Chapter 107

"It's still in the research and development stage. Currently, Feiyan engineers are researching two types of mini radios according to the blueprints you designed. The difficulty is not small. Now the R&D is stuck on the micro-motor and the motherboard. The Provincial Joint Laboratory is also helping Feiyan with technical breakthroughs. I'm afraid it will take some time before the R&D is successful!"

Mentioning business, Yao Luoying returned to the state of a female professional manager. Regarding Li Dongling's design ability, there was no longer any doubt within Dongling Gao Ke. The designs of the three products—Yindiao, the electronic pet machine, and the Shenzhou phone—had already proven everything.

Even because of the appearance of Dongling Gao Ke, the design major at Hanxi Jiaoda had a trend of becoming a popular major. Designers who graduated from Hanxi Jiaoda began to be snatched up by other companies at high prices!

Now the engineers researching and developing at Feiyan are mainly the group of old engineers from Feiyan before. Their experience is rich enough. To a certain extent, they are even more valuable than the Feiyan brand and its production lines.

Currently, Feiyan is researching two types of mini radios. One is a mass-market radio, which is aimed at sales volume. The pricing will not be too high, roughly between 50 and 90 yuan. Basically, domestic families and students can afford it.

This kind of machine doesn't need to be very advanced, as long as the workmanship is solid and durable, that's enough. It is mainly used to boost sales and raise brand awareness.

Another type of radio is a multi-functional emergency radio for special purposes. Compared with ordinary radios, this kind of radio can receive more channels, has better quality, and can adapt to extreme conditions and environments, because at necessary moments, it is used to save lives!

The multi-functional emergency radio adds a manual crank that can generate electricity, and a flashlight is also installed on it. Ordinary radios, even Sony radios that claim to save power, can only be used for at most 15 hours on batteries. But hand-cranked radios, as long as you have the strength, can keep cranking the handle to generate electricity to listen to the rescue broadcasts that may come. You can see the light. Sometimes a beam of light represents the hope of survival!

Listening to Yao Luoying's words, Li Dongling thought for a moment, "Now the global radio industry is becoming increasingly depressed. Companies like Disheng and some foreign radio factories are almost about to collapse. We can poach engineers from these radio companies to research and develop products for Feiyan!

In addition, Feiyan can go to talk to Disheng, directly taking over Disheng's offices in Yangcheng, Yanjing, Hushan, Jin Ling, Rongcheng, etc., and let these offices and personnel become Feiyan's sales and after-sales maintenance points!" Li Dongling said.

Who was the radio giant in the country in the past few years? No one can refute that it was Disheng. Even the group of radio companies that appeared later, such as Desheng, were all established by people who came out of Disheng.

Disheng's former vice general manager was Liang Wei. He was admitted to the Radio Department of the Engineering Faculty of South China University of Technology. His class produced TCL founder Boss Li, Skyworth's Boss Huang, and Konka's Boss Chen. In this day and age, the radio major is really easy to produce big shots. Of course, it also includes the radio major of Hanxi Jiaoda producing a certain Mr. Li...

However, just like the Xicheng No. 1 Radio Factory, facing the rapidly falling sales of large radios, Disheng also lost its footing. Xicheng No. 1 Radio Factory bet on televisions, and Disheng was also anxious. Plus, having money in hand, it attacked everywhere, doing stocks, real estate, telephones, fax machines, satellite communications, etc., shouting that it would make 6 billion in revenue in three years!

The things Disheng played with were much bigger than those companies that came later. Just in the field of satellite communications, besides Boss Mou who dared to play, it was Disheng that dared to play. But just like Boss Mou, once they played, they didn't make a sound. Boss Mou played with satellites, making the Nande Company's capital chain tight, and rumors began to spread that he was going to sell satellites to pay off debts.

Disheng is also stretched thin now. Plus, because it invested money elsewhere, the main radio business lacked funds for R&D, had no new products, and the quality dropped rapidly. The entire Disheng is in a state of collapse.

At this time, poaching Disheng's engineers to Feiyan and acquiring Disheng's offices in various places is a matter of course. Disheng is now busy shedding burdens. For the current Disheng, the offices everywhere in the country are a burden, because a sum of salary has to be paid every month. Shedding them to Feiyan can reduce a lot of expenses.

"However, in this way, Feiyan's costs will be too high. The engineers and after-sales personnel recruited are a large sum of money!" Yao Luoying thought for a while and said.

To put it bluntly, it is now the twilight era of radios. Worldwide, radios are no longer a rigid demand. No one knows how many radios Feiyan can sell. Investing too much at this time is indeed a lot of pressure for Yao Luoying, who is in charge of Feiyan.

"These engineers are definitely useful, whether now or in the future!"

Li Dongling looked at Yao Luoying and said, "In the future, Feiyan will enter the field of car radios, and even other fields, all of which will require these engineers to do R&D!"

