How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 252 The powerful force oppresses those without freedom; the dragon soars and the phoenix dances in unison.

The exceptionally high price-to-earnings ratio of LeEco's IPO has given a strong boost to entertainment/video companies that are about to go public.

Two positive announcements released after the market closed made Leshi a household name, transforming it from a value-added online video content company into a 'high-tech' company involved in hardware manufacturing and R&D, resulting in a very positive market sentiment.

After all, we are currently in an era where major manufacturers across the country have not yet figured out the clear concepts and classifications of mobile phone operating systems, smartphones, feature phones, and other terminals, let alone the general public.

China's current mobile phone market sells less than 3 million units annually, with mid-to-low-end feature phones accounting for more than 85% of the market share, while smartphones account for less than 15%, still dominated by established brands like Nokia.

Most people still perceive mobile phones as a tool for making phone calls and communicating.

The "return to happiness" concept promoted by Lex after its listing, coupled with discussions about its self-developed system, made the public realize for the first time that the positioning of mobile phone functions seemed to be really starting to develop towards multi-functionality.

In particular, Hsinla's use of Apple's popularity as a high-end international brand led many to believe that Le's also had the ability to compete with it.

Besides the topics of listing, stock price, and technology, the Le family has a natural advantage in gossip due to its involvement in the entertainment industry. Whether it's its artists or recently released movies, these can all be used to guide the discussion.

The public discourse was lively, and their peers naturally didn't want to be left behind.

Previously, Le's competitors were companies like Youku, Tudou, Baofeng, and Kuaibo. Now, overnight, they have become international technology giants such as Changxiang, Apple, Sanxing, and Nokia.

Especially for Changxiang, a giant that has always been the leader in China's terminal equipment industry and a true "shining light of Chinese technology," it will naturally not tolerate such underhanded and confrontational behavior from Leshi.

Last year, Changxiang Group suffered losses, and Liu Chuan, who had already stepped down from the front line, took the lead again. With the PC business reaching a bottleneck, it was time to focus heavily on mobile terminals. Before he could even promote Changxiang China as the earliest mobile system application provider, an outsider in the cultural and entertainment internet industry beat him to it.

Young people these days are even more boastful than I was when I was young.

However, after seeing the heated discussion among the public about domestic smartphone operating systems, he felt that Le's move had laid a significant foundation for everyone, making it easier to imagine how they could reap the rewards later.

Taking advantage of the popularity of the Le family, Liu Chuan first posted a fake message on Weibo saying, "Welcome the Le family to join the domestic technology terminal industry and contribute to the construction of Chinese science and technology and spiritual civilization."

Faced with such a senior's greeting, Accountant Jia responded immediately, claiming to be an admirer of Yanagawa and praising Changxiang as a role model.

But compared to Liu Chuanzi's calm and collected approach, Lei Jun was clearly more anxious.

Because the mobile phone system he was developing was also intended to be promoted with the gimmick of "China's self-developed, the pride of China", he never expected that despite all his precautions, a video and film company would beat him to it.

Especially after Jia's post-listing interview was leaked, Lei Jun was so angry that he slammed his fist on the table.

He was using all my words!!!

Lei Jun immediately organized a public relations team to begin debunking rumors related to the "Hexin System," and then directly contacted Liu Chuanzi to discuss how to maximize the publicity for both parties by leveraging the trending topic.

Liu Chuanzi and Lei Jun are old acquaintances. Before the millennium, Liu Chuanzi was at the peak of his career, standing out among his peers in the technology and internet industry. He would help any valuable junior who asked him for help, which is why he was nicknamed the "great philanthropist".

Back when Lei Jun was still at Kingsoft, his cash flow broke due to aggressive market expansion, and it was Liu Chuan who stepped in to help him through the crisis.

He was already laying the groundwork for terminal manufacturing when he was developing mobile phone operating systems, but because he knew that Envision's main business would later be mobile phones, he did not publicize it extensively and developed it quietly. He only claimed within the industry that Envision was a company that made mobile phone operating systems and software services.

He was worried that Liuchuan might overthink things.

But now that even an outsider like Accountant Jia has claimed to be involved in terminal manufacturing, he might as well lay his cards on the table. Under the guise of inviting Changxiang to jointly develop and manufacture the product, he suggested that Lao Liu should not give up the title of "the light of China's system" and could take this opportunity to help Changxiang promote the LePhone mobile phone that was just launched this year.

Lei Jun called Liu Chuanzi all night, even discussing a complete publicity and public relations plan, which made Liu Chuanzi appreciate this junior even more.

Soon after, amidst the widespread praise online for "Hexin, the pride of China," news suddenly broke that "Hexin also has a mother."

The post revealed that China's first independently developed chip was the Nuwa Project in 90, which was developed to break Microsoft's monopoly on embedded devices using Windows CE.

