Chapter 196

Looking at the blind box business plan in his hand, Yamashina Makoto raised his head and first looked at Ren Yuefeng. "Is this a business plan formulated by Mr. Li Dongling for Wan Dai?!"

Seeing Ren Yuefeng nod affirmatively, Yamashina Makoto then opened the business plan.

"The essence of a blind box is to satisfy the buyer's curiosity and desire for collection, using the psychology of 'uncertainty' and 'gambling' to stimulate the desire to buy and a sense of satisfaction..."

In the opening, Li Dongling pointed out what a blind box is. To describe it in one sentence: "What you can't get is always stirring." It's just like fishing; if you cast a few times and it's empty, then catch a few small fish, and occasionally catch a big fish, it's guaranteed to make the fisherman addicted, fishing for three days without even closing his eyes.

Blind boxes are the same. As long as you start buying, every time you open a blind box is when your expectations are at their peak. When you want a certain collectible, you won't be able to help but open the next one!

And in the end, even if you don't open the blind box you want, the money and anticipation you've put in will make the sunk costs of the user buying the blind box constantly increase. In the end, well, if you don't buy the whole set and don't open the collectible, you're guaranteed to be unwilling to give up!

When he first started reading, Yamashina Makoto's expression was still normal, but when he saw the back of the business plan, Yamashina Makoto finally couldn't maintain his composure in front of Ren Yuefeng, occasionally showing expressions of excitement and sudden realization.

Wan Dai is a toy giant. Yamashina Makoto naturally understood how good this business plan was. In his eyes, this business plan was absolutely a very mature and feasible plan. Li Dongling had even already come up with a name for the blind box project: Pop Mart!

And at the back of the business plan, Li Dongling also proposed a "recycling" plan, which was to regularly hold blind box auction exchange meetings. Wan Dai would send invitations to players, inviting them to participate in the Wan Dai cosplay global festival. Besides letting Wan Dai's users come to play, gather, and watch performances, they could also take the opportunity to hold auctions!

Taking advantage of the global festival, Wan Dai could auction off some collectible figures. In addition, they could take the opportunity to hype up blind boxes. As for how high they could hype them, isn't that just a matter of how many shills they hire? It's best to concoct news like: a user collected a certain rare blind box, then encountered a family tragedy, and had no choice but to sell the collectible blind box, resulting in getting hundreds of thousands or millions, solving all the family's difficulties!

With a few more pieces of news like this, are you afraid that Wan Dai's blind boxes won't be hyped up to the sky? They could even concoct news like: "Collecting gold and silver is not as good as collecting Wan Dai figures and blind boxes." Aren't things like cultural play walnuts, cultural play bodhi, and cultural play bracelets in the cultural play industry all using this kind of routine?

Like when cultural play walnuts were hyped the hottest, two cultural play walnuts were sold by the boss for 2,000 yuan at a "loss," earning 1,980 with tears, still able to attract countless people to follow one after another to be leeks...

Especially those who wanted to enter this line to pick up leaks and take the opportunity to make a big fortune were cut until even the roots of the leeks were gone.

If cultural play can do it, why can't Wan Dai's blind boxes? Wan Dai doing this is a regular army. A listed company with a market value of billions of USD doing this—how can those grassroots troupes in the cultural play industry be compared? Those cultural play companies at most cut leeks in a few surrounding urban areas. What Wan Dai wants to cut is a whole country, and perhaps not just one country. If there's a chance in places like Korea, Siam, Jiaozhi, and America, they'll definitely want to cut them too.

Ren Yuefeng saw all of Yamashina Makoto's expressions. He could see that Yamashina Makoto was excited one moment and frowning the next. Clearly, his mind was already immersed in this business plan.

Ren Yuefeng wasn't surprised that Yamashina Makoto had this expression. He had also read this business plan, and his expression management at the time wasn't much better than Yamashina Makoto's now.

Ren Yuefeng felt that even if the "Pop Mart" project didn't rely on Wan Dai, it would still be highly likely to succeed.

In fact, if Ren Yuefeng weren't the general manager of Dongling High-Tech now, in charge of Dongling High-Tech, which already had a valuation of over 5 billion USD, he felt that if he had obtained this business plan, he could completely start over and build a new toy giant.

Yamashina Makoto finished reading the business plan once, reluctantly put down the document in his hand, closed his eyes, and thought about the operations in the business plan.

Blind boxes need IP the most. This is exactly what Wan Dai is best at. Whether it's those classic IPs or developing new toys and figure IPs, Wan Dai has absolutely no problem. It's the bowl of rice they eat; can they lose their rice bowl?

Yamashina Makoto could even imagine that they could completely put old wine in new bottles, using the blind box method to bring out the Gundam, Ultraman, and Dragon Ball figures Wan Dai had in its hands. It was guaranteed they could make a big profit again.

"The blind box project is a genius idea. This project is absolutely no less than the digital pet machine project. No, it might exceed the profitability of the digital pet machine!"

