Chapter 228: Sales Volume Exceeded Ten Million!
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“No, you’re wrong. I’m not some kind of bigwig.” Chen Jin denied Su Zipeng’s statement three times. He took great care to keep a low profile in his private life by wearing cheap clothing and non-prescription gla.s.ses. Moreover, he pasted on his face the facial adhesives tapes that had micro-plastic surgery effects. His image was a far cry from that of a famous and powerful person. The average person could hardly recognize his real ident.i.ty.
However, Su Zipeng had very good observation skills. He said, “Brother-in-law, your voice is very similar to that person. Even the way your walk, the way you raise your hand, and other habitual gestures are virtually the same. He has a tiny mole below his neck, close to his right shoulder. And you do too. Even your facial features share many similarities. Moreover his surname is ‘Chen’, same as yours. Your name comprises of a ‘Jin’ and his is a ‘Jing’. There’s no great difference. So….” Su Zipeng was very certain of his guess and was feeling a little excited. He gave a silent cheer to his sister. She was too awesome. She actually bagged a powerful company president for herself.
Chen Jin was stunned for a while. Then he typed, “Is there anything else you want to add?”
Su Zipeng became even more excited. “None!”
“All right, then promise me something.”
“What is it?”
“Keep it a secret; don’t let anyone know about this.”
“I understand, Mr. VIP! But, I have a small request too!”
“Say it!”
“I want to buy a Red Pepper Z1. The 128GB version in Starry Blue. I’ll transfer the money to you immediately.”
Chen Jin laughed heartily. “You’re young, but you’re already learning how to curry favor. You can keep the money, just let me know the s.h.i.+pping address.”
“Thank you, Brother-in-law!” Su Zipeng brandished his fist in excitement. He really wanted to shout, My brother-in-law is a super VIP!
They ended their conversation, and Chen Jin shook his head. From now on, he had to keep an even lower profile when he went out as himself. Even Su Zipeng, whom he was not particularly close to, had managed to guess his ident.i.ty through the observation of some details. It would be impossible to hide his ident.i.ty from people who were even closer to him. Of course, there should not be a need to hide it from the people who were the closest to him. He was simply worried that someone with a loose tongue would shout to all and sundry that “My xx is actually xx!” He would become household news. The more people who knew his ident.i.ty, the higher the risk of exposure.
Su Zipeng’s character was more trustworthy than others. As for others… The less who knew, the better.
…
At noon on the 4th of July, the online sale of the first 100% domestic mobile phone, Red Pepper Z1, had begun. The first batch of 1 million units was sold out within a short 15 seconds.
A cheap price. A secure and reliable operating system that ran smoothly. A user experience that was comparable to the top quality flags.h.i.+ps that utilized other operating systems. A continuous performance that was astonis.h.i.+ng.
Faced with a phone that had combined so many advantages into one single phone, the vast numbers of netizens were shouting about what a fantastic product it was. Following which, they decided to contribute generously to the sales of this product by buying it. After all, it only cost around a thousand. Many used their Ant credit pay to buy a few units. Some chose to pay in 12 month installments, meaning that it only cost them about ten dollars per month.
Even if there was no need to get a new phone, many chose to blindly buy it. The low pricing strategy of the Red Pepper Z1 achieved great success in terms of sales volume. More than a million units were sold in just 15 seconds. It broke the record for the fastest sales for mobile phones. However, there were countless netizens who expressed their discontent.
“Where’s this awesome phone that I heard about?”
“I just took a nap and everything was sold out.”
“More than a million units have already been sold? Do they have to sell it so quickly?”
“Must be the cheap monkey trick of restricting stock to make the product look more desirable!”
The discontented opinions of the netizens flooded the comment section of Xing Hai Technologies official Weibo. Besides the ordinary consumers, the hundreds of thousands of Star Cloud app developers also had the urge to buy the Red Pepper Z1. They had to get their hands on a few Red Pepper Z1 phones to do some tests. The government had also placed an order for more than a million units. They hoped that Tiny Pepper Corporation could complete their order in a month. There were at least a few million other potential customers.
Chen Jin called w.a.n.g Xiaoyan to enquire if he could meet this outrageous demand in a shorter period of time.
“It’s not a problem as long as we have ample supply of the various components. Tiny Pepper can produce 500,000 units per day. We can handle any number of orders. However, the components that we are currently short on are mainly the OLED screens and the LPDDR4 memory chips. I’ve thought of a solution. A portion of the screens and memory chips will be replaced with LCD screens and Purple Ray’s LPDDR3 high-frequency chips respectively. Of course, the prices for these phones will be lower. These replacements will not have any significant impact on the overall performance of the phones.”
In any case, as long as there were sufficient supplies of the necessary components, Tiny Pepper’s production capacities could be rapidly increased to 500,000 units per day.
Chen Jin was stupefied. 500,000. 500,000 units per day?
