this man is not calm

Chapter 380 The arrow is on the string
It's not just a problem of transmission channels, there are limitations everywhere. Only when you actually do it, you will understand how touching the truth is that "being half a step ahead is a genius, being one step ahead is a madman."

When starting a blog these days, don’t think too much. Just spend money to support it and wait for the right opportunity to come. There’s no point in messing around.

The two hottest areas in the current Internet market are portal websites and e-commerce. The only areas of influence in the IT industry that are more influential are operating systems, antivirus software and web browsers that are related to underlying applications. Even email and office software are slightly inferior.

Technological innovation and model innovation are two different paths. Their end points are the same, but their development paths are completely different in different periods.

At the beginning of 1997, the competitiveness of an IT company was determined by the level of technological mastery, the speed of resource input and the efficiency of resource utilization. As for the replacement of business models, it could not become a dominant force when there were not many Internet users.

Even an instant messaging software with strong demand, such as Jinxi Chat, has not achieved the strong stickiness of social networks, let alone others.

However, there is a very strange exception, that is the Jinxi game battle platform and a number of popular electronic games.

Apart from other things, the profits provided by the casual board game "Three Kingdoms Kill" and offline licensing in one year are enough to make people salivate;

There is also the sudden emergence of "The King of Fighters", a console game that players jokingly call "The King of Fighters". It has become popular throughout Southeast Asia, and with the spread of the influence of the movie "Drunken Master", it has become even more popular, especially for the owners of major game halls, as arcade boards are in short supply. Other horizontal level-passing games can be played for 10 to 20 minutes by inserting coins at a time, and the skilled ones can play for several hours. Fighting battle games are different. The winner is decided in a few minutes at most. If you want to continue playing, you have to keep inserting coins.

It would be fine if it was consumed quickly, the key is that it is popular. I don’t know how many people are queuing in the game hall, waiting for the challenge.

Putting the SNS website aside for the time being and letting it develop freely, Jin Shang would occasionally post some updates and interact with netizens, and then he would focus on making money.

After two years of hard work, at the beginning of the new year, the blockbuster "The King of Fighters 1997" launched by Jinxi Games was finally released. Less than a month after the Spring Festival, copies were sold. The owners of video game arcades who heard the news urged the motherboard and card channel dealers to ship the goods.

Everyone is anxious about this business where everyone is making money!

As for the former "Sweetheart" Venus game console, for the sake of coordinating the development of the Internet, the relatively mature design plan will be shelved. The third-generation product will not be released this year, but will be developed next year with more powerful online functions.

The floppy disk "burning card" recording mode is still a bit outdated. This function will not be cancelled within a few years, but the main direction will still be to promote more advanced storage and online functions.

As for the commission for third-party independent games, it is still maintained between 20% and 30%. For those with excellent quality, the lowest commission for established developers is 15%, while for new designers it may be 50%. For those who are not strong enough and have unknown origins, the highest commission is 70%.

Things like "Apple tax" and "Android tax" are actually nothing new. Game console manufacturers have been doing this for more than a decade.

The Venus game console, which was in danger two years ago, has improved its situation after a series of rectifications and the installation of excellent works. Players and game developers have returned one after another. Problems such as difficulty in development, lack of compatibility, and unsatisfactory 3D performance are no longer problems.

After the cash flow turned positive, we have the strength to further develop and even feed back to Jinxi Culture’s content division to cooperate in the creation of multi-channel IP.

For example, the just approved "Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3" strategy game, the stress-relieving "Mowing Warriors" and the horizontal version of the game can all start preparations.

However, Jin Shang’s most important money-making project right now is the MP3 player that is about to be officially launched.

After completing the employee stock ownership plan, this is the most worrying issue at the end of the month.

"One thousand three hundred and seventy yuan is the break-even point? That's too high..."

Yang Qi and Liu Yanqing looked at each other. At this point, there was really no way to reduce the cost any further. It was generally impossible to have both.

There needs to be a balance between quality and cost control.

Jin Shang also knew this, but the price was really hard to accept.

"It's almost 1,400 yuan, so it's impossible for anyone to buy it. How can we explain to everyone that such a small thing is worth the money?"

