ryethenovel Chapter 148 Should we meet with Lei Jun?
Chapter 148 Should we meet with Lei Jun?
Chapter 148 Should we meet with Lei Jun?
The entrance to a factory in Yiwu.
A shifty-looking man with a lewd grin slipped a Zhonghua cigarette into the doorman's hand and said, "Grandpa, thank you for your hard work. Please open the door for me."
"The production line reports that the yield rate of this batch is a bit low. Many defective products were not screened out and are mixed in. I have to go in and pick out the defective products."
Grandpa Jin glanced at him and said irritably, "Do I look like a fool? 200 yuan, here's 200 yuan, go in and do whatever you want."
The sleazy man was taken aback, then gritted his teeth, pulled out two hundred-yuan bills, stuffed them into Grandpa Jin's pocket, and cursed, "Grandpa, you're really shrewd! This money is yours to earn!"
After the sleazy man entered the factory and selected goods, Grandpa Jin closed the door behind him and even locked it.
He pulled out his Samsung phone and called Boss Jin: "Hey son, a thief broke into your company! I've locked him up in the factory. Call the police right now to catch him!"
"Bang bang bang—" The warehouse door shook violently from the inside, and the lewd man inside cursed loudly, using extremely vulgar language.
Grandpa Jin wasn't about to back down, and he started hurling insults at him through the door. The more he cursed, the quieter the man inside became; when it came to foul language, he really couldn't compete with Grandpa Jin, a native of the countryside.
Some time later, Boss Jin arrived at the factory in a police car, and the police successfully subdued the lewd man.
Boss Jin lit a cigarette for Grandpa Jin and said with a smile, "Dad, you really are a prophet. There really are people trying to do something crooked."
Grandpa Jin said proudly, "That's right, you should learn from this. Your old man learned this the hard way."
"It's really interesting these days. Before, people speculated on stamps, coins, and ration coupons; now even phone cases are being speculated on."
.
"I heard that a phone case can be resold online for over 100 yuan. This isn't a production line, it's a money printing machine!"
Boss Jin explained with a smile, "Dad, you can't look at it that way. Right now, the main reason we can sell at such a high price is because of the low production volume and limited supply. Our factory ultimately operates on volume, relying on scale to succeed, but we did make a lot of money this time."
Boss Jin couldn't help but feel fortunate: when Wang Zaixing approached him, many factory owners of similar size hesitated and didn't dare to take on the project because Wang Zaixing said that this time, they would be doing IP co-branded marketing, which would require a lot of investment.
Those factory owners had no concept of "legitimate copyright" in their minds. They always thought, "I'm using your copyrighted image to help you promote your IP. I'm already being lenient by not asking you for money, how dare you charge me?"
Only Boss Jin, a young man born in the 90s who had just turned 20, could understand the value of copyright. Although he wasn't sure at the time, he still gritted his teeth and took the gamble, and unexpectedly, he actually won.
It was already late September, and the factory's production capacity had begun to steadily increase, producing 2000 phone cases per day. These 2000 phone cases were almost sold out as soon as they went online, and the daily turnover reached 40,000 yuan.
Moreover, not only is the turnover high, but the net profit is also considerable. Ordinary OEM factories earn razor-thin profits, while he earns brick-thick profits by using IP collaborations.
This is not the limit. In addition to "Meteor Garden", the trial results of two other popular IPs are also very good.
If all goes well, the project should bring him a net profit of about 100 million yuan after the entire project cycle ends in six months.
Now, factory owners in Yiwu are in an uproar, all eager to get on board with Pinduoduo.
Pinduoduo does indeed need new merchants, and Boss Jin has many ideas in mind. Unfortunately, his factory's production capacity has reached its limit, otherwise he would really like to take on all these opportunities.
At a dinner party at a hotel, Lin Mu was having a meal and chatting with Chen Yongming, the head of OPPO, and Shen Wei, the head of vivo.
During the dinner, the three agreed that when OPPO and vivo's first smartphones are launched next year, they will pre-install the Pinduoduo app on the phones.
The idea of pre-installing the app was highly praised by the two of them, and it opened up a new way for them to generate revenue from mobile software.
