“Sheep Makes A Sheep” Goes Viral: The Founder Once Operated WeChat’s First Mini-game With A Monthly Revenue Exceeding 100 Million

Elimination games like "Tetris" and "Happy Match" have been played in new ways.

After 2 days of fermentation, on September 15th, "Sheep made a sheep, donkey made a donkey" and "Sheep made a sheep the third level" were still trending on Weibo. "Yang Le Ge Yang" has been on the hot search list for three days, and the server crashed three times. It attracted the attention of Weibo netizens and ranked first on the hot search list.

After experiencing it, Sohu Technology found that the rules of the "Sheep Make a Sheep" game are simple, but it is difficult to pass the level. When the player clicks on three bricks with the same graphics on the screen, the bricks will enter the slots at the bottom of the interface, and the three identical bricks will be eliminated. There can be up to 7 bricks in the slot, and you need to eliminate all the bricks to pass the level.

The difficulty of the game is that the blocks overlap each other. Only when the upper block is clicked into the slot will the block covered by it be activated. As the number of bricks and overlapping layers increases, the difficulty of the game increases exponentially.

The main page of the game "Sheep, a Sheep"

In addition, each level of the game has three auxiliary tools and a resurrection opportunity, which need to be shared with friends or obtained after watching relevant advertising push. Currently, embedded advertisers include ByteDance, Dingdong Maicai, Tmall, etc.

If the player passes the second level, he will join the "sheep flock" in the area. The more "sheep" in the "sheep flock", the more people will pass the level. The game uses regions as rankings to stimulate users' desire to win and lose with regional and collective sense of honor. Most of the players above said that the game is fast-paced, the simple "Match 3" has a low barrier to entry and can bring direct feedback. Some players also described the game as a "new opium".

"Yang Le Ge Yang" is ranked by region

In terms of game level settings, the game interface displays "one level per day". The first level is simple, but the difficulty of the second level soars. The number of overlapping layers of bricks is close to 20. Some netizens commented on the two levels, "The first level allows you to draw a circle, and the second level allows you to become Picasso."

The pass rate is only 0.2%. Some netizens said, "I haven't passed the level after playing for 7 hours."

"Yang Le Ge Yang" boasted on the WeChat mini-program introduction that "the clearance rate is less than 0.1%." Some netizens said, "I still haven't cleared the second level after playing it for seven hours."

With the popularity of the game, a large number of clearance strategies have appeared on Xiaohongshu and Weibo. Many users have questioned that the game cannot really be cleared, but is just a trick used by game developers to make users watch advertisements.

Some players found that there was a bug in the game, saying that at the end of the game they found that some bricks did not have 3 remaining and could not be eliminated. There is even a plug-in called "Sheep Makes a Sheep" on the Internet. According to Sohu Technology, this plug-in can achieve unlimited resurrections and use of props by replacing WeChat files on the computer.

There is a bug in the game "Sheep of a Sheep"

Luoski, a person in the game industry, once told the media that he had communicated with the team before, and the product was actually not finished yet. It became popular all of a sudden. The other party said that he did not buy the hot search.

According to the data displayed on the "Yang Le Ge Sheep" mini program, more than 41 million sheep participated in the challenge in just half a day on September 15. Only 40,000 sheep passed, and the clearance rate was only 0.09%.

Data from WeChat Index shows that the keyword "Yang Le Ge Yang" has been searched more than 4.09 million times on September 14, an increase of nearly 60 times compared to the previous day. On Weibo, the topic #杨婷格羊# has 180 million followers and nearly 200 million people discussing it. There are 6 topics in the Top 30 of Douyin's hot search list related to "Sheep has a sheep". The number of videos related to the topic #sheep legesheep has exceeded 350 million times, and its official Douyin account has reached 170,000 fans in 3 days. There are also heated discussions on platforms such as Mai.

According to calculations, even if the ecpm is calculated at a relatively low level of 10 yuan (one person watches 10 ads a day), this game can reach a daily revenue of one million yuan.