"Then... just online shopping and hunger marketing, is that okay?"

Liu Yanqing asked tentatively. This was not the first time the company had done such a thing. Consumers these days were still very simple-minded, so the chances of successfully fooling them were great.

What's more, MP3 is a high-tech product after all, and it will be difficult to copy it in a short time.

Pure online sales can indeed maintain sufficient profit at a price of 1,200 yuan. By cutting out channels and eliminating middlemen to make a profit from the price difference, it's just that exaggerated.

only……

"How about reducing the orders from our own factories and outsourcing to third-party factories? The cost can be reduced by another 200!"

"But, how can we keep it secret?"

Liu Yanqing asked disapprovingly,
"Others learned it, secretly made it, and sold it outside, and we couldn't find out."

The era when OEM electronics factories are popular has not yet arrived. This thing is not just about cheap labor and large quantities. It requires a team of skilled workers with secondary education, who obey orders and have relatively high quality to handle it. It is not something that can be made casually.

Why are most industrial chain transfers to Southeast Asia, South Asia, South America and Africa unsuccessful?

Not all places have comprehensive and successful compulsory education, and highly skilled workers are in short supply all over the world.

Liu Yanqing's worries are not without reason, but there are solutions.

"We control the supply of spare parts. We have the patents related to MP3 and USB. Without a large number of suppliers, the OEM factory cannot get enough low-priced parts. Moreover, our prices are already very low when selling knockoffs. Is there really any profit margin? Unless they cut corners..."

Some things cannot be completely prohibited.

"Moreover, what I want to know is why the production cost of our own factory is more than 300 yuan higher than others?"

Liu Yanqing was speechless. Yang Qi sighed slightly and replied:
"Boss Jin, there are many outsourced teams at the slipway of CSSC Electromechanical, but there are no outsourced teams in the hardware department of Planet Intelligence. The front-line factories are mainly full-time employees, and some temporary and seasonal workers are hired during the peak season..."

Not only that, most employees are still registered and have to pay social security, which is much higher than the labor costs of OEM factories.

After a long fuss, Jin Shang finally realized that it was because his boss was too generous and offered too high a salary, which caused his own production costs to be much higher than those of the OEM factories that did not pay much attention to their eating habits.

The difference of more than three hundred is already a relatively efficient result. If there is no "golden finger" blessing, the profit and loss line will probably soar to around eighteen thousand, and then there will be no way out.

"The gap... is it really that obvious?" "Boss Jin, you may not know... how hard it is for those factories that don't require much technical skills and rely entirely on the hard work of fellow villagers. Even for these positions, it's hard to grab them. You can choose whether to come or not. If you don't want to do it, there are plenty of people who can do it."

"So... do you think we should give most of the orders to them?"

Liu Yanqing and Yang Qi were silent for a while, and finally Yang Qi spoke:

"That's better! I know what Mr. Jin thinks. Fellow villagers... the salary shouldn't be so low, but the reality is like this. It's good enough to take care of your own family. It's really beyond my ability to change the status quo by my own strength. So, we need to think about it in the long run..."

Then, Liu Yanqing added:
"I'm going to say something unpleasant, Mr. Jin. Whether it's the OEM factories, outsourced workers, or temporary workers, they all need orders. They even work overtime just to make a little more money!"

After closing his eyes and thinking for a while, Jin Shang slowly said in a low voice:
"I am too idealistic. If we want to improve the situation, we need a sound protection system, we also need the invisible hand of the market to adjust naturally, and we need people's pockets to be really full, so that they can have the confidence to say no to some things."

After a pause, Jin Shang smiled bitterly and said:

"When I was in middle school, I heard my father talk about an experience. I was somewhat touched at the time, but it was not until I started my own business that I realized how difficult it is to do something."

Unlike the female student mentioned by Professors Huang Kunyu and Zhang Youling who would rather send the money back home and continue to eat steamed buns and pickles after receiving the scholarship for poor students, the story told by Jin Shi is even more disturbing.

At the end of every year, my family's garment factory always has a lot of unshipped clothes, shoes, socks, bed sheets, towels, etc. Usually, these are either sold cheaply to local wholesalers to free up warehouses, or donated to poor students in need in the mountainous areas of the Midwest.

