text | Radar Finance, author | Meng Shuai, editor | Deep Sea
A game company established in 2011, it only took more than ten years to create four top rich people.
In the latest issue of the "2024 Hurun Global Rich List", the rankings of the four big guys from MiHoYo, Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei, Luo Yuhao, and Song Tao, all soared, with Song Tao's ranking rising by 1,873 places. Cai Haoyu, who ranks first among the four in terms of wealth, has become an upstart gaming player whose domestic wealth growth last year was second only to Huang Zheng, the founder of Pinduoduo.
Radar Financial Calculation found that the total worth of the four people has reached 163.5 billion yuan. Among these four bosses, Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei, and Luo Yuhao are the founding veterans who have joined the team since the beginning of miHoYo, while Song Tao is the "financier" who provided timely assistance to miHoYo when it was short of funds. ".
Looking back, the 1 million investment Song Tao sent to miHoYo was a "good deal". With this investment, Song Tao's net worth increased nearly 24,000 times during this period.
In fact, MiHoYo’s success is inseparable from the help of its several popular games. Although the game products launched by the company in the early years received mediocre response, the hard work paid off. "Honkai Academy 2", which came out in 2014, MiHoYo finally tasted success, and since then, MiHoYo has launched "Genshin Impact" and "Honkai Impact: Star Rail", which has firmly placed MiHoYo at the top of the revenue list of overseas mobile game publishers. .
However, compared with the established game giants, MiHoYo may still have a certain gap. According to data disclosed by Guangming Daily, in 2022, MiHoYo's main business revenue reached 27.34 billion yuan, and its net profit was 16.145 billion yuan (the current official available data is for 2022, so this year's performance was selected).
According to the financial reports released by Tencent and NetEase, in 2022, Tencent's segments including online games and social network services will earn a total of 287.565 billion yuan in revenue, and NetEase's revenue from games and related value-added services will also be as high as 74.566 billion yuan, while the two companies In the same year, the overall net profit reached 188.709 billion yuan and 19.843 billion yuan respectively, both ahead of MiHoYo.
MiHoYo staged the myth of creating wealth, and four people appeared on the global rich list
The "2024 Hurun Global Rich List" just released not long ago revealed the latest lineup of the world's billionaires. In fact, in the rich list published over the years, the gaming industry has always been an important track for the birth of rich people. It is no surprise that many gaming tycoons are on the list this year.
For example, Ma Huateng, who ranks third among China’s richest people and single-handedly built the Internet giant Tencent, ranks 36th on the list this year with a wealth of 250 billion yuan; Ding Lei relied on NetEase to accumulate a fortune of 210 billion yuan, ranking 43rd in the overall list.
Compared with the two Internet giants Tencent and NetEase, there is such a company. Although it was established relatively late and its popularity is slightly lower, and it has not even entered the capital market, it has been listed in the "Hurun Research Institute" released this year. In the 2024 Hurun Global Rich List, 4 billionaires appeared.
This company is MiHoYo, which has made great achievements in the game industry in recent years. In the latest "2024 Hurun Global Rich List", four people from MiHoYo, Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei, Luo Yuhao, and Song Tao, all Get on the list. The top four game tycoons of
rank 251st, 625th, 655th, and 1050th on the overall list with wealth of 67 billion yuan, 37 billion yuan, 35.5 billion yuan, and 24 billion yuan respectively. Based on this calculation, the cumulative wealth of these four people alone has reached 163.5 billion yuan.
Compared with the previous year, we can more intuitively see the astonishing growth rate of the wealth of the top four game tycoons of MiHoYo. Compared with 2023, the rankings of Cai Haoyu, Liu Wei, Luo Yuhao, and Song Tao have increased by 816, 1,350, 1,412, and 1,873 respectively.
Among the top 5 Chinese billionaires whose wealth has increased the most this year, Cai Haoyu from MiHoYo ranks second with a wealth increase of 45 billion yuan, second only to Huang, the boss behind the recently popular Pinduoduo. The amount of wealth growth amounted to 160 billion yuan.
However, like ByteDance, another Internet upstart with very rapid momentum, MiHoYo has not yet been included in the ranks of listed companies.In the "2023 Global Unicorn List" released in April last year, MiHoYo ranked 103rd on the list with a valuation of 50 billion yuan. Judging from the wealth announced by the four game tycoons this time, miHoYo’s valuation has increased a lot last year.
