Reborn in 2005, starting with repairing mobile phones

Chapter 153 Planning and Development

The handwriting on the sticky note was somewhat messy.

He put down his pen, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.

He was thinking, "Now that the phone is made, how do I sell it?"

If it's 2025, the answer is simple.

The press conference was held and broadcast live across the entire internet.

It topped the Weibo trending list, went viral on Douyin, and was reviewed and unboxed by Bilibili content creators.

Pre-orders opened simultaneously on the official website, allowing users to have their phones delivered to their doorsteps with a simple click of the mouse. Flagship stores on JD.com, Tmall, and Pinduoduo also opened at the same time.

But it is now 2006.

In 2006, there was no Weibo, no Douyin, and no Bilibili.

There's no JD.com, no Tmall, no Pinduoduo. No WeChat Pay, no Alipay. Official website pre-sales? Users can't even find the official website. If you tell them to buy a phone online, they'll ask you: "What's the website address? My broadband connection isn't even connected yet."

Lin Dong opened his eyes, picked up a pen, and drew a line on the paper.

Write "2006" on the left and "2025" on the right.

He pointed to the left and began to write.

In 2006, users could only buy mobile phones in three places: operator service centers, large chain stores, and street-side mobile phone shops.

Telecom operator service centers: China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom.

There's a glass cabinet at the entrance where you can sign up for packages and top up your phone credit. Inside are several Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung phones.

The salesperson, dressed in uniform, asks you what kind of service you need.

You said you wanted to buy a mobile phone, and she pointed to the counter.

If you mention "Eastern Technology," she's never heard of it. If you mention "full touchscreen," she has no idea what you're talking about.

Large chain stores, such as Gome and Suning.

The store sells home appliances, including televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines.

There was a row of counters in the corner with cell phones on them, and nobody paid any attention to them.

You stood there for ten minutes, and no one came over to ask if you wanted to buy anything.

You approach the saleswoman, who tells you to wait a moment while she issues an invoice to a woman who wants to buy a refrigerator. Twenty minutes later, she returns and says, "The new Nokia, three thousand eight, do you want it?" You say no, and she turns and leaves.

Street-side mobile phone shops are the most common channel.

There's one every few steps downstairs from your house, at the school gate, or on both sides of the commercial street.

The storefront is covered with signs that read "Nokia," "Samsung," and "Motorola," and several display models are placed in glass cabinets, secured with anti-theft wires.

The shop owner was sitting behind the counter eating sunflower seeds. You went in, he glanced at you, and then continued eating.

You said you wanted to check your phone, and he stood up and opened the cabinet.

If you ask him if he knows anything, he knows more than anyone else—he can rattle off the models, configurations, and prices off the top of his head. But he only knows Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung. If you ask him about Oriental Technology, he'll shake his head: Never heard of it.

This was the distribution channel in 2006.

There is no official website, no e-commerce platform, and no direct channel to users.

After leaving the factory, mobile phones go through layers of wholesalers, agents, and retailers before reaching the user.

Each level needs to make money, and each level has its own interests.

They don't care if your phone is good or not, they only care how much profit they can make from selling one.

On the 2006 side, Lin Dong wrote down three words: telecom operator, chain store, street shop. Then he drew an X.

None of these are what he wants.

In 2013, smartphones were already widespread, but the way people bought them was different from how it is now.

At the telecommunications store near the school gate, several contract phones, which were given away as a gift with a top-up, were displayed in a glass cabinet.

You pay over a thousand yuan in phone bills and get a free phone, but there's a minimum monthly charge.

Those phones were incredibly laggy, but they were cheap, and that's how many students got their first smartphone.

That's called a contract phone.

Operators subsidize the phones, phone manufacturers ship them, and users use their phone bills to offset the cost of the phones.

None of the three parties lose money, but none of them make a lot of money.

Mobile phone manufacturers have distributed their products, but they haven't established their brands.

The user is using "the phone that came with a free top-up," not "Dongfang Technology."

Lin Dong didn't want to take this path.

Later, around 2015 or 2016, Xiaomi Home and Huawei Experience Stores began to appear in shopping malls.

The shop is small and simply decorated, with a few mobile phones on the table for customers to touch and try out freely.

No salesperson follows you, no pushing, no sales scripts.

Go in, look around, touch things yourself, and once you've chosen, place your order online.

That was the prototype of new retail—offline experience, online purchase.

After 2020, flagship stores of Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo opened in major shopping malls.

The decorations are more luxurious than the last, and the stores are bigger than the last.

You go inside, and the salesperson, dressed in uniform, smiles and asks what you'd like to see.

If you say you're there to buy a phone, she'll take you to the demo area, pour you a glass of water, and let you try it out at your leisure.