One year, Lao Jin was invited to do a charity promotion and personally gave clothes to ragged children. He was very happy when he came back and felt that he had done a lot of good things. But when he visited again the following year, he saw a lot of things, especially several female students who impressed him deeply. The clothes he gave to them were worn by other people. What was even more unhappy was that the clothes were obviously women's clothes, but they were worn by several younger boys.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that the clothes didn't fit and had problems, but those were their younger brothers, and the clothes they brought back were naturally given to the boys by their parents and elders, while the girls tried their best to make do with them.

Therefore, Lao Jin increased the donations of money and goods, thinking that this would be the best solution. However, when he went there again later, he found that the situation was still the same. Upon asking, he found out that the extra clothes had been sold, and the money was enough to buy more meat for the female students' meals.

How can we improve this situation?

There is no place to use the power!
From then on, Jin Shi never went to visit in person again, for fear of seeing something even more damaging.

The same is true when it comes to OEM for electronics factories. All we can say is that the employer is too powerful.

The three discussed for a long time and finally decided to produce the high-end models by their own factory and to outsource the basic models to three or four OEM factories.

"I am still too weak. I can only take care of my own little piece of land. I will take my time with the rest!"

Including Jinxi Culture and CSSC Electromechanical, there are a total of more than 5,000 employees, plus some temporary workers and their families, which has indirectly affected the livelihoods of 20,000 to 30,000 people.

But compared with our huge motherland, that's all.

"The basic model is priced at 999, and the deluxe model is 1,299. That's it, let's start preparing! I want to see the product go online by the end of April..."

“Why not let consumer electronics distributors distribute the products?”

"Yes, we will do the same as before, but we control the terminal selling price online, which is always cheaper than offline distribution. How much they can sell is up to them."

Now that the boss has made the decision, let's do it.

From concept design to finished product, I don’t know how many difficulties I had to overcome.

From the maturity of USB technology, the development of universal adapter data cables, to the optimization of MP3 music formats, and then to the integration of various components to form its current form, after so many days and nights, we finally see the dawn of victory.

After Yang Qi and Liu Yanqing left, Jin Shang rested for a while, refreshed himself, and then dialed a phone number.

"Hello, Brother Sun, it's me..."

"If that thing works out, your cross-border e-commerce needs a hit product, right? Let's work together to make something big and sell our products all over the world..."

“It’s always fun to make money from foreigners!”

"Absolutely original, the only one of its kind in the world, it won't be a problem to trick foreigners into paying for it."

"Europe and America are too far away, so I have to rely on my brother to take care of it. We will definitely be able to sell it in Southeast Asia."

"One million units? Boss Sun is so generous... What? Ship first and pay in three months? No, that's too long. I'll give you three hundred thousand first and give you one month to pay back."

"Why would I need the lives of your family? As long as you can sell the things, that's enough. As for the mortgage, you can't take it out anyway. I'm not afraid that you will run away. As long as you still want to survive in the country, there's no need to worry, right?"

"That's it! I hope we can get rich together..."

After hanging up the phone, Jin Shang put away the smile on his face.

The domestic market is not small, but the profits may not be that much. However, there are no barriers to using MP3. Everyone has to listen to music anyway. As for foreigners who can't find the genuine audio source and download pirated music, that has nothing to do with Jin Shang. Why don't they bear with it and use Jin Xi Music Client to download genuine songs?

What if it causes trouble?

We’ll talk about it later, let’s make this quick money first.

The domestic market is the capital for making a living. As for foreign countries, I don’t ask for anything more. A one-time deal is also good.

Sun Daqi's cross-border e-commerce has been in operation for more than half a year and has already grown to a certain scale. It overlaps with Jinxi Mall's cross-border wholesale business, but the types of goods are slightly different.

Most of the items sold to foreigners by Jinxi Mall are diapers, clothes, bedding, small appliances, etc., while Sun Daqi cooperates with foreign trade and economic cooperation and mainly sells bulk goods, with relatively few small commodities.

As for the cooperation to sell high value-added consumer electronics and white goods, it was agreed upon a long time ago, but the right opportunity had never been found.

(End of this chapter)