Hong Kong Island: From a small stall to a global supplier

P.S.: I won't say more. Old Fireworks has been writing for 6 years, and he's still a newcomer when he returns...

I'm speeding up the completion of this book recently, and it won't be abandoned.

Try your best...

……

The report on the current pager industry in Hong Kong brought by Four-Eyes is very comprehensive. It not only includes the current pager paging industry, but also the relevant manufacturing companies in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

The undisputed leader in the paging service is 'Hong Kong Telecom CSL', the core communications business segment of the Hong Kong Telecom Group.

Below that is 'Hutchison Communications', which belongs to the Hutchison Whampoa Group. Since its establishment in 87, it has expanded rapidly by acquiring several small paging companies.

In addition, there are some small and medium-sized companies, such as Starlight Paging, Essential Communications, Telecom Paging, and Cheshire Paging, which are not worth paying attention to. Wang Yaotang glanced at them and then skipped over them.

However, one company caught his attention: 'Runxun Communications International'. It was registered and founded in Hong Kong in January of this year by Hou Dongying. Hou Dongying, the founder, previously served as the first Chinese general manager of Shenzhen University Telephone Company under the Guangdong Telecommunications Administration.

In terms of manufacturing companies, 90 was the peak year for Hong Kong's pager manufacturing industry. There were four local manufacturers and Motorola's Hong Kong base, as well as more than a dozen small and medium-sized manufacturers doing OEM and small brand production. The total annual output of pagers exceeded 100 million units, of which about 70% were sold to the mainland and 30% were supplied to the Hong Kong and Southeast Asian markets.

Four major local manufacturers:

Guoji Information Technology Co., Ltd.: Its subsidiary, Shenzhen Baoya Electronics, has established the first large-scale pager production base in China in Shenzhen, with an annual output of 8 pagers.

Truly International Limited: Founded in 78, it mainly produces its own brand "Chulli" series. The factory is located in Shanwei, with about 2000 employees and an annual output of about 10 pagers.

Hong Nian Electronics: A subsidiary of Hong Kong Kangli Group, with General Manager Wang Meiyue. Wang Meiyue graduated from the Department of Radio Engineering at Nanjing Institute of Technology in 1966. He collaborated with Southeast University to develop a wireless paging system, with Chief Professor Shi Longxing participating in the design.

Champion Technology: Founded in 87 by Kan Man-lok (a relative of Chan Pak-cheung by marriage), with shareholders including Chan Pak-cheung, Alan Tam, and Anita Mui. The company developed the first Chinese pager in 88. It is a research and development company, with production entirely outsourced to contract manufacturers. It sells 5 pagers annually.

Motorola Hong Kong: The 'Silicon Harbour Centre' was built in Tai Po, which was the second largest semiconductor testing and pager assembly plant in Asia at the time, capable of testing 520 million chips per week and producing about 50 pagers per year.

Setting down the report, Wang Yaotang clicked his tongue twice. "All 20 factories in Hong Kong, big and small, don't even have the annual output of Motorola alone. It's really unbelievable."

"We're waiting for you, little money god, to unleash your power and extinguish Motorola's arrogance in one fell swoop," the four-eyed guy said with a smile.

"If Heaven had not given birth to me, Wang Yaotang, the pager industry would have remained in perpetual darkness. Now, the pager is here!" Wang Yaotang laughed loudly.

"Damn!" The bespectacled guy rolled his eyes. "What are you planning to do?"

"Let's build a large-scale production line in Shenzhen with an annual output of 50 units!" Wang Yaotang waved his hand confidently. "We have the money!"

"Hey, are you crazy? You're going all out right from the start?"

"Big? You're underestimating the domestic market. Let alone 50, we could sell 1000 million units a year. What does a billion people mean!"

"Is it really that exaggerated?!" The bespectacled guy's eyes widened. "A Motorola pager costs over 2000 yuan. 1000 million units, that's 200 billion?"