In fact, it is not that MiHoYo has never thought about going public. As early as 2017, MiHoYo submitted IPO application materials to the China Securities Regulatory Commission. At that time, the company planned to raise 1.222 billion yuan. In January 2018, MiHoYo updated its prospectus and increased the fundraising scale to 1.489 billion yuan. In the same month, miHoYo received initial feedback from the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
However, in 2020, MiHoYo's name appeared in the "List of Companies Terminating Review of Initial Public Offerings in 2020", which means that MiHoYo's A-share listing journey has come to an end.
It is worth noting that in September last year, Cai Haoyu, the founder and CEO of MiHoYo and the company's largest shareholder, no longer served as the company's legal representative and chairman, and Liu Wei took over these two positions. .
Regarding the company’s personnel changes, MiHoYo responded that in order to adapt to the company’s future development needs, MiHoYo founder Cai Haoyu will devote more energy to the research and application of cutting-edge technology, the development of new projects, and the connection between domestic and overseas In terms of R&D resources, the company's management affairs will continue to be handled by MiHoYo founder and president Liu Wei.
started in a university dormitory and is now famous overseas.
dates back to 2011, which is the period when MiHoYamyoum began. This year, Cai Haoyu, who was about to graduate from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, recruited Liu Wei and Luo Yuhao, who were also interested in acg culture, to establish MiHoYo Studio in their dormitory. With an interest-free loan of 100,000 yuan from the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center, the three people officially started their entrepreneurial journey from the D32 dormitory on the Minhang Campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. When
started its business, each of the three people held multiple jobs, and the vegetable rice and bone soup, Lanzhou Ramen, and Shaxian snacks downstairs became their daily meals. Under the belief that "technology geeks change the world", the three people continue to work hard for their entrepreneurial dreams.
However, the 100,000 yuan of start-up capital was not spent at all. Seeing that the company's funds were getting less and less, the team had to seek help from outside. When the company was in urgent need of funds, God did not disappoint the enthusiasm of the three young people. Song Tao, CEO of Skye Network, came to the rescue and sent them 1 million yuan in funds.
However, the team also paid a certain price for this, which was the need to transfer 15% of the equity to the other party, and this amount of money is actually MiHoYo's only external financing so far. If calculated based on the wealth announced in the "2024 Hurun Global Rich List", Song Tao's investment can be said to be very successful. From the initial investment of 1 million yuan to the current wealth of 24 billion yuan, miHoYo can be said to be Song Tao's. The increase in net worth has contributed a lot. In the first few years of
's business, MiHoYo developed two games. In October 2011, the miHoYo team launched the independent game "flyme2themoon". In December of the following year, MiHoYo launched "Honkai Academy", but these two games did not cause much splash in the market.
It wasn’t until 2014 that MiHoYo finally tasted popularity for the first time with the Q-version shooting mobile game "Honkai Academy 2" created by MiHoYo. In September 2016, miHoYo once again launched the 3D action mobile game "Honkai Impact 3".
Although the Honkai Impact series has finally improved, there are many opinions from the outside world that because there is only one ace Honkai Impact IP, the capital market cannot predict the company's ability to continue to make profits in the future. This has led to MiHoYo's impact on IPO. There are obstacles on the road.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission also asked miHoYo in its initial feedback: "Whether it is industry common for an issuer to only have a single IP and one major game, and the impact of this situation on the issuer's continued profitability in the future"; " The life cycle of "Honkai Academy 2" and "Honkai 3", and whether there is a risk of continued revenue decline in the future."
According to the prospectus submitted by MiHoYo, from 2014 to the first half of 2017, the Honkai Impact series of games accounted for 92.26%, 98.1%, 99.37% and 99.8% of MiHoYo's total annual revenue respectively.
Specifically, in 2014 and 2015, "Honkai Academy 2" accounted for more than 99% of the company's main business revenue.In the first half of 2017, "Honkai Impact 3" took over the baton and became the company's new revenue pillar. Its revenue accounted for 84.41% of the company's main business revenue during the same period.
MiHoYo is also well aware of the risks of relying on a single IP. "The company has been developing for a short time and currently mainly operates Honkai IP. Thanks to the careful creation and operation of Honkai IP, the company has stable core users. group".
MiHoYo also bluntly stated in the prospectus that if the company cannot accurately grasp the changes in the preferences of 2D users and create content that 2D users love during the Honkai IP operation process, it will lead to the attraction of Honkai IP to users. A decline may result in the loss of users of existing products and a decrease in profitability, which may also be detrimental to the promotion of new products and adversely affect the company's current and future performance.
