Chapter 313: Gathering the Strengths of a Hundred Families

Zhang Ao had dealt with too many of those overseas companies, and the halos on them had already vanished in his eyes.

For these foreign companies, Zhang Ao now truly realized that as long as there was 300% profit, they really dared to sell the rope to hang themselves.

Similarly, these companies that belonged to the "hyena" category, as long as there was profit to be made, would never walk away. For the PNY company in front of them, the same applied.

Sure enough, although Zhao Linhan had staged a wave of fury, he had no intention of leaving at all.

Li Dongling also waited unhurriedly for Zhao Linhan. After venting, Zhao Linhan sat down dejectedly.

"President Li, these terms of trade are too harsh. For every USB flash drive sold, giving Dongling Gao Ke 5% of the revenue—PNY's profit is really too low!" Zhao Linhan said, shaking his head.

"The USB flash drive will be a gold mine in the future. I think PNY company won't disagree with this, right?!" Li Dongling looked directly at Zhao Linhan and said.

Zhao Linhan hesitated, but still didn't refute. PNY company had conducted research on the USB flash drive market. The entire USB flash drive market was indeed a bonus market, otherwise PNY wouldn't have been so urgent to reach a patent licensing agreement with Dongling Gao Ke.

"Within three years, the global USB flash drive market scale will definitely exceed 1 billion USD. In ten years, or even less than ten years, the market for storage USB flash drives and other types of USB flash drives will exceed 10 billion USD!"

Li Dongling said. Now, the Shenzhou USB flash drive had only played with one way of using USB flash drives, only used for storing files.

But in the future, they could launch USB flash drives with gimmicks and functions like encryption and waterproofing. Additionally, with the development of computer technology, USB flash drives could also be used for storing pictures, music, movies, computer systems, etc., and the functions would expand several times over.

The emergence of virtual currency also brought another explosion in demand for high-end USB flash drives. Various virtual currencies were stored in USB flash drives. What was stored in a USB flash drive was virtual currency worth hundreds of millions or billions of USD. By comparison, was a USB flash drive worth a few hundred USD still expensive?!

"For the healthy development of the USB flash drive industry and to avoid malicious competition, Dongling Gao Ke will not allow too many manufacturers to produce USB flash drives. Besides the Shenzhou USB flash drive under Dongling Gao Ke, in the future, the number of manufacturers worldwide capable of producing USB flash drives should not exceed five, or even fewer!"

As soon as this was said, Zhao Linhan's eyes lit up immediately. If there were too many players in an industry, price wars would inevitably occur, and the more they fought, the more miserable it would be.

If only a few manufacturers produced them, even if there was competition, they wouldn't engage in loss-making price wars for sales volume. For the sake of profit, everyone wouldn't do loss-making business, but instead maintain a tacit understanding, earning for a longer time.

Of course, if they could block Jin Shidun, this deadly rival, out of the USB flash drive market, Zhao Linhan felt that PNY wouldn't be unable to accept giving Dongling Gao Ke a 5% revenue split!

"I think the USB flash drive market only needs two. Shenzhou plus PNY is the best choice!"

Zhao Linhan said to Li Dongling with a smile. One couldn't see the appearance of fury from just now at all. Zhu Zhao Jiang in the distance, seeing this stunt that could be called "Sichuan Face-Changing," was also somewhat dumbfounded.

Li Dongling didn't answer. Licensing the USB flash drive only to PNY was of course more profitable, but to control the global USB flash drive market, they had to pull a few more storage giants into the game.

Only by forming a community of interests around the USB flash drive could they block the jackals coveting the USB flash drive out of the industry. Dongling Gao Ke alone couldn't do it, but pulling a few giant companies into the game could be done.

"So, storage patents and technology, plus a 5% split, in exchange for the patent and technology licensing of the Shenzhou USB flash drive—is PNY willing to accept?" Li Dongling asked again.

This time Zhao Linhan didn't hesitate, but asked directly, "What aspects of storage patents and technology does Dongling Gao Ke want?"

"Flash memory particles, cache chips!"

Zhao Linhan looked at Li Dongling meaningfully. As an old gun in the storage industry, the first thought upon hearing these things was that Dongling Gao Ke was going to make hard drives.

Having mixed in the industry for so many years, if Zhao Linhan couldn't guess this, he would have really wasted all those years.

Zhao Linhan didn't agree or refuse immediately. He didn't know whether Dongling Gao Ke wanted to make mainstream ordinary hard drives, emerging mechanical hard drives, or the ethereal solid-state drives...

That's right, the solid-state drive that would become popular in later generations was currently a "heavenly pit" existence. No one knew how many manufacturers had been dragged into debt by this thing.

The popular solid-state drive of later generations wasn't anything fresh. IBM had created the first solid-state drive six or seven years ago.

But it only stopped at the experimental stage and hadn't been formally installed on laptops and computer hosts, because there were too many size problems. No one knew how long the road from the laboratory to the computer would be.

In his past life, from IBM developing the first solid-state drive to Samsung launching the first laptop equipped with a solid-state drive, it took a full fifteen years!

