The boss, Liu Dejian, is a super fan of "Star Trek". Even the headquarters building was built in the shape of a spaceship. The entire construction project cost 160 million US dollars and took six years to complete.

2025/10/1810:44:39 game 1063

Text/Jincuodao Channel

Who in the game company can make the most money from foreigners? I believe everyone can think of the top few in the

ranking. MiHoYo and Tencent must have a place.

However, there is a game company whose research and development technology is seriously backward, and players can almost always complain about the server.

But this company moved the leftovers of this set of Chinese products overseas. As a result, it killed everyone and made 3.6 billion yuan from foreigners.

This weird Chinese company is NetDragon..

The boss Liu Dejian is a super fan of "Star Trek". Even the headquarters building was built in the shape of a spaceship. The entire construction project cost 160 million US dollars and took six years to complete.

In 2021, NetDragon's net profit was 2.12 billion, ranking among the top 100 Internet companies in China for 10 consecutive years.

has been established for 23 years, and it is really enviable to live a comfortable life by "resting on its laurels".

What kind of medicine does this company sell?

10 people in the warehouse,

made 100 million by breaking the website

Speaking of NetDragon , we have to mention the man behind it - Liu Dejian, a man who was favored by Sohu Zhang Chaoyang.

Unlike many Internet tycoons with a professional background, Liu Jiande became a monk halfway. Before the age of 28, Liu Dejian had been working in his mother's biochemistry laboratory.

However, his ambition was not chemistry, and his deep love for computers made him give up his stable job in the United States and return to China to start a business.

In 1999, Liu Jiande and a dozen friends opened China NetDragon in a dilapidated warehouse in the 851 Building on Wenquan Branch Road, Fuzhou. At that time, none of them thought that this small company would one day be worth 100 million.

At that time, NetDragon in China had nothing to do with games. It was initially just a website company that provided network information services.

Liu Jiande made his first pot of gold not through NetDragon, but through a game website that everyone is familiar with - 17173.com.

At that time, people did not know much about online games, and they were short of money and had no money to advertise. In order to promote their own game "Phantom Ranger", they designed a game information website:

. It could not only collect and integrate various game information, but also promote some other games, so 17173.com was born, which is homophonic to "let's go together".

is a small website built based on the principle of saving money, but unexpectedly it became popular.

Not only are more and more netizens learning about online games through 17173.com, but in just 7 months, a sponsor father has come to us for cooperation. Many newly launched game products have approached NetDragon and asked for advertising.

Just in 2002, Chen Tianqiao, chairman of the board of directors of Shanda Network, returned to China with a second-rate Korean online game " Legend of ", which completely opened the door to China's online games.

With the help of this shareholder style, this former small website became the number one online game portal in China in just 3 years. The number of daily visits to

html has increased from 500,000 in 2001 to 41 million. The traffic is so large that it has attracted the attention of Sohu.

In 2003, Zhang Chaoyang saw the value of 17173.com and proposed to acquire 17173.com for US$20.5 million.

At that time, 17173.com not only had huge traffic, but Liu Jiande also created an online game magazine "Hot Spots·Online Games", a stand-alone game website, and an Internet cafe alliance with more than 60,000 members, which was at its peak.

With a cash flow of more than 100 million yuan, and its eldest son who is flourishing, NetDragon is also involved in internal disputes.

In the end, Liu Jiande overcame the public opinion and Sohu acquired 17173.com for US$20.5 million. This transaction with Sohu allowed NetDragon to cash out more than 100 million yuan.

This more than 100 million yuan has also become the first capital of NetDragon's fortune.

The first-generation online games were despised by Chinese people, but

foreigners were excited to take over

As one of the first companies to join the Internet industry, NetDragon did not intend to make games at the beginning.

However, by chance, Liu Dejian, the founder of NetDragon, discovered that online games had begun to charge fees. The "Stone Age", which was making money every day, showed him the prospects of the game industry.

In 2001, China’s online game market exploded.

A large number of internationally renowned games such as "Bubble Hall" and " Legend " have entered the country. China's independent research and development of games is still in a blank stage.

NetDragon saw the opportunity. In March 2002, NetDragon's first independently developed game "Phantom Ranger" was launched online.

The game functions such as self-created martial arts, chatting and making friends, marriage and love have attracted more than 60,000 online players, bringing 3 million yuan in profits to NetDragon.

NetDragon, which had tasted the benefits, established multiple branches in 2004 to conduct research and development on multiple game projects at the same time, and shouted the slogan "If you can't make one game with 100,000 people online, just make ten games with 100,000 people online."

Subsequently, NetDragon successfully independently developed " journey ", "Demon Realm" and "Hot Blood Jianghu Online", pushing the krypton gold gameplay of "unboxing, lottery, and weapon refining" of turn-based online games to the peak.

