Chapter 1141: The Popularization of Mobile Phones

Leaving the highway, Zhang Ke accompanied Tang Xueqian and Xu Ruiping for a walk on the embankment, occasionally looking distractedly at the sparkling river water under the embankment.

In 1998, Jinshan Lake broke its embankment, and the lake water flowed backwards to the Jiujiang River on the edge of the urban area before it was blocked by a temporary earth dam. There is only a metasequoia forest between this site and the construction site of Sinochip's Jinshan factory. The river with a width of about 10 meters is lined with stone barges. There is a main road in the middle, and willows are planted on the green belt of the river embankment. At the turn of spring and summer, the tender green willow strands are already in some shape, and the damage that the flood brought to Jinshan and the East China Sea seems to have almost healed on the surface.

The construction period of Zhongjing Microchip Jinshan factory is relatively long, and the construction speed of nearby Kewang High-tech and Xinyuan Electric Appliances is very fast, and it has become a scale in more than three months.

The person in charge of Xinyuan Electric in Jinshan is Ding Wenxiang's niece-in-law and Ding Lihua's husband Zhou Xiaobing, both of whom are acquaintances. Zhang Ke accompanied Tang Xueqian to visit the factory of Xinyuan Electric.

They walked through the path among the metasequoia forests. The metasequoias were all covered with new leaves. The forest was full of tender green weeds and full of unknown purple flowers. They were busy with government affairs and business, and they rarely walked through the wild. .

Zhang Ke also told Tang Xueqian that Ding Wenxiang had taken a fancy to Zhou Xiaobing's outstanding ability at the beginning, so he had a good relationship with his niece Ding Lihua and Zhou Xiaobing. Ding Wenxiang was an outstanding private entrepreneur in Haizhou when Xinyuan Electrical Appliances had no scale, but he still had a strong traditional idea of ​​inheriting his father’s business from his son; So he needed a role as an excessive successor, and Zhou Xiaobing was the candidate he was looking for at the time—it’s just that Xinyuan Electric has developed very rapidly over the years. In seven years, in order to obtain the support of Kumho, expand the disc player business, and reorganize with other five disc player companies in a larger scale, Xinyuan Electric has gradually abandoned the color of the family business and completed the transformation into an electronic enterprise with a modern enterprise system. Recruiting high-quality professional managers on a large scale has achieved Xinyuan's management system at this time, but Zhou Xiaobing has always been Ding Wenxiang's most capable right-hand man.

"You know these gossips, don't you?" Tang Xueqian asked Zhang Ke with a smile.

"Mr. Xu often talks about the wisdom of the market. I have time to meet Mr. Xu, play chess, drink tea, and talk about these gossips. Xu Ruiping should often hear these rumors in the market, right?" Zhang Ke asked Xu Ruiping with a curled lip.

Xu Ruiping smiled and said: "I don't meet my dad as many times as you do. Even if I talk to my dad on the phone, I will probably be reprimanded, and there are few rumors in the market..."

Xu Ruiping served as Tang Xueqian's secretary, and his wife and children lived with him in Jinshan all year round. He rarely returned to Haizhou. He didn't see his father Xu Hongbo often. Xu Ruiping sometimes felt strange, but his father had nothing to say to Zhang Ke.

Walk to Xinyuan Electric Factory,

Zhou Xiaobing was already waiting there.

"The speed of the new yuan is very fast. It doesn't seem long before the factory can be opened..." Tang Xueqian stood in front of the factory gate, looked at the factory, and said with emotion.

Before the Spring Festival, it was still an empty wasteland. At this time, it was already a well-organized factory area. Straight roads criss-crossed in the factory area. The factory buildings were tall and brand new. trees.

"Long-span steel structure assembly plant, the building materials are prefabricated parts, using bolt connection, the image is like panel furniture, the factory production is good luck to install it on the construction site, the ground can be leveled with cement, and the plant is completed... Speed It is faster than traditional factory construction,” Zhou Xiaobing introduced the construction of the factory, “The first batch of workers have also been trained for a month, and in about one and a half months to two months, we will produce the first in Jinshan factory. A mobile phone is about to come off the production line..."

"It's really good. When your factory here produces the first mobile phone, I will come and have a look..." Tang Xueqian's hometown is Xintai, but he spent his youth and middle-aged life in Haizhou. I feel more cordial, and I pay special attention to Haizhou native enterprises such as Xinyuan Electric. Besides, the rise of Xinyuan Electric in Haizhou is also something after Tang Xueqian became the master of Haizhou, and the relationship with Kumho is also very close. close.

"We were afraid that we would disturb Governor Tang, but then we dared to send invitations to Governor Tang and Mr. Ke..." Zhou Xiaobing said.

