Of course, construction takes time.
Even with the management committee handling special matters and expediting all procedures, Wujie Science Park will commence construction at the earliest in the second half of the year.
Three hundred mu of commercial land will also be divided into three phases.
The good news is that Xingyi Technology is now well-funded and doesn't need to build in phases like Meiyou Science Park last year.
Instead, they can find more construction teams and advance all three phases simultaneously.
Even so, the earliest delivery would be by the end of next year, or even the first half of the year after next.
As for the Xingyi Skyscraper, that would be even later.
Therefore, before the delivery of these two major projects, Wujie Technology and Xingyi Technology's provincial headquarters will temporarily reside in Meiyou Science Park, moving once all are delivered and put into use.
Fortunately, phase two of Meiyou Science Park can be fully delivered by the end of this year.
Phase one will be delivered in the first half of next year, and phase three in the second half of next year.
This is sufficient for Xingyi Technology's headquarters and Wujie Technology.
The developer for all three major projects is Xingyi Real Estate.
This also serves as early gilding for Xingyi Real Estate, paving the way for subsequent commercial residential developments.
Wang Yi originally planned to sell off the real estate business entirely after 2018 when the property market declined, thus not using the name Xingyi Technology, instead naming it Meteor Real Estate.
However, after some thought, he decided not to sell the real estate business and simply renamed it Xingyi Real Estate.
With the endorsement of Xingyi Technology, Xingyi Real Estate starts as a major brand, naturally developing more smoothly.
Just like Apple's car-making venture in the previous life, although it failed, fans and users had anticipated it for many years.
If it were truly built, many people would surely buy it; this is the influence of a brand.
As for how to handle the situation after 2018, when housing prices crash, and land acquisition costs are similar to selling prices, leading to losses of hundreds of thousands per house sold?
That's also easy to say.
Wang Yi can take advantage of the cheap land in these few years to aggressively hoard land.
Just as Li Ka-shing can hoard land for ten years without development, Wang Yi hoarding for four or five years before developing is completely reasonable.
Moreover, Xingyi Real Estate is not not developing; it is simply building industries first, and then developing properties.
Compared to other developers who merely promise supporting facilities, Xingyi Real Estate first establishes the industries and then sells properties.
This will put both local governments and homeowners more at ease and allow for higher prices.
Thus, by acquiring land aggressively when prices are low before 2017, hoarding enough land, it will be sufficient for gradual development and sales from 2018 to 2022.
This completely solves the problem.
After 2022, all the land hoarded by Xingyi Real Estate will be developed, but by then, land prices will start to fall again, gradually returning to the level of five years prior.
At that time, they can continue to acquire land and develop.
With Xingyi Real Estate's brand, the reputation accumulated over the years, and their industrial layout, developing high-end smart homes will still yield considerable profits.
This way, they can perfectly navigate the five years of the craziest land prices, from 2017 to 2022.
Those developers who imploded had acquired land frantically between 2017 and 2022, only for housing prices to plummet, leading to heavy losses.
As long as Xingyi Real Estate doesn't acquire land during these five years, not only will it avoid losses, but it will also make a huge profit.
Of course, during these five years, in addition to developing the land hoarded five years ago, they can also cooperate with City Investment companies.
City Investment companies have plenty of land, but their development quality is poor, and they cannot sell at good prices.
This was the case in Jizhou in the previous life; for the same location, if handed over to real estate giants like Greentown or Longfor for development, it becomes a high-end project, selling for 20,000 per square meter.
But if developed by City Investment itself, even if the floor plans are identical or even better, it can only sell for 15,000.
There's no way around it; City Investment's brand power, reputation, recognition, and quality cannot match first-tier major developers.
Consumers look at brands when buying things, and even more so at major developers when buying homes.
So, City Investment companies began to cooperate with first-tier major developers.
City Investment would hand over its land to Greentown for development.
The land and construction costs are all borne by City Investment itself.
Greentown is only responsible for design, development, sales, and property management, at most contributing a portion of the construction costs.
The two parties agree that after sale, Greentown will receive a few thousand per square meter or a few percentage points as a development fee.
Once completed, the entire community, apart from the land purchased by City Investment, is managed by Greentown, naturally becoming a high-end project of Greentown!