Yamashina Makoto pressed his hand on the business plan and said to Ren Yuefeng. He felt that the blind box project might be even stronger at sucking in money than the digital pet machine.

Looking at the business plan in his hand, Yamashina Makoto couldn't help but think of Li Dongling in Hanxi. Although he wasn't willing to admit that his skills were inferior to others, this business plan still made Yamashina Makoto feel that there was indeed a gap between people!

If Yamashina Makoto could still say about the digital pet machine project that it was just good luck, then this mature blind box business plan couldn't be summarized by just saying it was good luck.

"President Yamashina Makoto!"

Ren Yuefeng looked at Yamashina Makoto, who was still in deep thought, and took another document out of his briefcase and handed it to Yamashina Makoto.

"Besides the blind box project, Mr. Li hopes that President Yamashina Makoto can complete another project!"

As he spoke, Ren Yuefeng pushed the document in front of Yamashina Makoto. "Mr. Li requests that this project be carried out as soon as possible. For this, a portion of resources can be invested more, recruiting more manga artists and animation production staff to get the 'Pokémon' manga and animation released as soon as possible. In addition, Pokémon can also become one of the first batches of blind boxes sold by Wan Dai!"

Li Dongling was afraid that Wan Dai wouldn't be able to hold on and would really collapse. Besides the blind box, he gave Wan Dai another super IP. Relying on Pokémon, if Yamashina Makoto and Wan Dai still couldn't stand up, then it would be inexcusable.

Now Pokémon hadn't been born yet, and Ren Tiantang hadn't launched this money-sucking weapon either. As long as Wan Dai brought out the Pokémon manga and animation in advance, it wouldn't count as cutting them off.

Pokémon would rely on games, anime, figures, movies, licensing, and peripheral products to earn 100 billion USD in twenty or thirty years. Backed by such a gold mine, if Wan Dai was still suppressed by Ren Tiantang, it would be truly inexcusable.

As for Wan Dai's equity, Dongling High-Tech could rely on Wan Dai's dividends in the future to constantly acquire Wan Dai's equity. The more Wan Dai earned, the more dividends Dongling High-Tech would get, and the more Wan Dai equity it would hold. It was equivalent to Wan Dai earning money for Dongling High-Tech to buy itself. In the future, Wan Dai would become a sharp tool for Dongling High-Tech to cut leeks!

Developing Pokémon's copyright and IP wasn't a matter of a day or two; it also required a professional team to operate. Dongling High-Tech couldn't establish a new department specifically for one IP. In the future, when Dongling High-Tech became Wan Dai's absolute largest shareholder, this piece of meat, Pokémon, would also rot in Dongling High-Tech's pot; it was impossible for it to benefit others.

Pokémon wearing Wan Dai's skin would be easier to become popular in America, Europe, and other places than directly in Dongling High-Tech's hands, and it wouldn't be easily targeted. Just like the international version of a certain short video app—it was clearly already very popular in America, but it was targeted everywhere by the American Capitol Hill. Once Pokémon became a global popular culture, if Dongling High-Tech operated it directly, it was hard to guarantee it wouldn't be targeted. Dongling High-Tech wanted to use Pokémon to cut leeks, not to become leeks itself.

Yamashina Makoto naturally wouldn't think about how much value the second business plan Li Dongling gave him had. What he valued most was still the first business plan. The blind box project had a chance to let Wan Dai stop the bleeding caused by the digital pet machine project and quickly recover its vitality.

As for the Pokémon project, Yamashina Makoto was interested, but it hadn't reached the point of going all-in. Even Ren Tiantang, at the beginning, probably wouldn't have thought that Pokémon's influence could be so great and its money-sucking ability so strong. It was also after decades of polishing that it slowly took shape.

However, one thing to say is that Ren Tiantang's production and development capabilities were indeed quite outstanding, allowing Pokémon to maintain its popularity for decades. Although there were also skin-changing gameplay methods, they never slacked off, which made it continuously suck in money from all over the world. This was much more sincere to players than other skin-changing games.

"Please rest assured, Mr. Li. Wan Dai will launch the blind box and the Pokémon project as soon as possible!"

Yamashina Makoto expressed his attitude to Ren Yuefeng. Yamashina Makoto was very clear about his current situation.

Although he had kept his position as president, if he didn't have the support of Dongling High-Tech, Wan Dai's largest shareholder, he was afraid he would immediately be driven out of office by Binshan Xing and that group of people again.

This meant Yamashina Makoto had to listen to Li Dongling's words. If he didn't listen, he would just wait to be kicked out of the Wan Dai company directly, and someone else would be replaced to take over his duties.

Now with the blind box and Pokémon projects, Wan Dai had a chance to turn things around. Yamashina Makoto wasn't willing to be out halfway and make a wedding dress for others. So Yamashina Makoto, at least for now, had to hold tight to Dongling High-Tech's thigh.

……

"Hello, hello, hello!"

"Can you hear me!"

"This broken machine has no signal again, damn it!"

