Chapter 260: The Moyu Internet Café Enters Phase Two!
Pei Qian thought for a moment, then looked at Zhang Yuan.
"How's the financial situation for these internet cafés right now?"
Zhang Yuan immediately answered with pride, "Pretty optimistic!"
"Currently, the flagship store's monthly revenue is around 700,000 yuan. After deducting expenses, the net profit fluctuates between 200,000 and 300,000."
"The other branches aren't doing quite as well, but they're more or less breaking even."
"The Mingyun Villa branch used to be the one losing the most money, but its revenue has been rising recently. I think it'll soon turn a profit too."
Hearing that, Pei Qian felt his heart bleeding.
Still, it did confirm what he had just been thinking.
He asked again, "The main source of income for the cafés is still the bar, right?"
Zhang Yuan nodded. "Yes. The majority of revenue still comes from drinks—alcohol, coffee, singer tips, and so on. Internet usage fees are also an important part, but even though our occupancy rate has improved compared to before, it's still not particularly high."
Pei Qian now had a clear idea in mind.
"It's time to expand."
"Open new branches—in the areas with the highest rent!"
Ma Yang's casual remark earlier, "keep expanding," had suddenly sparked an idea in Pei Qian's head.
Pei Qian's instinct had been to avoid pouring any more money into this failed project called Moyu Internet Café.
But now the flagship store was booming, the Mingyun Villa branch was booming, and the cafés had all received excellent ratings on AllReviews. The brand's reputation had already been firmly established in Jingzhou.
Once a "high-end brand" image takes root in consumers' minds, any new store that opens will automatically attract crowds.
Which means, from Pei Qian's perspective, opening new stores would be a loss-making move—in the sense that it would increase profits, which is the exact opposite of what he wants.
If it can't lose money, what's the point?
However, after thinking it over, Pei Qian realized another problem.
When it came purely to spending money, Against the Wind Logistics could definitely burn cash faster.
But Ma Yang was still the general manager of Moyu Internet Café. Now that the cafés were thriving, turning a profit, and earning a great reputation—was he just going to shut it all down?
How could he possibly explain that to Ma Yang?
Of course, Pei Qian could simply refuse to explain. He could just ignore the whole business on a whim. After all, earning a few hundred thousand yuan a month wasn't a big burden—he could tolerate that.
But… would that make others suspicious?
That would be a bit problematic.
So Pei Qian came up with a better plan.
It was fine if the cafés were making some money now—there was still more than a month left before settlement. If he spent all that money—dumped it into Against the Wind Logistics and into new Moyu Internet Café branches—problem solved!
The current cafés were making money; the new ones just had to not make money.
These cafés were on the verge of profitability because of two main factors:
First, a large portion of their income came from drinks and singer tips. Most customers treated Moyu Internet Café as a coffee shop or bar, not a place to actually play games.
Pei Qian was speechless about that.
His original intent had been to create a confusing mishmash—a place with an unclear identity—so the café would be less likely to succeed.
But to his disbelief, the only thing that didn't become popular was the gaming section; everything else—the coffee, the bar—had exploded in popularity.
Truly, man proposes, heaven disposes.
Second, all the current branches were located in remote areas, meaning their rent was dirt cheap.
Pei Qian had deliberately chosen those spots to keep things as low-key as possible, to limit foot traffic, and to make the café brand too obscure to sustain itself as a "high-end" venue.
But now things have changed.
Since the Moyu Internet Café brand was already well-known, there was no point in hiding anymore.
Might as well go rent some prime, high-traffic locations and pay through the nose for them!
Pei Qian reasoned that if he just fixed those two issues, wouldn't the Moyu Internet Café start losing money again?
So, as the saying goes—one must learn to think in reverse.
Resident singers are making me money? Fire them!
The rent is cheap right now? Find the most expensive place possible!
Pei Qian thought it over for a bit and quickly came up with a plan that seemed to solve everything perfectly.
"Since that's the case," Pei Qian said seriously, "the layout for the Moyu Internet Café can officially enter its second phase."
Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan instantly perked up, listening attentively.
Second phase!
That must mean their hard work had paid off and that President Pei had recognized their success!
Pei Qian continued, "After entering the second phase, we need to further develop the Moyu brand, while at the same time bringing the business back to the core essence of an internet café."
Ma Yang looked puzzled.
Zhang Yuan looked completely lost.
What did "bringing the business back to the essence of an internet café" even mean?
Wasn't diversification the biggest strength of the Moyu Internet Café?
After all, the café's profits mainly came from its coffee and alcohol sales!
Still confused, Zhang Yuan kept listening.
Pei Qian took out his phone, opened the map, and scanned for a moment before pinpointing a few of Jingzhou's largest shopping malls.
"For the second phase, we'll start by opening one new branch as a test. As for the location… let's pick one of these shopping malls."
"The space won't be as large as the current ones, so we won't include a bar or café area. The entire space will be filled with computers."
Pei Qian's idea was very clear.
