2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 792 Another General Added!
When it comes to getting things done, Musk is second to none among entrepreneurs.

The CEO of a prestigious car company flew all the way here to personally conduct the handover ceremony and hand the car keys to the owner. It was quite a grand affair.

Although there were only a dozen or so Maodou S users in the first batch, and not all car owners were present, the atmosphere was still very lively.

"See? He's way better at marketing than you or me. He does the same thing in the US, personally delivering cars to the first batch of customers."

Their identities prevented them from appearing too frequently. After briefly revealing themselves and handing over the car, they stood in the shadows, exchanging whispers. Lei Jun nodded repeatedly.

Running a business is also a learning process. There are things to learn from any other company or competitor. Only by continuously learning can you and your company improve.

After completing the vehicle handover procedures, Tan Jincheng, at Lei Jun's invitation, went with him to Xiaomi's headquarters.

They both drove there themselves. It has to be said that the million-dollar Maodou S is incredibly powerful, and even ten years later, its technology is still cutting-edge.

Tan Jincheng received the top-of-the-line red model. Although it is a rear-mounted, rear-wheel-drive, single-motor version, the power of the single motor is tuned to be very high, and the 0-100 km/h acceleration is around 4 seconds. It also features a frameless design for the four doors.

The interior of the car would look like an old-fashioned taxi if it were placed more than 10 years from now, but it is considered very high-end now. Its positioning should be similar to that of a sports sedan.

The driving experience is excellent, but what's odd is that there's no storage space in any of the four door panels; you can't even put a bottle of water in them.

"What does it feel like?"

The two arrived at Xiaomi Corporation one after the other. As soon as they got out of the car, Tan Jincheng asked Lei Jun about his driving experience.

Lei Jun patted the body of the Maodou S: "It's very advanced and technologically advanced, but some of the designs are also quite bizarre. If you're just driving, it'll definitely be a great experience, but sitting in the back seat is a bit less enjoyable."

"The experience is completely different from your ES6. Let me find an open road to test it out in a few days and then I'll tell you about my impressions."

The traffic in the capital was still too bad, and he didn't experience much driving pleasure on the way back.

"Okay, give me some feedback after you've driven it for a while, and I'll see if there are any improvement plans."

Tan Jincheng already has a plan. Tesla's best-selling Model Y is an SUV, right? This compact SUV is Tesla's fifth model launched in 2019, and it has not yet entered the research and development stage.

Anyway, since Weilai mainly focuses on SUV models, we can try to develop one first. It's not about copying their appearance, since Weilai now has its own design language, and randomly copying might not sell. Instead, we should refer to their concepts.

"The Xiaomi 2S and Xiaomi Box will be available for purchase next Tuesday. Would you like to take a few samples home to try?"

"Try a few and see. When it comes to fleecing people, you're really good at it. You have a youth version and a standard version of the same phone, as well as S and A versions, and all kinds of collaborations. You've really played a dazzling game."

"That's a really harsh thing to say. I wish we could release only one phone with a few configurations a year like Apple, but the problem is we don't have that capability right now. Once we have the capability, we definitely won't do it that way."

"Besides, even you car manufacturers don't do it like that, with all sorts of versions."

"Haha, don't accuse me wrongly. Our company rarely does this. I haven't done this since I started at Flashpoint Technology."

Lei Jun nodded helplessly. He did admire Flash and Wei Lai for this. Their product lines were very clean, and apart from differences in configuration, they rarely did anything fancy.

In addition, the pricing is also very reasonable, with options for the mid-to-high-end and low-end markets, rather than solely pursuing a low-price strategy. This is quite courageous for a domestic brand, as our domestic brands didn't even dare to sell models priced above 10 yuan when they were first established.

In the words of professionals, the WooLai has raised the bar for domestic brands to a certain extent and proved that our domestic brands are capable of producing good cars.

With the emergence of Weilai Auto, domestic independent brands seem to have found their own positioning. At least they dare not deceive people about quality like before.

Despite the complaints, Mr. Tan, as a shareholder, is still very satisfied with Xiaomi's financial report. More than 300 million units were shipped in the first quarter, and the revenue in the first half of this year alone will definitely exceed 100 billion yuan.

Xiaomi currently has over 1000 million users and MIUI users have over 1500 million. This growth rate is simply remarkable, considering that Xiaomi currently has no more than 2000 employees.

A team of 2000 people can generate 20 to 30 billion yuan in output value every year, their efficiency is truly remarkable.

It's the weekend, but it seems like Xiaomi employees don't have weekends at all. When Tan Jincheng came up, there were still many employees in Xiaomi's office area. This is the current state of internet companies, and Orange Technology is no exception.