On September 14, the official Weibo of "Yang Le Ge Yang" stated that there is currently an abnormality in the server, which makes it impossible to log in to the game. The company is urgently investigating and repairing it. Please wait patiently. After the repair is completed, we will synchronize it with everyone as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding. At the same time, the official blog of "Yang Le Ge Yang" took advantage of the popularity to announce that "urgent recruitment of back-end server development" was announced, and stated that both recommendation and self-recommendation would be rewarded 5,000 yuan.

The team has less than 50 people. The founder once operated WeChat mini-game, the first product with monthly revenue exceeding 100 million yuan.

"Yang Le Ge Yang" was developed by Beijing Jianyou Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jianyou Technology"). According to public information, Jianyou Technology was established in January 2021 with a registered capital of approximately 1.17 million yuan. Legal representative Zhang Jiaxu, Xiamen Thunder Network Technology Co., Ltd., and Beijing Lexan Technology Co., Ltd. jointly hold shares. Zhang Jiaxu holds 85.5% of the shares, Thunder Games holds 10%, and LeShan Technology holds 4.5%.

Equity penetration chart of Beijing Jianyou Technology Co., Ltd.

It is understood that Jianyou Technology focuses on leisure and social tracks. The team is composed of Zhang Jiaxu, the producer of "The Pirates Are Coming" and core members. The company has less than 50 people. According to its 2021 annual report, the number of insured people is only 7, and the office The location is located in the office of Longqi Square, Changping District, Beijing.

As a small start-up company, Jianyou Technology received investment from Thunder Network in June last year. It is worth mentioning that "The Pirates Are Coming" is the first WeChat mini-game product to have a monthly revenue of over 100 million, with daily active users reaching 25 million.

Thunder Network is a subsidiary of the A-share listed game company Gigabit () and is the publisher of "Moore Manor" and "Obi Island". According to the data, Gigabyte became a shareholder in June 2022 and holds 10% of the shares of Jianyou Technology, making it the second largest shareholder.

After "Yang Le Ge Yang" became popular, Gigabyte responded to investors saying that it had paid attention to the game. The game was developed by Gigabit's joint-stock company, and the investment ratio was not high. The related income will be reflected in Gigabit's investment income.

Public information shows that Jianyou Technology has registered the software copyright for "Yang Le Ge Yang". The game was first published on June 13, and the registration approval date was July 29. In addition, the company has also registered software copyrights for Wandering Pet Home, Moon Village, Crazy Wipe, and Rescue the Watermelon.

After the game became popular, it also caused plagiarism controversy. On September 14, some netizens discovered that this little game was suspected of plagiarism. Judging from the exposed game screen, the gameplay of "Sheep of a Sheep" is almost the same as that of "Sheep", the only difference is the icons of bricks in the game. In response to this, the official response of "Sheep's Sheep" stated, "The game uses the most basic gameplay. If the 'make three in a row' gameplay is considered plagiarism, then there are too many such games, and the company will not pay attention to it. , users naturally have their own judgment.” In addition, another game developed by the company, “Rescue Big Watermelon,” was also considered to have plagiarized the previously popular game “Synthetic Big Watermelon.”

game interface

Previous similar games such as "Synthetic Watermelon", "Traveling Frog" and "2048" have all briefly become popular. "Sheep's Sheep" uses simple game rules to take advantage of users' mentality "I will definitely be able to pass it next time", allowing users to challenge repeatedly. Products designed for users' similar psychology also include Pinduoduo's cash withdrawal mechanism. Some game marketing scholars believe that by controlling the difficulty of the game, game developers appropriately arouse players' negative emotions and guide players to make comments based on negative emotions such as "posting complaints on Weibo," "watching ads," "repeated challenges," and even "paying." Behavior.

