Since we are both reborn, of course I would choose the rich woman!

Chapter 333 The Timing is Perfect (6k views, please subscribe)

Lei is an absolutely legendary man.

Back when Xiaomi was just beginning to show its potential, Lei Jun shared his entrepreneurial philosophy on a television program, which is different from most "entrepreneurs" who like to talk big and use moral high ground to label themselves.

Lei Jun genuinely shares his authentic, even effective, entrepreneurial insights with others, even on television programs.

As for his friends, Mr. Lei always tries his best to help them. If there is a real crisis, he may not be able to provide much financial support, but he will definitely help you find the problem at the software level.

If you can follow the advice and do things well, then financial support will not be far away.

This way of doing things is reminiscent of ancient rulers who kept retainers and chivalrous heroes who made friends from all directions.

This is the public persona that Lei Jun has always projected.

Even when dealing with most of his fans, he appears exceptionally approachable. He even bought the copyright to the parody song "ruOK" that satirizes him, allowing netizens to freely create and parody it.

Judging from Mr. Lei's way of doing things, he has studied it seriously.

As for Lei Jun himself... he is by no means as approachable and kind as he appears. To the senior executives of Xiaomi Group who have access to him, Lei Jun is actually a man with ruthless methods, and can even be described as cruel when necessary.

He will not tolerate any obstacles that threaten the development of Xiaomi Group.

As for matters that could profoundly impact the future of Xiaomi Group, Lei Jun always takes a hands-on approach and leads the charge.

Of course, doing this is very tiring. While Mr. He from XPeng Motors was watching "A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality" in his office, Mr. Lei was practically sleeping in the factory to develop new energy vehicles. In order to influence Mr. Lei, all the cards in his hand were played.

But the benefits of doing so are obvious: Lei Jun has become Xiaomi Group's strongest and most important asset.

This makes anyone who covets Xiaomi think twice before making a move against it, considering whether they can separate Lei Jun from Xiaomi.

It was precisely because of this trait that Lei rushed to Shangnan to meet with Lü Yao.

Upon meeting Lü Yao, General Manager Lei went straight to the point and stated the purpose of his visit.

Lei said to Lü Yao with great caution and solemnity, "Mr. Lü, I know that we have put a lot of effort into developing the Geek Phone. We have invested a lot of energy and effort in the design, hardware and even the operating software of this phone."

"So we may feel that there is nothing wrong with our pricing, or even that we are good value for money, but in the eyes of consumers, our pricing is too outrageous."

As Lei spoke, he leaned closer to Lü Yao, as if doing so would convey his thoughts to Lü Yao.

But Lü Yao laughed and said, "Mr. Lei, there's no rush. I didn't set this price arbitrarily. You were involved in the design and manufacturing of the Geek Phone from start to finish, so you know what kind of quality it has."

With the support of Lu Yao, who has a futuristic perspective, the first-generation Geek Phone surpasses almost all contemporary mobile phones by 15% to 30% in terms of photography, videography, system smoothness, and hardware performance. Although this test data does not include the upcoming Apple phone, there are actually no secrets among major manufacturers.

Lü Yao and Lei Jun have gone to extremes in terms of hardware, using an ultra-large body and a thickness that surpasses the current era to stitch together the performance of the current top hardware to an extremely high level.

According to Lei Jun's own sources and the information that Lü Yao obtained from Samsung, the basic version of the Geek Phone will outperform the iPhone 7 by about 10%, and the top-of-the-line version will outperform the iPhone 7 Plus by about 15%.

Since Steve Jobs passed away in 2011 and Apple fell into the hands of Tim Cook and other marketing-savvy executives, Apple's innovation has begun to decline. However, Rome wasn't built in a day, and even a dead camel is bigger than a horse. It will take about ten years for most people to accept the depletion of Apple's innovation.

During 2016, Apple's devotees, empowered by their faith, never paid any attention to other consumer electronics products.

But it's different now.

Lü Yao wasn't particularly innovative, but he had insights from the future.

The iPhone 14pm, which he used to copy, can be considered the last dance for Apple believers. At the same time, the iPhone 14, which was designed and marketed as a luxury product, had already deviated from the attributes of technology and was more inclined towards trends and the market. Its appearance was also much better than the previous generations of phones.

So much so that even though the later iPhone 15 and 16 had almost no changes in appearance, they started using the core system applications that were already available on Android.

of course.

Apple products still possess technological prowess; however, compared to their exploration in product design and style, the technological advancements of the iPhone series have significantly diminished.

This is especially evident when comparing the Apple 14pm and the 11th generation products side by side.

