What’s to Enjoy? Plenty, it turns out
Print Edition
The revolution born of smartphones and tablets has changed daily life and created new opportunities for enterprising companies.
One Minhang resident has made the most of the current climate, developing one of the most popular video editing apps on the market.
In 2009, the year when iPhone 3Gs were released, Zhou Chao’en, his wife Zhang Li and a classmate from Zhejiang University founded the Shanghai Enjoy Information Technology Co.
The trio had worked for years in the mobile phone software industry and had accumulated the experience needed to go it on their own.
Zhou said they believe that mobile devices create the biggest opportunities for grassroots entrepreneurs.
“In such environment, as long as we provide high-quality services and good quality creative products, we can win over more customers,” he said.
On mobile devices, Zhou said, two functions never grow old: the sharing of daily lives with friends and family, and the playing of games. Enjoy is involved in development of both.
The company’s video editing app is called Video Show. It allows users to creatively edit videos they take on mobile devices and share them directly with friends on social media platforms.
“The app was first designed for the Android system because we found that there was no multi-functional video editing app for the system even though the system has an extremely high market usage,” said Zhou. “That created for us a huge potential market.”
After two years’ release on GooglePlay, Video Show has had more than 40 million downloads all over the world. It has catapulted itself into the top lists of similar apps in nearly 10 countries, such as the United States, Japan, Brazil and Israel.
“The success was based on extreme diligence,” said Zhou. “In the earlier stages of development, all three of us slept only four or five hours a day, and it wasn’t uncommon to sleep in the office for months on end.”
In 2012, the company started the research and development of mobile device games.
Although that market is huge, the competition was even bigger. On both GooglePlay and iTunes Store, thousands of games have been released in recent years, but only a few of them have lasted. Most get washed out and replaced by newer ones.
In the beginning of development, Zhou asked his team three questions: What kind of games do people most like? What kinds of games are most acceptable to the mainstream of the market? What kind of games can create real value?
“To be honest, we are still looking for the answers through endless experimentation,” Zhou said.
The Android platform again was the main target of Enjoy. The company tried different types of games, from traditional Chinese poker game and massive multiplayer online role-playing game to action games. Most of the games are based on ancient history or mythology. They have been well received by players.
The most popular game Enjoy has developed to date is Ragnarok. It is based on Scandinavian myth. Players are expected to forge and cultivate a hero to challenge the heroes and monsters in Asgard. Players have praised the game for its “detailed, beautiful 3D graphics” and “smooth movements.”
Zhou said a new online game, Super Masters, will be released soon on Android. It entailed the investment of more than 10 million yuan (US$1.61 million) by an Internet venture capital company. It will be a fantasy-style action game that allows players to compete in real-time combat.
“We believe it will be a new milestone in our efforts to influence the mobile device games market in China,” said Zhou.
The success of the company’s apps has led to the creation of two subsidiaries, both focusing on video editing app and game app development.
“Our employees are encouraged to use their personal creativity in developing new apps or improving the present ones,” said Zhou. “If they have good ideas, the company will support them.”
Zhou said annual sales of the company have reached 80 million yuan. A much larger company has proposed a 600 million yuan merger.
“We three founders talked over the offer and agreed to reject it,” said Zhou. “We know that we would not be free to do what we want in such a merger, and that’s what we can’t accept.”
Enjoy will establish its research and development headquarters in the Xinzhuang Industrial Zone soon, he said.
“Our goal will always be giving customers the best that we have,” said Zhou.
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