The current solid-state drive project was more like a big pit for the storage industry. Jin Shidun, Toshiba, Samsung, SanDisk, including PNY, were all researching it, but none of them had come up with anything.

Therefore, Zhao Linhan's first consideration was whether to let Dongling Gao Ke enter the hard drive industry and snatch food from PNY's plate.

Li Dongling looked at Zhao Linhan's silent expression and guessed what PNY was worried about, saying directly, "PNY can rest assured, Dongling Gao Ke will not compete with PNY for the ordinary hard drive market!"

Hearing this, Zhao Linhan was also convinced that Dongling Gao Ke was going to go all-in on mechanical hard drives or enter the "heavenly pit" of solid-state drives.

Mechanical hard drives were now considered the future of the hard drive industry. Since the discovery of the giant magnetoresistive effect by two Nobel Prize winners in physics a few years ago, the capacity of solid-state drives had begun to grow explosively. Now, including PNY, everyone was researching mechanical hard drives.

Zhao Linhan couldn't help but speculate: if they competed with Dongling Gao Ke in the field of mechanical hard drives, could PNY gain the upper hand? Additionally, there were solid-state drives.

Although solid-state drives didn't have a shadow yet, Zhao Linhan felt a sense of worry for no reason. Although PNY and other storage manufacturers hadn't figured out solid-state drives, what if Dongling Gao Ke figured it out?!

Although Zhao Linhan also felt it was somewhat unlikely, he had specifically studied Dongling Gao Ke before coming to Hanxi. The more he studied, the more he felt that Dongling Gao Ke was truly somewhat "evil." Since its debut, Dongling Gao Ke's projects had always been unexpected.

To say that the digital cordless phones, mini radios, Little Smart mobile phones, Silver Mink mice, and now USB flash drives created by Dongling Gao Ke were particularly advanced in technology, in reality, they hadn't broken through existing technology. But Dongling Gao Ke was just able to package, toss, and reorganize existing technology into another type of product that was popular worldwide!

Countless companies, after dismantling Dongling Gao Ke's products, found that besides exquisite workmanship and strict quality control, in reality, those technologies weren't up to standard, and some technologies were even inferior to those giant companies, giving some company engineers a psychological advantage when facing Dongling Gao Ke's technology.

But it was Dongling Gao Ke's product creativity that made those companies beat their chests and regret, regretting why they hadn't thought of it, and that it could be played like this. Shenzhou phones, Little Smart, and USB flash drives were typical examples!

Now it was the turn of solid-state drives. To be honest, Zhao Linhan was worried. PNY and Toshiba couldn't figure it out, but who dared to say that Dongling Gao Ke couldn't figure it out either.

Solid-state drives weren't like USB flash drives. If Dongling Gao Ke really played it out, the entire storage industry and computer industry would have to change drastically. By then, PNY would really be suppressed under Dongling Gao Ke's Five Finger Mountain and unable to turn over.

Li Dongling didn't urge Zhao Linhan to make a decision. Anyway, there wasn't only one company researching solid-state drive technology, and PNY wasn't the one with the best technology.

Using a solid-state drive project that didn't know when it could be realized to exchange for a USB flash drive entry ticket that could earn USD now—if PNY wasn't willing to do it, IBM, Samsung, or even SanDisk and Jin Shidun would probably be willing. Toshiba probably couldn't be exempt from vulgarity either!

Li Dongling was preparing to let Dongling Gao Ke's solid-state drive "gather the strengths of a hundred families and become the great achievement of Dongling Gao Ke's one family," making Dongling Gao Ke the first company to eat the crab of solid-state drives.

"I hope that Jin Shidun is not on the list of Dongling Gao Ke's USB flash drive licensors!" Zhao Linhan stared at Li Dongling and asked after deliberating for a long time.

To say which company PNY hated the most now, it certainly wasn't Toshiba, Samsung, Sony, or SanDisk. Only Jin Shidun could top the list. PNY hated Jin Shidun, which stole its home base, to the bone. It could even be said that they would rather benefit other opponents than let Jin Shidun take advantage of them!

"Deal!"

Li Dongling reached out to Zhao Linhan. Not only PNY, but Li Dongling actually didn't want Jin Shidun to enter the USB flash drive industry either. To be honest, this company was really somewhat "evil."

In his past life, whether it was memory sticks, USB flash drives, or solid-state drives, Jin Shidun wasn't the first to enter, but often after entering, this company with "free-range" employees could explode with amazing combat power, snatching half of the global USB flash drive market and one-third of the solid-state drive market.

Rather than raising a tiger that would cause trouble, it was better to block this tiger, which looked harmless in peacetime, out of the door from the beginning. Dongling Gao Ke could also save a lot of trouble.

After Zhao Linhan shook hands with Li Dongling, he signed a letter of intent for cooperation. This partnership was basically reached. Subsequent legal affairs and technology exchanges would be handled by specialists from the Legal Department and Technology Department. That would take time; one or two months would be a short time.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 314 =====