Its appearance is better than the upcoming iPhone 7, and its performance is even slightly better, so what's wrong with selling it at a higher price?
But Lei Jun said with great distress, "That makes sense, but in the mobile phone industry, this price, which is even higher than Apple's, is outrageous. Mr. Lü, tell me, why would Apple users give up the mature Apple ecosystem and choose an Android phone that is more expensive than Apple?"

Lü Yao countered, "Why not?"

In the future, Huawei will have many products that are priced similarly to or even surpass Apple's. Regardless of the product's quality, there will still be a considerable number of people willing to pay for them, which could even support Huawei's annual R&D investment of approximately 160-1700 billion NTD.

This shows that as long as marketing is done well, it is possible to win over mobile phone users from consumers.

At this moment, Lei Jun couldn't think of any way Lü Yao could win users away from Apple's ecosystem. Even if Lü Yao had a way, Lei Jun still said, "With such a high price for the phone, it's hard to convince most users. Without a broad user base, consumer-grade companies like ours might not be able to survive."

"Do you really want the geek phone to disappear from the market in an instant after only one generation?"

"Even if we don't make money, or even lose some money, as long as we can acquire a decent user base, we can survive through financing."

This is also Xiaomi's current survival strategy.

Initially, Xiaomi relied on scarcity marketing and limited supply to create a sense of scarcity and gain market recognition. Subsequently, it became a must-have for countless young people by positioning itself as a high-performance, genuine product at 1999 yuan. It is also thanks to its huge shipment volume and the strategy of selling high volume at low profit margins that Xiaomi has achieved its current market value.

However, Xiaomi's success and failure both stem from its high cost-performance ratio. This label of extreme cost-performance has been attached to Xiaomi too tightly, causing its high-end transformation route, which began this year, to repeatedly fail. Even in 2020, Xiaomi's high-end strategy for mobile phones has not achieved good results.

It wasn't until Lei Jun staked his entire reputation in the industry to start manufacturing cars that the explosive success of Xiaomi cars officially ushered in the high-end image of Xiaomi phones.

Starting with the hot sales of the Xiaomi SU7, Xiaomi Group's cash flow actually increased, raking in more than 90 billion yuan in a year. In other words, even if Xiaomi loses 38,000 yuan on each car it sells, the brand image boosted by car manufacturing will bring Xiaomi more than 200 million yuan in revenue almost every day throughout the year.

It was only after that that Lei Jun truly realized the importance of brand image, and it was eight years later that he understood why Volkswagen acquired so many luxury car brands.

But the current CEO Lei doesn't understand these things.

He continued to rely on his accumulated and established successful experience to do things, so he continued to use his traditional skill of "persuading senior executives overnight" to try to convince Lü Yao: "President Lü, I am very confident in the performance of our product, just like you, but the price is really too high for the average person."

“Let’s lower the price a bit! I can cover the losses incurred. As long as we can win over users’ minds and habits, I don’t think it’s a problem even if we lose billions or tens of billions.”

In the internet age, traffic equals money. Once you have users, it's incredibly easy to make money off them.

Even if a phone is sold to a user at a loss of 2,000 yuan, the pre-installed games, Xiaomi's communication software MiTalk, messaging platform, and app store can easily recoup that money.

It just takes a little longer.

But Lei is a very ambitious entrepreneur. He wants to build a great company, so he is never afraid of taking too long. In fact, he has always been prepared for a long-term struggle from the very beginning.

Since President Lei has put it this way, he should have been able to persuade Lü Yao by now.

But Lü Yao remained unmoved.

He told Lei Jun, "I designed this price carefully. It's slightly more expensive than Apple phones, but it won't exceed the affordability of some people. Also, I'm not aiming for large volumes in the early stages, and our production capacity isn't that large."

"So it doesn't matter if the market share we capture in the early stages is too small."

Lu Yao said earnestly, "I will gradually spread the reputation of our phone through events, influencer promotions, and even short videos. As for the funding needed for the development of subsequent models, I won't have any problems."

Contrary to Lei Jun's expectations, mobile phones carry more than just the apps on them and the potential money they can generate.

The release of the first-generation model in the second half of this year caused a stir, the release of the second-generation model in the second half of 2017 expanded its influence, and when 2018 begins... then the development of the world situation will become much more interesting.

First came trade harassment from foreign countries, then came the technology sanctions that became known worldwide, followed by an escalation of trade and technology harassment.

That will be the time when geek phones truly demonstrate their capabilities.

Lu Yao once saw a sentence on the Internet: "Fortunately, there are companies like Huawei in China, but unfortunately there is only one Huawei in China."

During that period, Huawei was an absolute star in the domestic business world.

