陳民亮：我的工作就是打游戲

Gamers can dispatch evildoers in a nanosecond on a Razer laptop. But it takes Min-Liang Tan, the company’s founder and chief executive, more than an hour to travel 4km from Hong Kong’s Central district to the bustling Causeway Bay.

游戲玩家在雷蛇(Razer)筆記本電腦上可以瞬間干掉惡人。但雷蛇公司的創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官陳民亮(Min-Liang Tan)花了一個多小時才完成了從香港中環(huán)到熱鬧的銅鑼灣的4公里路程。

He was at the mercy of a rogue Uber driver who took a detour off Hong Kong island and, unperturbed at wasting the lawyer-turned-gaming tycoon’s time, suggested they grab some lunch together (he declined).

他對無賴的優(yōu)步(Uber)司機無可奈何，后者在香港島上繞路，泰然自若地浪費著這位曾當(dāng)過律師的游戲大亨的時間，并建議他們一起隨便吃點午飯(他拒絕了)。

Mr Tan, 39, confesses to fretting — he would not be the first businessman to be spirited away from Hong Kong soil — but he has made a few career detours.

39歲的陳民亮承認(rèn)自己很惱火——他不是第一個在香港土地上被耍的商人——但他的職業(yè)生涯也繞過不少路。

He trained and practised as an intellectual property lawyer in Singapore. His parents told him and his three siblings they had two career choices: law or medicine. Two became lawyers, two doctors. “I didn’t tell them [about the career change] until a year-and-a-half later. By the time they figured it out, it was too late,” he concedes. He splits his time between Singapore, where he has citizenship, and San Francisco.

他在新加坡學(xué)習(xí)并成為了一名知識產(chǎn)權(quán)律師。他的父母告訴他們兄弟姐妹四人稱，他們有兩種職業(yè)選擇：律師或醫(yī)生。結(jié)果兩人成了律師，兩人成了醫(yī)生。“我直到一年半之后才告訴他們(改行的事)。等他們弄明白時，已經(jīng)太晚了，”他坦言。他一般往返于新加坡(他是新加坡公民)和舊金山。

Now worth $700m, according to Forbes, Mr Tan has secured the backing of leading investors. These include Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing; Lee Hsien Yang, youngest son of Singapore’s first prime minister, as well as those who have grown rich on the back of such Asian staples as clove cigarettes, McDonald’s burgers and banks. Razer is due to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange next month.

如今身家7億美元(據(jù)福布斯(Forbes)的數(shù)據(jù))的陳民亮得到了主要投資人的支持。他們包括香港大亨李嘉誠(Li Ka-shing);新加坡第一任總理的次子李顯揚(Lee Hsien Yang);以及那些做丁香香煙等亞洲特色大宗商品、麥當(dāng)勞(McDonald’s)漢堡和銀行發(fā)家的大亨。雷蛇將于11月在港交所上市。

Min-Liang Tan’s guide to gamer terms

陳民亮游戲詞匯指南

Leet — Elite, meaning top gamers

Leet——精英(Elite)，指頂級玩家

GG — Good game

GG——打得不錯(Good game)

GLHF — Good luck, have fun

GLHF——好運，玩得盡興(Good luck, have fun)

FTW — For the win!

FTW——必勝!(For the win!)

Pwned — a modification of “owned” — as in “you’ve been owned” — when an opponent has been defeated Pwned——“所屬”(owned，比如“你歸我了”)的變體，打敗對手時使用

Yet in spite of wooing some of Asia’s wiliest investors, Mr Tan says one of his biggest challenges has been making investors understand his company, which makes money off gamers but does not make games — and the fact that the gaming community is its own mega demographic that comprises about one-third of the world’s population.

不過，盡管雷蛇爭取到了亞洲部分最狡黠的投資人，但陳民亮稱他面臨的最大的挑戰(zhàn)之一是讓投資人理解他的公司(從游戲玩家身上賺錢，但不制作游戲)，以及明白一個事實——游戲群體就是該公司龐大的目標(biāo)客戶群，約占全世界人口的三分之一。

“We are the arms merchant of gaming,” he says, perched on a cuboid felt stool in Razer’s store. “We are not in the hit-and-miss game of gaming.” By which he means Razer sells the hardware, related software and services but does not publish the games that are the focal point, or breeding ground, for all the associated paraphernalia.

“我們是游戲界的軍火商，”他坐在雷蛇店內(nèi)一個方形沙發(fā)凳上說道，“我們不是在游戲行業(yè)里胡亂碰運氣。”他指的是雷蛇銷售硬件、相關(guān)軟件和服務(wù)，但不發(fā)行游戲，而游戲是所有這些相關(guān)裝備所圍繞的中心點或者說源頭。

The trouble for some is that the bulk of Razer’s revenues — 76 per cent in the latest calendar year — comes from hardware peripherals, such as laptops. A mobile device is due to be launched shortly.

對于一些投資人來說，問題在于雷蛇大部分收入——最近一個日歷年是76%——來自硬件周邊，比如筆記本電腦。移動設(shè)備將于不久后推出。

Software and services have not contributed a penny and are thus relatively untested, prompting some bankers to suggest it should be valued simply as a hardware company like Logitech. Razer’s management demurred.

軟件和服務(wù)對收入沒有絲毫貢獻(xiàn)，因此這部分業(yè)績相對未經(jīng)檢驗，這使得一些銀行人士認(rèn)為雷蛇在估值時應(yīng)該單純被視為羅技(Logitech)之類的硬件公司。雷蛇的管理層對此表示反對。

Mr Tan’s tagline for Razer is “for gamers, by gamers” and he is a proud member of the 2.2bn-strong gaming fraternity. “I’ve always been a gamer. It’s all I do. I do my job and I game,” he says. The “one of us” is a key part of Razer’s pitch.

