Chapter 71: Detonation

In Hong Kong, inside Ma Daowei's digital electronic store, there was a long queue at this moment, and a sign "This store sells electronic pet machines" was posted at the door!

While Ma Daowei was busy collecting money, he also picked up the loudspeaker and shouted a few times. People ultimately couldn't escape the "true fragrance" law. Ma Daowei was no exception. A few days ago, he was shouting that this was a serious digital electronic store, not a place to sell toys, and today he also started selling electronic pet machines.

Just this morning, he sold over 200 machines, and they were all sold at a premium, sold at a price of 150 Hong Kong dollars. In just one morning, he earned 3,000 Hong Kong dollars by earning the price difference!

Ma Daowei was considered conscientious. An electronic pet machine was bought from Ning's Trading Company at a price of 135 Hong Kong dollars, and sold at a premium of 15 Hong Kong dollars. Some places were even sold at a price of 180 Hong Kong dollars each.

Now, except for Ning's Trading Company, which directly cooperated with large malls and large chain retail toy companies and sold at the market price of 135 Hong Kong dollars set by Ning's Trading Company, other places, like small retailers like Ma Daowei, were all selling at a premium!

Those retailers dared to sell at a premium because in front of the counters in large malls, if you wanted to buy an electronic pet machine, you had to queue for an hour or even longer, and finally, when it was your turn, you might get a sentence, "Sorry, it's already sold out."

The most critical thing, of course, was the insufficient supply of electronic pet machines. Most of the goods air-freighted from Hanxi were sent to Japan, and then distributed to Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, etc., so the goods they could get were definitely fewer.

As the second-largest economy in the world, although Japan has been turbulent in recent years and has been constantly cleaned up by America, its consumption power is still far beyond other regions. No matter how many electronic pet machines are put into the Japanese market, they disappear without a trace in the blink of an eye!

A knock on the door sounded. Yamashina Makoto saw the Wan Dai financial supervisor who came in and couldn't help but have a headache, "Is there any bad news again?!"

"Not bad news, it's... Wan Dai's stock price has risen!"

"What?!"

Yamashina Makoto thought he had misheard. Since he took office, he had handed in Wan Dai's worst performance in history, and the stock price had actually risen, which made him feel inexplicable. He didn't know what those investors were doing.

Wan Dai's market value has now fallen below 4 billion US dollars, and the stock price has also fallen to less than 5 US dollars. It is still considered a giant company, but compared with peers like Sony and Nintendo, it is not worth looking at.

"It seems to be related to the new product represented by the marketing department!"

"Let Chi Zemiao come over!"

"Due to insufficient supply, Wan Dai's Akihabara store is selling the new electronic product 'Tamagotchi' that has recently emerged in Tokyo, Nagoya, and other places, causing a scene of queuing up to grab it!"

"Tamagotchi, represented by Wan Dai, has currently sold over 400,000 units in Japan. Nomura Securities analysts believe that Tamagotchi is likely to become a phenomenal product!"

"Nomura Securities, SBI Securities, and many other securities companies have raised Wan Dai's stock price and performance estimates..."

On the TV, there was news about Tamagotchi. Yamashina Makoto, Chi Zemiao, and a group of Wan Dai executives all looked at the news on the TV. That scene of queuing to buy Tamagotchi deeply stimulated Yamashina Makoto. How long had it been since such a scene of being frantically grabbed appeared in Wan Dai?

"President, I was preparing to report to you after the second batch of products was tested..." Chi Zemiao prepared to explain to Yamashina Makoto.

"That's not important anymore!"

Yamashina Makoto took a deep breath, feeling the pressure that had been like a rope around his neck, making him increasingly unable to breathe, suddenly loosen.

"Find Ning's Trading, and the company that produced Tamagotchi. Wan Dai wants to get the exclusive sales rights for Tamagotchi in Japan, at all costs!"

Yamashina Makoto's brain turned rapidly, like a person about to drown who suddenly grabbed a straw. Regardless of whether it could save his life, he had to grab it tightly.

"Find a star to endorse Tamagotchi, let the animation production department put Tamagotchi into the animation, and start fully investing in advertising for Tamagotchi!"

Yamashina Makoto issued orders to a group of Wan Dai executives one after another, wanting to start promoting the electronic pet machine in Japan. Now this electronic pet machine was regarded by Yamashina Makoto as the straw that could save Wan Dai from fire and water. He had to grab it.

As long as Wan Dai's stock price could be stabilized, Yamashina Makoto could start to solve Wan Dai's troubles. Wan Dai's foundation was there, it was just facing big trouble suddenly, and it was a bit beaten. As long as it could hold this breath, Yamashina Makoto believed that Wan Dai could definitely recover its vitality slowly.

At the very least, they had to keep Wan Dai's stock price from collapsing, otherwise, if he was swept out the door, everything would be empty talk.

