Xiaomi Heavy Industry, its first entrepreneurial venture!

Chapter 497: Absolutely Skimped on Content! (Second Update!)
After announcing that headphones would be given away as gifts, the lights in the venue came on, the curtains on both sides of the stage were drawn back, and a dozen or so employees wearing reflective vests walked out of the doorway carrying small gifts to distribute to the guests.

Guo Song sat down in a chair, took the white-packaged earphones from the Xiaomi Group employee, casually stuffed them into his pocket, stretched, and then spoke to Su Bangding sitting next to him:
"Old Su, are you going back or..."

"Go back!" Su Bangding waved the earphones in his hand, casually stuffed them into his pocket, and then looked at Lin Yi, specifically instructing him:
"Remember what I just said, and bring the report over right now."

After leaving those words, he, Guo Song, and several others walked together toward the special passage and eventually disappeared into it.

Lin Yi followed behind them, escorting them into the passage until they were out of sight, before turning around and heading to the other side to meet up with Lei Jun.

Backstage, Lei Jun stood at the entrance of the dressing room, his hands constantly spreading his fingers and then slowly clenching them, while gently breathing in the fresh air.

Hearing footsteps, he quickly straightened his clothes, trying to appear natural. Turning around and seeing Lin Yi, the natural air he had just exuded vanished, replaced by a look of utter exhaustion.
"I feel like those few tens of minutes were like staying up for more than ten nights."

After he finished speaking, Lin Yi raised two fingers on his right hand:

"I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear?"

"Bad news, please!" Lei Jun said without hesitation, wanting to hear the bad news.

Across from him, Lin Yi stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall, and looked at Lei Jun with a playful expression, saying:
"The bad news is that you have to write a report on the Redmi sub-brand."

"The unit receiving the report is the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology."

"They're going to take your report to another meeting."

hiss--

Before Lin Yi could finish speaking, a sudden gasp of cold air rang out.

It was Lei Jun who made that commotion.

Seeing that he looked constipated, Lin Yi had no choice but to quickly tell him the good news:
"Good news, the leader said that once the report is submitted, they will try to get some subsidies."

Upon hearing about the subsidy, Lei Jun's previously wary expression vanished instantly, replaced by a smug smile.

"I knew there would be no subsidies!"

"So there's a big shot involved!"

"Let me think... how should we use this subsidy?"

Seeing his smug expression, Lin Yi raised his hand, gently patted his shoulder, and reminded him with a gentle smile:
"The release of these two models and three versions of your phones today is tantamount to smashing the rice bowls of those feature phone manufacturers and those manufacturers of low-spec, high-priced phones."

"Next, I'm going back. You should prepare yourself mentally and get ready to face the shock of losing a friend."

"goodbye!"

Lin Yi patted Lei Jun's shoulder twice more, then turned around and fled the corridor as if his life depended on it.

Seeing Lin Yi's hurried and flustered manner, Lei Jun's heart skipped a beat. He leaned against the wall, watching Lin Yi's departing figure, and murmured to himself:
"We're from the same country, after all. Are you going to eat me?"

…………

Dongguan City.

Vivo Mobile Communications.

As Shen Wei stepped out of the technical department office, his secretary handed him a document:
"President Shen, this is the first-hand information you asked me to keep a close eye on regarding the Xiaomi Group's mobile phone launch event. Please take a look."

After handing over the documents and finishing speaking, the secretary quickly took two steps back.

Even after taking those two steps back, she still felt unsafe. She took a deep breath and decisively retreated to the doorway, standing against the wall.

Seeing his secretary's strange demeanor, Shen Wei turned around, about to ask a question, when the secretary pointed to the documents in his hand:

"Mr. Shen, please read it first before you speak!"

At his secretary's prompting, Shen Wei finally opened the document in his hand. As soon as he saw the first page, he slammed the document shut, his dark eyes widening as he stared intently at his secretary.

And the meaning he was trying to convey with his eyes was also very clear:
Is there a mistake in the information?

The secretary blinked her big eyes and said innocently, "President Shen, these are all first-hand materials from Xiaomi Group's press conference. There's no way we could be wrong."