"You've tried it," she said. "You can order from the official website or buy directly from us; the price is the same."

You scan the code to pay, and she helps you unpack, apply the screen protector, and transfer the data.

You left with the bag, feeling quite relieved.

This is the experience store.

It's not about selling products, it's about letting users experience it. Only after experiencing it and finding it satisfactory will they buy it.

I'll only recommend it to my friends if I buy it and like it.

I recommended it, and my friend tried it and then bought it.

This is a loop.

The first step in the cycle is to let the corpse experience it.

Lin Dong wrote a line on the right: Online booking + offline experience.

Then cross it out.

Because there was no online booking in 2006.

There is no official website, no payment interface, and no logistics system.

The user can't buy a phone online; he has to go to a store to buy it.

What should we do then?

Lin Dong stared at the line on the paper for a long time. He picked up his pen and wrote a word in the middle: Experience Store.

This is the channel he wanted. Not an agent, not a wholesaler, not a telecom operator.

It is a channel that is under your own control, directly reaches users, and does not depend on anyone else.

But he immediately realized a problem—where should the experience store be located?

This isn't something you can just do by renting a shop anywhere.

He wasn't going to open one of those small street-side shops selling phone cases; he wanted to open the flagship store of Oriental Technology, the place where users would experience the phone for the first time, and the place where all eyes would be focused after the launch event.

This place must be the best place.

He put down his pen and began to visualize a map of Shenzhen in his mind.

Huaqiangbei.

It has a large flow of people, with hundreds of thousands of people coming and going every day; the whole country knows about it.

But what kind of place is Huaqiangbei? It's a wholesale market, a distribution center for smuggled goods, and the headquarters for counterfeit mobile phones.

If you open a store in Huaqiangbei and sell mobile phones for more than 8,000 yuan, when customers walk in, they don't think "This phone is really good," but rather "Is this store also selling counterfeit phones?"

No matter how good your product is, if the environment lowers its perceived quality, that won't work.

East Gate.

There were many people, tourists, students, migrant workers, all kinds of people.

However, their spending power is limited; an 8,000+ yuan phone isn't their usual purchase. They come to Dongmen to buy clothes,

People are here to eat snacks and stroll along the pedestrian street, not to buy high-end phones. If you open your shop there, many people will look, but few will buy. That won't work.

The entrance to Shenzhen University.

There are many young people, and the news spreads quickly; if one phone appears in a dormitory, the whole building knows. But students can't afford it. Over eight thousand yuan, equivalent to three months' living expenses. Parents won't give money, and the students themselves don't have any. Rapid spread is useless; it won't sell. It won't work.

Futian CBD.

He paused for a moment.

Futian CBD, the future center of Shenzhen.

In 2006, the area was still under construction. Many office buildings had just been topped out, shops had not yet opened, and there was not much foot traffic.

But those who pass by are either white-collar workers who work nearby or investors who come to look at properties.

These people earn over 10,000 yuan a month, have money in their hands, and are not price-sensitive.

They won't buy phones in Huaqiangbei because they think it's too chaotic.

They wanted a clean, bright place where they wouldn't have to squeeze with other people.

Futian CBD, perfect.

Moreover, Lin Dong knew the future. He knew that Futian CBD would become the center of Shenzhen, that property prices would skyrocket, and that the shops he bought now would multiply several times in a few years. This wasn't a cost, it was an asset. It wasn't spending money, it was saving money.

right here.

He picked up a pen and wrote on the paper: Futian CBD.

Then write: Buy, don't rent.

Renting is like working for someone else. You rent today, business is good, but next year the landlord raises the rent. Do you move out or not? If you move, customers can't find you. If you don't move, you're at their mercy.

Once you buy it, the house is yours, the assets are yours, whether the price goes up or down, it's all yours.

You don't need to worry about anyone's opinion.

He continued writing: "You can't buy a small one, it has to be big, at least 2000 square meters, big enough and impressive enough to justify the price of over 8,000 yuan."

Users walk in and are stunned by the space, the decor, and the aura that says "this place is not cheap".

This is where high-end devices should be.

In April 2006, the price of shops in Futian CBD was not much higher than that of office buildings in 2005, and may even be cheaper, because the shop market had not yet taken off.

The price per square meter is still around 1 yuan, or slightly lower, between 8000 and 1 yuan.

2000 square meters, total price 1600-2000 million.

Down payment is 30%-50%, which is 500-1000 million.

The remaining installments.

Based on this calculation, he only needs to spend 500 to 1000 million yuan to acquire a 2000-square-meter shop.

The remaining money will be used for research and development, inventory preparation, opening stores, and getting through to the launch event.

Cash flow is safer, and capital is used more efficiently.