Under the strong desire to survive, Wan Dai performed quite actively, even more actively than Dongling High-Tech and Ning's Trading Company.

Almost overnight, Japanese TV stations, newspapers, outdoor building advertisements, etc., all appeared with advertisements for the electronic pet machine.

Under the overwhelming advertising, the popularity of the electronic pet machine in Japan started to rise in a straight line. The electronic pet machine was shaped by Wan Dai into a new generation of social products, and even became a fashion trend.

Especially in the eyes of Japanese girls, the electronic pet machine was becoming a fashion item that everyone must have, just like cosmetics. If you went out with a backpack and didn't hang an electronic pet machine, you couldn't say you were fashionable. The electronic pet machine spread rapidly throughout Japan at an amazing speed, and it was endowed with various meanings such as fashion and trend!

Even those Japanese little gangsters wearing long skirts and swaggering through the streets had electronic pet machines on their sailor suit bags.

And when the currently popular Japanese pop music diva, Amuro Namie, took an electronic pet machine to a music program in public, it completely established the electronic pet machine as a representative of fashion trends!

Not only girls in Japanese schools, but even office workers and others started to become interested in the electronic pet machine.

Wan Dai retail stores selling electronic pet machines were almost all queuing up. Originally, the selling price of an electronic pet machine supplied to Wan Dai was also 15 US dollars, which was about 1,980 yen.

But Wan Dai directly increased the price to 2,500 yen. Selling one machine, the price difference alone earned 1.7 US dollars, not to mention the 20% profit share that belonged to Wan Dai. Wan Dai could get a profit of over 3.5 US dollars from one electronic pet machine.

Even if it was sold at a premium, it was still in short supply. Other retail stores that got goods from Wan Dai even speculated the price of one machine to 30,000 yen!

Two consecutive batches, totaling 550,000 machines, were sold out in Japan, and then over 700,000 machines were air-freighted. Most of the machines produced by the Dongling High-Tech electronic industrial park were supplied to Japan, but it still couldn't fill this bottomless pit of a market!

The hot sale of the electronic pet machine made Wan Dai's stock price soar by over 35% in one week. The electronic pet machine brought huge traffic to Wan Dai. People who entered Wan Dai's storefront didn't just buy an electronic pet machine and leave; they would also shop. Toys, figures, manga, game discs, etc., in Wan Dai's store all followed to sell hot again. Every time Wan Dai sold an electronic pet machine, the profit might be several times more!

In a middle school classroom in Tokyo, a "beep beep beep" sound came out. The person whose schoolbag under the table made the sound hurriedly raised her head to look, when she saw a hand stretched out in front of her, "Hand it over!"

"Come find me after school to get it back!"

Asano Mako confiscated the Tamagotchi for the nth time today, and returned to the podium to give a lecture.

After class, she labeled the confiscated Tamagotchi, wrote a name on it, and opened the drawer. Inside, there were a full dozen labeled electronic pet machines.

Now electronic pet machines are not cheap. Ordinary electronic pet machines have been speculated to 3,000 yen, equivalent to 20 US dollars!

From the time the first electronic pet machine appeared in the school until now, how long had it been? A week or two? Asano Mako didn't remember, but now this thing had completely spread in the school. After school, many girls started hanging an electronic pet machine on their backpacks.

And after Amuro Namie brought the electronic pet machine in public, this phenomenon had spread from schools in Tokyo to society. Many women would carry an electronic pet machine when they went out. Under the huge demand, men now also started to use the electronic pet machine as a gift for women, making the sales volume of the electronic pet machine continue to soar, and it often started to be out of stock.

Not to mention others, even in Asano Mako's own bag, after opening it, she would see an electronic pet machine. This was a gift from her boyfriend.

When Asano Mako gathered with friends and other female teachers at school, she would also play with it privately. This thing was really addictive. Once she started playing, and when she raised her head again, dozens of minutes or even an hour had passed...

After walking out of the school, Asano Mako saw posters and advertisements for the electronic pet machine on the passing buses and bus stops.

On the way home, passing by a Wan Dai retail store, Asano Mako saw that some people had started queuing today just to buy an electronic pet machine tomorrow. This momentum was not much worse than the scene of the fruit machine release in the previous life.

Among these people, some might really want an electronic pet machine, and some were scalpers. Now as long as there were machines, they didn't worry about selling them at all. No matter how much the premium was, someone would buy them!

Returning home, turning on the TV, Asano Mako saw the electronic pet machine appearing in the hands of the host and guests in her favorite variety show. In the advertisement before the TV series, Amuro Namie's endorsed electronic pet machine also appeared.

The electronic pet machine in Japan had a trend of going crazy. When a product was no longer just a product, but represented trends and culture, its influence would reach an astonishing level!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 72 =====