Chapter 38

"We have currently reached agreements with several component suppliers. Guangzhou Tianhua Electronics Company will process and produce the Silver Mink mouse for us. Once the process matures, the initial daily production capacity of the Silver Mink mouse is expected to reach around one thousand!"

Hu Zi, who had returned from Guangdong Province, didn't even have time to rest before going straight to Li Dongling's office.

"However, some components still need to be purchased from Japanese companies through companies in Hong Kong!"

Hu Zi took a sip of the tea Li Dongling had poured for him and said.

Li Dongling didn't show any strange expression upon hearing this. Although America had started suppressing Japanese semiconductor companies seven or eight years ago, the strength of Japanese semiconductors was still top-tier globally.

Many domestic electronics and home appliance companies were actually purchasing chips, storage, etc., from Japan, Europe, America, and even the neighboring Koreans. Take the Wan Yan Company, which invented the VCD and became a huge hit this year, claiming to be the world's largest VCD giant; yet the patents for core technologies, decoders, and VCD processing chips were all held by foreign companies.

For example, Wan Yan's decoder chips were held by the American companies ESS and C-Cube, and the VCD chips were purchased from Philips and Sony. That is to say, as long as these four companies were willing, they could completely foster a second, or even ten or eight, Wan Yan without any problem. Anyway, they were selling chips; selling to whichever company didn't matter, and it wouldn't delay them from earning a single cent less!

Dongling Gao Ke's Silver Mink couldn't avoid the custom either. Wanting to localize all the components of the Silver Mink mouse was simply unrealistic right now. Using domestic ones might even cost significantly more than buying foreign ones.

This was also the reason why the concept of "buying is better than making" was popular now. Foreign products were mature, had high technical levels, and were cheap. Domestic companies spent all their efforts developing something, only for it to be backward and unsellable. Over time, no one would do such thankless work. This wasn't something anyone could change with a single sentence.

However, when Wan Yan stumbled on VCDs and was ganged up on by ESS, C-Cube, Philips, Sony, and other companies—who sold decoders and VCD chips to dozens of companies to let them compete with Wan Yan—it would probably make some people understand the criticality of whose hands technology was held in.

Li Dongling certainly didn't want Dongling Gao Ke to be at the mercy of others like Wan Yan, seeing it potentially become a giant company only to be easily destroyed. However, wanting to get rid of the situation of being at the mercy of others was not something that could be done overnight. At the very least, Dongling Gao Ke hadn't reached the point where it needed to consider that, and the most important thing now was to survive!

"The Guanxing satellite dish is completely unsellable. The total sales volume of the Guanxing satellite dish is around 750,000 units!"

Li Dongling also gave Hu Zi the bottom line. The satellite dish market was now rotten to the extreme, and everyone was frantically lowering prices. Starting from last year, in over six months, the Guanxing satellite dish had sold nearly 750,000 units, with a total transaction volume exceeding 200 million!

But the profiteering was over. Selling satellite dishes now, let alone making money, would be good if they didn't lose money. The Shangguan Town component factory had also entered the inventory clearing stage, which meant that Dongling Gao Ke could no longer receive money from the satellite dish project.

It looked like earning over 200 million in half a year was very profitable, but after paying taxes, the dividend Dongling Gao Ke could get from it was about 26 million or so.

If the Silver Mink mouse and digital cordless phones couldn't be sold, then Dongling Gao Ke would also reach the point of exhausting its resources.

"Gao Peng is currently in contact with domestic computer companies like Great Wall, Inspur, and Seenda. If we can get mouse orders from these companies, then Dongling Gao Ke can be considered to have gained a foothold in the domestic mouse industry..."

Dongling Gao Ke's cooperation with these computer brands was basically an OEM role, meaning the mice produced would be slapped with the trademarks of these computer companies. This was also a helpless situation; the Silver Mink currently had too low a profile, and it was unknown how many users would buy it at retail. Those big computer manufacturers wouldn't easily cooperate with Dongling Gao Ke to develop mice either.

Even so, it was Dongling Gao Ke that took the initiative to come knocking, seeking to cooperate with computer manufacturers like Inspur, Great Wall, and Seenda at near-cost prices, before the other side was willing to test the waters with a batch of products from Dongling Gao Ke.

"I think we still need to consider this cooperation; let's cooperate when there's an opportunity!"

In Guangzhou, Gao Peng had already talked almost everything over with the procurement supervisor of Seenda Computer. Just as they were one step away from signing the contract to secure this order for 10,000 Silver Mink mice, someone came in and whispered a few words in the other person's ear. The supervisor immediately changed his tune and left after dropping a sentence.

This left Gao Peng somewhat stunned, not knowing what had happened. He wanted to chase after him to ask, but the other person was somewhat avoiding Gao Peng.

It wasn't just Seenda Computer; the several computer manufacturers they had been talking to before had all changed their attitudes drastically, unwilling to even see anyone from Dongling Gao Ke again.

Just as Gao Peng was completely confused, the reporter from the newspaper that had previously advertised for Silver Mink called him and launched a verbal assault on Gao Peng, "I really believed your nonsense. Do you know how much trouble you've caused our newspaper? You're a counterfeit, and you still dare to advertise in the paper?

Your company should just wait to be sued by Microsoft. I've really been ruined by you!"

