Chapter 581: The Horn

"Boss Chen, send another batch of Shenzhou electronic dictionaries over! We're out of stock here!"

"The inventory of electronic dictionaries at Tianhe City is already critical!"

"Wangfujing Department Store is also urging us to ship!"

After Chen Zuhan answered the phone, the first caller was the manager of the marketing department of Hanhai Trading Company. The electronic counters at the largest department stores in Yangcheng were all starting to demand stock.

For just three stores—Yangcheng Department Store, Tianhe City, and Wangfujing Department Store—Chen Zuhan had supplied nearly 25,000 units, and now they were almost sold out!

The electronic dictionaries were selling too fast; compared to the popularity of the electronic pet machines back in the day, they were simply in a different league.

After all, the electronic pet machines had mostly captured the youth market as a trendy product; they hadn't conquered the market of middle-aged people who held the purse strings.

The electronic dictionaries were different. Parents were the first to go crazy for them. It concerned their children's exams and academic performance, and it related to their children's future prospects—which parent dared to be negligent?

Just look at the madness of parents after school district housing appeared, and you would know that for the sake of their children, these middle-aged people were truly generous with their money!

Especially after rumors spread that they were about to go out of stock, people in Yangcheng, fearing they wouldn't be able to buy one, directly started a "sweeping" mode.

Before Chen Zuhan could solve the stock shortage problems for those major department stores, distributors in Pengcheng, Jihuaxiang, Zhuhai, and other places also called Chen Zuhan to urge for shipments.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Zuhan felt like his head was twice its normal size. So many calls demanding stock made him feel quite a headache.

He knew that among these distributors, some were truly sold out, while others were likely playing tricks, hoarding stock to sell at high prices once the shortage hit.

But regardless of whether they were truly sold out, as the head agent for Dongling Gao Ke in Guangdong Province, he had to get more stock for the regional distributors. If he didn't let his subordinates eat meat, who would obey him?!

"Tell the regional distributors to remit today's sales figures to the Hanhai Trading account as soon as possible. If they don't hand over the sales figures, don't even think about getting the next batch of units!"

Chen Zuhan said to his assistant. Regardless of whether those distributors were playing tricks, money couldn't be faked. As long as they handed over the sales figures, no matter how those units were sold, Chen Zuhan had to pay the payment for the 100,000 electronic dictionaries to Dongling Gao Ke.

"The sales volume statistics from Guangdong Province show 74,000 Shenzhou electronic dictionaries sold on the first day!"

At the Dongling Gao Ke headquarters, Li Dongling, Hu Zixian, Ren Yuefeng, and others all arrived at Zhang Ao's office.

By evening, the sales figures for Guangdong Province were the first to be tallied. Of the 100,000 units supplied to Guangdong, over 70,000 were sold in a single day. Most of the sales were contributed by Pengcheng and Yangcheng, but it also showed that Guangdong Province was currently the region with the strongest purchasing power in the country.

"How many units were actually delivered by Focus Media today?" Li Dongling asked.

Focus Media's TV shopping orders sounded impressive—orders of over 100,000—but the uncertainty was high. To put it bluntly, the return rate was somewhat high. Some people were excited after watching the ad and called to pre-order, but the next day, after sleeping on it, they regretted it and directly refused delivery.

Only when the goods were delivered and the money was in the account could it be considered a completed transaction. This wasn't just true for TV shopping; in the e-commerce era and the live-streaming sales period, return rates were also quite high. For example, in live-streamed women's clothing sales, the return rate could reach 80% or even over 90%.

Focus Media had 128,000 orders on domestic and overseas TV shopping platforms. Honestly, if 70% could be truly completed, it would be considered qualified.

"Li Yan hasn't called yet!"

Ren Yuefeng glanced at the time. It was already nearing night, and Oriental Express had stopped deliveries. The Focus Media orders should have been tallied by now.

"Ding!"