Quality, property management, and marketing team are all Greentown's responsibility.
Naturally, it can sell at the price of Greentown's high-end residences, starting from 20,000.
After the sales, City Investment and Greentown split the profits proportionally.
In this kind of cooperation, Greentown invests very little and carries almost no risk.
Even if housing prices plummet, it's City Investment that suffers losses, while Greentown still earns its commission.
Moreover, such properties sell very well. Even when major brands are in crisis, users trust them and dare to buy such properties.
They might not dare to buy Longfor's properties, but they dare to buy Greentown's.
After all, Greentown's projects are backed by City Investment, so the chance of becoming unfinished properties is very low, unless in individual cities where City Investment no longer cares.
It is precisely for this reason that while Evergrande collapsed and several other brands entered the ICU, Greentown continued to thrive.
The reason is simple: during the craziest years of land prices, the years with the most severe losses, Greentown seemed to have God's perspective, having stopped acquiring land long ago and focusing solely on acting as a contractor, earning commissions.
It deserved its prosperity.
Similarly, Xingyi Real Estate can also operate this way.
During those years, they would continue to develop the land previously hoarded at low prices and act as contractors for City Investment land.
This kind of cooperation leads to a win-win situation.
For example, if City Investment acquired land at a floor price of 13,000 and construction and installation costs were 2,000, they would need to sell for at least 15,000 to break even.
But with housing prices plummeting, City Investment's commercial housing could only sell for 13,000 per square meter, resulting in a loss of at least 300,000 per unit.
However, by cooperating with Xingyi Real Estate, leveraging Xingyi Real Estate's brand and quality to create an upgraded property, they could sell for 20,000.
Even if construction and installation costs increased to 3,000, making the total cost 16,000, there would still be a profit of 4,000.
If Xingyi Technology charges a 20 million commission, City Investment, which initially faced a 20 million loss, now makes a net profit of 20 million.
Everyone is happy.
Even if the market for upgraded properties is poor and prices drop to 19,000, City Investment still has a profit of 1,000.
Even if it drops to 18,000, City Investment can turn a 2,000 loss into no loss.
And Xingyi Real Estate can also launch a large number of new projects through this, preventing its brand from declining.
The property management for these developments will also be handled by Xingyi Real Estate's property management, and the profits here are equally astounding.
It can be said that this cooperation greatly benefits both City Investment and Xingyi Real Estate, making everyone happy.
During the most difficult years, Xingyi Real Estate could both develop the low-priced land hoarded in previous years and act as a contractor for City Investment projects.
As long as they weather the years of high land prices, and land prices return to reasonable levels afterward, Xingyi Real Estate can continue to develop.
The most important thing is upgraded properties! As a reborn person, Wang Yi clearly knows that basic housing is not profitable; only by building a brand, focusing on upgrades, and high-end properties can there be profit.
For this, Xingyi Real Estate's brand must be established, and its quality, design, and intelligence must be the best.
And the current Meiyou Science Park, Xingyi Skyscraper, and Wujie Science Park are Xingyi Real Estate's debut works!
As long as these three major projects are done well, Xingyi Real Estate will no longer be an unknown entity in the real estate industry; instead, it will have a place, and might even rise to the first tier.
Especially the Xingyi Skyscraper, once completed, will undoubtedly make Xingyi Real Estate famous in Jizhou, and even nationwide, becoming a first-tier major brand developer.
Wang Yi's other advantage is smart home and smart residential.
Longfor, Greentown, Vanke, at most, do a simple renovation, and not very well.
Jinmao's high-end mansion series focuses on tech-smart homes, with standard constant temperature and humidity systems, but is also limited.
But Wang Yi is different, owning Xingyi Technology and focusing on smart homes!
In the future, Xingyi Real Estate can not only achieve the most advanced design, the most high-end renovation, and the most excellent constant temperature and humidity, but also install a full range of smart home systems!
Once a full range of smart home systems becomes standard, the real estate industry will be completely transformed.
Just on this point, competitors cannot compare.
In the future, giants like Vanke, Longfor, Greentown, and Jinmao will be in the T1 echelon, while Xingyi Real Estate will be in the T0 echelon with full smart systems.
There's no way around it.
For Vanke and Longfor to implement full smart home systems, the costs are high, and their technology is limited; they are absolute outsiders.
