Chapter 112: Shanzhai Phones at 80% Cai Yongjin, Overseas Transit Warehouse Concept (Begging for Monthly Votes)

March 7, 10:00 a. m.

Fox Treasure partnered with Telecom Online Mall to launch a phone flash-sale day. Though the listed phone prices were inflated, they still matched last year's or the year-before-last's launch prices; however, the commission rates were extremely generous, so the final price in hand was far below the market price.

Within one hour of going live, sales hit 1.09 million!

Four hours after launch, the five high-inventory flash-sale items sold out!

On the first day, cumulative sales reached as high as 4.76 million!

The second day was the Spring Women's Apparel Festival special. Exposure for the phone flash-sale day dropped sharply, but over the three-day event period, final sales still broke past 6 million.

Chen Yansen had assumed that, riding on the successful performance of the digital category, he should be able to attract the attention of Huawei, ZTE, or Ku Sect; failing that, HTC, Sony, or LG would do.

Who would have thought that every business-development call he received was from brands like Newman, Big Cola, and Big Pineapple.

These phones had outdated operating systems and lagging specs; hammered by brands like Apple and Huawei, sales kept getting harder.

Take Shencheng's HighXinqi phones for example—even after signing the God of Song as spokesperson, they still couldn't halt the decline of Shanzhai phones in the domestic market.

The warehouse was piled full of marquee phones produced in 2010, 2008, even 2007; in this era of smartphones running rampant, they simply couldn't be sold.

Perhaps expanding sales channels to eighteenth-tier small towns might offer a chance to clear inventory, but the cost would far exceed the returns—more loss than gain.

"Sen-ge, are we taking on this brand or not?" Zhang Yifeng sat beside Chen Yansen, hugging his laptop as he asked.

"HighXinqi H66, launched in November 2007, priced at 1,080 yuan, commission rate of 60%, 128MB RAM, supports up to 2GB expansion…"

Chen Yansen casually looked at one product. The commission rate was indeed high, but the user's final price would be around 500 yuan, and the specs were even worse than the phone Telecom gave away for topping up 300 yuan in calling credit.

"Can't take it. If they'd come to us three years ago, there'd still be room for cooperation."

Chen Yansen shook his head repeatedly.

"What if the commission goes up to 80%?" Zhang Yifeng pressed.

"Then we could give it a try. After all, some users need products with extreme cost-performance. At a final price of just over 200 yuan, using it as an MP4 or radio isn't bad either."

Chen Yansen said with a smile, joking around.

The domestic phone market in 2011 was transitioning from feature phones to smartphones; Shanzhai phones were gradually fading and heading toward extinction. Once Xiaomi phones entered the market, the golden days of Shanzhai phones would be completely over.

Those who could read the situation and pivoted to OEM work in time could still survive; those who couldn't see it and struggled blindly mostly ended badly.

"Then I'll go give it a try. These junk machines piled up in the warehouse can only gather dust. I refuse to believe they aren't anxious." Zhang Yifeng laughed sheepishly.

Electronic products updated fast, and depreciated fast.

If HighXinqi wanted to free up cash flow, it had to clear out the backlog of inventory sitting in the warehouse.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly, signaling Zhang Yifeng to negotiate boldly.

If these Shanzhai phone manufacturers wanted to use Fox Treasure as a "junkyard" for clearing inventory, they'd have to offer a price befitting "junk."

After the Women's Apparel Festival ended, next came Meituan's group-buy special.

Ever since they had activity operations staff, Fox Treasure, on top of its daily super-rebates, would run a category day or brand special every three to five days.

It could both boost user stickiness and lift the site's revenue.

After all, Fox Treasure's revenue, aside from commission spreads, had ad fees as one of its core sources. These high-exposure special events could sell resource slots at higher prices.

IDG Venture Capital, in Q1, introduced Chen Yansen to four overseas-purchasing resources: eBay, Newegg, Macy's, and Walmart—plus Amazon International. Fox Treasure was by no means short on cross-border B2C resources.

