Black technology: a super empire spanning two worlds

Chapter 326 [Another Storm of Public Opinion]

It's the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, 23 non-governmental so-called feminist organizations jointly published an article entitled "Refuse to Become an Algorithm Specimen," calling on relevant departments to take immediate measures to rectify Likang Technology and quickly ban the sale and market of the Liuguang Xingyu simulation robot.

The article argues that when technological products begin to quantify women's biological characteristics, gender oppression gains a "scientific" veneer, and tech giants are transforming women's biological characteristics into new tools of exploitation.

In an instant, a huge public opinion storm was stirred up again, and the product "Liuguang Xingyu" was pushed to the forefront of controversy.

These so-called 23 grassroots women's rights organizations are actually backed by foreign forces, and NGOs have provided them with considerable funding for their activities.

On the other hand, especially with Almeida, the sudden emergence of the "Flowing Star Language" product caused them considerable panic.

In Amelika's eyes, Liuguang Xingyu can transform from a sex doll into an armed humanoid robot.

And most importantly, the cost is so low, with a selling price of less than $3000, the actual cost of manufacturing is definitely even lower.

This means that the major Eastern power can mass-produce such armed humanoid robot legions. With its own industrial scale and full-chain advantages, its production capacity can be maximized at a rate of "exploding troops like urine," with production capacity reaching millions or even tens of millions.

This has once again stirred up such a huge public opinion storm. Besides the covert instigation by foreign forces, it has also indeed aroused anxiety and panic among countless women. Otherwise, why would foreign forces choose to start from the perspective of women's rights?

It must be said that the sudden emergence of the product "Flowing Star Language" has been a huge shock to some women who want to get something for nothing, the so-called "gold diggers," and has dealt a fatal blow to the so-called "simp economy," which may lead to an irreversible collapse.

These women who want something for nothing are really desperate, and there are quite a few of them. They hate this product, especially since it received over 1260 million orders on the first day. Seeing that, they immediately broke down all defenses.

When foreign forces push forward, many such people are willing to act as pawns, charging into battle on the front lines of public opinion, even if they are not paid and bring their own supplies.

In addition, there are many female live streamers on platforms such as Douyin, as well as technicians in the sex and entertainment industry. These groups all hate the product "Liuguang Xingyu" to the extreme.

The reason is actually quite simple.

This brought them unprecedented competitive pressure.

In the past, female live streamers could attract male viewers to spend money to send gifts by turning on level 10 beauty filters and twirling in front of the camera. Some would even eat instant noodles themselves to send gifts to the female streamer, just for the fun value of the female streamer calling them "brother".

With the emergence of the "Flowing Star Language" product, male viewers would definitely rather eat instant noodles to save up money to buy a Cyber ​​Plush Wife Companion than send gifts to female anchors.

The same applies to technicians in the foot massage industry. In the past, technicians could "re-employ" themselves in the live streaming field, but now they can't even do that anymore.

To put it more bluntly, with the complete collapse of the "simp economy," they can no longer enjoy the high-quality life they could have without working for it.

No one is paying for their lives anymore. They can't support their current high-quality lifestyle on their own, and they can't endure the hardship of finding a job and earning money steadily.

That's why the defenses were breached.

But now a major trend is that they have no choice but to find a job, otherwise they will starve.

With the advent of the "Flowing Star Language" product, to put it bluntly, even if you try to enter the market, there's no market left. You can't compete with "Flowing Star Language." In the foreseeable future, even technicians will be forced to change careers and find other jobs.

Given the characteristics of the top scorer in China, Xiao Yu's estimate was probably too low.

In the future, if the lifelike dolls of Liuguang Xingyu enter the entertainment industry as a means of production, this industry may face full competition within two years, and it is not impossible for the service price to drop to 15 to 20 yuan per hour.

The price of Liuguang Xingyu, a product with the characteristics of a means of production, is 18.3 yuan. Even if the service price is reduced to 15 yuan per hour, with a five-year lifespan, the average annual profit margin is still close to 13 percentage points.

Even with a service price of 15 yuan per hour, the club's merchants can still make a profit, and the profit margin is no less than 10%.

Based on available information, the annual profit margin of the foot massage industry is roughly between 10% and 60%. The profit margin varies greatly depending on the size, business model, and region of the store. The profit margin of small foot massage shops ranges from about 10% to 30%.