"It's enough for you to invite Governor Tang. Forget about me. I don't want to run a long distance for a meal," Zhang Ke quickly refused jokingly, "But your speed is fast enough."

At present, Xinyuan Electric is mainly producing mobile phones for Kumho and Lianxin. Zhang Ke knows that the orders Xinyuan Electric currently receives only need the factory in Haizhou to complete the task, and there is no need to rush to open the Jinshan factory before the middle of the year.

Zhou Xiaobing followed suit with a smile. Even if he sent a request to Zhang Ke, he didn’t expect him to make a special trip. What he wanted to do was not up to him, and said: “There is no way to be unhappy. King Ke is already in Singapore and Malaysia. Got the sales license, and Kewang is negotiating to buy a telecom company in India..."

Hearing what Zhou Xiaobing said, Zhang Ke understood that Xinyuan Electric was not reconciled to clinging to the current achievements and refraining from making progress. He said with a smile: "Xinyuan is going to open up overseas markets now?"

"Maybe I will follow in Ke Wang's footsteps and try the Indian market first..." Zhou Xiaobing said, this may be an extremely important commercial secret of Xinyuan in front of others, but it is really not a commercial secret in front of Zhang Ke.

Tang Xueqian was quite excited when he heard that the province's export-oriented economy has always been relatively poor. If both companies aim to export electronic communication products to Southeast Asia and South Asia markets, it will undoubtedly make a big improvement in the province's export-oriented economy. Said: "India's telecommunications market is relatively complicated, you must be fully prepared, and the Provincial Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation will also provide you with convenience at any time..."

Since India's domestic telecommunications system needs to be reformed every one or two years, India has encouraged private investment in the basic telecommunications industry since 1997, and hundreds of telecommunications companies have sprung up in India for a while. The strength of so many telecom companies in India is naturally mixed, and the weaker ones may only need one or two million US dollars to acquire one. At present, foreign capital acquisitions of Indian telecom companies are strictly restricted, and the shareholding is not allowed to exceed 49%. Before the further reform of the Indian telecom industry system, the acquisition of small and medium telecom companies in India is of little significance, but Kewang’s acquisition of small Indian telecom companies should still be Pave the way and clear the way for its mobile phone products to enter the Indian market.

India's mobile communication market at this time is similar to that of China in 1995 and 1996, and is in its infancy.

Although India's population is second only to China, India's economic development level is relatively low, and the gap between the rich and the poor is more serious. The construction of telecommunications infrastructure is backward. When mobile phones are still a luxury for ordinary people, the capacity of the Indian mobile phone market is far greater lower than China.

Although Kumho is also developing the South Asian market at this time, the strength is not particularly strong.

The situation is not static. India's telecommunications infrastructure is also slowly improving. It can be predicted that when mobile phones become popular, the Indian mobile phone market will be very exciting. Xie Jiannan should be sure that the ESS mobile phone chipset developed by Kumho will be the key to the popularization of mobile phones, so he took the first step to deploy in the Indian market.

Xinyuan Electronics has always regarded Kewang as its competitor. In particular, the Ministry of Information Industry officially closed the door to enter the domestic mobile phone market in mid-April, announcing that it will not issue new mobile phone licenses within three years. In the mobile phone industry, Xinyuan and Kewang The status of the king is similar, and it is even more necessary to adopt pressing methods step by step.

When Zhang Ke agreed with Xie Jiannan to purchase ess mobile phone chipsets from Kumho, he restricted the flow of Kewang’s products to China within two years, forcing Kewang to use existing marketing channels to deliver mobile phone products to Southeast Asia and South Asia. Xinyuan Electronics is not too slow to catch up. While producing mobile phones for domestic companies such as Kumho and Lianxin, it must also follow Kewang and set its sights on the Southeast Asian and South Asian markets.

"This year... this year should be the key year for the popularization of mobile phones," Zhang Ke said, looking at the newly built factory in the distance, "At least the ordinary working class should no longer feel that mobile phones are luxury goods. One goal for two years."

"The mobile phones produced by Lianxin and Kewang Hi-Tech using the ess mobile phone chipset are put on the market, and the market sales fluctuate around 1,400 yuan to 1,500 yuan; In the ranks of yuan phones, even so, Lianxin and Kewang Hi-Tech still have considerable profit margins in customizing mobile phones," Xu Ruiping said with a smile, "I think the heavy responsibility of popularizing mobile phones has fallen to China Unicom and China Mobile..."

"Ashamed," Zhang Ke said with a smile, "I tried my best to give up the radical market expansion plan of China Unicom years ago... China Unicom really wants to implement the radical market expansion plan. The essence has declined.” Several people present are qualified to know the secrets, Xinyuan Electric is also a part of China Unicom’s development of customized mobile phone business, so it’s free to talk about it.