Upon receiving this message, Shen Wei immediately opened the documents in his hand, flipped the page, and pointed the text at his secretary:

"There can't be a mistake?"

"What phone with a Snapdragon S3 processor costs only 1499? The enhanced version is 2499."

"And then there's the Redmi, which suddenly appeared out of nowhere and is only 799!"

"Ah!"

"Is the world crazy or am I crazy? At this price, can he even recoup his costs?"

"799 yuan, equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon S2, what's the point of me playing this game!"

Despite his complaints, Shen Wei still picked up the document and carefully read it from beginning to end.

This time, I still haven't finished reading the materials.

He only read half of it before throwing the document aside, covering his head with his hands, and starting to think of a solution.

But after thinking for a long time, he couldn't come up with any useful solutions.

The most important component in manufacturing a smartphone is the chip, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 used in Xiaomi phones is not available on the market at all.

Even if he went to Qualcomm with eggs and milk right now, Qualcomm probably wouldn't give them to him.

Even for the lower-end S2, Qualcomm's price would be far higher than Xiaomi's.

This is simply impossible to do!
Besides the chip, there are other component costs, and the fewer of these items there are, the more expensive they are.

Vivo's smartphone hasn't been developed yet, and even if it is, it will need to undergo experiments and testing.

Only products that pass inspection can leave the factory.

Moreover, Xiaomi is already using the Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 chip, and he can't even imagine which chip the Xiaomi 2 will use.

After thinking for a long time and realizing he couldn't solve the problem, Shen Wei took out his phone and, disregarding the time difference with America, called Duan Yongping directly.

Duan Yongping was very annoyed to be woken up in the middle of the night, but after hearing Shen Wei's words, he was completely dumbfounded.

When Xiaomi was teasing its new phone a while back, he knew it was a formidable competitor, but no matter how he imagined it, he never expected it to be this strong.

It's so powerful it's almost despair-inducing.

After a long silence, Duan Yongping spoke in a hoarse voice to Shen Wei on the other end of the phone:

"Shen Wei, I have always warned you to be prudent and steady in your work."

"Next, I need to tell you something else, and that is, using any means necessary."

"Now, do as I say."

"Xiaomi mentioned that they have a MIUI forum. You can send some people, some employees, to pretend to be online trolls, stir things up, and help them make decisions."

The person on the other end of the phone remained silent for a long time before finally deciding to follow Duan Yongping's approach.

After all, as the company's founder, Duan Yongping could decide their fate.

Vivo is anxious, but HTC is even more anxious because their recently released product is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 chip.

Their phones are priced at 3999.

Compared to Xiaomi's Redmi series equipped with the S2 chip, their price is 3200 yuan more expensive.

The price difference of 3200 is equivalent to most people's monthly salary, which is a considerable sum. Looking at this number, the people in HTC's sales department decided to let their anger rise and act rashly.

…………

After Xiaomi's product launch event, the Xiaomi forum was the most bustling place.

This forum was specially set up by Lei Jun to discuss the MIUI system.

As soon as the press conference began, people on the forum started betting that the price of this phone would not be lower than 3000.

But to everyone's surprise, everyone was wrong.

Xiaomi phones are not only inexpensive, but their performance is also comparable to, or even surpasses, that of other manufacturers.

As a result, the forum content changed from guessing prices to spot purchases and why they were able to offer such prices.

"Looking to buy one in stock. If you have it, please message me privately."

"No, why can they achieve 1499, 2499, but others can't?"

"Didn't you hear Lei Jun say at the press conference that he originally wanted to adopt a light-asset model, but now he's adopted a heavy-asset model? Xiaomi Group has shares in Xiaomi Heavy Industry, which is practically equivalent to having their own factory. Having your own factory makes things much more comfortable."

"I'm looking to buy a regular version. If you have one, DM me. Everyone else, get lost."

"The price is so low because they cut corners. Only by cutting corners can they afford to keep the price so low."

“I have a friend who worked at Xiaomi Heavy Industry. A few days ago, he resigned. I asked him why he resigned, and he said that Xiaomi Heavy Industry is just a shell now, doing deceptive things. It’s all just a facade.”

"As a former employee of Xiaomi Heavy Industry, let me tell you why Xiaomi Heavy Industry can keep the prices of its products so low..."