Now in all walks of life in the country, there is still this batch of old engineers supporting it. Their R&D ability is not to say how strong, but their experience and technology are there. They may not be able to develop advanced products, but they can also toss out products of the same type as foreign countries by following the pattern.

Having these engineers means having technology. Whether it is advanced or not, at least it can be used. They can develop products, can bring new people, and let the technology of an industry continue, so that it will not be completely broken. When there is really no technology in the country, then foreign manufacturers will start to harvest leeks.

Yao Luoying listened to Li Dongling's words thoughtfully. She could feel that Li Dongling valued these engineers very much.

"I understand!" Yao Luoying looked at Li Dongling and smiled.

At sunset, the entire Yuhe Leisure Resort was covered with a layer of golden yellow. The autumn wind gradually rose. Li Dongling, Yao Luoying, Ren Yuefeng, Hu Zixian, and others all sat by the water, looking at the scene before them. "The falling clouds and the lonely wild duck fly together, the autumn water is the same color as the long sky"—this was a sentence that couldn't help but arise in everyone's heart at this moment.

Zhong Lifei, who returned to the magazine's headquarters, immediately announced in the latest issue of "Football Club" magazine that they had reached a cooperation agreement with Shenzhou phones and would bring Ronaldo to the country to participate in activities during the Dutch Eredivisie off-season next year, allowing domestic football fans to have a close contact with this super new star rising in the world!

This issue of "Football Club" magazine was sold out on the day it was published. In the previous life, various basketball and football stars almost came to China once a year. Even some retired NBA stars, after going bankrupt, came to the country every three days, because they really made money. Attending an activity, taking a few photos, and shooting a few balls on the court, hundreds of thousands of dollars were in hand at once. Who wouldn't want to come?

As for the China tour of a popular star, they earned even more. Even some players who could only be considered second or third in their own teams could enjoy the treatment of super stars when they came to the mainland. With an advertising endorsement contract of over one million dollars a month, only a fool wouldn't come.

But for the current mainland fans, this kind of treatment where popular stars come to the country to participate in activities and interact with fans appeared for the first time. As soon as the report of "Football Club" magazine came out, it caused fierce discussion among domestic fans. Including many national-level sports media, they all began to report it.

All kinds of phone calls and letters written to "Football Club" magazine came in swarms. Some wanted autographs, some wanted to participate in activities, and even football teams contacted "Football Club" magazine to ask if they could arrange a friendly match with Ronaldo, or even the team he was in, to make a big profit!

And in this issue of "Football Club" magazine, an advertisement for Shenzhou phones was also published, and it was claimed that purchasing a Shenzhou phone would have the opportunity to get a chance to sign, take photos, and be gifted a jersey by Ronaldo. This activity was not only in the country, but also in places with strong football atmosphere abroad. Shenzhou phones also did a wave of publicity through the media.

The better Ronaldo performed on the field, the more fans paid attention to him, and the greater the advertising influence Shenzhou phones gained. This wave of publicity stimulated the influence of Shenzhou phones among a large number of football fans, making the sales of Shenzhou phones, which had originally begun to stabilize, increase by another notch!

The autumn wind rose. By the autumn of 1994, it was also the harvest season. Shenzhou phones were still selling hot. In Europe, Shenzhou phones, together with Coolpad and Simon, completely suppressed Ximen.

With three brands—Ximen, Coolpad, and Simon—the sales of Shenzhou phones inevitably began to decline, from the peak of 100,000 units per day to 70,000 units, and began to slowly stabilize. However, the sales of Coolpad and Simon electrical appliances continued to soar.

Especially Simon, which soared all the way, with sales growing rapidly. In terms of sales alone, Simon was almost catching up with Shenzhou, leaving Ximen and Coolpad behind. Seeing this, not to mention Ximen, even the other opponents extinguished the idea of challenging the Shenzhou brothers in Europe.

In the situation where Ximen was extinguished and no other brands of digital cordless phones appeared on the market, Shenzhou had a trend of dominating alone. In the mainland, Hong Kong, Singapore, and even South Korea, Japan, Europe, and other places, it was constantly selling hot, and sales continued to rise.

The result was that the Dongling Gao Ke Electronic Industrial Park and the production center in Yangcheng could not keep up with the sales volume. Both production bases were constantly increasing production lines, and the production lines were almost smoking, but in some places, there were still scenes of out-of-stock from time to time. This is the situation of dominating alone. Without opponents, one can grow savagely!

However, compared to the hot sales of Shenzhou phones, another product of Dongling Gao Ke was not so good. Electronic pet machines were still selling hot all over the world, but the scene where supply fell short of demand and it was hard to find one was no longer there, and the price had begun to slowly fall back.

"Now there are really too many pirated and fake electronic pet machines on the market. Just in the country, at least more than 30 electronic pet machine manufacturers have appeared. None of them have been authorized by us, and they have started to produce and sell machines, and the pricing is only half of ours!"

In the office of Dongling Gao Ke headquarters, Ren Yuefeng said helplessly to Li Dongling.

(End of this chapter)