At the halfway point of the buffet, many people stopped their conversations as the host on the small stage at the very front loudly announced:
"In ten seconds, the Orange Super 1 will officially open for pre-sale. We will report sales in real-time here on-site. Thank you all."
No one would question whether Chen Pingjiang doing this was a bit risky.
Wouldn't it be embarrassing if sales were poor?
Even a fool knows that with this price and configuration, given that there aren't many phone brands and options in the current market, the Orange S1 is the most appealing.
Chen Pingjiang also walked onto the small stage and said with a smile:
"Our forty VIP guests attending the conference don't need to worry about not getting a phone; everyone will receive a commemorative S1 at the end."
"CEO Chen, how generous!"
Everyone present was a person of status and didn't care about the mere cost of a phone, but the meaning was different.
Some government officials approached Chen Pingjiang, indicating they wanted to pay.
Unexpectedly, Chen Pingjiang waved his hand:
"These are all commemorative S1 editions, some are even engineering prototypes with a trial nature. If you have any good suggestions after using them, you can give us feedback."
With Chen Pingjiang saying this, it became impossible for anyone to refuse.
Just as the conversation was halfway through, the host spoke:
"We just received a notice that 10,000 Orange S1 Founder's Edition phones have already sold out in ten seconds, and in one minute, 43,642 units have been pre-sold."
Whoosh!
It's a success!
Warm applause erupted in the venue as people looked at Chen Pingjiang with admiration.
Compared to the buffet venue, the online buzz was even greater.
Orange Phone's official Weibo account posted with an image:
"43,642 units in 1 minute, unprecedented!"
"I'm really f***ing fed up. I clicked for ages, it lagged terribly, and by the time it loaded back, it was already sold out."
"I didn't experience lag, but I still couldn't snatch it from those bastards, wuwuwu, my Founder's Edition!"
"So who managed to grab one? Dare to come out and show off?"
"My clock had some issue; when I refreshed the page, only the standard S1 was left. It's said that all Founder's Editions have been locked and can be picked up after payment is completed later."
"Seeking Founder's Edition at 1.5 times the price. Brothers with stock, message me. Price negotiable, serious inquiries only."
"Just to brag a bit, fortunately I didn't fail my mission and snatched a Founder's Edition."
"Truly awesome. I thought it would be popular, but I never imagined it would be this popular. If calculated at the lowest price of 3266, these 43,642 phones would be 140 million!"
"Terrifying!"
...
From the start of the pre-sale, pre-sale records were continuously broken.
At 10 minutes, the pre-sale figure was 150,000 units.
At 30 minutes, the pre-sale figure reached 320,000 units.
At 60 minutes, 510,000 units.
Orange Phone's official Weibo account reported the results in a screen-refreshing manner, and the graphic designer behind the scenes said they were running out of time to create graphics.
After the buffet ended, Chen Pingjiang and a group of Orange Phone executives rushed back to headquarters for a meeting.
"Old Zhou, thank you for your hard work. Contact all suppliers to stock up as quickly as possible. This time, reorder 5 million sets and push down the purchase price as much as possible. If you can't manage it, fly there tomorrow for a face-to-face discussion.
It's been less than two hours, and pre-sales have already reached 700,000 units. I estimate breaking 1 million by midnight won't be a problem, and monthly shipments could reach 5 million units within a month."
Zhou Guangping nodded:
"No problem, I'll get everything done within three days and contact the OEM to reserve production capacity."
Selling 5 million units a month would make it a 'phone king'; historically, not many phones have achieved 5 million units in single-month sales in China.
Mainly, it caught a good time.
It's currently in the transitional phase from feature phones to smartphones, with a large number of users facing the need to replace their old phones.
At this moment, Lin Bin, who had just finished a call, hurriedly walked into the conference room with a smile on his face:
"The relevant heads of the three major carriers just called me, expressing their desire to purchase Orange S1 to sell in their stores."
"Contract phones?"
Lin Bin nodded:
"That's right. From what I gather, each one wants to purchase at least two million units."
Zhou Guangping looked a bit worried:
"Our production capacity can't keep up. If only we had stocked more back then."
Chen Pingjiang waved his hand:
"Let's not talk about hindsight. I'll leave the production capacity issue to you, Old Zhou."
Contract phones have a history in the domestic market, once widely popular, dominating everywhere, ruling over more than half of the mobile phone market.
This was an entity independent of official and third-party channels.
Customized contract phones!