"It's Really Convenient!" Liantang Port Becomes The First Land Port In Shenzhen And Hong Kong With The Concept Of "direct Access For People And Vehicles"

At 6:30 in the morning on February 6, Mr. Li (known as Brother Hu), a motorcycle enthusiast from Hong Kong, set off from Yuen Long and rode his motorcycle to the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Port. He put down the car and walked to the Port Joint Inspection Building to start. Clearance. He said: "You can ride a motorcycle directly to the parking lot of the Heung Yuen Wai Port. There are no restricted areas like other ports in Hong Kong. It is so convenient to clear customs at the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Port!" On that day, the Liantang Port also had a new look. Open to tourists from Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Passengers entering through Liantang Port took photos one after another.

Brother Hu runs catering companies in Hong Kong and the Mainland. He used to travel frequently between Hong Kong and the Mainland to inspect market trends. He said that the opening of the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Port travel inspection channel means that he no longer has to pass through Shenzhen city when traveling from Hong Kong to Huizhou, Shantou and other eastern Shenzhen areas, and does not have to worry about traffic jams on Shennan Avenue and Binhe Avenue. What excites him most is the "parking and customs clearance" function of Hong Kong's Heung Yuen Wai Port.

"I rode a motorcycle from Yuen Long to the Heung Yuen Wai Port. It took me 15 minutes to reach the parking lot below the port." Brother Hu said that the facilities at the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Port are very complete and the instructions are very clear. Motorcycles and private cars There are a lot of parking spaces. "After parking, you can take the elevator upstairs to clear customs. There is no need to use other means of transportation."

The reporter learned that the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Port is the first land port between Shenzhen and Hong Kong to adopt the concept of "direct access for people and vehicles". In other words, passengers traveling from Hong Kong to Shenzhen can, in addition to taking public transportation, drive a private car or reach the port directly through the pedestrian tunnel connecting the port. There are parking lots at both Hong Kong and Shenzhen ports to facilitate passengers to clear customs directly after parking.

"I woke up early, but I didn't expect that I would waste time by cleaning up and not be the first to clear the level." Brother Hu said. Reporters saw at the scene that Hong Kong citizen Cai Jiayang, who arrived in Shenzhen at 7:05 that day, had a camera hanging around his neck and became the "first person to enter the country." He said: "You can go directly to eastern Shenzhen from Liantang Port. You don't need to take the subway at Luohu Port, which saves a lot of time." Cai Jiayang chose to go through customs through Liantang Port this time because he wanted to come and experience the new port. He planned to go there later. Go to the scenic spots in eastern Shenzhen.

Cai Jiayang, the first inbound passenger at Liantang Port.

The wish wall at Liantang Port is filled with travelers’ wishes and blessings.

Hong Kong Longfang Club cyclist Fang Zheqing, who arrived in the Shenzhen area a few minutes later than Cai Jiayang, and club president Wen Yuan pushed mountain bikes into the country. Fang Zheqing told reporters that eastern Shenzhen has rich tourism resources and is particularly suitable for cycling. "I haven't been here for 3 years. It's very convenient now. Let's explore the road conditions first." Fang Zheqing said excitedly, "You need to remove the wheels to take the MTR at other ports. But when you go through customs at Liantang Port, you don't need to remove the bicycle tires. It's convenient for us to ride the MTR. You are very friendly and I came all the way here!”

The reporter saw at Liantang Port at 7 o'clock that day that 16 passenger manual inspection channels, 48 ​​passenger express lanes and 8 small (passenger) vehicle inspection channels were officially opened according to established arrangements. Liantang Border Inspection will strengthen communication and coordination with all parties based on passenger and vehicle flow conditions to maintain efficient operation of port customs clearance. In the departure hall, Mr. Wang, a citizen living in Pingshan, Shenzhen, also got up early and rushed from home to Liantang Port carrying a suitcase. He said that the Liantang Port greatly facilitates residents living in the eastern part of Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

A trio of Wenyuan cyclists pushed their mountain bikes into Shenzhen.

It is reported that the freight customs clearance service at Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Port was launched on August 26, 2020. It is an important part of the implementation of the "east in and east out, west in and west out" layout of cross-border freight transportation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The port connects to the eastern Shenzhen transit channel, greatly reducing the driving time between the two places, and cooperates with the Shenzhen Bay Port to the west to make cross-border logistics between Shenzhen and Hong Kong smoother. In the past two and a half years, a total of 840,000 trucks have passed through the port. The opening of the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Port travel inspection channel has also further improved the efficiency of personnel flow between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, eastern Guangdong, and neighboring provinces, and plays a strategic linkage role in the overall construction of the Greater Bay Area.

