Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 251 Singularity Transformation
Leader Huang then inquired about the government-guided fund.

Chen Xuebing previously promoted an industry guidance fund, which he wanted to use in this 3G industrial park to attract 300 to 500 million yuan of social capital with small-scale investment, and to provide policy support for the companies that were introduced.

Chen Xuebing understood the implied meaning, but he didn't respond, instead focusing on explaining the operating procedures.

After spending an hour or so, we finalized all the details of the cooperation.

Chen Xuebing walked out of the government building and got into his Audi, where he finally let out a long sigh of relief, followed by a smile.

Policy loopholes are even more lucrative than untapped market opportunities.

A single slip of the finger could lead to a project worth tens of billions.

By the way, could you ask around in Anhui?
"Boss, where are we going?" Jiao Gui asked, turning his head.

Chen Xuebing rubbed his temples, gathered his thoughts, took out his phone, dialed Wu Ping's number, and then instructed Jiao Gui:

"Go to Mr. Sun's InterContinental Hotel and tell Ren Ying that I'm going to Shenzhen tomorrow morning and will be staying for a long time. Ask her to bring me a few sets of loose-fitting clothes."

After I finished speaking, the phone was answered.

"Hey."

Chen Xuebing picked up the phone, held it to his ear, straightened his shirt sleeves, and laughed:
"Mr. Wu, Spreadtrum has secured its first order."

Spreadtrum's legal team arrived in Chongqing to sign various strategic cooperation agreements with Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications Information Technology Co., Ltd., and Chen Xuebing also arrived in Shenzhen.

Exchange battlefields.

Everything that followed happened in Shenzhen.

Upon arriving in Shenzhen, Chen Xuebing contacted Chen Datong, intending to arrange a meeting with Ren Zhengfei through Spreadtrum, since the "cooperation" between Spreadtrum and Huawei had become an unavoidable matter.

Chen Datong replied: He has gone to Hangzhou.

Huawei has just won a major victory, winning over Li Yinan, a former traitor, and is now in talks with Harbour International for an acquisition.

Chen Xuebing then recalled a past incident involving Huawei.

This Li Yinan entered the Huazhong University of Science and Technology's Junior Class at the age of 15, joined Huawei at the age of 20, was promoted to engineer in two days, chief engineer in seven days, and became vice president at the age of 27. He was regarded as a technical savior by Ren Zhengfei, who always took him on business trips. He was jokingly called "Huawei's Crown Prince" internally.

His emotional intelligence is questionable; he speaks rudely to his colleagues and, when drunk, tells the taxi driver to work hard or he'll be fired.

In 2000, Li Yinan left Huawei to found Harbor Networks. Ren Zhengfei even held a farewell party for him, which was attended by all senior executives at the director level and above from Huawei. They also provided him with some equipment to support his startup.

As a result, Li Yinan poached more than 300 people from Huawei. In 03, he also planned to acquire a company started by a former vice president of Huawei in charge of optical communications, intending to use Huawei's technology.

No one knows what Ren Zhengfei was thinking, but he must have been furious.

In the past few years, Huawei was in a very bad situation. In 2002, Cisco sued them for infringement of their routers and switches, which directly hit the root of Huawei's overseas market. In 2003, their attempt to be acquired by Motorola was rejected. Meanwhile, their old domestic rival ZTE was pressing them step by step with its PHS (Personal Handyphone System). Under such internal and external troubles, in 2004, Huawei actually allocated 400 million yuan to set up an "Office for Fighting Hong Kong" internally.

Furthermore, a strict order was given: orders could be lost to ZTE and Cisco, but absolutely not to Harbour Networks. Projects that were contested with Harbour Networks could be lost at a loss, or even given away for free.

After two years of fighting, they finally defeated Harbor Networks.

Chen Xuebing even knew some interesting details: After Li Yinan was acquired and returned to Huawei, Ren Zhengfei said that "Huawei cannot tolerate other companies if it cannot tolerate Li Yinan," but Li Yinan was arranged to work in a transparent office, which Huawei employees jokingly called "the new exhibition area of ​​the zoo."

Huawei is not a kind-hearted company; it is a tiger craving blood and flesh, known for its tactics of ambush and price wars. Chen Xuebing is bringing Spreadtrum into the telecommunications industry, which will be an extremely powerful competitor. Fortunately, they are currently mainly targeting overseas markets, so there is still a possibility that both sides can raise their guns a little higher.

Their structure is too large, they need too much nourishment, and we will inevitably clash with them in the future. It's useless to try to build relationships with them; we can only reach a consensus on certain issues.

However, when Chen Xuebing thought of Li Yinan, he thought of his younger brother.

Arrogance brings disaster. Chen Xuejin is definitely a child prodigy who is no less than Li Yinan. Moreover, judging from his development in his previous life, he was not just smart as a child but also became an ordinary person as an adult.

We need to nurture him properly and teach him to control his temper.

A busy June.

After Chen Xuebing arrived in Shenzhen, Qi Dian suddenly became very high-profile.

