Chapter 260: People are compared to people, it's infuriating; goods are compared to goods, they should be thrown away

When walking out of the Li residence, Li Yan still hadn't fully recovered; he felt as if his steps were light and heavy, one after the other. Seeing Li Yan's expression, Gao Peng didn't find it strange at all.

Before this, everyone who had sought out Li Dongling and the people at Dongling Gao Ke for cooperation had experienced this state, including that Eastern devil, Nakamura Takeo, the president of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone; when he left Hanxi, wasn't he also in a state of high ambition?

Upon reaching the outside, Gao Peng stopped and tossed a cigarette to Li Yan. Establishing a customer service call center and a courier logistics company would certainly require the logistics department of Dongling Gao Ke to be the main force.

After thinking for a moment, Gao Peng said to Li Yan, "I will apply for funds from the Budget Management Committee. The customer service call center project will be handled by Focus Media, and the courier logistics company will be done by the logistics department!"

"We can let the technical department help handle the technical issues for the customer service call center."

Dongling Gao Ke's Budget Management Committee had already been officially established and was slowly taking over Dongling Gao Ke's investment projects. Previous projects, such as Dongxin Semiconductor's chip research and development and Oriental Optoelectronics' panels, remained as they were, continuing to receive funding for R&D, but new projects required approval from the Budget Management Committee to allocate funds.

Li Yan nodded upon hearing this. With the support of Dongling Gao Ke's technical department, there would be no technical difficulties in establishing the customer service call center. Focus Media would next need to establish customer service call centers in multiple locations.

The last time Focus Media appeared in the news media was because of SMS advertising. With the explosive sales of PHS phones, the SMS advertising market had begun to become gradually heated.

Especially after previous media reports that Focus Media's revenue from SMS advertising had exceeded ten million, it attracted many companies to swarm into this industry.

SMS advertising had currently become a new trend. However, in this industry, Focus Media was the undisputed leader; both China Telecom and China Unicom were mainly cooperating with Focus Media.

Previously, Focus Media relied solely on SMS to advertise, but now the tactics had gradually upgraded, developing businesses such as SMS newspapers, SMS weather, and SMS customization. Industries like securities, insurance, banking, and real estate also sought out Focus Media to send large-scale SMS messages to users. They also secured contracts for cooperation with the Beijing Municipal Government Office, the fire department, and other departments. Currently, Focus Media's revenue from SMS advertising was growing by nearly double every month.

Although there were many challengers, it was difficult for them to threaten Focus Media's position in the SMS advertising industry. After all, the PHS phone was its brother company, which made Focus Media almost invincible.

And offline, Focus Media was also continuously seeking cooperation with property management companies of hotels, airports, stations, and mid-to-high-end residential areas in Beijing, Guangzhou, and other places. The reason for seeking cooperation with mid-to-high-end communities was for no other reason than that old residential areas were all walk-ups and simply didn't have elevators installed...

Focus Media was seeking to place advertisements in residential elevators; without elevators, how could Focus Media place advertisements?

Both SMS advertising and offline advertising were progressing rapidly for Focus Media. Focus Media was now the fastest-growing company in the domestic advertising industry, perhaps even without one. Many large companies, especially overseas brands in clothing, electrical appliances, home furnishings, jewelry, and other industries, had begun to cooperate with Focus Media.

These offline advertisements of Focus Media had long appeared in America and Europe. Compared to traditional promotional methods like television, radio, newspapers, and magazines, these overseas brands had a higher acceptance of outdoor advertising and were more willing to try cooperating with Focus Media.

Just as the advertising industry was watching Focus Media's rapid progress, and many overseas investment institutions were beginning to favor Focus Media, companies in the advertising industry were also speculating when Focus Media would become a giant company, or even go public, when suddenly a piece of news that shocked the entire advertising industry broke out.

"Focus Media's subsidiary, the Focus Select TV shopping project in cooperation with television stations, saw its revenue exceed 47 million last month, becoming Focus Media's new high-revenue business after SMS advertising."

"Television industry insiders estimate that TV shopping may have just begun to rise in the country!"

"Referring to the overseas TV shopping industry, American live TV shopping has been developing for over thirteen years since 1982, and has given birth to two TV shopping giants with annual revenues exceeding two billion dollars, QVC and HSN. These two TV shopping companies cover over 112 million household users in America!"

"In addition, TV shopping in regions like Europe, South Korea, Japan, and India is also developing. The TV shopping initiated by Focus Media may set off a new retail industry in the country!"

In the latest report of the authoritative newspaper of the television industry, *Mainland Television News*, the news about Focus Media's TV shopping was reported.

