In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

In Lao Li's newsstand, books, magazines and newspapers are neatly stacked and each is in its place. The popular cigarettes, bottled water, preserved fruits and chewing gum are placed in prominent positions, waiting for customers to patronize.

As the sun rose, the sky became brighter.

At this moment, Lao Li also stopped reading the newspaper because there were more and more pedestrians on the road.

"Breaking news, everyone come and buy a newspaper!"

Old Li would shout from time to time, which would attract a lot of people's attention.

"Lame Hand Li, what's the big news today? Give me a copy." A regular customer walked up to Lao Li's newsstand and asked curiously.

"Okay, take a copy of Oriental Daily and you'll know after reading it." Old Li said with a happy smile.

Because he had a broken arm, neighbors and regular customers all called him Lame Hand Li, and Old Li was used to it.

"Li, give me a copy of the Oriental Daily."

"Here you go, it's not worth a penny!"

"Li, I want a copy of the Hong Kong Business Daily."

"It's not worth a penny!"

……

After a busy morning, the customer flow decreased after nine o'clock in the morning.

Old Li wiped the sweat from his face and counted, finding that 150 copies of Oriental Daily had been sold out.

Even 100 copies of Sing Tao Daily and 100 copies of Hong Kong Commercial Daily were sold out.

There are still a few copies of the "Overseas Chinese Daily", but they have almost been sold out.

Business is good today.

A smile appeared on Old Li's face.

The purchase price of each newspaper is different, but it is generally between HK$0.4 and HK$0.6.

So he can earn about HK$0.5 for each newspaper.

This morning, he sold nearly 500 newspapers. After deducting the cost, he could earn at least over 200 Hong Kong dollars, which was already very good.

This is much better than previous sales.

In the past, when there was no hot news, it was already very good for him to sell three or four hundred newspapers a day.

Now, it is not yet ten o'clock in the morning.

Although the sales will get worse and worse afterwards and basically not many people will buy it, the sales in the morning are enough to prove that today's newspaper sales are really good.

If he had known there was big news, he would have read more newspapers like Oriental Daily and Hong Kong Business Daily.

"Starting tomorrow, I will no longer buy the Hong Kong Times!" Looking at the Hong Kong Times newspapers that were less than half sold, Lao Li made a decision in his heart.

Newspaper publishers will recycle unsold newspapers, and no one dares to purchase from newspaper publishers that do not recycle newspapers.

However, some will be sold at the original price, while others will be sold at a discount.

For example, the cost price of "Hong Kong Times" is HK$0.6, and the recycling price is only HK$0.4. There are at least copies of "Hong Kong Times" here, which means that he will lose at least more than HK$ on this issue of "Hong Kong Times".

In the past, Lao Li actually received no more than 50 copies of the Hong Kong Times every day, and sometimes only 30 or 40 copies.

However, a few days ago, the news that broke out in the Hong Kong Times caused their newspaper sales to increase significantly.

Because of this, Lao Li decided to take 100 copies.

I didn't expect to encounter such a thing.

Fortunately, the sales of other newspapers today are very good, so I can afford the loss of more than 20 Hong Kong dollars.

Old Li, who had nothing to do, picked up a copy of the Hong Kong Times and started reading it.

As expected, today's "Hong Kong Times" is still focused on the follow-up news about the family members of the couple who were electrocuted to death. It is almost like a serial drama, and the article repeatedly mentions the tragic incident of the couple being electrocuted to death.

Old Li glanced through it quickly and lost interest in reading further.

This newspaper has been blacklisted by him.

As a newsstand owner, Lao Li is well versed in the ins and outs of the media industry.

He knew that when the four major newspapers joined forces to expose the truth, the good days of the Hong Kong Times would be over.

At least, in the short term, its sales will drop sharply, and it is certain to fall out of the top ten. What's worse is that no one may be interested in it, and the reputation accumulated over decades will be destroyed overnight.

All of this is their own fault and the result of backlash.

At the same time, similar situations to Lao Li's occurred in almost every newsstand in Hong Kong.

There are nearly two thousand newsstands throughout Hong Kong.

On the streets of Hong Kong where every inch of land is valuable and neon lights are flashing, you can see a newspaper stand on the roadside every few meters.

The person buying the newspaper hands over one Hong Kong dollar, takes the day's newspaper from the vendor, and starts his reading life.

Over the years, newspaper stalls have become an indispensable part of street life. An inconspicuous newspaper stall often has decades of history, and several generations of families rely on it for their livelihood.

The four major newspapers joined together to report that the Hong Kong Times had deliberately smeared the company, and the news quickly spread throughout Hong Kong.

Everyone was talking about it on the streets, in company offices, in front of convenience stores, etc.

"These unscrupulous media outlets really love to spread rumors and stir up trouble. The government should not allow the Hong Kong Times to continue operating."

"That's right. Fortress Electric Co. is a subsidiary of Hong Kong Electric Group. Now it is a Chinese-owned enterprise. These media outlets do not smear British-owned enterprises, but instead specifically smear Chinese-owned enterprises. They are really unscrupulous!"