But through the data reports, Chen Yansen still spotted one situation: these sites had decent click volumes, yet low order-placement rates.

"Zhuang Rui, come here a moment!"

Chen Yansen thought briefly, then called out to Zhuang Rui.

"Sen-ge, what's up?" Zhuang Rui stood up and walked over quickly.

"On the overseas-purchasing side, has your product team done any research? Why is there such a big gap between click volume and conversion rate?"

Chen Yansen asked softly.

"Earlier the customer-service team helped us do phone follow-ups. Users' pain points cluster around language barriers, product-spec differences, payment methods, logistics, and so on. For example, a pair of size-42 sneakers—different brands have discrepancies, and returns are a hassle, so conversion can't get up."

Zhuang Rui said slowly. He was clear on this problem, but just couldn't come up with an effective solution.

Chen Yansen frowned, mentally reviewing the successful solutions from later years—there were only so many: one, browser translation plugins; two, logistics transit warehouses; three, platform purchasing agents who then reship to users.

In the future, 55haitao and Yangmatou had precisely targeted this market.

But after 2014, Mama Ali, JD, and NetEase successively laid out cross-border e-commerce, and many small cross-border e-commerce platforms were squeezed out.

"Got it." Chen Yansen responded.

Zhuang Rui wanted to say more but held back. In this area he really had no good solutions—at most he could recommend a translation plugin before users jumped off, nothing else he could help with.

Chen Yansen thought for a moment, then picked up his phone and called Liao Wei of Yun Speed Express.

"An overseas transit warehouse? Building a logistics warehouse in the Lighthouse Country? Chen-zong, that's no easy feat."

After hearing Chen Yansen out, Liao Wei replied with a troubled look.

"Difficulty means a high barrier to entry—that's how the money's good to make. If you don't want to do it, I'll find another express company to work with."

Chen Yansen said, utterly unconcerned.

"Fine, I'll head to the Lighthouse Country next week to check out warehouse operations and labor costs first."

Liao Wei thought for a moment, then gritted his teeth and agreed.

This was business delivered right to Liao Wei's door. If Liao Wei didn't take it, getting resources from Chen Yansen in the future would likely be out of the question.

Hearing Liao Wei agree, Chen Yansen smiled slightly and hung up.

The overseas-purchasing big cake had e-commerce giants drooling—how could he let it slip by easily.

The key was reducing shopping friction for users: language barriers handled by translation plugins; sizing inaccuracies solved by physically measuring and relabeling clothing, shoes, and bags according to Chinese users' habits.

Payment issues handled by purchasing agents; logistics and receiving issues, one transit warehouse could sort it all out.

After sorting out his thinking, Chen Yansen called over the business contact for Amazon International, told him to get a few large warehouse addresses from Amazon, so that when the time came Liao Wei could build the transit warehouse nearby, thereby lowering first-leg shipping costs.

Meanwhile.

At OPPO's headquarters in Dongguan, Wang Teng had just finished a meeting and was about to head back to his workstation when the phone in his pocket rang.

"Hello? Who's this?"

Wang Teng saw it was an unfamiliar number and instinctively hung up, but the caller rang again, so he figured they hadn't dialed by mistake.

"Hello, is this Mr. Wang Teng?" the voice on the other end asked.

"Mm, where are you calling from?" Wang Teng asked back.

"Mr. Wang, I'm with the Shangde headhunting firm. I've been commissioned to invite you to join a new company. I was wondering whether you've considered changing jobs recently?"

The headhunter explained the purpose of the call with a smile.

A headhunter?

Wang Teng was slightly taken aback. He'd been working at oppo for three years, and this was the first time he'd ever received a headhunter's call. As for switching jobs, he had no such plans.

oppo might not count as a top-tier major company domestically, but the working environment was decent — two salary reviews a year. His current monthly pay was 21,000 yuan, which was pretty good given today's job market.