Of course, their income is definitely commensurate with their earnings. In an era when the computer talent pool was not yet saturated, their overall income was probably comparable only to that of people working in the currently booming real estate industry.

Furthermore, there's the financial industry. There's data showing that around 2012, the average annual income of programmers was over 6.3 yuan. Tan Jincheng isn't sure how this figure was derived, but for Orange Technology, it was definitely more than that.

According to Tan Jincheng's understanding, if an average annual income is enough to buy a house of more than 10 square meters, then the salary is not low.

Previously, most of the junior employees at Flashpoint Technology were able to do this, but unfortunately, housing prices have risen too fast in recent years, significantly increasing the pressure on employees to buy homes.

After leaving Xiaomi Technology, Tan Jincheng began preparing for the dinner with the two Mr. Lis that evening.

"Brother Bing, Brother Xiang, over here."

Tan Jincheng didn't go to any fancy place; it was just an ordinary home-style restaurant next to Zhongguan Village. The food was good, the environment was decent, and they even allowed customers to bring their own drinks. He asked Li Yaohui to bring a few bottles of vintage wine before arriving ahead of time.

However, Li Bing and Li Xiang didn't keep him waiting long; they arrived shortly after.

"Why did you bring alcohol? We all drove."

In informal settings, Tan Jincheng always called Li Bing "Brother Bing." At first, he wasn't used to it, but he got used to it after a while. Li Xiang, on the other hand, was a little surprised when they met for the first time.

In private circles, Tan Jincheng has a very good reputation. He is young but not arrogant, and any entrepreneur who has dealt with him has nothing to say about him in private.

He is very humble and generous, both to friends and investors. This has led to Tan Jincheng having many middle-aged friends, especially entrepreneurs, despite his young age.

"I haven't had a proper meal in all these days of socializing. The food at this restaurant is pretty good, let's have some food and drinks. But let me make it clear first, I can't hold my liquor. Bing and Xiang, you can do whatever you want."

This restaurant has both a main hall and private rooms. Tan Jincheng asked for a private room, and Li Yaohui kept watch nearby outside, so there was no need to worry about anyone disturbing them.

"How's the merger between the two websites going? Is there anything I can help you with?"

While opening drinks and chatting, they learned that unlike the previous timeline, the merger between Yiche and Autohome did not fail due to a shortage of funds. Li Xiang got the shares he wanted, and his investors were essentially indirectly listed without having to spend much effort.

As for Li Bing, Yiche, which was originally barely surviving, has seen its strength greatly enhanced with the addition of Autohome.

Despite being the first listed professional automotive website in China, YiChe's influence and revenue are still inferior to Autohome's. In 2012, for example, YiChe's net profit was less than 1.5 million yuan, while Autohome's was 4.23 million yuan, equivalent to three times that of YiChe.

Hard-working athletes are worthless compared to naturally gifted athletes.

When it comes to running a business, age really doesn't matter. The two companies started at about the same stage and developed at about the same time, but Li Xiang was able to do a better job than Li Bing, and the same was true when they started with New Force.

Being able to acquire Autohome can be considered a "snake swallowing an elephant" scenario. After the two companies began to merge, Li Xiang had already begun to consider stepping down. In fact, he had long since given up on being the CEO.

Previously, the prospect of going public was a lure, but now that it has indirectly gone public, it's only natural that he would consider exiting the market. This is the foundation upon which the two companies were able to successfully merge.

Otherwise, who will be the boss after the merger?

Yiche is the main entity in the merger, and the money came from Li Bing's financial backers. There's no reason for him to withdraw after the merger. Moreover, Autohome is larger than Yiche. If Li Xiang intends to continue operating the company, it will inevitably lead to a confrontation between the two factions.

Li Bing took a sip of his drink and said, "That's about it. There's nothing else I can help with for now. We've basically finished compiling the data from both companies over the past year or so. We can handle the rest."

Li Xiang nodded. Since the two companies decided to officially merge, his main task has been to assist the two websites in data connection and sharing. Afterwards, the two websites will still operate independently.

However, mobile internet apps will be grouped under the same company.

"If we're talking about what we're lacking, it's probably servers. Brother Bing is right, we can handle that ourselves."

With the arrival of the mobile internet era, professional automotive websites also need to transform. However, they have a relatively longer period of development ahead of them, and currently, several professional automotive websites are doing quite well.

The transition of automotive websites to mobile internet is quite costly, as they contain a large amount of video and images, requiring a significant increase in the number of servers.

However, in terms of earning power, professional automotive websites are quite good. The main reason is that car companies are willing to invest, and they make a fortune every year just from advertising revenue.