The opening of the travel inspection channel has also made personnel exchanges in eastern Shenzhen and Hong Kong more convenient and closer. Brother Hu said: "I have many friends in Shenzhen. They go to the tea restaurant here to have morning tea and lunch. Today I will meet my friends and ride a motorcycle back to Hong Kong in the afternoon!"

After Losing 300 Million And Giving Away Hundreds Of Games, Has Epic Entered Your Gaming World?

Some time ago, I discovered a very interesting thing while surfing over the wall. If you open Twitter and search for Epic CEO Tim, his homepage has the air of Trump in the gaming industry.

It’s not derogatory, I mean, why did Trump talk about “CHINA!” in the first place, and that’s how Tim talked about “Apple”.

Some time ago, he was a bit narcissistic and changed his personal profile to "".

Basically, if you open his Twitter at any time, you can see Apple or the App Store in the last few tweets. Or they criticize the App Store sharing policy, scold Apple for not allowing other companies' products to compete fairly in the App Store, or forward others' comments criticizing Apple.

If you want to ask, how long has his symptoms lasted? As far as I know, on August 18 last year, at least a few months before Epic released a short video that satirized Apple's 1984 advertising ad and removed "Fortnite" from the App Store, Tim had already started on various occasions. Intensive bombing of Apple.

Today, the war between these two giants does not stop. As the "war" gradually enters a critical stage in court, both sides continue to attack each other.

A few days ago, Apple revealed in lawsuit documents that according to their estimates, Epic Mall lost US$273 million last year and will lose US$139 million this year. And Apple believes that the Epic Store will not be profitable until 2027. The main reason for the loss is that Epic’s free games have been recognized by players as traditional entertainment.

In order to gain market share, Epic Store started the strategy of "exclusive + free games" very early. In the beginning, the games given away for free were mainly high-quality independent games and second-tier AAA games. Until last year's free gift of "GTA5", it marked the acceleration of Epic Store's strategy of giving away games for free.

Correspondingly, players' resentment towards Epic has gradually dissipated. At the beginning, Epic's exclusivity strategy aroused the disgust of many people, because exclusivity means that after occupying a major market share, the Epic platform will have a high probability of transforming into a behemoth that relies on its monopoly position to attract blood game manufacturers and players at the same time. If you include Unreal Engine, one of the most popular game development tools in the world owned by Epic, then their monopoly is terrifying.

But the continuous free games have successfully reversed Epic's reputation. From "Everyone Shouting" to "Epic Yes", the price is the loss of 273 million US dollars, and the loss of several hundred million US dollars will continue.

Having said that, reversing word-of-mouth is one of the tasks that Epic has successfully completed, but it is not their core goal of delivering games. How to grab players from Steam and achieve a rivalry between the two platforms, or even crush them, is what Epic wants to do most after giving away the game.

So did they do it?

In January last year, operational data released by Epic Mall showed that the number of registered accounts had reached 300 million, of which 108 million accounts had downloaded at least one game (free or paid) from Epic Mall. So it can be considered that there are 108 million effective users. The number of monthly active users announced in May reached 60 million.

By December last year, under the same filtering conditions, the number of Epic Mall users reached 160 million, an increase of nearly 60 million. But the number of monthly active users is 56 million, which is 4 million less than in May. The number of users of Epic Mall has increased, but the number of monthly active users has decreased?

This phenomenon is the issue we are going to discuss today.

Previous institutional data showed that the clearance rate of stand-alone games is around 30%, and some open world games perform even worse in this regard. 2077 was launched at the end of last year. So far, the Steam version has unlocked the "World" achievement, which means that the proportion of players who have completed the main plot is 31%.