“President w.a.n.g, you are certain about this production number?”
“Yes. If I expanded my factory just a little more, it would not be difficult to produce 1 million units per day.” w.a.n.g Xiaoyan talked about his experience in the high-efficiency production of mobile phones. “The production of the casing is the most time-consuming. Many companies are using materials like aluminum alloys, carbon fibers, all-ceramic, etc. They would be polis.h.i.+ng the quality and construction of the casings every day. A high proportion is sc.r.a.pped. It would be strange if they could increase their production speed under these circ.u.mstances. The production speed is much faster by employing plastic casings. The production cost is only a few dollars and the shape is molded with just one try. We can easily make as many as we need. It’s also convenient to open and do repairs on the phone. There are many advantages to plastic casing. In addition, there are all sorts of inspections and tests to be conducted. All these processes are killers of speed and efficiency. How could the speed of the production process be increased? In the post-production stage, we would charge the phone to a power supply, conduct some tests on the finished product, and that would be all. Typically, there are no problems with 95% or more of the phones.”
Hearing these statements, a great suspicion welled up in Chen Jin’s mind. Quality. Would there be any quality to the phones that were manufactured like that? What if large-scale quality issues appeared out of the blue?
“President Chen, I guarantee that there won’t be large-scale quality issues! Our product quality is pa.s.sable in this industry. We are one of the few to achieve efficiency without neglecting quality. We provide free maintenance and repair services if there are any malfunctions in the first three months of usage. We have reduced our short-term return-for-repair rate to 3% of all users. Ah… President Chen, please don’t think that 3% is a high number. The return-for-repair rate of Hua Yao and Da Mi is not low either. On the other hand, it’s OV that produces truly high-quality phones. We hope for your understanding, President Chen. As manufacturers of phones of inferior brands, we would not earn any profit at all if we do not cut costs wherever we can. You have given us a billion dollar loan, part of the money has been used for development, and even more has been spent on the construction of a bigger factory. It’s pretty much gone in a short time. We want to make a good product. But we need to take things one at a time.”
The product quality could only be improved significantly when the new factory had been constructed.
“Ok.” Chen Jin shook his head. “It’s best that phones with quality issues make up less than 5% of our total units sold. If the user tells us that there are problems with the phone in the short-term, immediately provide them a new model. They can keep exchanging their phones until they get one that is working ok. We need to have an excellent att.i.tude with regards to solving any potential issues with the phones.”
Immediate exchange for a new model? This would significantly increase production costs. However, w.a.n.g Xiaoyan had no choice but to say, “Ok, President Chen. I promise to exchange a new model for them until there are no more issues.”
Chen Jin nodded. With this promise, there should not be any major issues no matter how much Tiny Pepper expanded their production capacities. However, Chen Jin did not notice this detail. By using this type of production and sales method, it would eventually lead to a unique production sales model. Manufacturers would ma.s.s produce on a truly ma.s.sive scale, without giving any considerations to quality. Then they would sell these units directly to the consumers. Once the user reflected that their phones had problems, the manufacturer would exchange it for free with another model that had been thoroughly inspected. There would be no need for a second exchange. In a situation of higher product yield, the type production model mentioned above would not help to build a good quality inspection system. After all, it was more cost-effective to build a good quality inspection system. Its only flaw was the ha.s.sle that a minority of consumers experienced.
Therefore, most of the inferior mobile phone manufacturers employed such a production model. Hence, this production sales model became a killer move for manufacturers seeking to dominate the market rapidly.
…
At 12 pm on the 5th of July, after w.a.n.g Xiaoyan had promised Chen Jin that he would “definitely keep an eye on the quality,” Tiny Pepper Corporation started taking pre-orders for the first 100% domestic phone on their official Taobao shop. They had unlimited stock. As long as users paid in full, they would get their phones.
That was right. Totally unlimited stock. Anyone could place an order. You could buy a maximum of 1,000 phones with your account. As long as the money was paid, Tiny Pepper would s.h.i.+p the product as soon as possible.
The vast majority of scalpers were shocked. Unlimited orders? What kind of trick was this? They did not dare to make a single order for fear of falling into yet another trap. The ordinary consumers were not plagued with such misgivings. The earlier they placed their orders, the earlier they could receive their phones. Why hesitate? Hurry and place your orders!
Unlimited pre-orders began. Pre-orders for the phone exceeded 1 million units in thirty seconds. In two minutes, pre-orders exceeded 2 million units. In another half an hour, pre-orders exceeded 5 million units. In another ten hours, pre-orders exceeded ten million units!
…
At Da Mi Company, Lei Xiao Jun’s eyes widened as he saw that number. It continued rising to a value that stunned him and made his heart palpitate. He turned around and shouted to a company staff who was standing behind him, “Quick! Announce our 100% domestic mobile phone now!”
“Right now, President Lei?”
“Yes, right now! Announce it this instant!”