Once the news came out, it shocked the entire domestic advertising and media industry. Previously, major TV stations scrambled to cooperate with Focus Media on TV shopping. They knew this thing might make money, but they didn't expect it to be so lucrative. After opening for one month, revenue broke 47 million, and this was just the beginning.

Once this news came out, those companies that previously envied Focus Media were now a bit jealous. What was Focus Media's background? When it was founded, Dongling Gao Ke threw tens of millions into it, which was completely different from those advertising companies that grew up through hardship.

Being a "rich second generation" was one thing, but what advertising company could have all kinds of big projects thrown at it less than a year after its founding? It was SMS advertising and TV shopping; Focus Media completely didn't take the usual path and directly opened up a new track. How were other advertising companies supposed to play!

However, immediately after, Li Yan, who had returned to Beijing from Hanxi, accepted an exclusive interview with CCTV Channel 1. This interview caused an uproar.

"No rules, no standards. Any industry, if it wants to develop, must have rules; otherwise, it will plunge the entire industry into chaos!"

"Focus Media is willing to contribute a modest effort to the domestic TV shopping industry. We hope that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, CCTV, as well as Beijing TV, Hanxi Provincial TV, Guangdong Provincial TV, etc., can join hands with the Administration for Industry and Commerce to jointly formulate mainland TV shopping guidelines. Focus Media is willing to abide by these TV shopping guidelines and operate lawfully, pay taxes, and provide users with the best shopping services."

"In the future, Focus Media hopes to promote the mainland TV shopping model overseas, reach cooperation with more overseas TV stations, and also let more domestic products go abroad with the help of the TV shopping industry!"

Although Li Yan's words implied that he was asking relevant departments and TV stations to join hands to formulate TV shopping management regulations, anyone in the advertising industry could hear the subtext. Li Yan was going to let Focus Media formulate the domestic TV shopping management conditions; he was going to set the rules for the TV shopping industry!

When seeing this interview, many advertising industry companies were both shocked and angry, especially those companies that were preparing to enter the TV shopping industry to make money. When they saw the interview, they all cursed Li Yan for being unrighteous. He had eaten this bowl of TV shopping rice himself, so he was burning bridges and not letting other companies play. It was too overbearing.

But no matter how they cursed, Li Yan's words at the end of the interview raised this interview and the TV shopping industry to a new height. When TV shopping was even influenced to the height of international reputation and exporting to earn foreign exchange, everyone understood that launching TV shopping guidelines was probably a done deal; otherwise, this wind wouldn't be blown.

After all, for all parties, regularizing TV shopping was beneficial for the Administration for Industry and Commerce, TV stations, and taxation. After TV shopping companies were regularized, they could provide tax revenue and employment positions, and also reduce user complaints. If they could go overseas, that would be even better. It was just that those companies that were "cutting corners" would not be easy to "cut leeks" in this industry.

And after accepting the CCTV interview, Focus Media announced that it would join hands with its parent company, Dongling Gao Ke, to establish large-scale customer service call centers in Beijing, Guangdong, Hanxi, and other places to serve the Focus Select TV shopping channel. It was expected that the first batch of customer service seat recruitment would exceed 3,500 seats!

The customer service call center would use modern office equipment, all using telephones, computers, printers, and other office equipment. Users would call and send SMS to book, and order forms would enter the computer, and then the computer would contact the shipping center and storage center, and finally complete the delivery.

The entire call center project sounded very high-end, and Focus Media announced that the salary and benefits of the customer service call center would exceed 1,500 yuan per month, and there would also be overtime pay, bonuses, etc. You know, the current salary of a flight attendant was only 2,000 yuan. The salary of the call center employees was almost comparable to that of flight attendants.

The reason for setting such salary and benefits was still for Focus Media's TV shopping project. When knowing that the call center employees' salary was the same as flight attendants, would it make people feel that TV shopping was high-end, not that kind of street-side amateur troupe, although in reality, there was no difference.

This was the same routine as the decoration of luxury stores. After entering a luxury store, that kind of high-end decoration and carefully selected shopping guides would make buyers feel that the things they were about to buy had "class." The customer service call center also wanted this atmosphere.

Once the customer service call center project came out, it immediately spread like wildfire, attracting countless people to discuss it. Many girls who saw the news were eager to try and wanted to enter Focus Media's customer service call center.

And after the customer service call center, another piece of news came out. It was not as sensational as the customer service call center, but it caused huge waves in the courier industry, which was still hiding and dodging.

Dongling Gao Ke's logistics department took out its own fleet and warehouses across the country to form Oriental Express. Subsequently, rumors spread that the Beijing Supply and Marketing General Corporation had invested in Oriental Express. Hearing the news, courier companies like Shen Tong and SF Express couldn't help but look at the new peer, Oriental Express.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 261 =====