Compared to Huawei, OPPO and Vivo, Xiaomi, and BAT are all trash. It's just a pity that in that atmosphere, everyone's expectations for Huawei were too high, and the external pressure was too great, so that Huawei's subsequent actions gradually went astray.

Even with its flaws, Huawei remains a top-tier company in China when it comes to investing in scientific research.

Now that Lü Yao has returned from studying abroad, he certainly doesn't want Huawei to bear such a heavy burden alone. He started planning two years ago and has achieved some success. In many crucial areas, Lü Yao has developed "backup plans," and now these plans are all waiting for the right opportunity.

This is an opportune moment to get a permanent position. As for the current "geek phones"... they're just people reserving their spots early.

However, Lü Yao couldn't tell Lei Zong these things directly, so he only said ambiguously, "Time will tell. With my financial situation, at worst, I can support an investment for three years. So why don't we wait three years and see?"

Lei was speechless.

Should we wait three more years and see?

How could the internet and tech industry possibly give you three years? Even one year is difficult!

Although Xiaomi Group is not a listed company yet, if Geek Phone cannot achieve good results within a year, it will be a "toxic asset" for Xiaomi Group. Even if Lei Jun wants to continue to work with Lü Yao and his team, the capital behind Lei Jun and the controlling capital of Xiaomi Group will keep lobbying him to cut off the "toxic capital" in his hands.

Lu Yao could tell that Lei was very anxious, but Lu Yao ended the conversation by saying, "I've already made up my mind about this. I'm the largest shareholder and CEO of Geek Phone, so let's leave it at that for now. If we really lose everything in the future, I will return your investment with interest."

"You should know that I have the ability."

Upon hearing what Lü Yao said, President Lei fell silent. Of course, he knew that Geek Phone was not entirely Lü Yao's. Behind Lü Yao were not only super capital in China, but also super capital overseas. In addition, Lü Yao had recently been appointed and then ousted from his positions as director and president of "CJ Electronics".

Some rather overly ambitious ideas began to appear in Lei's mind.

Perhaps there are many games and considerations behind this Mr. Lü, and in these considerations, the sales volume and performance of Geek Phone itself are not so important.

After figuring this out, Mr. Lei's mood gradually calmed down. He was no longer so anxious and worried. After relaxing, Mr. Lei's thinking became more lively, and he even began to think about the meaning of the phrase "time will tell".

However, without sufficient information, no matter how much Lei tried to guess, he couldn't fathom the true meaning of Lü Yao's words.

Then Lei Jun himself laughed.

Lei, who is quite adept at interpersonal communication and persuasion, was easily convinced by Lü Yao at this moment? For some reason, when facing Lü Yao, Lei always felt as if he was missing some key pieces of the puzzle in terms of confidence.

But Lei couldn't say for sure what exactly it was.

After discussing this matter, Lü Yao began to discuss with Lei Zong the script, images, videos, and design of the atmosphere for the press conference.

Because Lei Jun is now considering a shift to the high-end market, he is very interested in Geek Phones. Otherwise, he wouldn't have flown all the way from Beijing. So even though Lü Yao didn't adopt his suggestion to lower the price, Lei Jun still helped Lü Yao refine the content of the upcoming press conference.

And a series of marketing campaigns following the release.

Upon seeing the marketing campaign prepared by Lü Yao, President Lei found it increasingly strange and unusual.

like!

so similar!
He discovered that many aspects of Lü Yao's marketing strategy were very similar to his own. For example, the line in Lü Yao's press conference copy, "I know that people are not afraid of buying expensive things, they are just afraid of buying things at too high a price," immediately corrected many people's emotions. Such words that easily resonate with the audience can gain a great deal of recognition from the audience and consumers.

Simultaneously.

Such copywriting is also very easy to open the hearts of viewers and consumers, making them more likely to make impulsive purchases.

Furthermore, when Lü Yao went through the copy with Lei Jun, and when Lü Yao showed Lei Jun the first generation of the Geek Phone and compared it with other models on the market, his interpretation of fashion and functionality created a very strong persuasive effect.

This effect even caused a slight impulse to consume in a veteran marketer like Mr. Lei, who is extremely clear-headed about his work and finances.

At Dongda University, with the rapid development of real estate and other industries driven by real estate, there are more and more wealthy people in China, and there are quite a few people in China who use seven or eight thousand yuan as pocket money.

If the trend and bandwagon effect take hold, the sales of geek phones in their first year shouldn't be too bad.

after all.

It's already 2016.

Compared to when the first generation of Xiaomi phones was released five years ago, the market environment for Geek phones is more challenging, but its potential and possibilities have also increased.