"It might be even higher than that. Champion Technology's Chinese character display costs more than 3000 yuan per unit, which is the mainstream in the market."

"exaggerate!"

"This is the whole country! 15% of the world's population, and an annual output of only 10 units only amounts to a mere 30 billion in revenue. That's less than our 'nightclubs.' We've already opened one in Bangkok and one in Macau, and we expect to get one up and running in Singapore this year. The annual revenue will definitely exceed 50 billion. If we calculate based on profit, nightclubs have a 50% profit margin. Even an annual output of 300 million pagers doesn't earn as much as our nightclubs!"

After doing the math, Wang Yaotang was also a little astonished. "Damn, the tertiary industry is still the most profitable. No wonder Hong Kong people are unwilling to engage in industrial production; they only earn hard-earned money!"

“That makes sense.” The four-eyed guy sighed. “With you, the head of the underworld, nightclubs can be opened in all the major cities in Southeast Asia, easily generating over 50 billion in revenue a year without any effort. Why bother with industrial production?”

“The influence is different. The service industry has a very low barrier to entry. If someone else does it, there might be some minor troubles, which are easy to resolve. But industrial production is different. Who would dare let a factory that produces 200 million pagers a year cause trouble? If there are real problems, the government would have to step in to rescue it.” Wang Yaotang shook his head. “Alright, let’s get down to business. I see you have an investment of only 10 million Hong Kong dollars for a production line with an annual capacity of 1000 units. Is that so little?”

"Yes, I didn't expect it either. I even had my subordinates confirm it repeatedly, and this is still an overestimation."

"No wonder there are so many small factories, the investment is so low?" Wang Yaotang muttered to himself, wiping his mouth, and then flipped through the documents again.

The amount of this investment was far beyond his expectations. Why?

"Can you understand it?" The bespectacled man chuckled, got up, opened the door, and waved. A middle-aged man walked in.

"Let me introduce you. This is Tao Qiang, Production Manager at Truly International."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Wang," Tao Qiang said, bowing.

"Hello, Mr. Tao, please have a seat." Wang Yaotang raised his hand.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Tao Qiang began to explain his needs for building the factory.

"The BP production line mainly consists of two parts: surface mount technology (SMT) and testing. Other assembly and workshop requirements are relatively simple." Tao Qiang was clearly prepared. "The core equipment, the 'patch mounter' and 'RF testing system,' are quite expensive, accounting for 40% of the equipment investment..."

After listening to him, and considering his family's existing videotape manufacturing plant, Wang Yaotang had a general idea: "Do all these devices need to be imported?"

"Uh...the docking station and the overall stability testing station should be able to be produced back home." Tao Qiang had talked to the bespectacled guy before he came and knew that this little money-maker liked to use domestically made equipment.

Wang Yaotang nodded. "There's one thing I don't understand: why is this production line so cheap?"

"To be precise, it should be called an assembly line," Tao Qiang explained. "The core components of a pager include a 'radio frequency chip' from Motorola, a 'microprocessor' from Fujitsu or Motorola, a 'memory' from Samsung or Fujitsu, a 'display' from Sharp or Hitachi, and a 'power management' from Motorola or Toshiba. All of these are imported finished products. The factory's job is to package and test them."

"Good heavens!" Wang Yaotang twisted his neck. "100% imported. They can't produce it in the north?"

“It’s impossible to produce any at all,” Tao Qiang shook his head.

"No, let's not even talk about chips; they can't even produce power management systems?"

“Power management also requires chips. Motorola’s MC34063 manages boost and buck control, and the TA7660 generates negative voltage.” Seeing that Wang Yaotang was still not giving up, Tao Qiang continued, “The chip manufacturing technology is four generations behind, and more importantly, the yield rate is only about 50%, and the quality of the good products is also unstable, so they are completely unusable.”