But for Xingyi Real Estate, it's a piece of cake.
The smart home ecosystem belongs to the parent company, and the products come from sister units, directly provided as a complete package.
They can even directly establish Xingyi Smart Home, specializing in smart home products.
By then, Xingyi Smart Home will on one hand serve Xingyi Real Estate, providing standard smart home features.
On the other hand, it can also offer complete solutions and products to developers like Vanke and Longfor.
Additionally, it can provide customized full solutions + products for individual users and small businesses.
This way, not only can technical solutions generate profit, but the sales of smart home products and smart appliances can also generate profit, with boundless prospects.
In the previous life, Xiaomi and Huawei touched upon this, but none of them did it well.
The fundamental reason was that they did not have real estate businesses, and no developers were willing to hand over the reins to them.
But the existence of Xingyi Real Estate makes everything completely achievable.
Having made up his mind, Wang Yi immediately went to Meiyou Technology and found Song Sining:
"Sining, I plan to spin off the smart home business and establish a subsidiary, Xingyi Smart Home, to specialize in smart homes. In the future, Meiyou Science Park, Xingyi Skyscraper, and Wujie Science Park will all come standard with full smart home systems. And future commercial properties developed by Xingyi Real Estate will also come standard with smart home systems!"
Song Sining's eyes lit up:
"This sector has boundless prospects. Not to mention being far ahead domestically, I'm afraid it will also be globally leading."
Wang Yi nodded:
"Yes, if it gets big enough, it can go global in the future. Foreigners also need smart homes! The future era is all about intelligence."
"Absolutely, but where do you plan to locate the headquarters of Xingyi Smart Home? Imperial Capital? Or Island City?"
"That's a good question." Wang Yi fell into thought, then said, "No, in Jizhou! As one of the core businesses of Xingyi Technology's provincial headquarters."
"???" Song Sining was a bit confused, "Isn't our smart home factory in Island City?"
Wang Yi smiled:
"Yes, the smart home factory is in Island City. In the future, Island City will be the production base for Xingyi Smart Home. But the headquarters and R&D center will be in Jizhou. Of course, Island City will also build an R&D center later, but it won't be the Xingyi Smart Home R&D center; it will be the Wujie Smart Home R&D center!"
"Xingyi Smart Home production base in Island City, headquarters in Jizhou. Wujie Technology headquarters in Jizhou, Wujie Smart Home R&D center in Island City! Are you trying to balance resources between the two sides for healthy competition?"
Song Sining guessed Wang Yi's intention.
Wang Yi nodded:
"In the future, Xingyi Smart Home will focus on high-end, so R&D will be in Jizhou. Wujie Smart Home will be more down-to-earth, so R&D will be in Island City. This way, companies in Island City that want to copy or follow trends can only engage in price wars with Wujie Smart Home. Xingyi Smart Home, here in Jizhou, is suitable for big moves!"
There's no way around it; there are too many white goods giants in Island City.
If Wang Yi were to put the Xingyi Smart Home R&D headquarters in Island City, they would be poached dry!
Any product Xingyi Smart Home just developed could be directly replicated by Island City's white goods giants.
Wouldn't that be a disaster?
It's better to put the high-end Xingyi Smart Home in Jizhou for easier management and secrecy.
And the mid-to-low end Wujie Smart Home is placed in Island City precisely to wage price wars and curb the major white goods giants in Island City.
Wang Yi doesn't want the smart home ecosystem he painstakingly built to eventually have its fruits picked by competitors in Island City.
To put it bluntly, if Island City's white goods giants are willing to join Xingyi Smart Home, Wang Yi can lead them to make money together.
If they are unwilling, Wang Yi can also vigorously develop his own home appliance brand and replace them.
Like Xiaomi's air conditioners in the previous life, relying on the Mijia smart home ecosystem and minimalist elegant design, sales surged.
It was initially third place, but later almost surpassed both Gree and Midea.
One can only say it was unscrupulous.
Similarly, if Haier, Hisense, Gree, and Midea are too ambitious and insist on creating their own ecosystem to compete with Xingyi Smart Home, Wang Yi will also aggressively enter the white goods sector and replace them!
Song Sining nodded:
"You've thought this through, this arrangement is best. I'll get to preparing this immediately and arrange for the HR department to start recruiting!"