Gao Peng, who had been sprayed, didn't even have time to speak before the other side hung up the phone. Gao Peng hurriedly ran to a newsstand and flipped through several newspapers. There were still several economic newspapers in the tech industry that were actually reporting the news of "Silver Mink mouse plagiarizing Microsoft mouse."

"I say, are you going to buy or not? You've been looking for half a day. Am I supposed to do business or not!" The old man at the newsstand couldn't help but nag at Gao Peng.

In normal times, Gao Peng would definitely have had a good argument with this old man, but today he was in no mood for that. He threw down a bill, didn't even wait for change, and ran toward the Yangcheng airport with the newspaper, preparing to fly back to the provincial capital and then go to Pingyang.

Dongling Gao Ke also received the news at the same time because reporters had already run to Pingyang to interview Dongling Gao Ke.

"We are reporters from the Provincial Economic Weekly. We want to interview your company: why did you plagiarize Microsoft's latest product?!"

Inside the conference room of Dongling Gao Ke, the reporter from the Provincial Economic Weekly asked aggressively. Reporters these days were quite powerful. The Provincial Economic Weekly didn't belong to the official media, but for this kind of thing, it was exactly the time for these media outlets to join in the fun, so they were naturally quite diligent, wanting to dig up a big story.

Yao Luoying raised her eyebrows, and a look of anger appeared on her face, "Our company did not plagiarize Microsoft. The Silver Mink was developed by us; the patents and technology all belong to Dongling Gao Ke!"

"You mean to say that Microsoft plagiarized you?!"

This reporter became even more excited upon hearing Yao Luoying's words and hurriedly had someone record it. She had originally thought that coming here this time would be to see the company that had supposedly developed the Silver Mink mouse bowing its head, crying, and admitting its mistake to avoid being sued and jailed by Microsoft. She hadn't expected Dongling Gao Ke to be so brave.

As for saying Microsoft plagiarized Dongling Gao Ke, if these words were spoken, they would probably make people laugh their teeth out. What level of existence was Microsoft, and what was Dongling Gao Ke? How many people would believe this? They would only be treated as lunatics.

"Assistant Yao!"

Li Dongling came to the conference room, stopped Yao Luoying, who was about to continue arguing, and took a look at the reporter from the Provincial Economic Weekly.

"Regarding this matter, Dongling Gao Ke Company will make a response tomorrow!"

"We will come again. Before the truth comes to light, our newspaper will continue to pay attention to this matter!"

Watching the reporter who considered herself a messenger of justice leave with her head held high, Li Dongling watched her back for a few moments before getting up and returning to his office.

After nightfall, the lights on the second floor of Dongling Gao Ke were still on. Gao Peng, who had returned to Pingyang overnight, along with Hu Zi, Yao Luoying, Li Dongshan, and others, were all gathered in Li Dongling's office.

"A tech company that only wants to take the shortcut of plagiarism, even if it succeeds for a moment, will eventually encounter failure. Japan has companies that have followed the spirit of craftsmanship for thirty years as if it were one day, which is why they can gain a foothold in an industry. But some companies want to reach the sky in a single bound, walking in one year the path others walked in thirty, and will eventually fall off a cliff!

This is true for a company, true for a person, and true for a country..."

Li Dongling looked at the New Tech Express newspaper that Gao Peng had brought back. For several consecutive days, the New Tech Express had been reporting on this matter in an overwhelming manner. Lin Shiman, who reported on this matter, had become even more famous, being called the only female reporter in the domestic tech industry who dared to tell the truth.

Lin Shiman had even written heroic articles one after another, bombarding the group of companies led by the Silver Mink mouse development company that only knew how to plagiarize, even raising the level to a social level, almost saying that Dongling Gao Ke was a black sheep harming the country and the people.

After finishing this newspaper, Li Dongling had also gotten a taste of Lin Shiman's literary talent.

"The problem now is that no one is willing to believe our words at all!"

Gao Peng said angrily. The tech media side was now almost one-sidedly attacking Silver Mink and Dongling Gao Ke. As for the truth, they seemed to already know it and wouldn't allow Dongling Gao Ke to defend itself at all, just wanting to wait for Dongling Gao Ke to cry and admit its mistake.

Gao Peng sat restlessly, Hu Zi looked somewhat dejected, Yao Luoying was filled with righteous indignation, and Chen Tao and Li Dongshan sat there silently. Li Dongling saw the expressions of everyone in the group.

Tapping his fingers on the table, Li Dongling recalled Laozi's famous saying: "Misfortune, that is where happiness depends; happiness, that is where misfortune underlies." Still, that same saying: a crisis, isn't it also an opportunity!

"Dongling Gao Ke cannot sit and wait for death; we need to sue!"

"We should sue that New Tech Express; they didn't do any investigation at all and just reported recklessly..."

Yao Luoying gritted her white teeth and said angrily. At this moment, she felt that it was the kind of situation where only the person who wronged you knows how wronged you are!

"The New Tech Express does indeed need to be sued, but if we want to wash the dirty water off Dongling Gao Ke, just suing the New Tech Express is far from enough. Microsoft must also be sued!"

Yao Luoying, Hu Zi, and Gao Peng couldn't help but look at Li Dongling in shock upon hearing this.