My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 460 Character is Reputation
Wei Dong had never even seen this thing before, and he wasn't familiar with hard drives either.

But later hard drives certainly weren't like that.

It's too big and too ugly.

It's like the walkie-talkies used by the Taiwanese military.

After searching high and low, I finally found the English sticker. I struggled to decipher the text and guessed what it said: "Seagate...20M? How much?"

Xu Rao said sheepishly, "Two thousand five hundred dollars!"

Wu Xi was completely baffled: "What is this thing?"

Wei Dong was shocked: "So expensive?! Holy crap... A hard drive, used to store all the software on a computer. To put it another way, this thing can hold twenty sets of Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

Wu Xi was dumbfounded: "Twenty sets of Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Two thousand five hundred US dollars? I could buy twenty sets and keep them at home for less than five hundred dollars. Only a madman would use this!"

There's no point in talking to someone who's technologically illiterate.

Wei Dong could only frown and examine the metal lump, wondering if this technology was the same as later hard drive technology.

But he had heard of the Seagate brand name.

Everything else is a skirmish, just like the skirmish between this world and the hard drive.

That's right. To this day, including Apple computers, personal computers, PCs, and home computers, regardless of the definition, do not come with hard drives.

This hard drive costs about the same as an Apple computer.

At that time, software, including Apple's operating system, was only a few hundred kilobytes in size. Therefore, computers had only a few hundred kilobytes of built-in storage chips, and any additional software had to be run on floppy disks.

The principle is actually the same as the Famicom. The game console itself has a small amount of basic files for the host program and the boot screen, but you have to insert a cartridge to play a particular game.

You need to insert the floppy disk corresponding to the software you're using.

A hard drive is a super storage device, the kind that can hold all your games.

Even if it's only 20 megabytes!
At this time, it was not yet a type of memory accepted by mainstream applications.

The enterprise-grade 3.8G hard drive used in servers, in a multi-disk RAID configuration, costs over $100,000!

Wei Dong did the math: two million US dollars in agency sales was roughly equivalent to eight hundred hard drives.

Not too many: "Is it limited to this model?"

Xu Rao shook his head: "No, the agency contract stipulates that we must help them sell two million US dollars worth of hard drives within five years. They are all official IBM products with a globally unified price. The distributors get them at a 7.2% discount. Based on the discounted price, I thought that a thousand or so hard drives would be no problem in an order of tens of thousands of computers. It was a sure thing. Who would have thought that you would..."

They're still learning how to do business; it's not like those rolling fortunes that can vanish in the blink of an eye...

No, Wei Dong didn't let that deal slip away so easily.

A deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars for 40,000 computers was made in the blink of an eye.

It's much easier than selling cured meat.

Wei Dong chuckled inwardly, but kept a calm expression: "You probably don't know, but hard drives are high-end components even at Citibank. Apple computers don't even come with them. China is so poor right now, so hard drives aren't commonly used. Trying to get you to sign up for this agency might be a bit of a rip-off."

He vividly remembered that when he met with Hong Kong businessmen in Shanghai and discussed this matter, they revealed the secrets of the seabed...

The terminology used by Jianghu girls refers to someone's background and secrets.

This IBM agency in Hong Kong was snatched from a foreign firm and is being handled by an amateur. It seems like it's about to expire in a few years, and they're just ripping people off.

Wu Xi, who understands people better, said, "A scam? I bet you were just bragging to those Hong Kong businessmen, saying you were absolutely certain about this deal. How much did they give you in return?"

Xu Rao scoffed: "What benefits can those old Hong Kongers offer? I know for sure that the banking system will definitely need to be computerized in the next few years, so I'll be helping with imports and making a little money on the side."

Can a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars be considered small change?
Hearing these words—ambitious yet incompetent, and full of grandiose aspirations but lacking real talent—Wei Dong shook his head inwardly: "How about this, if this agency agreement doesn't involve any costs, I can..."

Just then, he felt a light kick from Wu Xi under the table, but he still believed her.

He quickly changed his tune: "I'll try to think of a way to solve this..." Wu Xicai then said: "That's right, Dongzi knows computers. If you give him some kickbacks, he'll take over the agency rights for your junk."

Xu Rao finally glared: "I haven't even gotten any benefits, and I still have to spend money to dismantle this rubbish?"

Wu Xi chuckled: "Otherwise what? How much money we lose is a small matter. What we can't afford is losing face if everyone finds out that you did business with Lao Gang and then messed things up!"

He was a master at transplanting rice seedlings, and Xu Rao indeed had the kind of arrogance that said, "I'd rather lose money than face": "Damn it, I shouldn't have told you about this. If I broke my teeth, I could have paid for it myself!"

Wu Xi's expression became even more sarcastic: "A lot of people know about this. Gangzi and the others all say you're going to make a lot of money this time. Don't secretly keep all the money for yourself, that wouldn't be fair!"

Xu Rao laughed and slammed his fist on the table: "Stop trying to put me down. Isn't it just that Gangzi and his group want to set up that guesthouse and asked me to bring in Hong Kong businessmen to invest in the hotel? Go find him. He has the best reputation among Hong Kong businessmen right now, doesn't he?"

Finally, of course, it refers to Wei Dong.

That's right. During this period, Hong Kong businessmen entering the mainland mainly set up hotels in the urban areas of Guangzhou, but their main focus was on setting up factories in the coastal countryside.