As long as you charge a certain amount of credit, and choose a bundled call plan, recharging on time every month, then the phone is given to you for free.
The free ones are the most expensive, this statement is absolutely true.
From the very beginning of their launch, contract phones quickly broke through by offering seemingly lower prices than official flagship stores (after adding call charges) and better after-sales service guarantees than third-party channels.
China Mobile launched its contract phone business as early as 2002.
With this move, in its first fiscal year, sales increased by one third.
The emergence of contract phones not only immediately raised package fees but also brought stable "loyal" customers; consumers who entered the scheme couldn't leave for two or three years.
Later, China Unicom and China Telecom also rushed to offer contract phones, and it was at this time that ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, and Lenovo made their comeback.
At that time, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad, and Lenovo occupied half of the market, right?
The other half was then Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, NEC, Panasonic, and others.
Phone manufacturers profited greatly.
Taking Lenovo as an example, almost 70% of its sales were operator contract phones.
For this, a dedicated production line for contract phones was even opened; any phone model ending with 'T' was a contract phone specifically for operator versions.
The first iPhone in China – the iPhone 4 – was introduced domestically by China Unicom.
Interestingly, contract phones were all 'crippled versions.'
The Orange S1 is a full network compatible phone, but the customized version for carriers could only be bundled with that carrier's SIM card.
Chen Pingjiang nodded:
"Cooperation is not an issue, but we need to be clear about delivery times. I estimate it will take at least one to two months before we have the capacity to produce customized versions. And we need to specifically state that the price we are selling at now is not profitable; we can't even give away a dime."
Chen Pingjiang still hoped to maintain good relations with the three major carriers, and the closer the relationship, the better.
Otherwise, things would be difficult later.
Putting aside other things, just look at WeChat; this thing would cause a huge impact on the businesses of the three major carriers.
SMS and voice walkie-talkie were still okay, but video and voice calls were truly like defecating and urinating in someone else's backyard.
Back then, the three major carriers and WeChat repeatedly haggled before a solution was reached.
In fact, it's no news that carriers charge extra for communication software, not only in China but also abroad.
For example, in Germany, users have to pay monthly to use WhatsApp.
Even in Hong Kong, China, WeChat also reached a cooperation with local carriers for 8 Hong Kong dollars per month.
After sitting down, Lin Bin sighed with emotion:
"I thought it would be popular, but I never imagined it would be this popular. Meizu M8 sold 100,000 units in two months after its launch. At that time, people in the industry exclaimed, 'The wolf is coming!' Now we've sold 100,000 units in just a few minutes. This feeling is really great, haha."
"In 2009, the total sales of smartphones in China reached 21.64 million. To be conservative, the orders we currently have are nearly one million units. If we include subsequent users and contract phones, it feels like shipping ten million this year would be a piece of cake."
After a cough, Chen Pingjiang said:
"The first battle was a victory. Everyone has worked hard during this period, but unfortunately, no one can rest yet. Old Zhou's task, as just mentioned, is to contact suppliers and OEMs to ensure production capacity."
"Old Lin needs to continue leading the team to develop Orange S2 and to do a good job of site selection to open thirty offline direct stores in first and second-tier cities across the country. While relying solely on online sales certainly reduces costs, disadvantages also exist.
If other brands have offline stores where users can experience the actual device, and if we don't, sales will also be affected. At the same time, offline experience stores can also drive the sales of other peripheral products."
"Old Xiao also needs to work harder and focus his energy on the construction of the chip and phone factories."
Xiao Hongbin nodded:
"The phone factory building has been completed, two production lines have been installed, and it's currently recruiting workers and undergoing trial operations. I estimate it can officially start operations in the summer. The chip design company is currently in the preparatory stage; the main issue is that talent is hard to recruit."
Chen Pingjiang sighed:
"That's not your fault. Everyone lacks chip design talent. Either poach or recruit to speed things up. If really necessary, we could even try poaching from SMIC."
Chen Pingjiang still had time; you can't get fat with one bite.
Phones are easy to make, chips are hard to come by.
A tiny chip involves complex manufacturing processes and procedures.
Chip design needs to avoid patents, wafer fabs, packaging plants, lithography machines...
Just counting them can make your scalp tingle.
...
News about Orange S1 on the second day directly dominated the screens.
Among them, many discordant voices also appeared.
Samsung's China president directly stated in front of the media:
"Orange Phone is simply engaging in malicious competition. According to our estimates, he hardly makes any money. I understand market grabbing, but not like this, harming others without benefiting oneself."