"Not to mention chip manufacturing, we have absolutely no ability to design radio frequency circuits, and we lack relevant talent."

Wang Yaotang nodded in understanding, saying that Tao Qiang's "confidence" stemmed more from the inherent arrogance of Hong Kong people towards the mainland, reflecting their narrow-mindedness and limited perspective.

There is no such thing as a lack of talent in China. There are countless research institutes, universities, and researchers; it's just that they are not researching in a specific direction.

Currently, domestic research institutes and universities are hampered by funding problems and can only engage in theoretical discussions, resulting in little to no achievements. However, with the injection of funds, any desired outcome can be achieved!
Of course, I'm referring to design issues; there's nothing that can be done about production... we still need to outsource manufacturing, but the cost will be much lower.

Wang Yaotang wouldn't argue with him about these things; it was pointless. However, Tao Qiang was a talent familiar with the pager industry. Whether he could be the factory manager was another matter, but at least he could solve most of the problems during the factory's construction.

Wang Yaotang's idea for the pager factory was to work there for six or seven years, thoroughly establish himself in the electronics manufacturing industry, become familiar with the entire manufacturing process of electronic products, accumulate a wealth of talent, and expand cooperation channels with domestic research institutes and universities, laying the foundation for the subsequent mobile phone market.

Wang Yaotang will definitely get a share of the 2G mobile phone market!
“Mr. Tao, you must have already thought of something when A Xiang asked you to come here. I’m planning to build a pager manufacturing plant in Shenzhen with an annual output of 50 units. I wonder if you would be willing to come and help me?” Wang Yaotang said with a smile.

Tao Qiang's heart skipped a beat, and his face turned bright red. Although he had some prior preparation, he never expected Wang Yaotang to be so generous. The huge surprise left him speechless for a moment.

Wang Yaotang didn't urge him, just watched with a smile. It took a long time for Tao Qiang to catch his breath. He suddenly stood up, panting heavily, his body trembling uncontrollably. "I, I, I'm willing, I'm willing."

In Hong Kong, who doesn't know the name of Wang Yaotang, the God of Wealth? Who wouldn't want to work for Wang Yaotang!
Truly International only produces about 10 units a year, and he was just a production department manager. But if he switched to Wang Yaotang's company, even if he couldn't become the general manager, even if he was still in the production department, he could still produce 50 units, which would be five times the production of Truly International!
Sorry, Xinli International, we're not familiar with each other. Please don't contact me again, I'm afraid Mr. Wang will misunderstand!
"Alright, I'm not familiar with factory construction. Well, a factory is all about production. I'm quite confident in you, as the production manager, leading the construction. I'll handle things with the Shenzhen authorities, and I'll assign someone to help you with the administrative matters. In the meantime, I need you to come up with a construction plan, including the size of the site, the equipment to import, worker recruitment and training, etc. You need to leave room for future expansion. Give me a plan as soon as possible."

Wang Yaotang said in a deep voice, "I like to promote things from multiple perspectives. After all, time is money. Is there any problem with the factory being completed and starting trial production in two months?"

"I..." Tao Qiang was startled by this request. Two months was too rushed. He had fantasized countless times about being a general manager and had even planned how to build a new factory from scratch.

Normally,

January-February: Equipment selection, manufacturer negotiations, and contract signing.
March-April: Factory renovation (anti-static, dust-free treatment)
May: Equipment arrival and installation

June: Debugging, employee training
July: Trial production

Production can only begin when the yield rate reaches 95% or higher. Now Wang Yaotang is saying he wants to compress the time to within 2 months. Isn't that a joke?
He might have agreed to any other boss; after all, projects are always on time. But Wang Yaotang… he might end up as animal feed!

Seeing that he didn't make any hasty promises, Wang Yaotang expressed his satisfaction and then said with a smile, "Once the planning document is completed, the site selection is finished, the construction standards are finalized, the site is leveled and utilities are provided, and the factory construction will be supported by the Shenzhen government. You don't need to worry about that. The progress will be fast enough. You need to select an equipment manufacturer as soon as possible. There will be someone to handle the negotiation issues."

