"Yes, let them all make mobile phones!" Huang He repeated his words. Although China's shanzhai (knock-off) phone industry was booming in his previous life, before 2011, China's mobile phone industry was dominated by foreign brands. China only managed to grab some scraps from the shanzhai market and never built its own brand.
It wasn't until the meteoric rise of Xiaomi that many people realized making mobile phones was actually quite simple. This led to a surge of mobile phone brands, and eventually, through the winnowing process of the market, a situation where four major domestic brands dominate, with Apple standing in opposition.
Some say Huang He could have followed the path of Xiaomi or Huawei.
While not entirely wrong, it would have taken too long. This is because it wasn't until around 2010, with the large-scale establishment of factories by contract manufacturers like Foxconn in China, that brands like Xiaomi, which created a mobile phone by assembling parts, were able to give China's mobile phones a fighting chance.
But now it's 2003. The domestic electronics industry as a whole has not yet developed, and Huang He is determined to seize a first-mover advantage in the smartphone industry and challenge Apple's hegemony.
Therefore, Huang He only has five years. In five years, China will have a mature mobile phone supporting system, but this goes against the natural course of history. So Huang He needs to give them a boost, hence the plan for this electronic communication industry alliance.
— — — — — — — — — —
At this time, in Hangzhou, Sun Tongyu, already exhausted, met with Old Ma again. His dispirited appearance made it difficult for Old Ma to keep assigning him tasks. He told Sun Tongyu to go back and rest quickly and, at the same time, looked at the product Sun Tongyu finally handed him: a product called "Caifubao" (Wealth Treasure).
"Boss, although we've made the product, the risk is too great. The laws and regulations are not complete, the risk is too high!" Sun Tongyu advised.
"It's precisely because the laws and regulations are not complete that we can do it, and this is our only chance and possibility to turn things around!" Old Ma waved his hand. "Go back and rest. I'll handle the details myself!"
"Yes!" Sun Tongyu could only shake his head helplessly and went back to rest. Old Ma looked at the Caifubao in his hand, hesitated for a moment, and finally made up his mind. He called over one of his subordinates, who was also Sun Tongyu's wife, Peng Lei.
"Go and apply to establish a company named Mantis Finance. Find a trustworthy person to be the legal representative, keep it as low-key as possible, understand?" Old Ma said in a low voice.
"Yes!" Peng Lei nodded and went to handle it without asking why. Old Ma then picked up his phone. "Hello, Director Xu? It's me. I've made up my mind. This is an unprecedented business, and we will usher in an unprecedented era!"
— — — — — — — — — —
"Director Ren, it's me, Liu Nian from Tianxing Communications. Since our conversation at the China Communications Industry Conference this year, I've been very interested in the technology complementarity suggestion you proposed. Do you have time for a meal to discuss it in detail?"
"Mr. Xu, it's me, Liu Nian. I know you're busy, and China Mobile can't function without you. However, I have an idea that I hope we can initiate together. If we succeed, we can leverage a colossal market worth hundreds of billions!"
...
For an entire day, Liu Nian was on the phone, desperately leveraging his network and contacting everyone he could. Finally, the parties gathered in a private room of a five-star hotel in Shenzhen.
There were about a dozen people in this private room, but each of them was a major figure capable of shaking the entire communications industry, such as Ren Dongjian from Huawei, Mr. Xu from China Mobile, Zhongxin, Foxconn, Bird, and so on. While it couldn't be said that a majority of the communications industry was present, a significant portion of the top figures were.
At least several key figures in Shenzhen had been invited.
"Manager Liu, it's rare to see you today. It's usually hard to get a meeting with you. We thought you were developing some epoch-making product!" someone joked.
"Exactly. Everyone knows that Tianxing is the most formidable mobile phone manufacturer in China. Your products can be compared to Nokia and Motorola, and they even sell for more. I am extremely impressed!"
"Indeed, Manager Liu. I must tell you something. You can't just develop in isolation. Come to my company sometime and give our engineers some guidance. They all regard you as an idol!" said the president of Bird mobile phones.
Facing the barrage of questions from the crowd, Liu Nian felt a bit awkward. He honestly said, "I apologize to everyone. Actually, I'm not the one who invited you here today. It's my boss, Chairman Huang He of Jiangnan Group. He wants to talk with you all!"
Liu Nian quickly pushed Huang He, who was beside him, forward.
