2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 264 A Three-Way Standoff?

Baiyun Airport.

More than a month later, Tan Jincheng was shocked to see Zhang Xupeng again.

"Wow, you've gained a lot of weight. You need to lose weight, bro. We can't have beer bellies at our age."

"Don't even mention it. Although we ate a lot of foreign food on the ship, we were also able to go into the kitchen and cook some of our favorite dishes. This time, we ate with those foreigners every day. It was amazing."

"Haha, how did the talks go?"

"Go back and talk."

"Okay." The airport is a busy place, and it's definitely not a good place to talk.

However, judging from Zhang Xupeng's expression, the result should be good. For more than a month, due to the time difference, the two have mainly communicated on QQ, leaving messages for each other and replying when they see them.

Zhang Xupeng was accompanied by six people. Two of them were lawyers who were transferring at Baiyun Airport to return to Ningbo. Two of the other four had already returned to China, while the remaining two stayed in Guangzhou with Zhang Xupeng.

After a brief exchange, Zhang Xupeng thanked the two lawyers, knowing he would need their help again when he got back. The two groups parted ways, and Tan Jincheng drove his rented van to Zhang Xupeng's residence in Guangzhou.

“Now that the brand is established, I think Jinpeng Trading should also set up a legal team, as there should be quite a few infringement cases this year.”

After seeing the two lawyers off, Tan Jincheng thought that if GXG sold well, there would inevitably be a lot of counterfeit products, especially on online stores, which would not only affect sales but also damage the brand's reputation.

“We definitely should prepare a legal team. This trip abroad really showed us how meticulous they are with their contract terms. Speaking of dealing with foreigners, if you hadn’t been so cautious, we might have suffered a lot of losses.”

"Yes, we are in the foreign trade business. International lawsuits are very troublesome, so we must be extremely careful."

"How's it going on your end? What brings you to the Canton Fair? How many days are you planning to stay?"

Tan Jincheng shook his head and said, "I just came to take a look. I'm a little worried if neither of us is here. I also picked you up. I have to head straight to Shanghai tomorrow, so I won't have time to attend the Canton Fair."

Zhang Xupeng was somewhat surprised: "So urgent?"

"Yes, the Shanghai International Electric Vehicle Expo is about to start, and the company's publicity there is very important, so I have to go."

The international expo, which opened on April 17, is of great importance to the industry due to Shanghai's commercial status, and FlashTech attaches great importance to this promotion.

Not only will Lee Kang-chung and his assistant, who have been promoting the event for two months, attend the exhibition, but even Liu Yifei, the brand ambassador for Fengchi, will also be present.

I also heard that S.H.E., the brand ambassadors for Yadi, will be attending the exhibition. Other electric vehicle companies with brand ambassadors, such as Jinlingyang and Huajue, will also have their ambassadors in attendance.

This demonstrates the importance that major companies place on this matter.

At the same time, this is also the first time that FlashTech and even Tan Jincheng himself have faced industry competitors directly.

Since returning from Yiwu, Tan Jincheng has been extremely busy for a month, juggling affairs with Orange Technology, the Ningbo branch of Zhongtai Technology, and Shanchi Technology.

The situation is fine with Zhongtai. Ying Jianzhong is very capable, and Tan Jincheng is not a major shareholder, so he can choose not to go if he wants.

However, Orange Technology and Flash Technology are not doing so well. Unfortunately, both of their businesses are extremely critical. On the one hand, they need to solidify their core business, and on the other hand, they need to lay a solid foundation for making money in the internet industry.

I can only say that it is painful and happy.

Fortunately, the internal enterprise management system has already been able to play a certain role, and the previously established Internet business unit is no longer a blank slate. In addition, Cheng Hao has experience working in major Internet companies and has put forward some suggestions for improving the internal enterprise management system.

It has to be said that Cheng Hao was a very good choice in recruiting him. Although he may not be as loyal as Zhang Xuhui and Sun Yuming, he is truly capable.

If a company wants to grow rapidly, it needs to recruit talent like this.

From Cheng Hao, Tan Jincheng thought of Chery. In the automotive industry, Chery is known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" of domestic automobiles.

From the time its founders started developing engines with about 20 engineers in a repair shop, Chery has never lacked talent. However, since 2005, factional struggles within Chery have been very serious, and this continued until 2023.

Where there is struggle, there will be talent leaving. The talent poached by his peers is scattered among various automobile companies in China, which has contributed to his "good reputation".

Tan Jincheng wants to build his own car manufacturing team, and he'll inevitably have to poach talent from Chery. Speaking of which, Anhui province has a considerable number of car manufacturers, from traditional gasoline vehicles to later new energy vehicles; major well-known brands almost occupy half of the domestic automotive industry.

As fellow natives of Anhui Province, Tan Jincheng has a natural advantage in terms of connections, so there's no reason not to take advantage of it.