After thinking for a moment, Wang Yaotang added, "Try to choose equipment from the Japanese; they're more reasonable."

The bespectacled guy couldn't hold back and burst out laughing.

"Regarding parts procurement, there will be dedicated personnel to handle the negotiations. We will try to avoid choosing Motorola as much as possible, because it is too risky to hold their senior management hostage."

Tao Qiang: ? ? ?
"Tell me if you have any other difficulties, and I'll give you a solution."

Tao Qiang quickly cleared his mind of all the random thoughts. "If we build a factory in the north, I'm not familiar with the employees there. With a production capacity of 50 units, we need 500 employees. It will be difficult to recruit enough people all at once, and the workers there will need to be trained from scratch."

"You just said it's just an assembly plant, with no technical content. The workers are recruited from factories that collect tape recorders, television sets, telephones, and the like. They're all skilled workers. Are they even usable?"

"Ah, it works, it works."

"That's fine. I can't guarantee 500 people, but around 200 in the beginning shouldn't be a problem," Wang Yaotang said casually.

These words stunned Tao Qiang on the spot. 200 people? Really?

200 people, not 200 pigs!

The reason he's so great as the production manager is because he has a wide network of connections, which allows him to ensure the factory has enough employees, making the boss look useless...

On August 3, 1986, the first state-owned enterprise went bankrupt, giving rise to the concept of laid-off workers. By 1990, although layoffs had not yet reached their peak, the phenomena of "unpaid leave," "in-factory unemployment," "long leave," and "no job search" were already very common in major factories, with many workers filling five positions for one employee.

Of course, this does not include Shenzhen, and well, it also does not include Guangzhou.

However, as long as Wang Yaotang tells the higher-ups that he can solve the employment problem for 500 people, they will definitely send people to him with great fanfare.

Others say that the higher-ups may still have doubts, but Wang Yaotang, is $200 billion enough credibility?
“Then the workers’ problem isn’t so big.” Tao Qiang swallowed hard. Regardless of whether Wang Yaotang could actually do it, he couldn’t question him at this moment. “There is still a bigger problem: product finalization.”

"Do you manufacture for other brands or produce for your own brand?"

"If it's OEM manufacturing, the client needs to finalize the product model so we can create the mold based on the shape, finalize the parts with the supplier, and conduct trial production to optimize the production process and ensure the product yield."

"If it's an independent brand..."

Tao Qiang didn't say the rest, but the meaning was clear: 50 units is no small number. The factory is built, workers are recruited, but in the end, they can't sell them...

That would be a joke.

Wang Yaotang raised his hand to run his fingers through his hair. He had actually forgotten to consider it. The main thing was that the annual sales volume of pagers was in the tens of millions, so a production of 50 was just a drop in the ocean and would be sold out easily.

After thinking for a moment, he picked up the documents next to him and started flipping through them.

This action made Tao Qiang's heart skip a beat. Had the boss not considered this?

No way?
Isn't that absurd?

“The two largest paging stations in Hong Kong are ‘Hong Kong Telecom CSL’ and ‘Hutchison Telecom,’ right…” As he spoke, Wang Yaotang picked up the phone and dialed. After a few rings, “Hello, Brother Banana, this is Wang Yaotang.”

Li Xiangjiao's heart skipped a beat. Why did this devil call me?

"Is that so? You own Hutchison Telecommunications, right?"

"Yes, Brother Wang, you mean..." Li Xiangjiao instantly thought of Hong Kong Electric, "You're not going to repeat the same thing, are you!"

I absolutely will not agree this time!
"How about you sell Hutchison Communications to me?"

"No, bro, this is no joke!" Li Xiangjiao gritted his teeth.

