Chapter 398: Cooking Up a Bubble

Li Li Dongling let Ren Ren Yuefeng sit at the head of the conference room, while he sat to the side. With Li Li Dongling's current influence at Li Dongling High-Tech, he doesn't need to rely on means like sitting at the head or frequently appearing in front of the media to maintain his image and status.

Instead, it is Ren Ren Yuefeng, as the general manager, who needs Li Li Dongling to show an attitude of supporting him so that he can suppress the group of proud and fierce generals at Li Dongling High-Tech.

"Everyone has worked hard this year!"

After sitting down, Li Li Dongling looked at the group of people in the conference room and smiled, "On behalf of the Li Dongling High-Tech Board of Directors, I thank you for everything you have done. Li Dongling High-Tech will not forget all of this!"

A round of applause erupted in the conference room. Wherever there are people, there is a Jianghu, and Li Dongling High-Tech is no exception. Li Dongling High-Tech, which looks "harmonious," actually has fierce internal competition, with newcomers like Zhu Zhao Jiang constantly emerging.

Now, those in charge of Li Dongling High-Tech's various departments, whether they are from the founding veteran faction or the professional manager faction, all need Li Li Dongling's support if they want to maintain their status, or even go further, and enter the Li Dongling Board of Directors or become partners in the future.

And how to obtain and maintain this support requires letting Li Li Dongling "see" the contributions made by Hu Hu Zixian, Zhang Ao, Gao Peng, Chen Tao, Duan Duan Youli, and the others.

Subsequently, under Ren Ren Yuefeng's chairmanship, Li Dongling High-Tech began its most important and final meeting of the year for those at the manager level and above.

"This year, the sales volume of Shenzhou digital cordless phones reached expectations. Although the sales of the Shenzhou series were affected by the digital cordless phones launched by Ximen, Toshiba, General Electric, and AT&T, however..."

As the boss of the Marketing Department, Zhang Ao reported first, "What was affected was mainly the mid-to-low-end market brands Coolpad and Simon. In the high-end digital cordless phone market, Shenzhou's share actually expanded. Currently, Shenzhou's share in the high-end digital cordless market is 78%, while the second-place Ximen has less than 9% in the high-end market!"

The group of people in the conference room all showed smiles on their faces upon hearing Zhang Ao's words. Shenzhou digital cordless phones are Li Dongling High-Tech's fallback and basic foundation. As long as this foundation remains, Li Dongling High-Tech will always have a fallback.

"It is estimated that the entire Shenzhou series of phones will have a revenue of about 1.7 billion USD this year!"

"Next year, Shenzhou digital cordless phones will still face challenges. Additionally, due to fierce competition, there may be pressure on pricing."

"But the digital cordless phone markets in Europe, America, Hong Kong, and domestically are all continuing to grow. It is expected that revenue can maintain the status quo next year, or even grow a bit!"

Li Li Dongling nodded. Li Li Dongling can accept such revenue for Shenzhou digital cordless phones.

The digital cordless phone market is not an industry that can continue to explode, but its strength lies in stability. Old Europe and America are the main markets. Even in the next century, ten or more years later, this market will still exist. It can bring in 1.7 to 2 billion USD for Li Dongling High-Tech every year and can be maintained for many years.

"Currently, Little Smart's total sales volume at home and abroad has exceeded 11.2 million units. It is expected that domestic sales will continue to recover during the New Year period, and total sales this year will be able to exceed 12 million units."

"If production capacity can be increased, sales volume is expected to be able to... but this year, Little Smart's sales volume has already been able to rank among the top four global mobile phone shippers, second only to Nokia, Motorola, and Ericsson!"

After Zhang Ao, Zhu Zhao Jiang, who is in charge of the mobile phone business, stood up and said, looking at Duan Duan Youli, but did not continue.

But Little Smart's shipment volume exceeding 10 million this year is already quite scary. This year, only four companies have entered the 10-million-unit club for global mobile phone shipments.

Nokia and Motorola's mobile phone shipments this year are both around 25 million units, and Ericsson's shipments are around 15 million units.

After that, it is Little Smart. Of course, this is just looking at sales volume without counting revenue. Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola all sell mobile phones with GSM and CDMA technology, with starting prices above 5,000 yuan, and prices above 10,000 are not uncommon.

When Little Smart went on sale, the price was 4,999 yuan, and then it kept dropping. Now, following the price war launched by a group of PHS mobile phone merchants domestically, Little Smart's price—even though Li Dongling High-Tech claims its Little Smart is a "high-end" machine—has already fallen below 4,000 yuan and is approaching 3,500 yuan.

It is estimated that after the New Year, the domestic price of Little Smart will fall below 3,000. However, the overseas price can still be maintained because machines from Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and Samsung are much more expensive than Little Smart, which instead sets off Little Smart's "cost-effectiveness." Whether the signal is good or the call quality is good is another matter, but Little Smart phones are cheap and the call charges are cheap, so they can really fight overseas!

But such pricing also makes Little Smart look like it has high sales volume, but its revenue is far inferior to companies like Nokia, Motorola, and Ericsson.

"There are already more than a dozen manufacturers producing Little Smart domestically now. The Little Smart price war has already begun, and it is expected that future profits will continue to decrease."

"Mr. Li, I think Little Smart should speed up its pace in the future. Before Old Europe and America promote GSM and CDMA base stations to Japan, Siam, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Brazil, and Colombia, we should sell Little Smart there as soon as possible!"

