What's wrong with me being a rich man?

Chapter 538 Questions
Yu Xing doesn't mind expressing his own opinions.

However, sometimes it's expressed through mountain peaks, sometimes it's expressed when someone is pressing me for answers, and sometimes it's expressed through products.

As the founder of Silicon Carbon Group, Yu Xing has been quite restrained in many occasions over a long period of time. For example, a few years ago, when he participated in an auto show and talked about BBA (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi), which caused controversy, he simply stopped participating afterward.

No matter what, without mass production and physical prototypes, those words are just empty talk and don't really have any real impact.

Carbon and silicon data are different. The internet itself is fast and lightweight, and mobile internet has greatly accelerated the process. Many things can be said on one side and quickly take shape on the other.

But things are different now. "Jiuzhou" has been launched to the market, and the feedback from potential users has been quite good. The situation has changed.

The luncheon hosted by the Silicon Carbon Group for all the guests lasted until after 2 p.m. The overall atmosphere was good, but a small incident in the middle spread quickly. On the one hand, Mr. Yu's sincerity in dealing with people was verified by Mr. Ma, and on the other hand, Mr. Yu really has a sharp tongue.

The former has an amazing $1 million discount, while the latter... well, it's hard to say.

The new carbon silicon car looks pretty good, but whether it can impress the market still needs to be tested with real money. In any case, a price range of around 30 yuan is a very risky attempt.

After seeing off his guests, Yu Xing, having drunk too much, had to go straight back to his office for a nap.

When he woke up, he was still a little dizzy, but the dim light outside the window made him immediately roll off the sofa. He reached out and touched his phone but couldn't find it. He didn't see it on the table either, so he frowned.

Yu Xing drank half a glass of water from the table and was about to leave the office when Xiao Ying pushed the door open and walked in.

"Boss Yu is awake." Liu Wanying, holding a tea box, saw the sober Yu Xing and casually handed him her phone from her pocket. "I didn't have anyone wake you up because you were so drunk and sleeping so soundly. Here, have some tea."

Yu Xing took the phone, tapping on the work group chat as he said, "I thought Zhang Yangxu had taken my phone, but now it's..."

Liu Wanying gave the answer directly: "The small bet is almost 5000, and the large bet is almost 900. General Manager Cui and the others said that it will be difficult for the large bet to break 1000 today, but it is no problem for both numbers to be round numbers."

Yu Xing chuckled and couldn't help but say, "What a pity, what a pity."

"Who was it that said they only needed to make five or six hundred small orders and one hundred large orders?" Liu Wanying said with a smile. "That's ten times that amount, and you're still saying it's a pity?"

Yu Xing smiled when he saw the latest data in the group chat: "That's lowering expectations. If I set a high target for the first day of the new car's launch, it would be too demoralizing if we didn't achieve it. But this target of 891 and 4860..."

His joy welled up: "It really is possible."

These figures are not only based on new energy, new brands, and new cars, but also on the fact that the Silicon Carbon Group only has 20 directly operated stores nationwide, so the feedback is indeed quite positive.

Liu Wanying hesitated for a few seconds, then mentioned a small piece of information: "There's something I need to tell you. Douyin helped promote 'Jiuzhou'."

Yu Xing was taken aback, his brows furrowing again. After a moment's thought, he said, "She won't tell me, so she's making you tell me?"

"She wanted to apologize to her senior brother, but he had too much to drink. I happened to be here, so I helped pass on the message," Liu Wanying explained, adding, "We'll use him when needed; they're all brothers from Lingang."

Yu Xing shook his head slightly: "That's not the issue. I want to see the most authentic market reaction from 'Jiuzhou'."

He now feels that his cultivation level is regressing from Great Perfection to Lesser Perfection.

“What do you mean by ‘the most genuine reaction’? Just considering the potential market for your model, even if production capacity is at its maximum, you still can’t handle it all this year.” Liu Wanying disagreed. “Since you can’t handle it all, of course you should only take what you can. It’s not like we’re letting them fake traffic; we’re just helping to save on advertising costs. If you, President Yu, feel apologetic, then just pay the advertising fees to Douyin and that’s it.”

Yu Xing pondered for a while, then shook his head. Since things had already come to this, there was no point in dwelling on it.

He laughed and said, "Alright, let's leave it at that."

Knowing Yu Xing well, Liu Wanying deliberately said, "So you're going to pay the advertising fees to Douyin?"

Yu Xing glanced at Xiao Ying and said, "What advertising fee? We haven't placed any order."

Liu Wanying gave a thumbs up.

She turned around and made a cup of hangover tea, then walked behind Yu Xing and gently massaged his scalp, shoulders, and neck.