Of course, the most important thing is to have content. Even if it's a promotional article, you have to write it better than others.

"What are Xiang-ge's plans next?"

After successfully navigating the merger period for both companies, Li Xiang will step down. It's a few years earlier than in his previous life, but the trajectory is the same: he'll resign after Autohome's IPO. Li Xiang smiled and said, "I haven't decided yet. Does President Tan have any suggestions?"

Tan Jincheng's invitation to dinner was definitely not just a simple meal.

"Have you two brothers ever thought about building cars? Building new energy vehicles?"

Tan Jincheng didn't bother with pleasantries and went straight to the point, just like he had asked Lei Jun.

This question caught Li Xiang off guard, but Li Bing just smiled. In fact, Li Bing had the idea of ​​making cars when Tesla became a hit at the beginning of the year, but he felt that the timing was not quite right yet.

"Why would President Tan ask that?"

"It's nothing. What man doesn't dream of building cars? The factory is our home."

"I am indeed quite optimistic about the new energy vehicle sector, but I don't have any plans to manufacture cars for the time being. Besides, I can't get the necessary qualifications. After stepping down from my position, I plan to take a break and see what direction to take."

That's true. This year, vehicle licenses have been tightened, and many have already had their licenses revoked in the first half of the year. Even if you buy a car company that is about to go bankrupt, it's impossible to quickly solve the mass production problem, and the license will also become invalid.

Basically, those car companies that only have qualifications but no production capacity or sales are now essentially worthless.

Most mature entrepreneurs have had the idea for their business for several years before starting it up. Then they look for the right time and find the right investors before they can get started. Like Li Bing, Tesla's success also made Li Xiang see the future of new energy.

This model has proven to be feasible both domestically and internationally. Domestically, BYD and Wynn have achieved considerable success, while internationally, Tesla has done so. This has certainly been very appealing to them.

They are not yet at the age where they can retire; they still have a high level of entrepreneurial passion.

"Let me be frank, Brother Xiang, would you like to come to our company as a product manager? You can get a feel for the industry first. If you ever have the idea of ​​building your own car brand in the future, I can also invest in you."

You want to build cars, right? You like playing with range extenders, right? Then why don't you come work for me for a few years first?

Having worked on the largest automotive website in the country, and having been involved in the automotive industry even earlier than Tan Jincheng, Li Xiang's abilities are more than sufficient to make him a product manager in Weilai.

"What about me? If I were to build a car, would you vote for me, Xiao Tan?"

All three had drunk some alcohol and were a bit tipsy, so they started talking more casually. Tan Jincheng's invitation was direct, and Li Bing's question was even more direct.

"No problem, but you definitely can't right now. Focus on running Yiche well and raising the stock price first. We'll talk about it when you have more money. You're not as rich as Brother Xiang."

When it comes to building cars, you can't just rely on investors; you need substantial wealth to even get started. Before entering the automotive industry, Tan Jincheng owned two listed companies, and BYD was already the leading domestic electronics contract manufacturer before entering the automotive sector.

Even Geely was one of the mainstream products in the motorcycle industry before entering the automobile industry. Chery is an exception, but the times are different.

In this day and age, if you want to enter the automotive industry, the founder really needs to have a net worth of several billion and a certain amount of cash flow to even get started.

Li Xiang cashed out a sum of money before, and if he wants to enter the automotive industry now, he could give it a try.

"In the new energy vehicle industry, we and BYD are the best in China. Our technology is very close to Tesla's. I don't know if Brother Xiang has ever driven our ES6. If you want to enter the new energy vehicle industry in the future, Weilai is the best platform."

Ignoring Li Bing, Tan Jincheng continued to extend the invitation.

"Don't be misled by the sales figures of our Yuechi series. In fact, we have always positioned ourselves as a new energy vehicle company. However, the market is not mature yet, and we have to do fuel vehicle business in order to survive."

Unlike in the US, loss-making companies in China cannot go public, which is why many internet companies have to list on the US stock market. In contrast, traditional Chinese businesses also don't have many investors.

If they didn't make gasoline-powered cars, Weilai's losses would have continued until at least 2018, not to mention the money-burning lithium battery project. If they were to pursue pure electric vehicles like Tesla, plus the lithium battery project, even if Tan Jincheng had many flaws and could make money in the financial market, he wouldn't be able to sustain it.

The Prince of Ning in his previous life, Tan Jincheng, was unaware of this, but in this life, after the Prince of Ning launched the power battery project, their lives were equally difficult. They had secured huge investments and had capital support behind them, but they still had to look for money everywhere.

Investing became their only option; it was a strategy, but more so a matter of desperation.