Just as he was about to refuse and politely hang up, the headhunter added, "The hiring side is offering very generous terms: a base salary of 30,000 a month, two salary reviews a year, a housing subsidy equal to 20% of the base salary each month, plus meal allowances, quarterly bonuses, holiday subsidies, and so on."

Thirty-six thousand?

Wang Teng did a quick calculation — that was a raise of over 70%!

What do you work for, after all? Isn't it for the money?

Wang Teng set down his computer, glanced around, quietly walked to the balcony, and asked with keen interest, "Which company is it, exactly?"

"Fox Tao." The headhunter didn't hold anything back.

"Uh, if I remember right, that's a deal-hunting e-commerce site, right? It doesn't really match my work experience."

Wang Teng asked, his face full of doubt.

He did want a higher-paying job, but only if the project was solid.

He was a product manager in the phone industry — at a new company he'd have to start from scratch. If they decided he wasn't worth the price and fired him, what then?

"The hiring side plans to expand into mobile, so they want to bring on a batch of Android and iOS developers. A product manager with rich project experience like you, Mr. Wang, is exactly the kind of talent Fox Tao urgently needs."

The headhunting business isn't much different from sales — one sells people, the other sells goods.

Before arranging the interview, of course they had to sing Wang Teng's praises a bit, to give him the confidence to go.

"Alright, let's add each other on WeChat. I'll send you my resume."

After weighing it back and forth, Wang Teng decided to give it a try.

He was 24 this year — precisely the stage of life when a man needs money most. Buying a car and a house both demanded cash urgently. oppo wasn't bad, but he wanted to earn more.

Three days later, Xu Dan conducted Wang Teng's first-round interview over the phone.

Five days later, Cao Dahua brought in a PhD from the School of Software Engineering to give Wang Teng his technical second-round interview.

In the end, every other applicant named Wang Teng was eliminated, leaving only the Wang Teng who worked at oppo.

Before joining, Wang Teng figured he still ought to make a trip to Xu City and meet his future boss.

So he took a day off on purpose, planning to chat with Chen Yansen first before deciding whether to switch career tracks.

After getting off the train, Wang Teng took a cab to Xu City College, amazed the whole way.

All around were farmland and villages — a soon-to-be unicorn company valued at 2.8 billion had really been born here?

He casually pulled out his phone and snapped a few photos, planning to share them with friends.

After getting out, he explained his purpose to the gate guard, who waved a hand and said, "Walk straight to the end, turn right at the library, there's a two-story building — that's the startup park."

The old gatekeeper had seen plenty of social-recruitment interviewees like Wang Teng, so directing them was second nature.

"Thanks!"

Wang Teng, backpack on, followed the old man's directions and found the startup park without a hitch.

Up on the second floor, he took a careful look around.

Fox Tao didn't have many employees — probably fewer than 200. Each room held six desks, and there were meeting rooms and sample rooms, but no private offices.

Xu Dan spotted Wang Teng standing there, walked up with a smile, and said, "I'm Xu Dan from the HR group. You're Wang Teng, right? The boss is inside waiting for you — come with me."

"Sorry to trouble you."

Wang Teng replied politely.

He followed Xu Dan into a meeting room, where a young man in his early twenties sat — his outfit looked mature, but his face still had a boyish air.

Wang Teng knew this was Fox Tao's founder, Chen Yansen — there were plenty of his photos online.

"To build a custom system like UniqueUI, how many people would you need, and how long would the R&D cycle be?"

Chen Yansen waited for Wang Teng to sit down, then threw out the first question.

UniqueUI was oppo's original system, the predecessor of ColorOS.

Weren't they supposed to be developing Fox Tao's mobile app?

How had it suddenly turned into building a phone OS?

Wang Teng's face went blank after hearing it, his heart full of doubt.

(End of chapter)