The Singularity has moved.

The 355-meter-tall, 79-story SEG Plaza leased out four floors at once: floors 55, 56, 57, and 58.

Although he dreamed of a "Henggang Street", he couldn't let himself be held back by his own desires. So Chen Xuebing left only the factory department in the Henggang Building, and moved the entire Qidian headquarters to SEG Plaza.

It cost more than 16 million.

The agreed annual rent was 500 million, the renovation cost 300 million, and the 500 million was SEG's advertising fee for half a year.

Chen Xuebing booked all the advertising space at the base of the building in the SEG Market.

In addition, three million was spent to have SEG Plaza and several adjacent buildings covered with Singularity's advertising slogans:

Technological singularity, revolutionizing what we see.

Those who passed by all looked bewildered.

What is the "technological singularity"?
Why advertise so much when they don't even say what they're selling or are not even open for business?
It wasn't until the end of June, when the interior decoration was completed and the words "Singularity Technology" were hung up on the upper floor of the SEG Market, and standing billboards reading "Singularity Technology Company, Floors 55-58" were placed in the elevator lobbies of SEG, that people realized: it turns out that a company was being set up upstairs!

A radical departure from reality?
What are you doing?

Only those in the Huaqiangbei industry know what Qidian does.

All the stores in Feiyang and Yuanwang markets have put up signs for "Qidian Technology".

The small business owners with those one-meter-long counters were all amazed.

That's awesome!
We in the knock-off business try to be as low-key as possible, but look at these people, they dare to put up signs and even advertise!

The advertisement was even placed on the most prestigious building!

Huaqiangbei's greatest strength is its tendency to follow trends. Some business owners who have made money see that others dare to do this and think that advertising outside the market might intercept those distributors who come to purchase goods. So, 0 also followed Qidian's example and put up signs, buying banner advertising spaces in various shops on the ground floor of Huaqiangbei.

Feilong Mobile Phones, Huaqiang Light, Contact Number: 1XXXXX
Huayu Mobile Phones – we have everything you need. Feiyang Store, 3rd Floor, No. 367. Contact us at [phone number].
The writing was rather cryptic, but it quickly drew a warning from the market supervision administration:
Selling pirated goods and then advertising them? Do you even want to stay in business?
We're turning a blind eye, but you insist on forcing us to open that one eye, right?

Some people were dissatisfied and went to the management bureau to file a complaint.

"Why is Singularity Technology allowed to advertise?"

The administrator slammed his fist on the table: "Singularity is a legitimate manufacturer! They're applying for a license! Do you even know what the Gu'an Group behind them does? It's a capital company! And are their ads for the counterfeit market? Those are company ads! They're selling genuine phones!"

The singularity has become even more famous.

The first day of July.

58th floor of SEG Plaza. Passing through the office corridor covered with gray carpet, at the end is the "Chairman's Office" located on the corner of the SEG Plaza.

The 70-square-meter office offers a panoramic view, standing at a height of approximately 280 meters with a nearly 200-degree angle. Looking down, one sees the entire Huaqiangbei electronics market, while looking up slightly, one sees the Shenzhen skyline.

On a long table in the center of the office is a model labeled "Huaqiang Area". Small flags with names are stuck on the model and scattered on the north and south streets.

Chen Jinling: A supplier who does not own a factory. He entered Huaqiangbei in 2001 at the age of 16 and now has 21 stalls.

Qiu Yushan: A local, he initially signed long-term contracts for 15 counters, which later expanded to 42. He is known as the "landlord" of many counter owners, collecting tens of millions of yuan in tea fees every year. He also runs 6 counters himself.

Liu Feng: King of Refurbished Machines, three factories, eight small workshops, and five counters.

Chaozhou Huang: King of smuggled screens, supplier, controls more than 15% of the screen sources in Huaqiangbei.

Li Weijian: An underground solutions provider with a technical team, who resells chips and collaborates with more than 200 factories and workshops.

Zhao Wanping: Vice President of the "Hunan Huaqiang Chamber of Commerce" (an underground chamber of commerce), five factories, eight counters, and OEM/ODM operations.

On the sand table, there are 26 small flags, representing all the influential business owners in Huaqiangbei within the known scope of Qidian.

At this moment, more than half of them are gathered here.

The group chatted, their conversation ranging from "the price of MediaTek's latest chipset" to "the surprise inspection by the Federation of Industry and Commerce."

Several people were brewing Pu'er tea in a purple clay teapot on the coffee table.

Others were watching the back of the young man standing with his hands behind his back next to the sand table.

Singularity Technology is thriving in Huaqiangbei, daring to advertise in the SEG Plaza and refusing to be sued. Now they're sending people to their respective "secret factories" to send out invitations, inviting everyone over. What does this mean?
Zhao Wanping, the boss who once made a living for Chen Xuebing, is now a wealthy man with a net worth of over 30 million yuan, yet he doesn't stand out much among this group of people.

There were at least three or four business owners present who had assets worth hundreds of millions.