When truly wealthy individuals ventured in, Jiangzhou was definitely the first to do so, followed by the Shanghai Electronics Industrial Park, which was the most eye-catching.

Pingjing carries too much political connotation; small business owners might dare to try their luck, but the wealthy would definitely have to think twice before acting.

Jiangzhou felt like a test, and now that test has reached Shanghai, Pingjing still needs to proceed slowly, observe carefully, and then proceed.

Wu Xi was aware of the situation: "Dongzi is too busy, but the construction team from the Second Ministry of Machine Building that he leads is reliable in terms of construction quality. If you set up that hotel and give him the land from the Ministry of Railways to build two buildings, we'll help you take over the agency rights."

Xu Rao wasn't stupid. He stared at the two of them for half a second and said, "So you're letting Wei Dong get all the benefits?"

Wu Xi nodded: "He's a man of action; once he's received a benefit, he knows even better what to do."

Xu Rao narrowed his eyes: "This TV series is indeed well-made, and the song at the end is even more powerful. My old man hums it every now and then. Brother, you are good at business and also an expert in literature and songwriting. Your business scope is really too wide."

Wei Dong replied neither humbly nor arrogantly: "When doing business in a small place, you have to do a little bit of everything. Look at this vacuum-packed food, and it's even pig offal that the slaughterhouse doesn't want. We have to seize the opportunity to do it. Only by expanding our business can we make money from all sorts of small things."

Xu Rao reached out and tapped the metal casing of the hard drive: "What will you do after you take it?"

Let Wei Dong reveal some little-known facts: "The biggest characteristic of computer hardware is that as long as it can be delayed, the unit price will definitely plummet. A hard drive that costs $2,500 now, if it's delayed for two or three years, I would say that the price will be halved, which is an understatement."

This guy was clearly an amateur. He gasped, "So ruthless? I thought this thing would become more and more valuable. Wasn't it supposed to be very important?"

Let Wei Dong give a simple explanation: "There's a law in computer technology that is that upgrades will always be faster and faster, performance will always be higher and higher, and the unit price will always be lower and lower. For example, your hard drive, the price may be halved, but the capacity may double, increase five times, ten times or even a hundred times, while the price will decrease."

Wu Xi exclaimed in surprise: "Are capitalists really that good? They can do even better, yet they're cheaper?"

Let Wei Dong explain the business logic: "IBM is the most powerful, sharing one-third of the market with Apple. There are dozens of other brands, such as Toshiba, Panasonic, and even a brand owned by a Chinese computer tycoon, which together account for one-third of the market. If I overcome the technical difficulties, reduce costs, and improve performance, will they lower prices to steal customers?"

Actually, he only had a vague understanding of it. He used the involution pricing model commonly seen in domestic brands in later years as an example. At this time, Citibank was more interested in working together to maintain a high price and earn huge profits, especially by profiting from the whole world.

Xu Rao actually wanted to salvage the situation: "Ah, then I'll learn to drag it out for a few years too?"

Wei Dong was already dispensable, but following the hint that he was being touched by the footsteps, he was slightly intimidated: "I was talking about dragging it out to the end to maximize product benefits, but computer parts have a fatal characteristic, that is, some parts may completely lose their market after a while. For example, this hard drive, most computers can't afford it now, they use floppy disks. I know there are CDs on the market, and there are even DVD players in Hong Kong. Your hard drive distributorship may end up stuck with nothing in the future."

Xu Rao probably won't be a computer parts supplier anymore. He muttered angrily, "Is this thing really that dangerous? It's even more ruthless than stock trading. Back then, the old Hong Kong guys said they made their fortunes through various agency rights, and I thought it was a good thing."

Wei Dong didn't even mention the Hai Di he acquired from the foreign firm: "It's true that most Hong Kong tycoons made their fortunes through various European and American brand agency rights, but the agency rights for high-tech products are a completely different story. The market is volatile and unpredictable, much riskier than stock speculation. I'm betting that hard drive prices will drop within three to five years, and that computers will eventually use hard drives extensively. I can find IBM to buy this batch at a discount and use it in X-computers. This thing... I estimate that it will be difficult to produce domestically in the short term."

Having lost a major industry order, Xu Rao is completely devoid of sales capabilities and has no chance of selling highly specialized hard drives anywhere.

Finally, he helplessly wiped his head and said, "Alright then, I'll contact the Hong Kong businessman who can run the hotel first, and while I'm at it, I'll invite the guy who's an IBM agent over and transfer the agency rights to you. Consider it a favor to you to clean up the mess you made. But that piece of land from the Ministry of Railways, does that guy surnamed Jin have the construction funds for it?"

Wu Xi naturally pointed to Wei Dong: "He has the funds, so of course he can build it smoothly. The building will belong to him first. As for who can contribute how much money and what percentage they can contribute to the whole project, that's how much they can contribute to the ownership of the building. The railway company wouldn't want to see that piece of land being fought over and made a fool of themselves, would they?"

It is obvious that the deterrent effect of making a fool of oneself is more effective than how much money one makes or how much foreign exchange one earns.

But to his surprise, the Hong Kong businessman that Xu Rao was able to find had the same idea.

They would rather only acknowledge Rang Weidong.

(End of this chapter)