Moreover, Shenzhen is just the first step.

He doesn't just want to be number one in Shenzhen, he wants to be number one in the whole country.

If he had enough funds now, he would love to open stores in the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen at the same time, with the four cities working together and the products going on sale nationwide as soon as the press conference is held.

But he didn't.

There's only 8000 million in the account. That's barely enough to support the operation of one city, let alone four.

Research and development costs money, inventory costs money, press conferences cost money, and even getting paid costs money.

The money was distributed to four different places, and each place was strapped for cash, so none of them could be done well.

Therefore, he could only choose one place to start.

Shenzhen is his base of operations.

The company is in Futian, the factory is in Dongguan, the team is in Shenzhen, and he himself is also in Shenzhen.

This is the place we know best, where resources are most concentrated, and where we can react the fastest if a problem arises.

Only if the model works in Shenzhen can it be replicated in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing.

Shop after shop opened, city after city conquered.

So, what must Shenzhen, as the headquarters, do?

First, the flagship store must be a landmark.

It's not just any shop; it's in the best location in Futian CBD, the most prominent street-facing, and the largest area.

Users can experience the phone, media can capture footage, and industry peers can feel the pressure.

Once this flag is raised, the whole country will follow.

Second, service capabilities must keep up.

The store is open, the phones are sold, but who do customers contact if they have any problems?

The Futian flagship store is the main service center.

After-sales service, repairs, returns and exchanges—it's all here.

Once the first-tier cities have done a good job, the second and third-tier cities will know how to replicate it.

Third, the supply chain must operate smoothly.

Goods leave the factory, go to the Shenzhen headquarters first, and then are distributed nationwide.

Shenzhen is the hub; inventory, logistics, and allocation all pass through here.

If the hub is unstable, the whole country will be in chaos.

Fourth, the team must be trained.

In Shenzhen, we need to establish a complete operational process that includes opening a store, selling goods, after-sales service, restocking, and training store managers. Only when the process is running smoothly can it be replicated in other cities.

People are trained in Shenzhen. The store manager worked in Shenzhen for half a year before he could be sent to Guangzhou to pave the way.

Shenzhen is not the end, but the beginning.

Once this banner was raised, the whole country would follow. He picked up a pen and wrote on a piece of paper: Shenzhen, flagship store, headquarters, service center, hub, training ground. Six words, six things. Do them one by one.

Fortunately, we were able to find all the people involved in the mobile phone R&D team.

The system has been written, the chips have been made, the tests have been run, the motherboard has been tuned, the touch screen has been optimized, the casing has been overseen, and the factory has been managed.

He doesn't need to worry about research and development.

He only needs to grasp the overall direction, check the progress regularly, and make decisions at key junctures.

The rest will run off on their own.

if not?

He had to manage R&D, store openings, distribution channels, and funding.

Even if you split one person into several pieces, it wouldn't be enough.

He needs someone.

A person who understands retail, management, and opening a store.

Someone who can oversee the renovation, recruitment, training, and opening for him. Someone who has succeeded in Shenzhen and can then take the model to Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing.

He didn't have that kind of person right now. He picked up a pen and wrote on the paper: Hiring. Retail Manager. Then he crossed it out. It wasn't hiring, it was looking for people. The people he hired would be laborers.

He brought in someone to work with him. He wasn't looking for an executor, but a partner. Someone who could open Oriental Technology stores all over the country.

He thought of Wu Ming.

That old fox has channels, connections, and funds.

But what Wu Ming wanted was to invest, to gain control, and to get a share of his profits.

I think of those veterans who worked at Gome, Suning, and D.Phone. They understood retail, but did they understand Eastern technology?

Does he understand full-touchscreen phones? Does he understand the kind of experience store he wants? He doesn't.

He put down his pen and leaned back in his chair. Finding people was harder than finding money. Anderson had taken care of the money. Li Hu had taken care of the system. Chen Long had taken care of the chips. But who would take care of opening the shop?

He picked up his phone and sent a text message to Uncle Cai: "Uncle Cai, please keep an eye out for any talent in the retail industry."

I've worked at Gome, Suning, and D.Phone; I understand opening stores, management, and training.

Ideally, they should have hands-on experience, not just be an office worker.

Uncle Cai replied, "Okay. I'll make an appointment if there's a suitable one."

Lin Dong put down his phone.

He thought, the R&D team is all here, but the person to open the store is still on the way.

Fortunately, there's still time.

He needed to find this person before the press conference.

If he couldn't find it, he had to find it himself.

But doing it myself is too tiring.

Renovation, recruitment, training, opening, and operation—everything needs to be monitored, and problems can arise at any stage.

He's not Superman; he needs help.