"I used to subscribe to the Hong Kong Times every day, but I will never read their newspaper again. It's all fake news. Why should I read it? I might as well buy a story book."

"Me too. I used to buy it more often than Oriental Daily. I didn't expect it to be such a newspaper. It's so disappointing."

"In this case, I guess the Hong Kong Times was paid to do this. The Hong Kong Electric Group must have offended someone."

"Who knows? I bought the Hong Kong Times today. I sympathized with the family's plight, but after listening to other people's discussions, I realized that the news in the newspaper was fabricated."

"This kind of newspaper is actually one of the top ten newspapers in Hong Kong. It's going to go bankrupt soon!"

"That's right, I support it to go bankrupt. News without truth is nothing but fabricated stories!"

……

The whole incident caused a sensation throughout Hong Kong in just one morning.

Public opinion was almost one-sided.

The credibility of Hong Kong Times is declining sharply.

These four major newspapers usually sell at least 200,000 copies a day, and with the incident having caused such a big stir today, they have sold at least over 300,000 copies.

At many newsstands, these four newspapers were quickly sold out.

At the Hong Kong Times newspaper headquarters, in the morning, the general manager knew that a disaster was about to happen and hurriedly contacted the boss.

These days, thanks to reporting this incident, their newspaper sales have been increasing, and they are very happy.

"There is no reason. Why would the four newspapers unite to target us? Which newspaper hasn't spread fake news?" The boss frowned and muttered.

The reason why he agreed to do this was naturally because he had received a lot of benefits from Jardine Matheson in private. In addition, he could hype it up to greatly increase the sales of the Hong Kong Times, so there were many benefits.

What's more, he felt that with the support of Jardine Matheson, there would be no problem.

But what he didn't expect was that this time, the four newspapers suddenly joined forces to deal with them, and the evidence was solid.

Obviously, these evidences must have been provided by Fengze Electrical Appliance Company.

However, there has never been a case of newspapers attacking each other in the past.

This is also the reason why the Hong Kong Times dared to take on this task.

"Boss, I contacted the general managers of the four newspaper media, but none of them told me the reason. Two of the newspapers even hung up the phone directly." The general manager said to the boss with a wry smile.

"Don't worry, I'll go find Jardine Matheson Company. They were the ones who instigated this. If they don't help us, we'll make this public. Jardine Matheson has entrusted us with many things over the years. Let's die together. I think they will definitely have a way!"

The boss was also a ruthless man. If the Hong Kong Times suffered heavy losses as a result, he decided not to let Jardine Matheson Company have an easy time, because the general manager of Jardine Matheson Company had promised him that there would be no problems and he could rest assured.

Over the years, the Hong Kong Times has done a lot of this for Jardine Matheson Group, and they have already reached a very tacit cooperative relationship with the Jardine Matheson Group.

It can be said that the Hong Kong Times is Jardine Matheson’s minion!
Because of this, after Jardine Matheson decided to deal with Fortress Electrical Appliances, it directly contacted the Hong Kong Times to report the matter.

However, just when the boss wanted to contact Jardine Matheson Company, the general manager of Jardine Matheson Company was also shocked by what happened today.

In the morning, after he came here, he wanted to contact more newspapers and, like the Hong Kong Times, publicize the news of the electrocution caused by the Fortress electric water heater.

What he didn't expect was that after making several calls, the other party decisively refused after hearing his purpose.

At first, he had no idea what was happening.

Later, a newspaper owner told him about what was reported in Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong Commercial Daily and other newspapers. Only then did he understand why he was rejected so directly.

He even made a funny phone call to Cui Zilong, the general manager of Oriental Daily News...

After all, Oriental Daily is the best-selling newspaper in Hong Kong.

After learning about this, the general manager of Jardine Matheson Company first wanted to distance himself from the matter!

Just when he was thinking about how to distance himself from the matter, the owner of the Hong Kong Times called him.

"Mr. Reed, you should know what happened today, right? You have to save our company. You were the one who contacted us to do this. If things are not resolved, our newspaper will suffer heavy losses!" On the other end of the phone, the boss of the Hong Kong Times started to talk as soon as the call was made.

"Boss Hong, please take responsibility for this matter for us first. You must not disclose our affairs. You should also know the status and strength of our Jardine Matheson Company in Hong Kong. If the matter is exposed, I think you, Mr. Hong, can forget about continuing to work in the Hong Kong business world." The general manager of Jardine Matheson Company said directly.

The owner of Hong Kong Times not only has newspaper business, but also other businesses in Hong Kong. That's why the general manager of Jardine Matheson Company dared to threaten the other party in this way.

Hearing what the other party said, Boss Hong was stunned.

Are they abandoned?

"But you don't have to worry, Mr. Hong. We at Jardine Matheson will definitely not let anything happen to your company. I'm already on my way to discuss this matter with Mr. Niu Bijian and will give you a reply soon. Just stay calm and don't panic!" continued the general manager of Jardine Jiaye Company.

"Okay, I'll wait for your news." At this point, Boss Hong could only listen to their news. (End of this chapter)