Waiting until September 2020, MiHoYo finally waited for the next hit game. At that time, MiHoYo released the open-world mobile game "Genshin Impact", and this game directly made MiHoYo one of the leading game manufacturers. In April last year, "Honkai Impact: Star Rail", which attracted much attention from the outside world, was launched globally. Once this game was launched, it immediately topped the mobile game download lists in many markets, and now it has become one of MiHoYo's "money printing machines". The successive launches of hit games by
have not only allowed MiHoYo to continue to rise in its position in the domestic game industry, but also helped it become a leader among Chinese game manufacturers in overseas expansion. According to data released by Sensor Tower, "Honkai Impact: Star Rail" is the overseas mobile game with the highest revenue growth in 2023. It proudly landed at No. 3 on the annual revenue list of overseas mobile games, ranking first on the list. The top player is also "Genshin Impact" from MiHoYo.
With the outstanding performance of "Honkai: Star Rail" in the global market, miHoYo's overseas revenue increased by 14% in 2023, not only setting a record high, but also overpowering competitors such as Tencent, Sanqi Interactive Entertainment, and NetEase, and continuing to stabilize. Sitting at the top of the revenue list of overseas mobile game publishers. It is understood that in 2023, "Genshin Impact" will still be MiHoYo's highest-grossing mobile game, and "Honkai Impact: Star Rail" has contributed nearly 40% of total overseas revenue.
The new giant in the gaming industry is facing an attack from Tencent and NetEase
Since MiHoYo has not yet sounded the bell for listing, the financial data disclosed by itself only remains in the relevant documents of the listing application submitted that year, but the outside world can still learn from it. MiHoYo’s financial data in recent years can be found in some public information.
According to the prospectus previously submitted by MiHoYo, from 2014 to 2016, MiHoYo's revenue was 103 million yuan, 175 million yuan, and 424 million yuan respectively. During the same period, MiHoYo's net profit attributable to the owners of the parent company was The profits were 656.384 yuan, 127 million yuan, and 273 million yuan respectively.
According to the 2021 Shanghai Top 100 Enterprises List released by Shangguan News, a subsidiary of Liberation Daily, miHoYo was shortlisted for the first time in 2020 with a revenue of 10.128 billion yuan, ranking 88th on the list. Second-rate. The report also mentioned that MiHoYo’s net profit increased by 4.77 billion yuan, an increase of 474.51%. Based on this calculation, MiHoYo’s net profit in 2020 will be 5.77 billion yuan.
According to the "Top 30 National Cultural Enterprises" special report section on page 10 of Guangming Daily, as of the end of 2022, MiHoYo's net assets have reached 37.402 billion yuan. In 2022, MiHoYo's main business revenue will reach 27.34 billion yuan, and its net profit will be 16.145 billion yuan.
Based on this calculation, in the year 2022, MiHoYo will earn an average monthly net profit of 1.345 billion yuan. Compared with 2015, MiHoYo's net profit has increased by more than 100 times in the past few years.
Although MiHoYo's growth rate is astonishing, there is still a certain gap between its performance that year and the established game giants Tencent and NetEase. As a reference, Tencent recorded revenue of 287.565 billion yuan through value-added service businesses (including online games and social network services) in 2022, and the company's net profit during the same period was 188.709 billion yuan. In 2022, NetEase's revenue from games and related value-added services was 74.566 billion yuan, and the company's overall net profit in the same year was 19.843 billion yuan.
In stark contrast to the need to rush around to raise funds, today MiHoYo has become a large-scale game company.Radar Finance learned from MiHoYo's official website that compared with the entrepreneurial team with only single digits at the beginning of its establishment, MiHoYo now has 5,000 employees.
According to the "2023 Pan-Internet Industry Talent Flow Report", MiHoYo is the pan-Internet company that provides the most jobs with a monthly salary of 50,000 in the first half of 2023. Last year, miHoYo spent 1.077 billion through its subsidiary to acquire a land parcel located in Hongmei Street, Xuhui District, Shanghai.
According to documents published by the Shanghai Public Resources Trading Center, the sales revenue of enterprises in this land must be no less than 1.6 billion yuan per year, the total tax revenue must be no less than 3.332 billion yuan per year, and the tax output intensity must not be low. RMB 1.872 billion per square meter per year.
It is worth mentioning that according to the Gongxin WeChat News on January 31, in the fourth quarter of 2023, among the 175 Internet companies that accessed the platform, 4 companies including MiHoYo did not meet relevant standards due to the timely rate of complaint handling. The request was "named", and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has urged relevant companies to properly handle the problems reported by users.
MiHoYo has gained a lot of two-dimensional game players. What kind of wealth creation myth will it stage in the future? Radar Finance will continue to pay attention.