At the same time, this also shows that there are not many people who actually bought the game after the "buy-out" and completed it. Except for those who are successful and fast-passing, the main motivation for ordinary players to clear the game is: they think the game is fun, or they feel that if they don't pass the level, the money they spend will be wasted. There are many players who have more or less "braced the bullet" and finished the game just for the money they spent.

And a large part of the players who bought games from Epic for nothing are not actually playing these games. Because there is no sunk cost of paying for the game, this group of players no longer have a strong desire to play, let alone clear the level.

For example, I myself have typical squirrel syndrome in reality. When I saw that there were games that I could get for free, I couldn’t control my hands and signed up for the Epic Mall, and got all kinds of games like crazy. However, apart from purchasing games, I almost never open the Epic Mall, and the total game time is probably only a few hours.

A friend of mine with more obvious symptoms, whose total inventory of Steam and Epic games has exceeded 1,000, still checks various Xi Plus One information on time every week. For him, whether it is a small game with a first-level bonus or a large game sent by Epic, the meaning of saving it is the same. Once I miss a few items, I feel uncomfortable all over.

Therefore, although Epic has attracted many players by giving away games, not enough of these players spend time on the Epic platform. Either some gamers have already played the game after watching a lot of videos and live broadcasts, and no longer want to play it in person, or they are freeloaders and squirrel syndrome players who no longer have any reason to be afraid of wasting money after receiving the game. these games.

As a result, although the total number of users has increased, the number of truly effective users, the group of loyal users who often use the platform, has not increased proportionally.

This problem has not even changed significantly due to the increase in value and quality of the games given away. It would be fine if the games that Epic gave away were all high-quality independent games that have been around for several years and are not large in size. When free games have been upgraded to the level of GTA and Civilization, there are still many players who have not played them.

(Because I have no way to get more detailed operating data, the phenomenon of "receiving the game but not playing it" can only remain at the level of blind guessing, and it must be left to the readers to discuss.)

Starting from the form of stand-alone games, another reason that may lead to Epic's inefficiency in grabbing the market is the lack of enough leading online games.

Don't underestimate this. In November 2016, the proportion of Simplified Chinese players on Steam accounted for only 8.6% of all players. In November 2017, the proportion of Simplified Chinese players unexpectedly increased to 64.35%. The most critical factor is the popularity of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds".

Although everyone knows that there are certain differences between the audiences of online games and stand-alone games, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" has allowed more Chinese players to come into contact with Steam for the first time, or become loyal users of Steam for the first time. In the following years, some of these people gradually changed from pure gun enthusiasts and online game players to loyal users who are willing to spend money on both stand-alone and online games.

The social nature of online games will also strengthen this traffic-generating effect. Games like Fall Bean Man and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds attracted some players after their popularity, and these players brought more friends to join. The social fission communication effect of online games is exactly what stand-alone games do not have.

This kind of "online game driving" has been implemented on many platforms. For example, domestic platforms can still have a huge number of users relying on their status as LOL launchers, even though the content of the mall cannot be compared with overseas platforms. Epic has also relied on "Fortnite" overseas to achieve a double harvest in terms of user numbers and revenue. The two giants of Steam’s first-party online games, the free CSGO and DOTA2, are also the first games for many Steam players.

In order for platform users to develop usage habits, they must spend more time on the platform. Online games, which have a longer average play time than stand-alone games and can be spread among players, are one of the most direct methods.

In addition to these, there is another very important factor, which is the experience of using the Epic Mall. Some foreign netizens specially made a chart to show the many shortcomings of EGS in front of Steam.

As can be seen from the table, EGS (Epic Game Store) does not have some of Steam's very popular and practical functions, such as item trading, account sharing, live streaming, streaming to other devices, etc.

So far, the most praiseworthy thing about Epic Mall is probably its very simple interface. Of course, simplicity is partly because the Steam interface is old and bloated, and partly because it doesn’t have many of Steam’s features. After all, it’s very simple to remove ads.

After being pointed out by Apple as "losing money" in court, Tim tweeted to refute, saying that Epic's current money loss is just an investment in the future.

I still suggest you find a way to keep the prostitutes here first.