Since the idea came from Lin Mu, the two decided that Lin Mu would not be charged for the pre-installation fee on the first smartphone.
-
In fact, Lin Mu didn't gain much advantage either. He remembered very clearly that the first smartphones from OPPO and vivo had a lukewarm reception in the market, with the two companies' combined sales only reaching 20 to 30 units, far less than the sensation caused by Xiaomi phones.
Thinking of Xiaomi, Lin Mu's eyes lit up: That's right, he could go to Lei Jun and talk about pre-installing the app on the phone. The Xiaomi 1 would definitely be a blockbuster.
Afterwards, the three reached another cooperation agreement: Lin Mu would use OPPO and vivo's offline channels to sell creative phone cases.
Selling phone cases was secondary; Lin Mu's real purpose was to insert a 5-yuan Pinduoduo physical coupon into each phone case.
Those who are willing to buy phone cases are definitely smartphone users, which is a great opportunity to precisely reach the target audience.
After the dinner, Lin Mu returned to Pinduoduo's headquarters and looked at the reports compiled by his employees: under his guidance, more than 50 phone cases (including tempered glass screen protectors, phone accessories, etc.) were sold, with a total turnover of 500 million yuan.
Among them, the co-branded product personally guided by Lin Mu only sold 2 pieces, but it won with its high unit price, generating a monthly turnover of 50 yuan.
Although the turnover of 50 yuan is not a large amount, it has played a very good exemplary role, making many manufacturers in Yiwu believe that Pinduoduo is not a fraudulent platform, and they have taken the initiative to join Pinduoduo and open stores on it to sell goods.
In September, Pinduoduo's total revenue successfully exceeded 9 million yuan, but the subsidies and expenses for that month also reached a staggering 500 million yuan, leaving only 2000 million yuan in the account.
At this rate, the money will only last for four months, and in reality, it may be burned through in three months. At this moment, Pinduoduo, although seemingly thriving, has reached the brink of survival.
Based on the current growth trend, reaching a monthly turnover of 1.6 million by the end of the year is not difficult.
Once the 2 million yuan investment from Tencent and Sequoia Capital arrives, he won't have to be so frugal anymore and can use the budget freely. Previously, many of his ideas and strategies were simply impossible to implement due to insufficient funds.
After clarifying his thoughts, Lin Mu picked up a pen and started drawing a new creative phone case on the draft paper.
In the current mobile phone case market, he is locked in a fierce battle with Taobao. If nothing unexpected happens, someone on Taobao will soon be selling pirated products.
But that doesn't matter. If Taobao cracks down on piracy, he can get another wave of traffic. And with the investment coming in, he'll have the money to fight a lawsuit.
Although lawsuits are time-consuming and laborious, by the time you win, the hype may have died down. Moreover, in the end, it is the factory that suffers the loss, not Pinduoduo as a platform.
However, winning the lawsuit also has significant benefits. Firstly, it can enhance the platform's reputation, and secondly, it can deter other pirate merchants by eliminating one such case.
Soon, Lin Mu sketched out a bunch of creative phone cases: there were beautiful ocean versions, rusted versions, and panda versions, and he designed dozens of different kinds in total.
This time, instead of pursuing a collaboration, he distributed these designs to factory owners in Yiwu, allowing everyone to get a share and encouraging them to open stores on Pinduoduo.
(Something like this)
October is the peak sales season during the National Day holiday.
Lin Mu, relying on Duan Yongping's connections, obtained 10 creative phone cases and distributed them to 1000 offline stores to help sell them.
Because it's sold offline, there are channel costs, so each creative phone case is priced at 28 yuan.
Of course, the cost of this batch of goods was borne by the manufacturer, and Pinduoduo didn't have to spend a penny. In addition, it could take a 5% commission from the sales of these phone cases. However, Pinduoduo didn't expect to make money this time.
Lin Mu printed a batch of coupons, and then had the technical department work for a while to put a 5 yuan coupon into each phone case.
No minimum purchase required for physical store coupons.
Users can simply download the Pinduoduo app and use this coupon to get one or two small items for free, with free shipping to their door.