This system was called Hopen OS, codenamed Nuwa. At the time, it even launched a series of commercial products, such as set-top boxes, the Dimensity 810 handheld computer, and mobile phones with manufacturers such as NEC, Eastcom, and CECT.

It is the first truly independently developed system in China, while Hexin is just a latecomer and still a 'semi-finished product' that has not yet been commercialized.

Faced with this new information, netizens have once again fallen into a new round of debate. After all, none of them are industry insiders, and all the information they receive is based on hearsay. They listen to whoever has the latest information, whoever makes the most sense, and whoever has the loudest voice.

However, this unexpected event was bad news for Accountant Jia, who wanted to make a big splash with 'Hexin', and he quickly called Wang Yao for advice.

Wang Yao provided the marketing plans for both 'Hexin' and Leshi terminals.

"Mr. Jia, please calm down. Let alone Hopen OS, there was also Delta OS around the same time as Hexin, and it was commercialized as well. However, both of them have been acquired by MediaTek and China Airlines, so we can't buy them. We can only buy Hexin's half-finished product."
Besides, it's not like we're necessarily aiming for first place. The focus is on the 'domestically developed operating system' and the 'happy return.' There's no rush. We'll wait for the situation to escalate further and gain more momentum before making any moves. We'll deal with whatever comes our way." Wang Yao's voice was calm and unhurried.

His knowledge of technology is limited to online articles and marketing accounts. He only remembers "Hexin" because the name sounds like "core". Moreover, the future development of this system is along the Internet of Things and cryptocurrency route, and he has made some achievements in the cryptocurrency circle.

Wang Yao didn't really expect Jia the accountant to succeed with Hexin. His real purpose was to use the public's awareness and discussion of operating systems, as well as the attraction of related professionals.

Because both Lei and Liu respected the idea that "it's better to buy than to make," they abandoned all directions for domestic self-developed technology in the early stages of smartphone development. Moreover, in order to obscure the fact that Xiaomi's operating system was based on Android, their voices regarding self-developed operating systems were suppressed for many years.

Even after Xiaomi launched HarmonyOS, it still faced resistance from users.

Some beliefs and perceptions, over time, can become stereotypes.

"Then we'll leave it all to President Wang. Has the Maozu tribe agreed to do the manufacturing?" Accountant Jia breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Wang Yao's calm voice.

“President Huang is still considering it,” Wang Yao said.

“Actually, the Mao tribe isn’t the only option. Huang Zhang is an eccentric, and their family-run business has many drawbacks. We could also consider cooperating with Changxiang; their custom-made machine OEM business is quite mature,” Accountant Jia said in a deep voice.

“If Mr. Jia has the channels, he can look into it. Anyway, if we really go for the terminal route, we will definitely develop a full range of products from high-end to low-end. Each manufacturer has its own strengths,” Wang Yao said, expressing his support.

"That's what I think too. Huang Zhang should just do his best," Accountant Jia said with a smile, trying to reassure him. "Don't worry, he'll probably be willing to cooperate soon," Wang Yao added with a light laugh.

He and Accountant Jia split up. Wang Yao was responsible for hyping up Le's terminal, while Accountant Jia used this gimmick to mortgage equity for financing. In any case, the system and mobile phone development would take at least 10 months, and the funds raised during that time could be used to cooperate with Tianhuo's acquisition of AMC Theatres. In this way, Le's main business cash flow was not affected in any way.

By leveraging the gimmick of the newly launched 'Le's Terminal', they can raise another considerable amount of funds. Once they have cinema assets, Le's will have a more stable cash flow, which is the core objective.

The joint investment with Tianhuo in Shanghai Jiaotong University was intended to make outsiders believe that he valued the terminal market. In reality, Le Shi only contributed 20 million out of the 100 million sponsorship, yet he occupied the largest share of the title. However, these 20 million could be used to support Jia's financing of 2 billion.

When the time comes, we'll produce one or two concept phones, make a few PPT presentations, invite some experts to explain them, and then consider whether to actually enter the terminal market after seeing the market situation. Anyway, it's independent research and development, so it doesn't matter if it takes a year or two. Even if the research and development fails, it's normal.

Accountant Jia had a clever plan, but Wang Yao was no less as cunning.

After reviewing an international email from Apple an hour ago, Wang Yao stretched and muttered, "The high price makes people feel powerless, and the dragon soaring and the phoenix flying are hard to stop, Mr. Jia."

The next day, despite being embroiled in the dispute over 'Hexin's first self-developed system,' Le's stock price still soared, hitting the daily limit in the afternoon and officially entering the scale of a 50 billion yuan company.

Discussions about smartphones have intensified, with even LeTV's paid memberships increasing by thousands overnight, as the entire internet became engrossed in discussions about mobile entertainment.

A transnational lawsuit has pushed public interest in the mobile phone industry to a new peak.