In the Yuhe Leisure Resort, Zhang Ao held a small PHS experimental mobile phone, and after saying hello for a long time, he finally couldn't help but curse.

Seeing this, Chen Tao, the manager of Dongling High-Tech's technology department who was in charge of the PHS project, said with an awkward expression, "It's still in the experimental stage, so there might be some problems with the signal!"

Regarding the R&D of PHS, Dongling High-Tech was quite swift. After all, this thing was just a signal-amplified version of a cordless phone. Dongling High-Tech was now the world's largest digital cordless phone manufacturer, so it was quite handy in developing PHS, and a prototype had already been developed.

Hearing Chen Tao's words, Luo Zheng, who was in charge of the communication technology R&D for PHS and had also run over from Lenovo, said, "Even if the PHS project is fully developed, the signal might not be very ideal!"

"Essentially, the PHS technology used is a backward technology. Now, besides Dongling High-Tech, the only ones researching PHS technology are Japan's Kyocera and Japan's NTT."

Domestic companies like ZTE, Huawei, China Mobile, and China Unicom all believe that the future mobile communication industry belongs to GSM and CDMA!"

Dongling High-Tech's PHS technology was developed in-house and was not introduced from Japan's NTT. Whether it was the machine or the communication technology, it was all developed by Dongling High-Tech itself.

Hearing Luo Zheng's words, Zhang Ao, who was fiddling with the PHS in his hand and waiting for a signal, changed his expression. "So the PHS we developed is technically inferior to other brands of mobile phones?!"

Luo Zheng hesitated and didn't speak. Although he said that PHS technology was backward and not many companies were researching it, foreign companies like Siemens and domestic companies like ZTE and Huawei, as well as the two major communication operators, all looked down on this thing.

But in reality, PHS technology still had its merits. The most critical point was low cost. Whether it was the requirements for mobile phones or base stations, they were much lower than the requirements for GSM and CDMA.

"There is no perfect technology in the world. If someone says there is, just treat them as a liar."

In the future, PHS and PHS technology will indeed lag behind mobile phones using GSM and CDMA signals, but that's a matter for ten years later. Now, it is the most suitable mobile phone for the country and even Southeast Asia, South America, the Middle East, and Africa!"

Li Dongling took the PHS from Zhang Ao's hand and said to Zhang Ao and the others.

Everyone knows that mobile phones using GSM and CDMA technology have good signals, but a GSM and CDMA signal tower is more than ten meters high. How easy is it to build them across mountains and ridges? Without ten or more years of effort, don't even think about covering the whole country with signals.

But what about PHS signal towers? Just putting them on roadside utility poles or rooftops is enough. Building tens of thousands of signal towers a year, covering signals in dozens or scores of cities is not a difficult task. In the future, domestic PHS signal towers were built in the millions over a few years, and that's how it came about.

Li Dongling looked at the PHS in his hand. This machine was also developed according to Li Dongling's design drawings. Li Dongling designed the first PHS based on Nokia's 6110.

The appearance is a straight-board mobile phone design, with a black-and-white screen and buttons, and a protruding antenna in the upper left corner. Looking at Dongling High-Tech's PHS with the eyes of later generations, it seems a bit "old-fashioned," but if you take this PHS to the street now, compared to the bulky "Big Brother" (brick phone), the PHS is enough to be called beautiful. No one could object to calling it the ceiling of beauty among domestic mobile phones now!

Today was the first day of PHS testing, and a group of Dongling High-Tech executives ran over. PHS was one of Dongling High-Tech's most important projects in the second half of this year, so Dongling High-Tech had to take it seriously.

But after trying it, the problems that popped up with the PHS made executives like Zhang Ao and Hu Zixian feel a bit worried. Although the signal of the "Big Brother" phone wasn't much stronger, PHS was something that Dongling High-Tech, which currently had the highest technological content in the country, dared to bring out.

Li Dongling didn't have any worries. He picked up the PHS in his hand and talked to the testers one kilometer away for a few minutes, feeling that it was acceptable.

"The PHS technology must be perfected as soon as possible. At the very least, calls within the city must not be subject to too much interference."

Li Dongling handed the PHS to Chen Tao and said to him with a smile, "I don't want people who buy it when it goes on sale to say: 'Holding a PHS, standing in the wind and rain, switching from left hand to right hand, but just can't get through!'"

Hearing Li Dongling's words, Zhang Ao, Hu Zixian, and the others couldn't help but burst into laughter. These words were just too vivid. When Zhang Ao was holding it just now, that was exactly what he looked like.

"I'll do my best!"

Chen Tao couldn't laugh and said with a bitter face. Poor signal is the fatal flaw of PHS. The test conditions created in the laboratory are much stronger than the interference environment. If PHS has signal problems, when it is used on a large scale, this problem will be magnified countless times.

But, no matter how many problems there are, in the face of absolute price, PHS is a gold mine. If played well, it can still go overseas to earn foreign exchange. Price is the king!

(End of chapter)