Yu Xing looked up and smiled at Xiao Ying, took a sip of hot tea, and quickly browsed the information on his phone. Apart from feedback reports from the front-line market, the main change in his work was that Cui Zhiyu and others were discussing accelerating the opening of directly operated stores in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.

Assuming we only consider 5000 small orders today, these potential customers will inevitably come to the store for test drives. With 20 stores, each store will have an average of 250 groups of customers. Each group's test drive will take at least half an hour. Since each store has an average of 4 test drive vehicles, it will take at least 31 hours for each store to process these small orders.

Even with working overtime at full speed, it would take 3 days to process 31 hours of work.

This doesn't even take into account the organic growth over those three days, and the fact that a group of customers would naturally spend more time with the new brand on average.

Yu Xing's press conference lasted an hour but he still couldn't fully and thoroughly explain "Nine Provinces," which speaks volumes.

—The construction of the new store must be accelerated. At the same time, we need to increase the number of test drive vehicles, temporarily increase the number of staff at headquarters, and quickly poach people from our competitors.

as well as……

Yu Xing noticed the ongoing discussion in the work group, which planned to process a large number of potential customers in batches. For example, those in Shanghai could be picked up by bus and brought to Lingang to conduct a direct manufacturer matchmaking event, similar to a group purchase activity among manufacturers in the same industry.

Silicon Carbon Group did not originally have such a plan, mainly because they did not dare to expect such enthusiastic feedback, but they have no shortage of industry experience.

Yu Xing pondered everyone's response and thought it was very good, so he stopped speaking in the group and instead started processing messages from various friends.

While giving Boss Yu a massage to relieve his stress, Liu Wanying also silently checked her phone for messages. Suddenly, she spoke up: "Why don't you ask President Ma or President Cai when Meituan will be involved?"

Upon hearing this voice, Yu Xing realized what was going on: "Oh, so that's why you were so attentive today, you knew about this."

"Look at you, you've hurt my feelings by talking like that." Liu Wanying pretended to be soft-spoken. "Even without Alibaba's discount, I would still pour you tea and give you a massage. There were mosquitoes in the office just now, and I was afraid they would bite you, so I stood by and chased them away!"

Yu Xing laughed heartily: "At the end of February, where would mosquitoes come from? We made a bet in public, so he won't go back on his word. Alibaba was already planning to sell Meituan, and Jack Ma is at the height of his power. Hmm, I guess this money will probably be used to cooperate with Ele.me."

Liu Wanying nodded in agreement.

“$9 million is no small sum. Let’s have Red Falcon take the lead and see how to allocate this amount.” Yu Xing had a plan in mind. “Well, let’s still approach the companies that Douyin has invested in and see if they are willing to contribute. That way, it will be easier to negotiate Douyin’s share buyback later.”

Liu Wanying's massaging hands stopped abruptly as she asked, "Carbon Silicon Data wants to take back Douyin's shares. If things continue like this, the institutions might not be happy." "Converting them into Carbon Silicon Data shares is the solution. Mr. Xu, Mr. Xiong, and I have a tacit understanding. We had an open and honest discussion beforehand. Carbon Silicon Data's technology and resources are there; it's just a matter of price," Yu Xing pondered. "Another issue is timing. It really can't be too late, including with MusVid. I'm currently hesitant about how to handle it."

As he spoke, he suddenly remembered Liu Chiping, and scrolled through the text messages on his phone. Only then did he notice that the other party had sent a long message at the end, about their competition, their past reflections, their failures, their admission of defeat, and their firm refusal of good intentions.

Yu Xing scanned the message twice and sent it briefly, but this time it was only five words: Surrender and you lose half.

Liu Chiping's reply was incredibly quick; you could almost hear the tone in his voice: "Sell your car."

Yu Xing posted another message, this time with a specific direction: It's indeed not suitable to do things domestically. Since you can't bring yourself to do it, there's actually a lot of room for growth overseas. MusVid wants to expand from the US to Europe, and it lacks someone who can take charge of the overall situation. If you come, I'll trust you. You can get back up from where you fell down and continue to fight against Alibaba.

He did not underestimate the former president of Tencent because of Liu Chiping's performance under his leadership. It was only because of the special timing of the mobile transformation and the extraordinary decisiveness of Alibaba's CEO that this situation ultimately came about.

As for MusVid overseas, Liu Chiping has both an international perspective and the experience of being a CEO of a giant company, as well as two defeats in the short video competition. Considering all this, he is the perfect fit.

However, this time there was no reply.

Liu Chiping stared at the text message and felt that President Yu had really made a mistake. What did he mean by continuing to fight with Alibaba? It wasn't that he had fallen down there, but rather that he had fallen down on someone surnamed Yu!

