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Chapter 333 0330 [The Great Bull is Actually Right Beside Us]

Jinmen.

This place houses Motorola's largest global production base and its hardware R&D center, which handles 70% of mobile phone R&D for the Asian region.

Qian Chen is the hardware manager here!
To recruit such top talent, Chen Guiliang could only try his luck.

Using business cooperation as a pretext, Chen Guiliang contacted Qian Chen directly. After making an appointment, he waited in Beijing for three days before heading to Tianjin.

Qian Chen was busy with work and didn't have time to waste with Chen Guiliang. Upon meeting, he asked directly, "Mr. Chen, what kind of cooperation do you want to discuss?"

Chen Guiliang asked, "Why don't you make touchscreen phones here in Tianjin?"

The first sentence left Qian Chen speechless; it was as if the speaker was deliberately bringing up a sore spot.

Qian Chen applied multiple times to develop a touchscreen phone, but each application was rejected by Motorola's top management. The reasoning was that even if they were to do it, it wouldn't be developed by Chinese programmers; it would definitely be handed over to Motorola headquarters.

Qian Chen asked, "ByteDance wants to jointly develop touchscreen phones with Motorola?"

"Is that okay?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Qian Chen shook his head: "No."

Chen Guiliang asked, "If Mr. Qian wants to make touchscreen phones, I can provide all the conditions that money can solve."

Qian Chen was both amused and exasperated: "So, you want to make mobile phones yourself, and you even want to poach me?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Yes."

Qian Chen countered, "Do you know that I'm the head of hardware and R&D at Motorola, which has such a large presence in Tianjin?"

Chen Guiliang said, "The severance pay is 200 million yuan, the basic annual salary is 240 million yuan, and an additional 100 million yuan will be awarded upon completion of the first prototype. Company stock options are also available for discussion."

Qian Chen smiled and said, "It's a very tempting price."

Chen Guiliang continued, "For a highly skilled talent like Mr. Qian, talking only about money is an insult. Money is merely the most basic compensation, allowing you to work with peace of mind. I would much rather help Mr. Qian realize his personal ideals and pursuits. As the developer of the world's first smartphone based on the Linux kernel, doesn't Mr. Qian want to create a smart touchscreen phone? And one that is independently designed and manufactured by Chinese people."

Qian Chen smiled broadly: "Not only is the price tempting, but the sales pitch is also tempting. But I'm sorry, I'm doing quite well in Tianjin."

Qian Chen only told half the truth.

Of course he was happy with his job, given his high position and power.

However, things didn't go smoothly for him. He applied to develop a smart touchscreen phone multiple times, but all his applications were rejected by Motorola headquarters.

If it were Liu, the CEO of Lenovo, who came to poach him, Qian Chen might have agreed.

But who does Chen Guiliang think he is?

To put it bluntly, Chen Guiliang's influence is too weak, and his status in the Chinese business world is too low.

If Chen Guiliang were to turn his self-developed mobile phone operating system into an open platform to attract other mobile phone manufacturers, he would face the same biggest problem: Who the hell do you think you are? Why should we trust you?

The most suitable people to form a mobile operating system alliance in China are two individuals and one company.

Two people: Li Kaifu and Liu Chuanzhi.

One company: China Mobile.

Only they have that kind of appeal to persuade mobile phone manufacturers and third-party companies.

Li Kaifu is not interested in mobile phones.

And China Mobile and Lenovo have actually done just that. When China Mobile was about to launch its OMS system, Lenovo actively cooperated. As soon as the system was released, 10 manufacturers joined the alliance, and international chip manufacturers were also willing to cooperate.

But can a project initiated by China Mobile and involving Lenovo succeed?
Not to mention that they modified the Android system for convenience, and released it as a half-finished product, which caused the phone to frequently crash and have extremely slow response speed.

Just talking about short-sighted business operations is a complete disaster. You haven't even opened up the market yet, and you're already thinking about making money, forcibly pre-installing a bunch of apps that can't be uninstalled. Do you think users are idiots?

Even more absurdly, China Mobile's OMS system is incompatible with Android, yet it shares the same app store as Android.

After downloading applications, users can't distinguish which ones are Android apps. They only know that these apps don't work, so they think phones running the OMS system are no good. Over time, the reputation is completely ruined.

Chen Guiliang offered high salaries as a lure, and then talked at length about his ideals and aspirations.

Qian Chen was quite tempted, but unfortunately Chen Guiliang was not a wise ruler.

Qian Chen's idea was simple: if it were Liu Chuanzhi who came to poach him, he would be willing to accept a lower salary.

They talked for a full hour before Qian Chen personally saw Chen Guiliang out: "Thank you for your high regard, Mr. Chen, but I have no intention of leaving Motorola for the time being."

Chen Guiliang asked, "Mr. Qian, could you recommend a few people?"

Qian Chen's deputy and several key generals are all quite capable, but of course he wouldn't tell Chen Guiliang. Instead, he offered some wicked advice: "Zhang Daijun, the baseband director of Samsung China, Chen Da, the chief architect of Spreadtrum, Guo Jian, the head of hardware at Tianyu, Chen Rong of Zhongke Hongqi... These six people are all very capable. President Chen can try to recruit them."

Chen Guiliang said with a serious face, "Mr. Qian, I really want to build a smartphone made by Chinese people. Regardless of whether it succeeds or not, at least I'll have tried. Even if it fails and causes ByteDance to go bankrupt, I'm willing to give it a shot. Can you recommend someone I can persuade?" Sincerity and idealism are quite touching.