"Is it the exhibition you mentioned during the Chinese New Year, the one Liu Yifei will be attending?"

"You didn't remember anything else, but you remembered this one. It was this one. It wasn't just her, but also many other celebrities. It was quite a grand affair."

Zhang Xupeng sighed, "Ah, it's a pity. I just got back to China and there's the Canton Fair here. Otherwise, I would have liked to go with you and join in the fun. Running this factory is really exhausting. I'm starting to regret it."

"Haha, this is nothing. But you should get some sleep first and adjust to the time difference. If you don't shut up, your two colleagues in the back won't be able to rest properly," Tan Jincheng said, pointing to the back row.

"No, no, we enjoy listening to it too," the two quickly replied.

Tan Jincheng didn't know these two people, and Zhang Xupeng either forgot or something else, so he didn't introduce them to Tan Jincheng. However, since they could be taken abroad, they must either be very capable or people that Zhang Xupeng trusted.

Tan Jincheng could understand why he didn't see Li Yanning and her sister, nor Liu Wenbin. These employees, whom Tan Jincheng was most familiar with, were hardworking but had limited education.

Zhang Xupeng glanced back and replied, "Okay, I'm a little sleepy too. Wake me up when we get there."

Having not seen each other for over a month, Zhang Xupeng had so much to say and so many things to share with Tan Jincheng. However, with other people in the car, it was inconvenient to discuss personal matters, and business matters could only be discussed briefly, which wasn't very meaningful.

Coupled with the fatigue of the journey, Zhang Xupeng fell asleep in no time.
-
"How long have I slept?"

Zhang Xupeng, still half asleep, walked out of the room and looked at Tan Jincheng sitting on the sofa in the living room, asking a question. It was already dark by then.

"About four hours." Tan Jincheng raised his hand and looked at his watch.

On the way back from the airport, Zhang Xupeng felt he hadn't slept enough, so the three of them stayed home to rest, while Tan Jincheng went to the Canton Fair, which was already closed.

These days, Tan Jincheng is no longer as excited as he used to be when he attends the Canton Fair. Although Jinyi Industry still has its own booth, Tan Jincheng has put all his efforts into developing Alibaba International Station's business.

For several years, the international website had excellent traffic, making international trade very convenient and cost-effective compared to participating in the Canton Fair.

In addition, although the market for electronic product exports is large, Jin Yi Industrial has neither its own brand nor its own OEM factories. It relies on licensed brand business to survive, and the profits in this area cannot be compared with those in clothing exports.

Therefore, Tan Jincheng is not very concerned about this business. The reason he still maintains this business is that it is still profitable, and he also wants to establish overseas export channels for electric scooters through the export of electronic products.

Speaking of the exhibition in Kunming, Wu Zhenping did achieve some success, selling 2 low-end Flashcar electric vehicles to Southeast Asia. Although the 2 orders will not have a significant impact on Flashcar Technology's sales this year, it is a good start.

According to Wu Zhenping's report, the Spring City Exhibition is geared towards Southeast Asia, a relatively poor region, so there were not as many participating companies as expected, and most of them were local companies from Spring City and Yunnan Province.

Among the companies that traveled a long distance to Kunming to participate in the exhibition, such as FlashTech, Wu Zhenping only saw the brands Xinri and Yadi.

It must be said that brands that can survive and maintain their reputation in later generations have a certain market foresight. Although Chipray lost its leading position in the past, its sales overseas are actually not bad.

Yadi is even more impressive, managing both domestic and international markets very well. It recognized the importance of the international market when the domestic market was just emerging, demonstrating the foresight of its founder.

To be fair, if Tan Jincheng didn't have memories of his past life and were running an electric vehicle company like an ordinary person, he might not have realized the importance of the overseas market at this time. He could make money from domestic users all he wanted, so why would he bother with overseas affairs?

Traditional companies, especially electric vehicle companies, find it difficult to form a monopoly. Having two competitors is an incentive for FlashTech.

Whether it's Yadi's blocking actions in the Southwest market or Xinri's unanimous emphasis on the Southeast Asian market, these are two worthy competitors. If there is an opportunity at the Shanghai exhibition, Tan Jincheng would like to meet these two founders.

Listen to their perspectives on the industry and learn from the entrepreneurial experiences of these predecessors.

The founder of ChipSun is considered a second-generation rich kid. He graduated from junior high school in the early 90s, and it's rare for a family to be able to provide hundreds of thousands of yuan for him to start a business.

The founder of Yadi is at the other extreme. Also born in the 70s, he came from an extremely poor family in Anhui Province. He served in the army, worked as a driver in a motorcycle factory after his discharge, resigned to open a restaurant, made motorcycle parts, and eventually founded Yadi.

Two people, two extremes in social experience, Tan Jincheng's family background falls somewhere in between, and his life experience is just as rich as theirs.

In the future electric vehicle market, with its three major players vying for dominance, will FlashDrive Technology have a place?
(End of this chapter)