Zhu Zhao Jiang said to Li Li Dongling and the group of people in the conference room. The meaning in his words was very clear: in the future, Little Smart should focus on the overseas market and shift its center of gravity overseas.

Ren Ren Yuefeng frowned. The domestic Little Smart market is far from saturated. Even if the price war is a bit fierce, the profits are still quite high. He doesn't really want Little Smart to shift its main battlefield overseas so quickly.

But when he looked toward Li Li Dongling, he saw that Li Li Dongling actually cast a look of appreciation toward Zhu Zhao Jiang, which made Ren Ren Yuefeng stop the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

"The domestic Little Smart market should continue to be developed, but the overseas market should indeed be promoted with greater intensity!"

Li Li Dongling said. In the domestic Little Smart mobile phone market, a group of companies producing Little Smart have emerged, such as UTStarcom, Hisense, BBK, Panda, and Bird, which also contains a bit of Li Li Dongling's pushing.

These companies were able to produce Little Smart so quickly because they obtained patent authorization from Li Dongling High-Tech, and even the parts were purchased from Li Dongling High-Tech's parts suppliers. Of course, they also paid high patent fees to Li Dongling High-Tech.

But Li Dongling High-Tech's authorization was also a last resort because Li Dongling High-Tech's Little Smart production capacity simply couldn't keep up with demand. It was already struggling to supply the domestic and Japanese markets, and then it entered markets like Malaysia, Siam, and Brazil, so production capacity suddenly became tight.

Wealth moves people's hearts. Even if Li Dongling High-Tech didn't authorize it, it is estimated that a group of counterfeit manufacturers would have taken the risk to start producing Little Smart. After all, the profit of the newly launched Little Smart was simply too high, once exceeding 50%, and the market was right there. If Li Dongling High-Tech's production capacity wasn't enough, counterfeit brands would definitely occupy it.

Rather than letting counterfeit Little Smarts run rampant, it is better for Li Dongling High-Tech to authorize patents to other manufacturers, letting them produce it, and also earning back a portion of patent and technology fees, preventing counterfeit manufacturers from occupying the market, destroying the entire industry, and even affecting the reputation of the entire domestic mobile phone brand.

Additionally, the most important point is that when Li Dongling High-Tech authorizes patents, it signs contracts with domestic manufacturers that the Little Smarts they produce can only be sold domestically and cannot be exported, which guarantees Little Smart's revenue overseas.

Completely preventing someone from selling domestic Little Smarts as parallel imports overseas might not be realistic, but as long as it's not a large batch of machines running out to disrupt the market, that's enough!

As for what to do if the domestic Little Smart price war is too fierce, what else can be done? At most, it benefits domestic users, just treat it as cultivating the mobile phone market. Anyway, Li Li Dongling is prepared to use Little Smart to harvest foreign leeks.

After two or three years, when the foreign leeks are harvested, he will sell the Little Smart brand to those who have "fate"!

So these few years, it is necessary to package Little Smart's sales volume to be incredibly high. The Li family in Hong Kong sold British Orange Telecom for 168 billion HKD. Li Li Dongling selling Little Smart doesn't need to sell much; as long as he can sell it for 100 billion HKD, that's enough!

As for whether there will be a bubble in Little Smart and PHS technology mobile phones in the future, and whether the bubble will burst when entering the mobile internet era, that is not something Li Li Dongling needs to worry about. After all, those who wish to be hooked will be hooked, and there is no such thing as forced buying or selling.

Zhu Zhao Jiang showed a smile upon hearing Li Li Dongling support his proposal. He had done research and analysis before saying those words just now.

The price war for domestic Little Smart-type PHS mobile phones will become more and more fierce, and profits will continue to drop. While the overseas market needs to be pioneered, there are no competitors at the same price point, so there is no need to fight a price war, and the profits are actually higher!

"What is the situation on the production department side?"

Li Li Dongling looked toward Duan Duan Youli. The Marketing Department has quite a few complaints about the Production Department, and they are very dissatisfied with the Production Department's delay in increasing Little Smart's production capacity. Li Li Dongling also knows this.

He has heard rumors, and some people have submitted reports to Li Li Dongling, and some even used fierce language, demanding that Duan Duan Youli be kicked out and replaced by a capable person to manage the production department, etc., but all were suppressed by Li Li Dongling.

Li Li Dongling is clear about Duan Duan Youli's ability. After he came to Li Dongling High-Tech, he introduced and formulated a set of production management systems and safety systems, which increased the yield rate of Li Dongling High-Tech's production department by a large margin, moving it out of the category of a "grassroots team."

Compared with overseas big factories, the product quality and yield rate of the same type of products produced by Li Dongling High-Tech are already on par, and safety accidents have also been greatly reduced.

Duan Duan Youli knows this. He couldn't hide from it. There are rumors in the Marketing Department that if it weren't for the insufficient production capacity, Little Smart's sales volume this year might have exceeded 18 million, or even hit 20 million units, etc. Although it is bragging, it can also be known that production capacity indeed affected sales volume.

And sales volume is linked to the bonuses of the Marketing Department staff. It would be strange if they could give Duan Duan Youli, the boss of the Production Department, a good look.

Duan Duan Youli also didn't choose to escape, "Little Smart's sales volume this year was indeed affected by the Production Department's capacity. I am willing to take responsibility!"

"Wow."

Hearing Duan Duan Youli actually take the blame, a sound erupted in the conference room. One must know that taking the blame requires paying a price!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 399 =====