陳民亮給雷蛇定的理念是“始于玩家，賦予玩家”，他本人是22億游戲玩家群體中自豪的一員。“我一直都是玩家。這就是我工作的全部。我的工作就是打游戲，”他表示。這種“自己人”的觀念是雷蛇宣傳的重要部分。

The lack of any industry reports on gaming made his job tougher, he says; there were no statistics showing this was a market with potential when he founded the company in 2005. Today, reports are plentiful and suggest his early hunch was correct: that this is a bigger market in sheer user numbers than even China or Facebook.

他表示，過去缺乏游戲業(yè)的行業(yè)報告，這使他的工作更加困難;當(dāng)他2005年創(chuàng)辦該公司時，沒有任何數(shù)據(jù)表明這個市場存在潛力。如今，行業(yè)報告眾多，并且表明他的早期直覺是正確的：這是一個龐大的市場，用戶數(shù)量甚至超過中國人口和Facebook的用戶。

The global industry generated more than $100bn in sales last year, according to data from consultancy Frost & Sullivan, quoted in Razer’s initial public offering prospectus, and is forecast to generate $133bn in 2021.

雷蛇IPO招股書援引咨詢公司Frost & Sullivan的數(shù)據(jù)稱，去年全球游戲行業(yè)的銷售額超過1000億美元，預(yù)計2021年將達(dá)到1330億美元。

“We are just this massive subculture,” says Mr Tan. He points to its global language — GG for good game, whether you speak English, Chinese or Russian. And while gamers are called different names depending on location — nerds in the US, otaku in Japan, zhai nan in China — they exhibit universal characteristics.

“我們就是這個龐大的亞文化群，”陳民亮表示。他指出該群體有自己的全球通用語言，比如GG表示“打得不錯”，無論你的母語是英語、漢語還是俄語。盡管不同的地區(qū)對游戲玩家的稱呼不同——在美國被稱為電腦迷(nerd)、在日本被稱為御宅(otaku)、在中國被稱為宅男——但他們都表現(xiàn)出了共同的特征。

Mr Tan notes that there are only two electronics companies where fans tattoo themselves with the logo: “Apple 20 years ago — and us.”

陳民亮指出，全球只有兩家電子產(chǎn)品公司的粉絲會把公司標(biāo)識紋在身上：“20年前的蘋果(Apple)——和我們。”

The Apple analogy is helpful for the ecosystem as well as tattoos. Razer’s software platform, which has 35m users, enables users to open multiple games on their launch pages and store all their preferred settings on the cloud, so they can pick up playing on any device — including the mobile devices due to be launched.

與蘋果相似所帶來的好處不僅體現(xiàn)在紋身上，也體現(xiàn)在生態(tài)系統(tǒng)上。雷蛇的軟件平臺擁有3500萬用戶，它讓用戶可以在啟動頁面上同時打開多個游戲，并將其設(shè)置偏好存在云上，這樣他們可以選擇在任何設(shè)備(包括雷蛇即將推出的移動設(shè)備)上打游戲。

Hence too the creation of Razer zGold in March, a virtual credit system that can be used to purchase swords, shoes and magical powers for use in 2,500 games.

3月面世的雷蛇zGold也一樣。這是一套虛擬信用系統(tǒng)，可以用于購買2500個游戲中的寶劍、鞋和魔力。

It is clear why all this makes for a good business model. You sell someone a mouse but you may never see them again. You sell them a service and you have data on them, the games they play, their spending habits, and you can sell them more. It is less clear why game publishers would welcome a new player on to their turf, but Mr Tan sees the scenario differently.

這一切打造了良好的商業(yè)模式，其中原因是顯而易見的。你賣給別人一個鼠標(biāo)，但你可能再也不會看到他們來買東西了。你賣給別人服務(wù)，你就有關(guān)于他們、他們玩的游戲、他們的消費習(xí)慣的數(shù)據(jù)，你就可以再賣更多東西給他們。至于游戲開發(fā)商為何歡迎新玩家進(jìn)入他們的地盤，就沒那么明顯了，不過陳民亮看待這種情況的角度完全不同。

“Game companies may pay us a little more margin but they are happy to do that because the other option is that the player does not play the game.”

“游戲公司可能會給我們更高一點的利潤，但他們之所以樂意這樣做是因為否則的話玩家不玩這個游戲。”

Like the evangelist he is, he sees gaming dominating the world in years to come: replacing the closed-down shops in malls and providing amusement for those in the driving seat of driverless cars.

就像傳道者一樣，他認(rèn)為未來幾年游戲?qū)⒅鲗?dǎo)這個世界：取代商場里關(guān)門的店鋪，為坐在無人駕駛汽車主駕位置上的人提供消遣娛樂。

“Gamers have gotten older and gamers have gotten younger . . . and we are absolutely monetising it,” he says.

“游戲玩家越來越高齡，也越來越低齡……我們絕對會從中賺錢，”他表示。

Min-Liang Tan’s tips for successful entrepreneurship

陳民亮的成功創(chuàng)業(yè)秘訣

Stick to your vision, no matter what others say

堅持你的愿景，無論別人怎么說

There will always be many options and sexier things to chase, but stay focused on what you want to deliver

人們總會面臨很多選擇和誘惑，但是要把注意力放在你想達(dá)成的事情上

Concentrate on the customer, the team and investors. Even if sometimes it can feel like herding cats

專注于消費者、團(tuán)隊和投資者。即使有時感覺簡直像牧貓一樣難