After going through the press conference script and process with Lü Yao, Lei's confidence in Lü Yao inexplicably began to increase.

After the process was completed, Lü Yao laughed and said, "Although my influence on the internet is not as great as yours, Mr. Lei, I still have some fans, even though my fan base comes from crooked means."

Mr. Lei quickly smiled shyly and said, "No, no, I don't have a good reputation on the internet either. Netizens laugh at me all day long for my poor Mandarin. I went abroad last year, and my speech in broken English is still circulating online."

When they talked about their embarrassing moments, both Lei and Lü Yao burst into laughter.

Afterwards, Lü Yao invited President Lei to stay overnight in Shangnan and warmly entertained him. The next morning, Lü Yao even got up early to take President Lei to the airport. If there was no traffic jam on the road in Beijing, he could probably make it in time for 8 a.m.

……

After seeing off General Manager Lei, Lü Yao went back to continue his work.

After resolving the issues with Liu Huihui and Yao Xinjie, Lü Yao stopped paying attention to their case. The legal team, having received Lü Yao's promise, worked with great enthusiasm and, by the end of August, used irrefutable evidence to send Liu Huihui to prison, while also including all of Liu Huihui's assets in the compensation.

Unfortunately, Liu Huihui herself didn't have many gold coins, so she didn't manage to get many.

But Yao Xinjie is different. His family is quite wealthy and willing to spend money. In order to reach a settlement with Lü Yao's legal team, his family is willing to offer a considerable amount of compensation. However, because this smear campaign has caused a great deal of damage to Lü Yao's personal reputation and his company, the legal team has filed a claim for more than 20 million yuan in compensation against Yao Xinjie's family.

Yao Xinjie's parents were silenced because the company's loss assessment provided by lawyer Lü Yao's team included a large amount of evidence collected online, such as comments from netizens, which were roughly as follows:

"I originally wanted to spend 1,000 yuan on King of Glory on Guang'an. I've been eyeing that collector's edition skin for a long time, but after watching Yao Xinjie and Liu Huihui's videos, I didn't buy it."

There are countless similar comments on the internet.

Although many of these netizens' comments are jokes, and the three judicial departments may not actually adopt this evidence, these comments are still a reference and can influence the bias of the judges in the three judicial departments.

Furthermore, considering the company's overall revenue performance in the previous quarter and the first half of the year, it is clear that all of Guang'an's products have been significantly affected by this public opinion storm.

Therefore, the three courts of Shangnan ultimately ruled that Yao Xinjie should compensate Guang'an for related losses and sentenced him for instigating false accusations.

Yao Xinjie's assets in China, including bank accounts, real estate, and investments, have all been frozen for compensation purposes.

Yao Xinjie's sentence was not much lighter than Liu Huihui's...

Although Lü Yao was busy with other things, whenever there was a new development in the case, he would launch a lottery on Weibo and announce the latest developments. Browsing Lü Yao's case updates every day has become a daily pleasure for Lü Yao's fans.

Besides.

All of Lü Yao's business operations are progressing steadily.

In the consumer electronics market that Lü Yao is concerned about, netizens are full of expectations for the appearance of Apple's new products this year. Speculations, spy photos and parameter changes about Apple's new phones are flying around online.

Many of these "fake news" rumors are actually released at Apple's behest to test market sentiment.

Even before the new Apple phone was released, the hype and expectations surrounding it were already making people with knee problems uncomfortable, especially those reviewers in the mobile phone industry.

Undeniably, the performance of Apple iPhones is indeed very good.

But it's nowhere near as amazing as the fans make it out to be.

For example, the new generation of Apple phones, the iPhone 7 and Plus, which Apple will release in mid-September, are indeed upgraded compared to the previous generation iPhone 6 series. However, the design is almost unchanged, the performance improvement is incremental, and the signal strength remains poor as always.

Lu Yao could only say that the seventh generation of the iPhone was a complete disappointment.

This can be seen from the sales figures: the iPhone 6 series sold 350 million units globally, while the iPhone 7 series only sold 80 million units globally.

OK, if the iPhone 6 series is considered a legendary device, its large number of users is undeniable.

So why did the iPhone 8 series sell over 90 million units worldwide?
Lu Yao is also a long-time Apple user, but he is not obsessed with Apple, so he doesn't own all of Apple's new generation products. In fact, Lu Yao doesn't even remember that Apple ever released an iPhone 8. He went straight from an iPhone 6s Plus to an iPhone X.

The subsequent XS and XR models further exposed Cook's true colors as a money-grubber.

So, let's start hitting Apple from now on...

The timing is perfect.

(End of this chapter)