Right now, most of the branches were just barely breaking even, and even the most profitable one—the flagship store—was only making about 200,000–300,000 yuan per month.
But what if rent were increased by another 300,000 or 400,000 yuan per month?
Wouldn't that instantly flip from profit to loss?
Moreover, the cafés' current income mainly came from their bar operations—alcohol, coffee, and commission from singer tips.
If the new branch removed the singers altogether, that meant no more tipping and no more commissions either.
Of course, there was no need to change the existing five branches. They could keep operating as they were.
But this new store inside a shopping mall—this one would be a pure internet café.
Zhang Yuan glanced at the map, his face full of doubt.
"President Pei, are we really opening it there?"
Opening in a big shopping mall did mean huge foot traffic, but the problem was that rent was sky-high!
Most current Moyu branches were paying only three to four yuan per square meter. For a 3,000-square-meter shop, that came to about 30,000 yuan per month.
But rent in these big malls wasn't that cheap—seven or eight yuan per square meter at least, sometimes even more.
That meant the rent would double instantly.
Shops in those malls were usually international luxury brands—clothing, jewelry, handbags, cosmetics. Ordinary shops couldn't even afford to be there.
Moyu Internet Café wasn't making that much money yet—if they suddenly paid that kind of rent, wouldn't it definitely be a loss?
And this new branch's concept was completely different from before.
Previously, they had a diversified model: the internet café doubled as a coffee shop and bar.
If the new store followed that same model, being inside a mall could at least help sell more drinks and snacks, meaning there was still profit potential.
But now, President Pei wanted the café to "enter the second phase" and "return to the essence of an internet café."
That meant this new branch would only offer internet access—nothing else.
Wasn't that completely unreliable?
Who would travel all the way to Jingzhou's most upscale shopping mall just to sit there and play games?
Wouldn't you have to be out of your mind—or have too much money to burn?
Sure, Zhang Yuan could imagine a few men who might want to kill time gaming while their girlfriends shopped.
But that kind of demand was niche at best.
Even if a girlfriend graciously allowed her boyfriend to play games while she shopped, how long could he play?
An hour in the morning, then lunch, maybe another hour after watching a movie in the afternoon—and then it's time for dinner and heading home.
In other words… it wasn't a sustainable customer base at all.
That kind of guy would, at most, play for a little over two hours—and only if his girlfriend was being extraordinarily generous that day.
For people like that, their gaming experience wouldn't even be that great, and the internet café could hardly make any real profit from them.
So realistically, the chances of the café recovering its costs were close to zero.
Unless… they raised prices!
Zhang Yuan quickly asked, "President Pei, then shouldn't we also raise the hourly rate for this new branch accordingly? Maybe charge, say, twenty yuan an hour?"
Pei Qian immediately shook his head. "No. The official price for Moyu Internet Café is ten yuan per hour. Absolutely no unauthorized price increases."
Zhang Yuan: "…"
Ma Yang, who had been quiet all this time, suddenly gave a thumbs-up.
"Good! That's a great idea, Brother Qian."
"Right now, Moyu Internet Café is at a critical stage for building its reputation. We can't keep hiding out in remote, obscure locations anymore. If we want to make the brand big, we need to move into those high-end malls!"
"Once we're standing alongside those international luxury brands—cosmetics, clothing, jewelry—the brand effect will be incredible!"
Pei Qian and Ma Yang exchanged a perfectly synchronized high-five.
"Great minds think alike!"
Zhang Yuan: "…"
Seeing Zhang Yuan's confusion, Ma Yang chuckled and said, "A little short-term loss is no big deal!"
"Reputation—that's our real long-term goal."
"Look at the flagship Moyu Internet Café. Wasn't it losing money like crazy at first? But later, didn't it gradually turn things around? Now it's thriving!"
"Just look at the reviews on AllReviews—they're overwhelmingly positive. That's the result of the seeds we planted before. The effort we put into reputation-building back then is exactly what's bringing us success today!"
"Get it now?"
Pei Qian: "…"
This old Ma… he just stole my entire script!
But then again, it made sense. He'd given this exact speech to Ma Yang at least four or five times before. After so many rounds of brainwashing, even a slow learner would have memorized it by now.
So even though Ma Yang had stolen his lines—and reopened an old wound—Pei Qian didn't feel angry. In fact, he was a little touched.
Old Ma was really starting to understand him!
If all of his employees could reach the same level of "understanding" as Ma Yang, would he still have to work this hard, racking his brain day and night trying to lose money?
After a few more instructions, Pei Qian confidently left the new café project in Ma Yang's hands.
Now that he had found a fresh new way to spend money, Pei Qian didn't feel nearly as depressed as before.
Even though Mingyun Private Kitchen had gone off the rails, when he thought about it carefully, things were still under control.
As long as the new Moyu Internet Café could lose enough money—and if he added a few dozen more Against the Wind Logistics Stations—then manufacturing a decent-sized financial loss at the end of the cycle should still be perfectly doable.
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