"What? That won't work! Does Hutchison Telecom have its own pager brand?"

"Huh? No, no." Li Xiangjiao was taken aback.

"Now there is!"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to build a factory that can produce 50 pagers a year and manufacture pagers for you. Surprised? Unexpected!" Wang Yaotang said with a big laugh.

"I... am so surprised!" Li Xiangjiao raised her hand to wipe her face and agreed through gritted teeth.

As long as it's not an acquisition of Hutchison Telecom, you can make any other demands you like.

"You have 30 users, so selling 5 units a year shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"I can't guarantee that."

"It's settled then. Let's design the product quickly, the factory will start production in two months."

"Ah this..."

"Okay, that's all. I'll contact you to sign the contract in a while. Bye." Wang Yaotang slammed down the phone.

Hearing the dial tone on the phone, Li Xiangjiao cursed furiously!
Then he called Hong Kong Telecom. CSL is a subsidiary of theirs. It's just a new brand. Although they can't be as rude as Li Xiangjiao, it's just a matter of a meal. They should be able to sell tens of thousands of units.

The shareholders of Champion Technology, Chan Pak-cheung, Tam Yung-lam, and Mui Yim-fong, are all artists under their own management companies. They can just call their agent, Guan Weiping. It doesn't matter who the OEM factories they cooperated with before are; they will be their own factories from now on.

Haojiang Telecom is its own company, and from now on, Haojiang will have only one brand.

With just a few phone calls, six months' worth of production tasks were completed, leaving Tao Qiang dumbfounded. No, what kind of invincible salesmanship is this!

Is this the true value of the God of Wealth?

Damn it, no wonder they dare to talk about an annual production of 50 units. And that doesn't even include the domestic market. He knows that Wang Yaotang is a staunch supporter of the domestic market and they have a deep relationship!
Wang Yaotang didn't care what Tao Qiang thought. "You don't need to rush the remaining 30 units. You organize people to design a few samples first, just like Motorola's products, and be careful to avoid their design patents. Then sell them in Southeast Asia. My nickname is the Southeast Asian Pizza Hut. Which judge dares to rule against me? I'll give him the feed that very night!"

"That's about it. Don't worry about the factory goods not selling. Use your brain and think more about factory construction and products. 50 is just the first phase. I'll pull some strings in China later, and producing a million a year is not a dream!"

Wang Yaotang has already come up with a solution: a contract phone!
Right now, pagers are all imported brands. These brands are very arrogant, and you have to complain when you sell their products. It's foreseeable that contract phones will sweep the market!
When Tao Qiang came out of the office, he was in a daze. How could running a pager factory seem so simple?

Wang Yaotang: What else? This is just a matter of making a snap decision.

"Ah Xiang, I'm leaving the pager factory to you. Go talk to the Shenzhen officials. I'll ask around and see which universities have circuit design and coding-related majors. You can try to collaborate with universities and research institutes. First, we need to develop our own Chinese-English dual-display pager. Later, we'll develop a Siamese version. We can't rush the chip design. Long-term investment will eventually pay off."

"I picked, and you gave it to me again!" The four-eyed guy pointed at Wang Yaotang. "I might as well just live in my hometown. I spend most of the year in the north!"

"Haha, it's fine if you want to. You can build a big house over there and get married again. Nobody will bother you," Wang Yaotang joked. "But I have other things to do. The Siamese government invited me over, but I can't help it, I'm busy."

"Did the Phuket defense exhibition cause trouble?" the four-eyed man laughed.

"Wow, you're quite the strategist. It is indeed a defense matter, but it's aimed at the Golden Triangle."

"Huh? A drug crackdown? Have the Siamese gone mad? Who here is accusing me?"

"What are you talking about? What does this have to do with me? At most, I sold them some equipment. It was just normal business dealings. I, Wang, am sworn enemies of gambling and drugs!"

"Hahahaha..." (End of Chapter)