"Let China Unicom prepare more, so that we can have a stronger competitive strength. The so-called haste makes waste," Tang Xueqian said with a smile, "Everyone needs time to prepare."

Following Tang Xueqian's gaze, Zhang Ke looked back. The factory of Zhongjing Microchip is much more complicated than the general assembly factory, especially the construction of the ultra-clean workshop is a difficult task, and it will take about a year. Only then can it be built and put into trial production.

Of course, this is only one aspect of preparation.

Even though the second-generation enhanced ess baseband chipset, which has entered the testing stage, is suitable for most low-end mobile phone models, it cannot be claimed that Kumho's technology in mobile phone baseband and RF chips has matured and still exists. In order to ensure the trade-off of function at the expense of performance, it can be regarded as a real accumulation of foundation when the third-generation and fourth-generation technologies are developed.

Whether it is the second-generation ESS baseband chipset that is being mass-produced at this time, or the second-generation enhanced ESS baseband chipset that is entering the testing stage, they are all designed on the 0.35-micron thread platform. The factory is capable of mass production. At this time, Oak Park's mobile phone chip research and development department used 0.25 micron threads to design the third-generation ESS baseband chipset, which required the completion of the Jinshan factory for mass production.

It will take about a year for the third-generation ESS baseband chipset to be put into practical use. It will also take about a year for Sinochip's Jinshan factory to be completed and put into production. The mobile phone manufacturing base built by Xinyuan and Kewang Hi-Tech in Jinshan has just completed. It will take about a year for the scale (Kewang will be added at this time) - during this period, there is really no difference at all, and it will be possible to send low-cost products to all parts of the country, Southeast Asia, and South Asia on a large scale around this time next year. Cheap mobile phones, completely turning the mobile phone into a communication tool for civilians.

At this time, Kewang and Xinyuan started the layout of overseas markets ahead of schedule, which is just the right time.

After many years of deciphering the plan at this time, many people may wonder why Kumho allowed King Ke to participate, and some people even wondered what kind of trap Kumho set for King Ke again, but Zhou Xiaobing was not puzzled. I am already familiar with Kumho's business style and tolerance, and it is this kind of tolerance that makes Kumho a chaebol in China's special political environment.

Indeed, Kumho has begun to take shape as a chaebol. Since the vast majority of people do not believe that the domestic political environment can tolerate the existence of such a chaebol-style private economy, but it does exist, and it is very stable. Zhou Xiaobing does not know which private economy in China can shake Kumho in the slightest Even in a specific industry field, Zhou Xiaobing does not believe that any specific central enterprise can shake Kumho in a fair competition-Zhedong Horizon obviously cannot.

#################################################### #李李琴 these days is also dizzy from the subversion impact of the new economic wave bubble burst.

In 1998, Samsung was almost destroyed by the Asian financial turmoil that swept away. Although this time is different from the Asian financial turmoil in 1997 and 1998, at least the destructive power at this time is still limited to the Internet. The investment field may affect the telecommunications and electronic infrastructure manufacturing fields, and the traditional industries will be less affected, but the impact on Samsung is also significant.

Samsung has always attached importance to the development of the memory chip business over the years, and the memory chip market accounts for almost one-third of the entire semiconductor market. Samsung has ranked first in the memory chip market since the mid-1990s, and the memory chip business has also become Samsung's main source of profit.

The wave of new economy in the past two years has led to a sharp increase in investment in the global Internet and telecommunications, and the market's demand for memory chips has also surged. This is also an important reason why Samsung can quickly get rid of the shadow of the Asian financial turmoil in the past two years.

The current situation has become more obvious. It is the excessive investment in the Internet and telecommunications industries that has led to the new economic wave bubble crisis in the global securities capital market. Even if the current crisis can be passed smoothly, the global investment in the Internet and telecommunications industries It will also drop sharply, which will directly affect the market demand for memory chips.

At the emergency discussion meeting of Samsung Electronics in early May, it was agreed that the profit level of memory chips would drop sharply, and some executives even worried that the memory chip business would suffer losses. In 1999, the memory chip business contributed nearly one billion U.S. dollars to Samsung Electronics. net profit.

This kind of worry is really frustrating. It is raining lightly outside the window. Li Zaizhu picks up the phone on his desk and plans to personally inform Yan Wenjie that Samsung intends to delay the construction plan of the Samsung Grand Chip fab.

"...Worried about the decline in profit levels, shouldn't Samsung move the fab to China to reduce manufacturing costs?" Yan Wenjie asked on the phone. The delay in the start of the Samsung Grand Chip fab is definitely negative for Haisu Technology information.

"..." It was difficult for Li Zaizhu to answer Yan Wenjie's question. He couldn't tell him that Samsung delayed the construction plan of the new factory in the headquarters, and then slowed down the relocation of the old factory in turn.