Ren Yuefeng's phone rang. After answering, Ren Yuefeng said to Li Dongling and the others, "Today, Focus Media received payments for 12,000 orders domestically!"

Upon hearing the sales volume Ren Yuefeng reported, someone immediately wrote a string of numbers on the whiteboard in the office.

Once the Guangdong sales and Focus Media's daily sales were out, Li Dongling, Ren Yuefeng, Zhang Ao, and others could see that the Shenzhou electronic dictionary's first-day domestic sales breaking 100,000 was basically a certainty!

Breaking 100,000 on the first day—this achievement had basically set a new record for the first-day sales of domestic electronic products. It just remained to be seen how high Dongling Gao Ke could push this record this time!

"Dongling Gao Ke Yanjing Company reports that today's Yanjing sales of Shenzhou electronic dictionaries exceeded 41,000 units!"

When the sales figures for Yanjing were reported, a huge cheer erupted at the Dongling Gao Ke headquarters.

Before the day's sales were even fully tallied, the Shenzhou electronic dictionary's sales had already broken 100,000, which had already broken the sales record for domestic electronic products!

Of course, for the Dongling Gao Ke employees who had been working overtime for the past few days, this cheer was also a celebration that they would receive generous bonuses!

When sales broke 100,000, for the electronic dictionary R&D team, their efforts had finally not been in vain.

It also meant that the members of this R&D team would, like their predecessors—the digital cordless phone R&D team and the Little Smart phone R&D team—receive a bonus and dividend that R&D personnel in other peer companies might not get in over a decade. Those who were more laid-back could even consider it achieving financial freedom!

In Pingyang at night, the temperature was already quite low, but there were still many media outlets and reporters squatting outside the Dongling Gao Ke headquarters, just waiting to get the first-hand information.

These reporters also heard the cheers from the Dongling Gao Ke headquarters and immediately stood up.

"The first-day sales of Shenzhou electronic dictionaries have broken 100,000 units, and this hasn't even been fully tallied yet!"

A media reporter who had a good relationship with members of the Dongling Gao Ke marketing department received the news. The Dongling Gao Ke marketing department and the media often cooperated; after all, the marketing department also needed to advertise in the media, and the two sides had more or less some connections.

"Sales broke 100,000 units?"

Hearing this news, the media reporters were also stunned. Although Focus Media's general manager, Li Yan, had said in an interview on the CCTV Finance Channel that the TV shopping platform had already received orders for over 100,000 units.

But those orders were just orders; you only needed to make a phone call and register to be considered a pre-order. Whether they would be completed was another matter.

But the sales volume Dongling Gao Ke had obtained was sales where users had paid real money to buy the units—it was a real, solid 70 million in sales revenue!

Hearing this news, some reporters were unwilling to wait any longer and left in a hurry, preparing to report the news to their respective media outlets in advance to grab a wave of heat first.

But there were still many media outlets, especially local media in Hanxi, waiting, intending to wait until Dongling Gao Ke had fully tallied the first-day sales before leaving.

They didn't know what other TV stations, newspapers, or magazines were thinking, but for local Hanxi technology, finance, and current affairs media, if they didn't report on Dongling Gao Ke, they probably wouldn't be able to survive in Hanxi in the future.

"Shanghai sales broke 30,000 units!"

"Hangcheng sales broke 8,000!"

At the Dongling Gao Ke headquarters, they were still busily gathering the sales figures reported by companies, channel merchants, and distributors from various places.

"The first-day sales of Shenzhou electronic dictionaries domestically have been tallied at 176,000 units, and the sales revenue of the units has broken 123 million yuan!

Including accessories like SD cards, spare batteries, cases, and USB data cables, the total first-day sales revenue is around 140 million!"

In the office, Zhang Ao held up the sales statistics table. After a few seconds of silence, Li Dongling, Ren Yuefeng, and others also started to applaud.

