Rebirth is fine, but I get eight hundred dollars right from the start?

Finally, there's the low-end market.

This area is getting lively.

Mice priced at 9.9 yuan with free shipping and keyboards priced at 30 or 40 yuan were ubiquitous on Taobao in 2013.

If you search for "gaming mouse", the first few pages are full of these kinds of things, such as "seven-color breathing light", "ergonomic design", and "dedicated to gaming". The copywriting is full of fancy words, but when you click on the details page, you find that the main control chip is a cow dung chip that you can't even find the model number of, the microswitches are a few cents a pair of no-name brands, the shell mold is so rough that the edges can scratch your hand, and the cable is so stiff that it can be used as a jump rope.

This kind of thing is most common in those illegal internet cafes or local town arcades. You sit there playing LOL for two hours, the mouse pointer will occasionally drift, and the keyboard will sometimes malfunction, but you can't complain to the manager - they charge one yuan an hour and even give you free tap water, what more do you want?

Lin Shu had previously conducted a preliminary market survey, and found that the lowest ex-factory price for those OEM products flowing out of Yiwu Small Commodities Market and Shenzhen Huaqiangbei could be as low as three yuan and fifty cents each.

Yes, you heard that right.

Three yuan and fifty cents.

You can't even buy a cup of powdered instant milk tea, but they still manage to make you a mouse that lights up when powered on. Whether you'll break your keyboard while playing games is not within the manufacturer's consideration.

This product accounts for more than 60% of the domestic and international equipment market shipments, making it the absolute majority in terms of unit quantity, but in terms of sales revenue and profit, it's as thin as a sheet of paper.

Lin Shu mentally reviewed these layers, then looked up from his teacup with a smile on his lips as he looked at Xu Lang and Tang Bin.

"Mid-range or high-end?" He repeated the question, then shook his head. "Only children make choices. I want them all."

Xu Lang raised an eyebrow, while Tang Bin gave a muffled laugh, as if to say, "I knew my boss would say that."

Lin Shu leaned back on the sofa and explained, "Boss Xu, with your factory's equipment—150-250 ton injection molding machines, over a dozen chip mounters, and a fully automated assembly and testing line—we don't have the physical limitations of 'only being able to choose one side' when it comes to product manufacturing. The rest is just a matter of market strategy."

"Coincidentally, I have a lot of confidence in marketing."

"Why do I say all three are necessary?"

"Let's talk about the low end first—don't look down on the low end, the low end market is the biggest traffic entry point."

Lin Shu held up his index finger. "A student who is new to computers may not even know what DPI is. His first mouse is most likely one of those that costs forty or fifty yuan or even ten or twenty yuan with free shipping on Taobao."

"But think about it, after he's played LOL for six months or a year, climbed from Bronze to Silver, and started to feel like his skills weren't keeping up, or when he gets older and has more financial means, won't he want to change his equipment? At that point, if you have a brand that's reliable, affordable, and from the same brand he's used before—do you think he'll choose it?"

"The average order value is low, but the user base is huge."

Lin Shu's reason for saying this is quite simple: in 2013, Pinduoduo was indeed far from being established, but that did not mean that the consumption potential of the lower-tier market did not exist.

"In the next few years, more and more users will buy things online, and consumption habits will gradually penetrate into lower-tier markets. Those cheap items priced at 9.9 yuan will be available, and must be available... Of course, as users use and become more familiar with them, they will gradually need a choice that strikes a balance between affordability and reliability."

"In short, the low-end is the guide to the mid-to-high-end."

"We'll fill the gap with low-end product lines. We don't aim for high profit per unit, but rather for large-scale distribution to build brand awareness first."

For those who still have questions about the low-end market, just look at Xiaomi. They've penetrated that market so deeply that Lin Shu dares to say that 80% of college students' first smartphones are from Xiaomi.

Why?

You can tell by looking at the price and by looking at the Xiaomi offline experience stores that are packed with customers on weekdays and holidays.

The two nodded as they listened.

"Let's talk about high-end."

Lin Shu said earnestly, "Its existence is a necessity. For a brand, high-end peripherals are never just about making money."

"It's the flag, the face, proof that 'I can do this level.' Look at Razer's Viper, which costs a few hundred yuan. Is it selling a bunch of specs? No, it's selling that green three-headed snake logo, the recognition that high-end gamers use. Once you establish your high-end products, your mid-range mass-market models will also benefit, because users will think—'If this brand can make a flagship model that costs a few hundred yuan, then their entry-level model that costs a little over a hundred yuan can't be bad either.'"

"yes!"

Tang Bin realized that there was nothing to be conflicted about.

"What is our biggest advantage in this area? It's real-world testing."

Tang Bin pointed to his boss, "The boss has millions of viewers in his livestream. All he needs to do is play ranked games for one night with his own flagship mouse, without bragging about specs or reading from a PowerPoint presentation. He just plays normally, and afterwards tells everyone how it feels, how accurate the tracking is, how stiff the buttons are. He doesn't even need to say any of that. He just needs to provide each player in the club with one. That kind of credibility is much better than spending millions on GG. One is something that people who make a living through skill endorse, and the other is some specs printed on a box. Which do you believe?"

"That makes sense!"

As Tang Bin spoke, Xu Lang echoed his sentiments.

Lin Shu waved his hand, interrupting the two, "This part is not urgent. Just treat it as a mid-range product like other brands. The path we should bet on is to launch an additional e-sports exclusive series."

"Exclusively for esports?"

"Yes, exclusively for esports!"

Lin Shu's eyes lit up. "Just because you put on cool packaging and add RGB lighting doesn't mean you can call it esports."

"It's about truly researching what kind of keyboard response speed esports players need, what kind of mouse polling rate and smoothness FPS players want, and what kind of micro-touch and key travel RTS players want."

"You can't find an industrial designer to sit in an office and brainstorm these things. You have to actually play, actually get completely outplayed in ranked matches and realize, 'Damn, my mouse is a fraction of a second too slow to return to center,' before you'll know which way to adjust it."

"Those three big international brands have their R&D centers in the US and Denmark. The molds they design are for the large hands of European and American gamers. Their default grip, hand size, and operating habits are completely different from those of East Asians. When we, as Chinese people, make products for our own people, that's what we call exclusive. Our products are tailor-made for Chinese esports players."

"Therefore, my approach is to set a benchmark, enhance brand image, and build a positive reputation within the professional gaming community using high-end esports-specific products."

"Use mid-range products to drive volume, establish mainstream channels, and stabilize the core market; use low-end products to penetrate lower-tier markets, cultivate user habits, and promote brand awareness. These three lines run in parallel, without competing with each other, but rather supporting each other. This is what it means to have it all."