Zhao Wanping stared at Chen Xuebing as he took a sip of tea, completely baffled as to how this minor character, who had come to him a year and a half ago to learn mobile phone technology, had become a stock trading expert.

After thinking for a long time, he couldn't help but ask, "President Chen, what's the meaning of calling everyone here?"

Chen Xuebing glanced at the time, then brushed away some flags from the sand table that weren't present. He turned and leaned against the long table, arms crossed, and said:

"These are all veterans from Huaqiangbei. I invited everyone here, so of course there's something good." He said, picking up an integrated circuit board from the table and shaking it: "Spreadtrum chips, some of you big shots here have probably come into contact with them, right?"

After that, Huang from Chaoshan continued:

"We've used it before. It's much harder to work with than MediaTek. They even require us to do secondary development. The barrier to entry is too high!"

Li Weijian shook his head: "It's already been updated. A public version package was sent over a few days ago. There are now many interfaces and software. Mr. Chen, are you planning to act as a lobbyist for Spreadtrum?"

"I heard they're going to list in the US?"

"Haha, I heard that Mr. Chen is in finance. Maybe he wants us to invest in Spreadtrum?"

"Hahaha"

Strictly speaking, these people are in the ODM and supplier business, but they don't mingle in any proper business circles. They can't stand formal conversations and start joking around after just a few words.

Chen Xuebing lit a cigarette, let them laugh for a while, and then slowly exhaled a smoke ring.

"Spreadtrum is indeed going to list in the US next year, but no further investment is needed. I just invested 4.5 million yuan and am now the largest shareholder."

After these words were spoken, silence fell.

Major shareholder of a well-known chip manufacturer?

4.5 million?

Qidian was originally a golden phoenix that flew out of the remote mountain village of Huaqiangbei. The bigwigs were all amazed that someone from this place with an average education level of junior high school could produce someone who was good at finance. He even cooperated with the government and invested in a screen manufacturer. Today, everyone is mainly here because of this reputation.

As it turns out, they even got into chip manufacturing!
"Hehe, Mr. Chen, I heard you started out making knock-off phones in Huaqiangbei and used to work with Zhao Wanping? You've made quite a name for yourself with this fund! How much money have you raised? You invested 800 million, and you can still invest another 450 million? Are you making money? How about we invest some too? We can easily scrape together 500 or 600 million."

Some people were annoyed by Chen Xuebing's calm and pretentious attitude and began to expose his past: "This money isn't yours!"

A slight smile appeared on Zhao Wanping's lips as he crossed his legs.

Huo Xiaowen walked over from a short distance away, glaring at the person who had spoken, and said, "Oh ho? President Long, your business has grown so big? Last year you were begging me to help you sell your inventory, and now you can come up with five or six hundred million? Let me see it."

Not to mention the stock security behind Qidian, even Qidian's Huaqiangbei business department is one of the top performers in terms of business volume among these people. One of their counters can match the sales volume of three of their counters.

When Huo Xiaowen stepped forward, President Long fell silent, looking rather embarrassed.

Chen Xuebing smiled and waved his hand: "Spreadtrum's investment is not fundraising, but a business investment using my personal funds. My fund is currently worth about 2 billion yuan, and many investors are still waiting for a spot. If you want to invest, you will have to wait for the new fund to open and then you can get in line."

The laughter and the clinking of teacups came to an abrupt halt.

Chen Xuebing's words struck a chord in everyone's hearts.

With over 2 billion yuan invested, including 450 million yuan in personal investment, this scale of funds, especially among competitors, means that if a price war breaks out, not only them, but the entire Huaqiangbei market wouldn't be able to withstand it.

How long has Huaqiangbei been popular? Just over a year. Most of these people are just starting out.

Chen Xuebing's recent grand gesture in Huaqiangbei is aimed at establishing a foothold and saving on communication costs.

After briefly demonstrating his abilities, Chen Xuebing raised his hand and glanced at the two people sitting on the sofas, introducing them as follows:

"This is Zhou Chengyun, Vice President of Sales at Spreadtrum."

"This is Kan Zhidong, the president of our Long March Capital. You know Shenzhen Capital Group, right? He's the one who built it up from scratch."

He specifically summoned Kan Zhidong to Shenzhen to oversee things, which is why the Market Supervision Administration's attitude was one-sided.

However, the leaders of the Market Supervision Administration also spoke to Chen Xuebing: Since the company is making such a big fuss about it, the business of selling pirated mobile phones should be shut down as soon as possible, otherwise the entire Huaqiangbei area will have a hard time making a living.

Chen Xuebing agreed.

He had long since given up on selling pirated goods. If Spreadtrum could secure the chip source in Huaqiangbei, Singularity's 20% commission would be better than selling machines.

We can stop selling machines, but we must firmly hold onto the Huaqiangbei market.

This time, it's a complete transformation.

Chen Xuebing unleashed a series of trump cards, and everyone listened quietly to him speak.

"I called them here because I want to invest in you."

(End of this chapter)