here.
When Lu Ran pushed open the door to Zhou Mingzhe's office, the technology partner was staring blankly at three screens.
On the left is the server load monitor, in the middle is the code editor, and on the right is the test screen of "Seven Heroes Jianghu".
Rainbow Cat is practicing the same combo repeatedly in the training ground, having done so at least fifty times.
"Brother Zhou," Lu Ran sat down next to him, "the server is giving another warning!"
Zhou Mingzhe adjusted his glasses and turned to another screen expressionlessly: "CPU usage is 92%, memory usage is 89%, and bandwidth is almost full. At this rate, it might crash during peak hours tonight."
"Then add it."
"Added." Zhou Mingzhe pulled up a bill. "We just added two more last week, and it's full again this week. At this rate, the server budget will double next month."
Lu Ran couldn't help but laugh at his meticulous and calculating manner.
He knew what Zhou Mingzhe was worried about—his previous startup had failed due to a broken funding chain, and that kind of shadow wasn't easy to shake off.
Lu Ran also knew that Zhou Mingzhe had no ulterior motives and was wholeheartedly committed to making Tutu Technology better and stronger.
But the current Tutu Technology is no longer the small workshop crammed into a residential building.
"Brother Zhou," Lu Ran said seriously, "I know you're afraid of spending money, but now is not the time to save money."
Zhou Mingzhe listened to Lu Ran's words, pondered them, and remained silent.
Lu Ran continued, "We're currently competing with Weibo for users. Do you know what users care about most? It's not whether the game is fun or not, it's whether it lags."
"What would a new user think if they downloaded TUTU, clicked on 'Happy Farm,' and it took ten seconds to load?"
"He'll uninstall it directly and then go to Weibo."
"We finally managed to win back some users from Weibo by using Baidu to drive traffic, relying on the 'rabbit' (a popular Weibo influencer) to keep them engaged, and leveraging 'Super Girl' to attract new users. But then, due to server lag, they all slipped away again?"
"Have you considered this?"
Zhou Mingzhe fell silent. He hadn't really considered the issue Lu Ran raised. He had always thought that he could just add more when it wasn't enough, which would save on expenses to the greatest extent possible.
But now that Lu Ran has raised this issue, Zhou Mingzhe thought about it and realized that he had indeed failed to consider it properly.
"You're right." He pushed up his glasses. "I was just narrow-minded."
"It's not that you're narrow-minded," Lu Ran patted his shoulder, "it's just that you're too frugal. But we're not short of money right now. We still have that ten million from Baidu in our account, the sponsorship revenue from 'Super Girl,' and the income from skins in 'Happy Farm.' Spend it when you need to, don't be stingy."
Zhou Mingzhe took a deep breath, picked up his phone, and made a call.
"Hey, cloud services, connect me with a key account manager...yes, right now...send the proposal to my email, I'll look at it now."
After hanging up the phone, he looked at Lu Ran: "Alright, rent a big one this time. I guarantee it won't be blocked for the next three months."
Lu Ran smiled: "That's right."
He stood up, preparing to leave, when he suddenly remembered something: "Oh right, while we're at it, let's add an automatic scaling mechanism. Automatically add servers during peak traffic periods and automatically reduce them during off-peak periods, so as not to waste too much money."
Zhou Mingzhe paused for a moment, then gave a thumbs up: "You're still a capitalist."
"This is called refined operation. You should learn it." Lu Ran waved his hand and walked out of the office.
...
However, the next morning, Lu Ran was still asleep when he was woken up by Shen Yuege outside the house.
Shen Yuege rushed into his bedroom, phone in hand: "Lu Ran, something's happened! Rabbit Technology is in trouble, you have to see!"
Lu Ran groggily opened his eyes: "What happened... our server crashed again?"
"No!" Shen Yuege shoved the phone into his hand. "There's something big going on on Weibo!"
Lu Ran took the phone; a trending topic was displayed on the screen:
[Weibo Games Center Launched! Five High-Quality Mini-Games to Play for Free!]
Clicking through, I found it was a small game studio recently acquired by Weibo, which had launched five mini-games:
Maze Adventure: A maze-solving game where players control a ball to navigate through a maze. The controls are simple, but the level design is ingenious.
Bejeweled: A match-3 puzzle game, but with more complex gameplay than typical match-3 games, featuring various special items and combo effects.
Quick Elimination: An elimination game that tests hand-eye coordination.
Memory Flip: A matching game that tests your memory.
Whack-a-Mole: Classic arcade gameplay, but with various quirky whack-a-mole designs.
These games on Weibo immediately generated tremendous buzz online upon their release:
"Holy crap, is Weibo really going to get into gaming?"
"I played that maze all morning, I just couldn't stop!"
"Bejeweled is almost as good as Candy Crush! I want more levels!"
"This time, Weibo has bundled all the mini-games together, which is really convenient to play. On the other hand, TUTU only has Farm Pets..."
"What's wrong with farm pets? Bunnies are a million times cuter than you guys!"
Lu Ran scrolled through the comments one by one, and most of them praised Weibo's move.
Of course, some loyal TUTU fans also argued with each other online, debating who was more fun.
But when Lu Ran opened TUTU's backend data and glanced at the daily active user curve, he understood immediately.
Since the launch of Weibo Games Center yesterday afternoon, TUTU's daily active users have been slowly declining.
Although the magnitude is small, the trend is obvious.
"Does Brother Zhou know?" he asked.
Shen Yuege nodded: "Zhou Mingzhe just messaged me saying he's been watching the data since early this morning. He said he wants you to come to the company."
"Why doesn't he call me?" Lu Ran asked curiously.
"You have the nerve to say that? Nobody answered your phone the whole time." Shen Yuege rolled her eyes at him, and he then realized that he had put his phone on Do Not Disturb mode before going to bed. He scratched his head sheepishly.
"Okay, I'm coming over now." Lu Ran didn't move. "Would you like to... avoid me?"
Looking at Lu Ran's bare upper body, Shen Yuege guessed that he probably wasn't wearing much on his lower body either.
But a mischievous glint rose in her eye, and as she walked, she chuckled and muttered to herself, "He won't even let me look, what a stingy guy."
Watching Shen Yuege close the door, Lu Ran was speechless and could only silently complain in his heart.
"You didn't say you wanted to see it, are you still going to look? I have a real treasure here!"
...