Chen Pingjiang didn't even need to intervene; this remark was immediately retorted by a large number of consumers.
"If you can't beat them, then just grumble behind their backs. If you're so capable, you lower your prices too!"
"Exactly! If you actually lower your prices, then I'll consider you a real man."
"I had originally planned to switch to a Samsung phone recently, but after seeing the press conference yesterday, I decisively chose to wait a few more months. Better configuration, lower price, more complete ecosystem, and most importantly, it's domestically produced. Can you handle that?"
Major manufacturers had nothing else to do at work today except hold meetings to discuss countermeasures.
Tencent was also nervous, along with them.
Pony Ma knocked on the table and said:
"Yesterday, I asked everyone to go home and think carefully about follow-up countermeasures. Let's all discuss them now."
Liu Chiping spoke first:
"After I went back yesterday, I thought about it all night and still suggest redeveloping an application to benchmark against WeChat and start a new stove outside of QQ. Chen Pingjiang is right; QQ, being a product based on PC, is somewhat incompatible with mobile phones. Most critically, after so many years, it has more and more features. To achieve the same simplicity as WeChat, too many features would have to be stripped away."
"But the problem is, would stripping them away even work? Users' impression of QQ has already solidified. If we blindly modify it, it's very possible that we won't just fail to win the mobile market but also lose our existing user base. The most crucial issue is, once it's simplified, how should the employees in many of our project teams be arranged?"
No sooner had Liu Chiping finished speaking than someone immediately voiced opposition:
"I disagree with Old Liu's view. Redeveloping will take at least two or three months, right? In these two or three months, they might already have twenty or thirty million users. There are only so many smartphones in China right now.
Once everyone has installed WeChat, you won't have a chance if you launch a similar application. We need to understand clearly, this isn't the PC side, but smartphones, and it will be limited by the penetration rate of smartphones."
"Starting anew outside of QQ isn't that equivalent to cutting off one's own arm? It's like having water at home but not using it, instead seeking it far away."
Before long, the conference room was divided into two factions; neither could convince the other.
Pony Ma, listening to both, felt they both made sense.
"Since that's the case, let's vote,"
he said calmly.
Soon after, the vote was 3 to 3, and the final decision rested with Pony Ma.
Pony Ma, who was usually accustomed to big situations, also felt immense pressure.
One wrong step could lead to eternal damnation.
Chen Pingjiang was too ruthless, sticking a knife right into Tencent's heart.
Instant messaging was a core interest for Tencent and could not afford to be lost.
After a long while, he raised his right hand under everyone's gaze:
"My idea is that a new application must be developed, and QQ must also be revised; both will run in parallel. If QQ can deal with the competitor, that's naturally the best outcome. If it can't, then let Weiliao take over. Ultimately, no matter which product breaks through, it will be a victory for Tencent.
I hope everyone understands that now is not the time to talk about personal interests. The company is facing a matter of life and death, and we should prioritize the grand strategy."
Seeing the vote was a victory, Liu Chiping finally breathed a sigh of relief:
"So, who will be responsible?"
"The Weiliao project needs to be fast. We encourage internal innovation; whoever develops it first, we'll use theirs. For Guangzhou, the Zhang Xiaolong team will handle it, and for the other team, let's choose the R&D team in Chengdu."
"Whoever can develop it first will be Tencent's savior, Tencent's hero. This time, we have been pushed to the edge of a cliff, with a bottomless abyss behind us."
After listening to Pony Ma's speech, Liu Chiping felt a bit of regret.
He recalled going to Dongjiang wanting to invest in Renren Network but was scared away by Chen Pingjiang's exaggerated offer.
And it was from then on that things repeatedly went wrong.
First, DNF was snatched away, then came a major defeat in SNS, and now Kaixin001 is half-dead.
Later, group buying was suppressed, and now the opponent has even invaded their own heartland.
"If I were given another chance, I would definitely have agreed to that offer instantly. Dealing with such a person, being a teammate is far better than being an enemy."
If Chen Pingjiang knew Liu Chiping's thoughts, he could only apologetically say it was wishful thinking.
Chen Pingjiang had no particular ties with Tencent, nor any resentment.
It's just that as they emerged in the domestic internet market, conflicts were inevitable.
You want to develop, and I want to develop; you want to live, and I must live too.
No one is targeting anyone, there's no right or wrong.
Interests drive everything; tens of thousands of employees under them need to eat.
(End of chapter)