Jin Nanyong stood in front of the desk, and Yan Wenjie's voice was a little suspicious on the phone, but he could hear it clearly. He knew that Horizon had other plans for Haisu Technology. He sometimes thinks that the businessmen in this country are really happy. Such naked and undisguised behaviors also happened in South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s, but they have to restrain themselves in recent years, just like Samsung’s spiritual leader Lee Kun-hee also because of Embroiled in a bribery scandal and once retired. No matter what plans Horizon has in Haisu Technology, Samsung naturally cannot consider the interests of others when making decisions. Although Li Zaizhu did not answer Yan Wenjie's question directly, Jin Nanyong noticed that his hand holding the microphone was very tight, and he seemed very determined. There is no room for negotiation.

"Can you not announce this news for the time being?" Yan Wenjie also realized from Lee Jae-soo's silence that Samsung's decision is difficult to change. Maybe Lee Jae-soo is only an executor. He took a step back and hoped that Samsung would temporarily hide the news and not make it public. The stock price of Millet Technology will not cause a direct impact.

Li Jae-soo was also happy to see that Hongxin, who was at odds with Kumho, could be stronger, so he didn't mind helping Hongxin with such a small favor, saying, "Within my scope of authority, I'm always willing to help others."

Putting down the phone, Lee Jae-soo squeezed his brows between his fingers, trying to soothe his tense nerves, Er asked Kim Nam-yong in front of the office again: "Can Hongxin pose a threat to Kumho in China?"

Jin Nanyong shook his head without expression. Before the Nasdaq index plummeted, Kumho would complete the reduction of 17 million shares of Quantum Online, and complete the equity transaction of Global Music Online with Microsoft. Kumho's next step of development will provide new impetus, either because Kumho is out of luck again, or because Kumho's senior management has a perfect grasp of the global economic situation - Kumho's real industries are obviously in the crisis again In the safe area, what does Horizon rely on to pose a threat to Kumho?

Li Zaizhu smiled wryly, the answer was obvious, he just asked more.

In the past few years in China, he has a better understanding of Chinese people's human relations and secularism. Even if the Chinese government has no supportive attitude towards Kumho, it has not overly restrained it. It can be clearly judged from the performance of the company that if Horizon did not have special support from the Chinese government, it would be impossible to pose a threat to Kumho from the industry.

The industries under Horizon are mainly concentrated in shipbuilding, energy, steel, real estate and engineering construction. In fact, Kumho’s aggressive entry into the shipbuilding, steel, real estate, and engineering construction industries in the past two years has put great pressure on Horizon. The core industries of Kumho—consumer electronics, home appliances, chain home appliance stores, and papermaking—caused the slightest shake.

People in China seem to be only familiar with Kumho's mobile phones and disc players, and few know that iplayer is Kumho's sharp weapon for making money in overseas markets. By the end of 1999, Kumho's cumulative sales of iplayer in overseas markets had exceeded two million pieces. The overseas price of Aida iplayer ranges from US$199 to US$699. Jin Nanyong speculates that Kumho’s profit margin will not be lower than 40%, and it may even be much higher than this figure, which means that Kumho’s profit margin in the past two years For more than a year, just one product of iplayer has earned more than 300 million U.S. dollars in huge profits from overseas markets.

Kumho has always used the Spring Festival as the beginning of the New Year, and is also used to adjusting its market strategy with the Spring Festival as the dividing line. At the beginning of March, in addition to upgrading the entire line of iplayer, Kumho also significantly adjusted the price of high-end iplayer products in the North American, European and Japanese markets, and adjusted the overseas price of iplayer to within the range of US$199 to US$499 . In March and April, the sales volume of Kumho iplayer products in overseas markets rose sharply. It will not be surprising that the total sales of Kumho iplayer products in overseas markets will reach 5 million before the end of this year.

Lee Jae-soo believes that although Kumho has lowered the price of high-end iplayer, due to Kumho's enhanced control over overseas markets and the further dilution of R&D costs and manufacturing costs, Kumho's profit margin on iplayer will not decline. This means that this year Kumho will be able to directly earn nearly US$400 million in profits from overseas markets with just one product, iplayer.

Lee Jae-soo is also aware of Kumho's intention to put its overseas business under the banner of Kumho Commercial, which is to improve Kumho Commercial's financing ability in overseas markets. Based on the profitability of Kumho in the overseas market, it can almost afford six to ten times the amount of debt, and Kumho Commercial has an excellent reputation in overseas Chinese circles. Even though Kumho Commercial’s financing behavior in 1998 was a bit like taking advantage of the fire, Once a virtuous circle is formed, Kumho Corporation will not find it difficult to increase the amount of debt to US$4 billion this year.

Kumho is so good that it can barely be Samsung's opponent.

(to be continued) ()