Qian Chen put away his joking tone: "President Chen, as a Peking University student, why go to such lengths? There's someone right here at Peking University."

"Huh?" Chen Guiliang really didn't know, and neither did Editor-in-Chief Pu of "Mobile Phone Circle".

Qian Chen said, "Pan Aiming has a bachelor's degree from Nankai University, a master's degree from Tsinghua University, and a doctorate from Peking University. She used to work at Microsoft Research Asia, but left due to health reasons. In recent years, she has returned to Peking University to teach, and I heard that she also holds a teaching position at Tsinghua University."

Pan Aiming's teaching positions at Peking University and Tsinghua University are only temporary; he's too tired from the work and wants to take a break. He will join Shanda Innovation Institute next year. Later, he served as Alibaba's chief architect, responsible for developing Alibaba's YunOS 3.0 and 4.0.

Qian Chen's expertise is in hardware, while Pan Aiming's expertise is in software.

Of course, they all possess leadership and integration skills, and can handle any task given to them. Even if they can't do something themselves, they know who to recruit to improve the team.

This is exactly the kind of research and development leader Chen Guiliang needs.

……

Chen Guiliang returned to the capital and called Guo Feng over for a chat.

"Do you know Professor Pan Aiming?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Guo Feng nodded: "I know. He teaches graduate students, not undergraduates. Although I haven't attended his classes, I've studied the textbooks he compiled."

"How about we poach him to work on smartphones?" Chen Guiliang said.

Guo Feng was taken aback: "Making smartphones? This would cause a huge uproar at the board meeting and shareholders' meeting."

“Even if others have objections, I will stick to my opinion,” Chen Guiliang asked. “Are you willing to support me?”

Guo Feng's attitude was surprisingly indifferent: "Making smartphones is fine, but I can't help you much. I can only support you when voting."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Aren't you going to ask me why I'm making mobile phones?"

Guo Feng said, "You always have your reasons. Besides, you haven't made any major mistakes in the decisions you've made before. Perhaps you've seen something we haven't."

"Haha, you're so lacking in autonomy!" Chen Guiliang teased.

Guo Feng said seriously, "I don't have much autonomy to begin with, otherwise I wouldn't have taken so many courses in college. It's difficult for me to choose courses, let alone make company decisions. It's better if you decide everything."

Guo Feng's words were too modest.

He is very independent when dealing with specific problems, and he particularly dislikes others talking nonsense.

Guo Feng asked, "Is it difficult to make smartphones?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Design and development are minor issues; they can be resolved as long as you do them diligently. The real challenge lies in the supply chain. I've consulted with professionals, and it turns out that the chips for smartphones are currently monopolized by Qualcomm and Texas Instruments."

“Using Qualcomm chips requires signing unfair terms that prohibit the use of other baseband chips. If the order volume is too small, they simply won’t accept the order. Texas Instruments chips are prioritized for Nokia, and smaller manufacturers have to wait at least six months, sometimes even a year. Samsung chips don’t have open graphics drivers, resulting in a significant loss of GPU performance.”

"For capacitive screens, you have to find a domestic brand; for resistive screens, you have to find Korean brands. Domestic screens have serious color distortion and extremely high touch latency."

"There are also some components that are on the U.S. export control embargo list. They have to be routed through Japan, South Korea, or Taiwan, which greatly increases costs."

“Once Apple believes we have infringed on its patents and we can’t win the lawsuit, it will put pressure on our suppliers, making it so that we can’t even assemble the components needed to make phones.”

“Even for contract manufacturers, we have to find Taiwanese companies. Mainland factories have questionable quality control and are more expensive.”

Guo Feng remained silent for a long time after listening.

Chen Guiliang asked, "Why aren't you saying anything?"

Guo Feng suddenly smiled, revealing his gleaming white teeth: "I think we should have domestically produced smartphones. I support you in doing this; the more difficult it is, the more you should do it. In the past, it was difficult for Chinese people to make color TVs, but now we still see many foreign color TV brands."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "You're quite patriotic."

"Everyone has to fight for their pride," Guo Feng asked. "When we make mobile phones, can we use as many domestically produced components as possible?"

Chen Guiliang shook his head: "It's a pity that we can't use domestically produced key components. Using them would be suicide."

"How can domestic supporting manufacturers develop?" Guo Feng was pondering these questions.

Chen Guiliang said, "They'll have to figure that out themselves. One option is to develop their own technology, another is to acquire it, and a third is to steal technology when doing OEM manufacturing. No matter what they do, they need market support. Their market is in counterfeit and low-end phones, and their technology will gradually mature through competition in the low-end market."

Guo Feng reiterated: "I support you in making mobile phones. Actually, you don't need my support to control the board of directors and shareholders' meetings. But investors may question your decisions, which could then affect ByteDance's stock price."

Chen Guiliang said, "So we're not releasing any information for now, we'll delay as long as possible. Judging from the current situation of the US stock market, it doesn't matter what information is revealed after a while. Everyone's stock price will definitely plummet together. It's only a matter of time before ByteDance's stock falls below its issue price."

"Does Youke have that much money to help with the buyback? We signed an agreement with investors when we went public," Guo Feng expressed his concerns.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "You underestimate the money-making potential of 'Future Era'. Its development momentum is even stronger than that of 'The Emperor' and 'Conquer Online'."

(End of this chapter)