If you want higher profit margins, you have to break the rules to some extent, skirt the edges, and make some gray or illegal income.

However, the lifelike humanoid figures from Flowing Star Language are a means of production and can be operated openly and legally. Previously, customers preferred to go to unregulated massage parlors and avoided legitimate ones.

From now on, I'll definitely go to the proper places; I won't patronize the illegitimate ones.

This means that more people will enter the market to get a piece of the pie, and the competition will inevitably become fierce.

In theory, the industry profit margin at its highest level is around 10%, which corresponds to a service price of about 15 yuan per hour.

As for those so-called women who can't endure hardship and want to make quick money by going into prostitution, seeing a price of 15 to 20 yuan an hour, they think, "Is that all? I might as well find a proper job, at least I won't be looked at with strange eyes."

Saying you can't work or endure hardship is nonsense. When you really get to that point and have no other choice, you'll still find a proper job, otherwise you'll just starve to death.

Humans are quite adaptable to their environment.

But clearly, at this critical juncture, they have seen such a future, and therefore feel immense fear and extreme resistance.

They then vehemently opposed it, attempting to block the arrival of the major trend, even knowing they were being exploited by foreign forces.

Little do people know that the reason a trend is called a trend is because it is unstoppable and cannot be changed by individual will.

Xiao Yu didn't pay much attention to these voices because he knew they wouldn't make a difference. The higher-ups had already made a decision: without resorting to coercive measures or launching a large-scale rectification campaign, they could force sex workers to leave the profession and reform themselves through market competition using a product like a sex doll. This was exactly the situation the higher-ups wanted to see.

Those who are making a lot of noise online, seemingly with a lot of fanfare, actually don't understand the situation at all, and don't realize that it's like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

However, this startled the capital market. After the weekend, when the stock market opened on Monday, Likang Technology, which had fallen by 24 percentage points on Friday, opened sharply lower and continued to decline.

The stock price fell sharply again by 25.37% at the close of trading that day, closing at 390.00 yuan, with its market capitalization dropping to 1813.5 billion yuan.

From a high of 777.77 yuan to a low of 377.77 yuan during the day, the stock price plummeted by a maximum of -51.42%, losing more than half its value in just two trading days.

Some feminists who hate Flowing Star Language felt a sense of satisfaction when they saw the stock price of Likang Technology plummet, halving in just two days, and even had the illusion that it was effective.

However, on Tuesday, Likang Technology rebounded strongly by 21.27%, and continued to rebound on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Thursday, in particular, the stock price surged by as much as 25% during the day, rebounding to 608 yuan, with a cumulative maximum rebound of more than 60% over three days.

Clearly, in the capital market game, the opposing side is using weekend news to sell off the losses from funds trapped on Friday. Moreover, after the first wave of Likang Technology's main upward trend peaked and halved, it started the second super main upward trend.

So after hitting a 50% drop on Monday, it immediately rebounded, which also reflects that the market is becoming increasingly volatile and the difficulty of the game is constantly increasing.

As time went on, the public opinion campaigns stirred up by these so-called grassroots women's rights organizations turned out to be all bark and no bite.

Neither Lingjing Technology nor Likang Technology paid any attention to them, not even offering a response.

Mr. Zhou is busy ramping up production capacity and setting up 500 offline direct-sale stores. Time is tight and the tasks are heavy. He's so busy that he's numb and has no time to deal with these things.

The key point is that President Zhou knows that there are big shots handling this kind of thing, so he doesn't need to worry about it. He just needs to close his eyes, listen to the big shots' arrangements, and then he can just sit back and win.

Xiao Yu also didn't have time to deal with it, as he had a lot of work to do. He needed to advance the exoskeleton powered armor project, the intelligent medical operating table project, the single organ cloning project, and so on.

Male netizens largely ignored it, as the first batch of approximately 25,000 "Flowing Star Language" sex dolls had already entered the shipping phase, and consumers who had placed the first 20,000 orders were counting down the days to welcome their "cyber rubber wife companions" home.

Netizens, especially those who have already placed orders and are waiting for delivery, are all looking forward to the first batch of users posting reviews and sharing their experiences. They don't have time to argue with those who are fighting.

……

(End of this chapter)