He deleted the text messages he had exchanged with Yu Xing, and absentmindedly opened Douyin (TikTok). After scrolling through a couple of videos, he came across a clip of the new car launch event of the Silicon Carbon Group.

— "The prelude to the revolution in the automotive industry".

Liu Chiping didn't understand the automotive industry, but he genuinely trusted Yu Xing's judgment to a great extent.

He scrolled through the app for a long time without realizing it, and finally sighed before ordering a top-of-the-line Max Kyushu car on the Silicon Carbon Group's app before midnight.

……

—A new carbon silicon car, electrifying the land.

—Fully equipped with technology.

—A sincere work in the field of new energy.

—A new space for family travel, with six seats to meet real needs.

With the conclusion of the first day of the Silicon Carbon Group's press conference, a series of reports and promotions have been released.

In February 2015, the future of new energy vehicles was highly uncertain. Despite the national and local subsidies still offering cash subsidies of up to 56,000 yuan, many people wouldn't even consider them. Currently, only Zotye Group's models dominate the new energy vehicle sales charts.

However, the Silicon Carbon Group's press conference had many interesting highlights.

Some people were bored while shopping in the business district, some knew about Yu Xing in Lingang, and some simply stopped out of curiosity after seeing Ma Chuan and others at the scene. But no matter how they saw the new extended-range six-seater from Silicon Carbon Group, it was hard not to admit the sincerity in its configuration.

To paraphrase a popular saying on Douyin, "If a car priced at 28 yuan is like this, then a car priced at 33 yuan must be taking off."

The Deepcool Pro, after subsidies, costs over 28 yuan, which is definitely not a small amount, but the Deepcool Max's 33 yuan is surprisingly attractive in comparison.

Electric suction doors, rear-wheel steering, air suspension... these features, originally used by luxury cars like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi to strictly define their levels, have become the best boosters to the concept of "luxury".

The mid-to-high-end models of the 2015 Mercedes-Benz E320L only offer cruise control, not even adaptive cruise control, let alone features like soft-close doors.

Xu Xin of Capital Today didn't sleep well on the night of the 21st. She hesitated between asking Yu Xing about the situation and refreshing information on various platforms, paying attention to public feedback on "Jiuzhou".

Overall, many people are discussing the unusually large number of configurations this time, but quite a few voices are also focusing on new energy and price.

"Range extender? That's outdated technology; even a dog wouldn't buy it."

"Spend over 300,000 yuan on a domestic product? Are you crazy? You're asking for trouble!"

"If I have 300,000 yuan, I can buy a BMW, and BMW will speak up for me. But if I buy silicon carbide, I'll have to speak up for it!"

"I may not understand cars, but don't I understand my fellow countrymen?"

Xu Xin woke up at four in the morning and couldn't fall back asleep after hearing a similar sound.

She simply drank a cup of bitter coffee and stayed up until dawn, then bombarded her friends with questions about their and others' opinions on the new car from the Silicon Carbon Group. Many reviews were positive, but few were actually willing to buy it. Very few were buying it out of curiosity or just for the sake of having a toy or to get a free license plate.

Xu Xin knew that the group of friends she was asking had purchasing power, but their opinions might be somewhat biased. Nevertheless, she couldn't help but feel anxious.

She finally made it to nine o'clock in the morning, guessing that President Yu had already started working, so she sent a simple WeChat message to inquire about the listing situation yesterday.

"Not bad, I got five thousand yesterday." Yu Xing replied after a while.

Xu Xin suspected she had misread it, so she read it twice before immediately sending a voice message, requesting to meet in Lingang to talk.

Yu Xing replied: "I'm not in Lingang, I'm on my way to inspect the stores. Let's talk again when we have time."

Looking at these two messages, Xu Xin had a strong intuition: the numbers were fabricated, and the person surnamed Yu was hiding from her!

She called Xiong Xiaoge and learned that he had also just found out about the small amount he placed yesterday and was also thinking about the problem.

"This number is definitely inflated!" Xu Xin was 100% skeptical. "He told me before that 1000 would be the best-case scenario. Now that he's reporting this, either he's inflating the number to deceive people, or the people below are lying to him!"

Xiong Xiaoge pondered for a moment and said, "It might not be inflated figures; it could be related-party transactions, or perhaps..."

He suddenly recalled the luncheon yesterday and began to wonder if President Yu had fabricated such figures simply to save face.

Or is it for marketing purposes? Or... is it really a scam?
Did Yu Xing notice the problem when he went to inspect the front lines at this time, and decide to go and see for himself?

Xiong Xiaoge's mind wandered, and finally he sighed: "So what if they've inflated the numbers? What business doesn't inflate the numbers? I trust President Yu. He's probably just inflating the numbers a little, but it's a planned and rhythmic inflation."

(End of this chapter)