If possible, who wouldn't want to focus wholeheartedly on running a business and not get involved in all sorts of other messy things? Only by focusing can you make better products.

Tan Jincheng's invitation was sincere and straightforward. He didn't have high expectations for Li Xiang's work, and he didn't even emphasize how long he should stay. He said that Li Xiang could leave to start his own business whenever he felt the time was right.

"Mr. Tan, aren't you worried that we'll become competitors after I learn something at your company?"

Li Xiang was completely unprepared for Tan Jincheng's recruitment, and under the influence of alcohol, he asked questions that sounded like child's play.

"There's nothing to worry about. Whether it was foreign trade in the beginning or the automotive industry now, we have always been challengers. Being able to achieve a certain scale in the industry means that neither I nor my company are afraid of any challenges."

"On the contrary, I hope that more players will enter the new energy vehicle sector at the right time, so that we can work together to expand and heat up the market."

Alas, the others are disappointing. Last year, only Weilai could compete with BYD. In the first half of this year, Tesla, the world's hottest car company, entered the Chinese market, but its price is just too high, making it unaffordable for ordinary people.

The hype is there, but it's difficult to boost sales. All new energy vehicles combined only account for a small percentage of total annual sales, which is far from sufficient.

Without enough samples, apart from a small group of people who like to try new things or are genuinely optimistic about new energy vehicles, real consumers simply won't buy them.

Just like smartphones, they didn't appear late; there were already quite a few on the market in 08 and 09. However, few actual consumers knew about them, and most people only thought they appeared a year or two later.

Li Xiang also agrees with this point: "Indeed, the new energy vehicle industry is not mature enough yet. Real consumers are lagging behind; they may not understand the industry for several years."

That's why he doesn't dare to take action now.

"So come to our company and experience this industry firsthand. It will be helpful for your future entrepreneurship."

"Of course, it's also very helpful for us. Everyone in the internet industry says I'm an excellent product manager, but in my opinion, Xiang-ge, you are the real one."

Back in 2000, when 19-year-old Li Xiang was still a freshman in college, he already had a very avant-garde title - CEO of PCPOP.com.

His rise to fame was even more magical than Tan Jincheng's, and he enjoyed all sorts of praise, but he still became somewhat arrogant in the face of Tan Jincheng's praise.

"Yeah, anyway, you don't have much to do after you step down, so why don't you try working as a lieutenant? If you really start your own business in the future, you can help me out."

He also had his considerations. The merger of the two companies was not so simple, as there were still many loyalists from Autohome in Yiche.

If Li Xiang continues in his current state, it will be an obstacle for him to win over these people, even if he does nothing after stepping down. Only by getting Li Xiang involved in new work as soon as possible can he completely break their hearts.

In addition, Tan Jincheng is his financial backer. Yiche's listing and acquisition of Autohome were both due to Tan Jincheng's connections and strong financial support. In addition, he also has pressure.

Tan Jincheng is known as a silver spoon in the capital market. Most of the companies he personally invests in make a fortune, except for Yiche.

Despite Yiche's repeated investments, Tan Jincheng's stock price has remained basically flat, and he hasn't made a single penny over the years. This situation is detrimental to his personal image in the long run.

The capital market will not laugh at Tan Jincheng's misjudgment and lapse in judgment; it will only regard him as an incompetent ruler.

In addition, he was also aware that Tan Jincheng's initial choice was Autohome, and choosing Bitauto was just a second-best option. Personal relationships are personal relationships, but if they can't provide benefits to the investors, then they won't last long.

He also wants to build cars, and he's counting on this big spender and his connections in the future. Now he wants to recruit talent, so he'll naturally contribute if he can.

"I'll think about it."

After being persuaded by the two men, Li Xiang was really tempted. The conditions offered by Tan Jincheng were too good. He was given a lot of freedom and a platform to learn about the automobile manufacturing industry.

"What are you thinking about? Anyway, you're currently single. If all else fails, just go with President Tan to their factory and take a look before making a decision."

"Hmm? That's a good idea. How about Brother Xiang comes with me to visit our factory?"

Having a good teammate really makes things twice as easy. They'll fool you first, and once you're on your own turf, I bet you'll stay.

"Alright, I happen to be free lately, so I'll go with Mr. Tan to take a look."

Li Xiang was finally tempted. No man with entrepreneurial passion could resist the allure of building cars, especially someone like Li Xiang who had always been involved in the automotive industry and possessed a natural talent for it.

"Haha, that's right, let's drink; by the way, Mr. Tan, could you sell me some of Wei Lai's stock too? I always feel that the name is destined for me."

(End of this chapter)