The SD cards launched by Dongling Gao Ke came in two sizes: 32M and 64M. Like the previous Shenzhou U-disk, the SD memory card patent also belonged to Shenzhou Storage and was also a "high-tech" product. The 32M SD card was priced at 20 USD!

Li Dongling took the sales table and scanned it roughly. He could see that today's sales were basically contributed by major cities like Yanjing, Yangcheng, Pengcheng, and Shanghai.

The Shenzhou electronic dictionary hadn't yet penetrated into small and medium-sized cities and town markets, which was also within expectations. To conquer small and medium-sized cities, it would take time and more publicity, which was generally a cycle slower than major cities.

"Publicity must continue, especially on the Focus Media side; it absolutely cannot stop!

Also, tell Duan Youli that production capacity must be increased as soon as possible!"

Li Dongling said to Ren Yuefeng, Zhang Ao, and others. To enter small and medium-sized cities, they needed Focus Media's overwhelming TV shopping advertisements; advertising was unavoidable.

"Shenzhou electronic dictionary's first-day sales revenue broke 140 million yuan, setting a new record for the first-day sales of domestic electronic products!"

The next day, the *Electronic Technology News* printed a report on the Shenzhou electronic dictionary on its front page. Subsequently, various media outlets such as the *Yanjing Business Daily*, *Huaqing Daily*, *Computer News*, *Finance News*, *21st Century Business Herald*, *China Securities Journal*, *Economic Observer*, and *Yangcheng Evening News* also began overwhelming reports.

As for the local Hanxi media, it went without saying; the *Hanxi Provincial Daily*, *Pingyang Daily*, and *Business Daily* all published it on their front pages.

For a host of companies in the domestic electronics and technology industries, whether they turned on the TV, opened a newspaper, or looked at some of the latest special technology weekly magazines today, it was basically all news about the Shenzhou electronic dictionary!

A product that had blasted out 140 million yuan in sales revenue on the first day was a shocking thunderclap in the domestic technology industry, and it also made many domestic companies start to stir.

"The Shenzhou electronic dictionary, an electronic educational auxiliary product independently developed by Dongling Gao Ke, went on sale yesterday. This product set a new industry record for the first-day sales of domestic electronic products!

But yesterday, rumors of insufficient supply spread from Shenzhou electronic dictionary agents in Yangcheng and other places. Industry insiders estimate that in the short term, there may be a shortage of Shenzhou electronic dictionaries.

However, Zhang Ao, General Manager of Dongling Gao Ke's Marketing Department, claimed in an interview with relevant media that the production capacity of the Shenzhou electronic dictionary is increasing, and users do not need to worry!"

Cao Taizheng, a small scalper who was eating rice noodles in his room, watched the morning news on Guangdong TV, which made him unable to help but wave his fist in excitement.

The news on TV continued, and another expert appeared, analyzing the reasons for the Shenzhou electronic dictionary's explosion in sales on the first day with a straight face.

"The Shenzhou electronic dictionary has a certain necessity. Since 1984, English has been included in the college entrance examination subjects, and most English enlightenment in China starts relatively late. The electronic dictionary is convenient to carry, fast to query, and feature-rich, which is indeed helpful for learning English.

But learning mainly relies on diligence, hard work, and effort. The electronic dictionary is not a necessary condition for improving grades; parents do not need to be too anxious.

The Shenzhou electronic dictionary is currently mainly favored by parents, students, international students, as well as foreign trade and translation practitioners. In the short term, the demand for electronic dictionaries may continue to increase!"

Cao Taizheng, who used to feel that expert commentary was full of nonsense, was now watching with great interest, wishing he could hear the expert beep a few more sentences.

"Taizai, do you have a batch of Shenzhou electronic dictionaries over there?"

As Cao Taizheng was watching the news, his phone suddenly rang. After he answered, the person on the other end shouted in a hurry. ===== CHAPTER 582 =====