In fact, even if Liu Nian hadn't spoken, everyone knew that Huang He was the main player. Those who knew Liu Nian understood that he was a tech enthusiast. He didn't mind coding for hours in front of a computer, but asking him to socialize at banquets was truly difficult for him, let alone initiating such a gathering.
Furthermore, everyone knew that the well-known Jiangnan Group was behind Tianxing mobile phones. This gathering was undoubtedly instigated by Huang He through Liu Nian, and they had come out of respect for Huang He.
Otherwise, who would extend courtesies to a tech enthusiast, with over a dozen industry leaders showing up to support him? That would be impossible.
"Huang He, that's not nice of you. If you have something to discuss with us, you could have just called us. Why put little Liu in an awkward position!" someone quipped.
"Alas, I'm not familiar with the communications industry, so I thought it would be better to have young Liu invite you seniors. Would you refuse?" Huang He smiled.
"Mr. Huang, I heard that you've really boosted our Chinese people's pride this time by selling our Chinese servers to America. They were bought by the renowned Google Search, and it was a deal worth over a hundred million US dollars. This is a breakthrough for China's electronic technology industry!" Unexpectedly, Director Ren, who had been silent, spoke up first.
"Really?"
"No, Mr. Huang, we were kept in the dark about such a significant matter!" Many people present were stunned. Had Huang He actually sold his servers to a famous American tech company? Was this true or false?
Although everyone present was well-informed, their reach didn't extend to America. Chinese media had limited access to American markets.
Some American media had indeed reported this news, but it had only been released recently, and it would take some time for Chinese media to repost it.
It was Director Ren, with his extensive global business dealings, who had learned this news in advance.
However, regardless of whether they knew the news beforehand, everyone felt an absolute shock upon hearing it for the first time.
For everyone present in the electronic technology industry, computers and servers were an unavoidable hurdle. For China Mobile alone, the procurement of foreign servers by a single province amounted to tens of millions of yuan.
Across all of China Mobile, hundreds of millions were spent on servers annually.
Therefore, everyone present had a good understanding of servers. They knew very well how terrible domestic servers were and that they generally had to grit their teeth and purchase expensive servers from abroad.
Now that Huang He had managed to sell servers to America, and to the renowned Google company, it proved that Jiangnan Group's servers had been validated by an American company. This meant that when it came to future procurement, it might not be impossible to consider Jiangnan Group's servers!
Everyone was contemplating this shocking piece of news. However, Huang He waved his hand, "These are minor matters. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not one for beating around the bush. Let's be frank. There is a market with an annual sales volume of at least 50 billion RMB before us. Are you willing to charge into it with our Jiangnan Group?"
"50 billion RMB!" Upon hearing this figure, except for the wealthy China Mobile, everyone present's eyelids involuntarily twitched. Huang He was so bold, talking about a market of 50 billion RMB right off the bat.
"What market?" someone involuntarily asked.
"Of course, it's our old business, the mobile phone market!" Huang He slammed his hand on the table with the mobile phone on it and said, "Have you all seen the sales figures for PHS in the first half of this year? In half a year, 30 million units of PHS were sold. What a terrifying number!"
Huang He was right. 2003 was the year the entire PHS industry truly exploded. In the first half of the year, 30 million units of PHS were sold nationwide, which was truly terrifying.
Many of those present were PHS manufacturers, so they understood these figures even better than Huang He.
"However, PHS has thin profit margins. A PHS phone sells for at most 500 yuan, and some are even sold for slightly over 100 yuan, which doesn't even cover the production cost of PHS. It's rumored that the total sales of 30 million PHS units were less than 7 billion yuan. This kind of product is not truly suitable for us to sell!" Huang He's words struck a nerve with many.
The reason PHS was able to sell 30 million units in half a year was closely related to its low price. The average price of a PHS phone was around 200 yuan, with 500 yuan being considered the top-tier model. In some places, prices as low as 108 yuan per PHS were advertised.
This was the real reason for the PHS boom. However, the hot sales of PHS did not bring good fortune to the manufacturers.
Because PHS phones were cheap, their profit margins were also very low. Some listed companies that produced PHS even lost money, and some went bankrupt.
Moreover, with more and more companies entering the PHS industry, some opportunistic individuals were enthusiastically looking to enter the PHS industry, making it a chaotic free-for-all...
"Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, selling PHS has no future. If we're going to sell something, let's sell mobile phones. This is a super market of 50 billion!" Huang He said with conviction.