"Good."
Wang Yi nodded.
"Xingyi Smart Home and Xingyi Real Estate are both core businesses for the future. Xingyi Smart Home will start preparations now. As for Xingyi Real Estate, there's no hurry; let's first aggressively hoard land! We currently have a significant amount of funds in our accounts, so we can start acquiring land in first and second-tier cities nationwide. We'll adopt a model of building industrial parks + high-end smart homes, acquiring both the industrial parks and nearby residential land."
"No problem, Xingyi Real Estate has already recruited some professionals specifically for market research, land bidding, and investment negotiations."
Song Sining explained:
"Currently, there's a Xingyi R&D Center project being negotiated in Island City. Here's the information."
With that, Song Sining handed over a document, explaining as she did:
"Island City is offering us 400 mu of commercial land in the Shilaoren district for us to build the Xingyi Technology Island City R&D Center. And the nearby 1200 mu of residential land is also being sold to us at a 30% discount!"
"Shilaoren district?" Wang Yi smiled, "This is a wealthy area in Island City, next to the Shilaoren Beach, with boundless prospects."
"Yes, I'm very satisfied with this project, we can take it. Of course, there are some binding conditions, on this page, similar to those in Jizhou. I've looked at them, and they don't put any pressure on us; they're easy to achieve."
Wang Yi looked at the binding clauses and nodded:
"No pressure at all, all very reasonable, let's take it. However, 1200 mu is too little. For such a good location like Shilaoren, ask for more, 1500 mu. At worst, we'll buy the extra 300 mu at original price ourselves! Those core area lands have boundless prospects, and land prices are still cheap now, so bid away."
"Okay, after bidding, if we need money, we can mortgage it to the bank for fund recovery, so there's really no pressure."
Song Sining agreed.
"Exactly, operate it this way." Wang Yi said with a smile, "Other cities can also follow this model. By the way, here in Jizhou, they also gave us 300 mu for Wujie Science Park, and nearby land will also be offered to us at a low price."
Song Sining's eyes lit up:
"Then I'll push for the signing in Island City as soon as possible and then release the news..."
Wang Yi smiled:
"You've become cunning too, but I like it."
Currently, Island City and Jizhou are competing.
Last year, Jizhou provided 300 mu of commercial land for Meiyou Science Park, 1,000 mu of residential land, and the Xingyi Skyscraper.
Now, Island City has offered 400 mu of commercial land for the Xingyi Island City R&D Center and 1,200 mu of residential land.
This is a clear competition.
Once Island City signs, there's no doubt Jizhou will have to raise its offer again.
The original 300-mu Wujie Science Park project will likely be expanded.
Wang Yi couldn't say anything about this; he could only accept it with a smile.
Now that the province's twin cities are like this, going out of the province to Suzhou-Hangzhou, to Chengdu, or even to Shanghai and Shenzhen, will be no problem in the future.
The prerequisite is to take it one by one, not to rush.
Why Wang Yi first focused on Jizhou and Island City is naturally because Wang Yi is from Jizhou and attended university in Island City in his previous life, making him very familiar with both cities.
This is greatly beneficial for both investment and layout.
"Xingyi Smart Home and Xingyi Real Estate will both be located in Jizhou. I can't oversee everything here, so you'll have to pay more attention."
Wang Yi patted Song Sining's shoulder.
Song Sining was a little surprised:
"Are you really treating me like a brother?"
But she still said testily:
"Don't worry, I've always been attentive to these projects."
"You've worked hard, my President Song!" Wang Yi said with a smile, "Once Xingyi Real Estate develops communities, I'll first reward you with a large flat, no, ten flats!"
"Then I thank the chairman, hahaha."
Song Sining laughed, then changed the subject:
"By the way, I just looked at the data for "Empresses in the Palace." It's terrifying. On the first day of its release, after two episodes, on-demand views exceeded 100 million, and new members surpassed 1.5 million. It's simply incredible."
"That many?"
Wang Yi was also surprised.
He expected "Empresses in the Palace" to be a hit, but he didn't expect it to be such a huge hit!
Such an achievement is truly extraordinary.
Adding another five million members afterward wouldn't be a problem.
Mainly because competitors are too weak; Xingyi Video has no rivals!