, especially "Demon Realm", became an instant hit when it was launched. In 2007, its revenue exceeded 400 million yuan, helping NetDragon's profits soar from more than 40 million yuan to 300 million yuan. It was one of the few games at that time that could compete with "Legend" for the cake.

At the end of the same year, NetDragon was officially listed in Hong Kong.

However, a piece of national legislation on online games has slowed down the momentum of NetDragon's rapid progress:

From 2007, virtual currency was not allowed to be exchanged for legal currency, to the 2009 "Interim Measures for Network Management of Games" which stated that "random drawing and other accidental methods" are not allowed to induce users to invest legal currency or virtual currency.

On the day when the regulations were implemented, all listed Chinese online game companies except NetEase, stocks fell.

NetDragon's net profit from 2009 to 2010 also dropped from 87 million yuan to 35 million yuan.

Misfortune never comes singly. Compared with "Devil", "Conquer" at the same time also received a mediocre response.

But Liu Dejian had already left a backup plan.

When Chinese online game companies were gnawing away at the domestic market, Liu Dejian participated in the world's largest electronic game exhibition E3 four times with games such as "Conquest" and "Phantom Ranger", which opened up his international reputation.

It coincided with the 2003 E3 that focused on online games. Among the dazzling array of foreign established games, "Conquest" was one of the few domestic online games at that time.

In November 2004, "Conquer" was released for public testing in the US market. By early 2005, the number of people online at the same time had exceeded 20,000.

In the period when passionate literature and martial arts were popular, the settings of these NetDragon games were very pleasing. For the first time, Americans knew what the concept of "cultivating immortality" was.

In terms of content, games such as "Conquer" have Chinese fantasy culture. The core gameplay is PK-drop-pickup, and the threshold for getting started is low.

How popular is "Conquest" in the North American market?

Americans not only hang billboards for their game "Conquest" on the highway; there are even American players trying to learn Chinese and want to play on Chinese servers.

If NetDragon's North American tour is a small test, then NetDragon's Middle East is a gold-mining tour.

makes the wealthy people in the Middle East spend 20 million every month.

actually relies on "reskinning"?

In 2009, NetDragon introduced the Arabic version of "Conquer" to the Middle East, where it became the most popular online game in the region. It operated for 7 years until 2015, and was able to generate tens of millions in monthly revenue.

In addition to localizing web games, NetDragon continues to iterate its products by adding gameplay and content.

In 2014, under the trend of mobile games, former employees of NetDragon, who were members of the Arab team of "Conquer", started their own businesses and established the mobile game company "Longteng Jianhe". completely refined and reskinned "Conquer" and produced the mobile game "Sultan's Revenge".

"The Revenge of the Sudan" has been in the top five download lists in the Middle East for seven years since its launch in 2015. It was even more prosperous in the first few years after it was launched, firmly ranking first on the list.

Why does this game make people in the Middle East so crazy?

The answer is: more extreme localization than "Conquest".

When I opened the game interface, I saw that the gameplay is still very similar to that of domestic web games. "The Revenge of the Sudan" has been completely reskinned in terms of external details.

From a cultural background, "Sultan's Revenge", as a SLG war mobile game, captures the most glorious period of the Ottoman Empire and presents the story of the golden age of the Islamic world in the game, allowing Middle Eastern players to relive its original glory.

In addition to optimizing the background story,

is also very attentive to the language.

The number of Arabic users worldwide ranks fifth, and the proportion of Arabic content on the Internet is even less than 1%. The game not only restores Arabic, but in order to conform to the reading habits of Arabs , all text and visual designs are arranged from right to left.

In addition, all female characters in the game wear traditional Arab costumes, and crosses, pigs, and wine, which are taboo elements in the Islamic world, cannot appear in the game.

At the same time, "The Revenge of the Sudan" also incorporates a large number of traditional Arab festivals. In Ramadan, the most important month for the Muslim community, grand activities will also be launched to celebrate.

An antique game that has long been outdated and outdated in China has been customized with a Middle Eastern skin and made into a localized game. Middle Eastern bosses who are not short of money are naturally willing to pay for the game. The successful overseas launch of

"Conquest" and "The Revenge of the Sudan" proves the possibility of Chinese game manufacturers looking for blue ocean abroad. They can also win the favor of overseas markets by focusing on the refined "reskin" of user experience.

Conclusion:

only relies on its laurels, and NetDragon has also made big jokes.

In 2021, NetDragon spent 5 years of research and development and 2 years of testing to create a game at a cost of more than 100 million.

ended up being maintained and repaired no less than ten times after being online for more than ten days. Players ridiculed it as "I rely on the diamonds compensated for maintenance every day to continue playing."

Not only that, in the forums of NetDragon’s other games, almost all of them are complaints about the poor experience. It’s no wonder that it is disliked by the Chinese people.