"Xiaomi Heavy Industry, a disgusting company that pretends to be a sheep but sells dog meat, and Xiaomi Group, an even more disgusting company."

…………

Xiaomi Group.

Office of the Chairman.

Lei Jun sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a document in each hand. His gaze kept shifting between the two documents, and his expression changed accordingly.

A full day and night, or 36 hours, have passed since the press conference was scheduled to begin.

In those 36 hours, the market gave them a terrifying response to their two models and three variants of mobile phones.

Redmi 1: 75 units

Xiaomi Mi 1: 44 units

Xiaomi 1s: 23 units sold

As for the right side, those are people on various forums criticizing Xiaomi Group for cutting corners.

Some of these people were people they knew very well.

Just then, there was a knock on the door from the outside, and then Lin Bin pushed the door open and entered the room, placing a document on Lei Jun's desk:
"This is the information we have collected from various forums that is defaming us."

"There are dozens of them, and they are all big V accounts that we usually have a good relationship with. I just don't know if they've taken the wrong medicine these past few days, or if they're going through menopause and have hormonal imbalances. In any case, from yesterday's press conference until now, they've been hurling incredibly vulgar insults."

While Lin Bin was speaking, Lei Jun reached out and took the documents, opened them, and read them from beginning to end, word by word.

After looking at them for a long time, he finally put the documents down: "I remember there are several of them here. When we were collecting information before, we treated them to meals and gave them travel expenses, right?"

Across from him, Lin Bin was taken aback at first. Then, belatedly, he nodded and said softly, "Yes, I saw their posts on the forum and thought their understanding was quite insightful, so I added them as friends."

"Later, when the prototype came out, we showed it to them, but we didn't tell them the price..."

"I originally thought it was a small matter, but I never expected it to be such a big deal behind the scenes."

Just as Lin Bin finished speaking, he heard footsteps beside him. He turned around and found that it was the company's finance department.

The finance officer, holding the documents, saw him, smiled slightly, nodded, and then placed the documents on Lei Jun's desk.

Across from him, Lei Jun picked up the documents from the finance officer's hand, opened them, and slid his fingers down the text, finishing the last page.

The last few lines are about the money the company paid to these people after they came to understand the situation.

The amount of money wasn't much, just tens of thousands of yuan per person.

But what matters is face.

These people take money from me one minute, and the next minute, they'll be throwing themselves into someone else's arms, taking money and then coming back to leech off me.

After copying all the names on the documents with a pen, Lei Jun picked up his phone and called the company's legal department.

In less than 10 minutes, the legal representative bypassed Lin Bin and the finance department, approached Lei Jun, bowed, and respectfully said:

"Boss, whatever you ask, we will do it."

Lei Jun didn't speak, but simply pushed the documents beside him forward:
"Make these people apologize to us!"

The legal counsel picked up the documents, figured out that the people to be sued were some people he had worked with before, and his furrowed brows slowly relaxed, appearing quite casual.

Because these people had signed some restrictive clauses in their previous collaborations.

If nothing happens, then this restriction clause is naturally fine.

But now, these guys are profiting from traffic under their company's name, and then they turn around and complain. So these restrictive clauses need to come into effect.

The legal counsel pounded his chest, repeatedly assuring Lei Jun that he would make these guys and people apologize, and then left Lei Jun's office with the documents.

After the legal counsel left, Lin Bin and the finance staff saw Lei Jun about to make a phone call, so they naturally closed the door for him and left the office together.

In the office, after a brief wait, Lin Yi finally answered the phone with Lei Jun. As soon as the call connected, Lei Jun rolled his eyes and asked:

"You actually knew from the beginning how the outside world would react to this price, right?"

"Correct!"

"Gusu," Lin Yi replied naturally, standing in front of the French windows.

After answering, his gaze fell on a list in his hand.

This list was given by Dmitry.

The list is quite simple, containing only 10 Xiaomi units and 5 Xiaomi 1s units.

After fiddling with the list for a while, Lin Yi calmly spoke:
“I have an order for 15 machines. The customer is from America and he wants to ship this batch of goods to America. Can you allocate some of the goods to him and give priority to this customer?”

(End of this chapter)