Apple sues a group of tech companies for patent infringement, ordering them to halt production, remove products from shelves, and pay damages.

Yesterday, Le Shi talked about the importance of independent operating systems and independent research and development. The public just treated it as a topic of conversation, but today reality has proven that if we do not conduct independent research and development, we will be suppressed by international giants.

Since its launch last year, the M8 has defied the pressure to become the "king" of domestic smartphones in an era dominated by Apple, Nokia, and Amazon, selling over a million units in 16 months. It has become an undeniable new force in the domestic smartphone market.

This is why Huang Zhang has such confidence.

But now, Apple's international lawsuit has put him in the spotlight. As a representative of male geeks from Huaxia University of Science and Technology and the face of domestic mobile phones, this patent infringement issue is very serious.

If handled improperly, the Mozu brand could suffer unforeseen and severe damage.

The Mizu is a typical family business, with all senior executives being relatives of Huang Zhang. All important strategic decisions of the company are made by Huang Zhang, who has the final say. The advantage of this is high efficiency, but the disadvantage is that it is easy to go astray.

After all, listening to both sides leads to enlightenment, while believing only one side leads to darkness. In addition, Huang Zhang is a somewhat impatient and impulsive person who is prone to making extreme remarks and actions. After receiving the warning letter, he immediately refuted Apple's lawsuit.

This move naturally garnered support from many long-time Maozu users, but soon with official intervention and Apple's public relations advantage, the situation for Maozu became increasingly tense.

After all, they did have a valid argument, with pictures and evidence, and even a patent.

Currently, Chinese people have a weak awareness of intellectual property rights, so they naturally cannot compete with Western companies with rich business rules in this regard. Moreover, Apple can beat international giants like Microsoft, Google, and Samsung in terms of patents, let alone a small ethnic minority.

It's not fair to say they were completely powerless; it's more accurate to say they were driven to impotent rage.

Just as Huang Zhang smashed his third phone and replaced the SIM card, he received a call from Wang Yao.

"Mr. Huang, it seems you're in big trouble again."

Wang Yao's warm and gentle voice made Huang Zhang feel as if he were in another world, as if he had been instantly transported back to the time when the two of them first spoke a few days ago.

It seems that Wang Yao said the same thing at the time.

The problem back then was with spare parts; even if the supply couldn't keep up, it wouldn't cause a major disaster. But this time it's a real problem. Not only are the raw materials and inventory that we stockpiled in advance likely to turn into losses, but the brand itself could also be in crisis.

"I don't think President Wang is here to laugh at me," Huang Zhang sneered.

"Le's terminal is still relying on joint research and development with the Mao Clan, but this may be a good thing. Now President Huang has time to focus on developing new machines," Wang Yao comforted him.

"Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Wang. If there's nothing else, I'll hang up now." Huang Zhang's lips twitched, and for a moment he couldn't tell whether it was consolation or schadenfreude.

"Mr. Huang may not know me very well, so let me reintroduce myself. Tianhuo Media is a professional marketing and crisis public relations company. We have already served hundreds of public relations incidents, the most typical of which are the 'Little Dragon Girl' and 'Ba Wang incident' a while ago. We have a good reputation in the industry," Wang Yao said with a light laugh.

Huang Zhang was taken aback. He only knew that Wang Yao was in the film and television and game industries, but he didn't expect him to also have a public relations business. Moreover, even he, a homebody, was very familiar with these two news stories.

The Ba Wang incident, in particular, was discussed for a long time on the Maozu forum. First, the hair of male programmers is very precious, and they are a precise consumer group. Second, the "duangduang" meme hyped up shampoo as an investment product, which was very fitting for the target of ridicule by forum users.

However, in terms of shifting public opinion, it is indeed a successful case. Moreover, after Bawang resumed trading last week, its stock price also rebounded to the 2s, instead of continuing to fall to the daily limit and being delisted as expected.

This shows that Wang Yao's public relations strategy was indeed effective.

Huang Zhang has always followed his own style in marketing and promotion, even making himself the spokesperson, and touting "professional products and reliable technology", which has won him many users who value cost-effectiveness.

In a sense, Huang Zhang closely linked his personal brand with the company, sharing both glory and hardship, which may have been one of the models that Lei Jun later learned from.

But whether it's Little Dragon Girl or Ba Wang, both are public opinion crises, but this time the Mao tribe is being closely watched.

Is there any chance to turn this situation around?

"Does Mr. Wang have any good public relations strategies?" Huang Zhang asked uncertainly.

"I have some ideas. I sent an email to Mr. Huang. You can take a look first," Wang Yao said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Huang Zhang frowned, opened his computer to check the email content, remained silent for a long time, and finally lit a cigarette.

Tsk, we've actually encountered a master of calling a deer a horse?

(End of this chapter)