Even users who subscribed to iQiyi and Youku VIPs had to subscribe to Xingyi Video VIP again to watch "Empresses in the Palace"!
This situation is quite normal.
In the previous life, video VIP users were divided into two categories.
One type of user might not subscribe to any membership, going through the trouble of finding resources everywhere themselves.
The other type of user didn't want the hassle of finding resources or wasting time and would directly subscribe to a membership to watch legitimate content.
These people often subscribed to two to four memberships!
Yes, that many.
There's no way around it; each video platform has its specialty areas and exclusive dramas, so if you want to watch them, you have to subscribe to more.
In his previous life, at his peak, Wang Yi held Tencent Video SVIP, Youku Video 88 VIP, iQiyi Gold VIP, Bilibili Premium Membership, and Mango TV for his girlfriend!
The same is true now.
Many people don't have the energy to bother searching for resources across the entire internet every day; most just subscribe to a Xingyi membership and are done with it.
Wang Yi smiled faintly:
"With 1.5 million new members in one day, this show will definitely bring in over 5 million, or even 8 million new members in a month!"
"Yes, it's truly terrifying."
Song Sining was filled with emotion, then exchanged glances with Wang Yi, saying in unison:
"Add fuel to the fire?"
"Add fuel to the fire!"
Soon, a piece of news surged to the top of the hot searches:
["Empresses in the Palace" a massive hit! On-demand views exceed 100 million in one day, Xingyi Video gains 1.5 million new VIPs!]
As soon as this news broke, the entire internet was in an uproar.
Everyone was shocked.
They expected "Empresses in the Palace" to be a hit, but they never imagined it would be such a terrifying hit!
Over 100 million on-demand views, over 1.5 million new VIP members!
It was simply a miracle.
But the public always likes to follow the crowd.
Unpopular dramas, no one watches.
But once it becomes popular, everyone goes to watch it!
So, those who liked palace dramas eagerly subscribed and jumped in.
Those who didn't like palace dramas also subscribed and jumped in.
Undoubtedly, Xingyi Video's paid membership numbers surged, rising steadily.
The following two days were the same, with "Empresses in the Palace" monopolizing the hot searches.
The number of new members had already surpassed three million.
Xingyi Video's total number of paid members exceeded 28 million, not including memberships gifted with phones or tablets.
Wang Yi was in a great mood about this, while Boss Jia regretted so much his insides turned green.
On March 30th, in addition to the massive success of "Empresses in the Palace" which continued to monopolize hot searches, a new hot search appeared:
[April 1st, Meiyou Technology's April Fool's Day Press Conference, to be grandly held at Xingyi Science Park in the Imperial Capital!]
As soon as this hot search appeared, the entire internet was abuzz:
"An April Fool's Day press conference? I've lived long enough to see everything! Seriously, it just doesn't feel simple."
"It definitely isn't simple, I feel like Meiyou Technology is planning something big."
"I think so too, Meiyou Technology probably intends to fool us, we shouldn't fall for it."
"Right, there probably won't be anything good that day, everyone don't buy, I'll test the waters for everyone first."
"Heh, upstairs, I can hear your wishful thinking crystal clear all the way from the Great Northwest."
"Exactly, she's afraid the new products will sell out and she won't be able to buy them."
"There must be good stuff, but I also feel there will definitely be an April Fool's joke, what's the key?"
"I'm guessing it's the location of the press conference, not in the Imperial Capital, but at Meiyou Technology headquarters in Jizhou."
"No, I feel it's the content of the press conference, it's not a Meiyou Technology press conference, but a Xingyi Technology press conference."
"I feel it's the time, not April 1st, but 2nd, or even 3rd."
"Be bolder, there's no press conference at all, it's all fake, whoever goes to the site is the fool!"
"Hahaha, we're watching the live stream, so no worries, it's those media outlets that are worried."
"Right, let's see how they deal with it!"
...
Sure enough, for a while, the media was stumped.
It was impossible not to go to Meiyou Technology's press conference.
But the April Fool's Day timing was a huge trap, almost explicitly designed to trick people.
Was it the timing that was tricky? Or the location? Or the content?
That was open to interpretation.
For a time, major media outlets were all fired up, discussing countermeasures and trying to decipher it.
(End of Chapter)