2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 321 Industrial Upgrading
Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, is one of the three major electric vehicle production bases in Jiangsu Province.

Electric vehicles are widely accepted here, but unlike other regions, the Changzhou Electric Vehicle Industrial Base does not have any major manufacturers; it is mainly composed of local brands of all sizes.

The most common electric vehicles on the market are mainly local brands, with manufacturers of all sizes competing in this land.

Incidentally, Changzhou is currently the most lenient city towards oversized electric vehicles, commonly known as "electric motorcycles," allowing them to be driven freely on the road, which is also intended to protect local businesses.

Such a mature electric vehicle market is one that Flashcar naturally cannot afford to miss.

After deciding to launch a price war in Jiangsu Province, Tan Jincheng ordered the marketing department to win over the city and secure a place for Flash Motors in Changzhou.

Lin Yumin, who is in charge of the domestic market, personally oversaw operations in Changzhou.

Self-operated stores, terminal retail stores, and all sizes of FlashCheer specialty stores began to appear on the streets of various districts and counties in Changzhou.

At the same time, Yadi and Xinri, which are based in Jiangsu Province, also noticed Shanchi's move and quickly followed suit, wanting to seize this market that had not been occupied by major brands.

Suddenly, the small and medium-sized assembly plants in the Changzhou Electric Vehicle Industrial Park were trembling with fear.

After the official price war began, the 1500 yuan price tag of the Flash Motors put tremendous pressure on small manufacturers in the region, especially those producing electric motorcycles and electric scooters that exceed the standards.

Electric motorcycles aren't heavily regulated, but that doesn't mean they're ignored. You never know when you might get stopped on the street. While they might not be impounded, you'll still have to pay a fine, which is a potential problem.

However, the Flash series does not have such problems. It meets national standards, has a large size, powerful engine, and is inexpensive, making it the best alternative to electric motorcycles.

"How are car sales these days?"

"Not bad. We sold over 30 cars yesterday and about 20 the day before. Two days' worth of sales is equivalent to a month's worth during the off-season. That's pretty good. How about you?"

Old Li was quite happy. He took advantage of the opportunity of Flash opening a specialty store here and decisively upgraded his original store, which sold miscellaneous brands, into a Flash specialty store. He also caught up with Flash seizing the market with huge discounts, and sales have been pretty good these past few days.

Flash's market grab did not harm the interests of its agents and retail stores; they still earned the same amount of money. As a result, the agents and retail stores were highly motivated to cooperate.

In Changzhou, there are quite a few retail stores like Lao Li's that used to sell no-name or other brand electric vehicles and have directly switched to Flash Motors.

“Our sales are also quite good. The peak season really makes a difference. I wish it could be like this every day.”

"That's right, we're counting on these two months. But this year's sales are much better than last year's. Even last year's peak season wasn't this booming."

"That's because several major manufacturers are running promotions this year, making cars much cheaper, and we got lucky."

"Haha, that's true. Come to think of it, your family started it first. That young boss of Flash Motors has guts."

"If you ask me, you should switch to selling Flash Motors. The electric motorcycles in your store are always non-compliant. Now the whole country is cracking down on this, and it will definitely be cracked down on here in the future. No matter how much the higher-ups protect local businesses, they can't keep ignoring the pressure forever."

"Well, you can see that's true. Everything else in our shop has been doing well these past few days, but the sales of electric motorcycles have really dropped a lot," Old Zhang sighed.

They sell all brands in their store. In the past, electric motorcycles produced by local small factories were the best-selling items. Priced at around 1,000 yuan, they were powerful and very popular among local young people.

However, ever since the price of the Flash has been reduced to the same level as electric motorcycles, young people have abandoned electric motorcycles and started buying Flash instead.

Compared to Flash, these electric motorcycles produced by small factories cannot compare in terms of either quality or service.

In addition, the Flash and Wind series also hold lucky draws in various stores from time to time, with prizes including autographed photos of brand ambassadors, albums, etc., which is very appealing to young people.

After hearing what Lao Li said, Lao Zhang actually started to consider switching to selling Flashcars. Flashcars didn't prohibit a store from selling electric vehicles other than their brand, but Flashcars undoubtedly preferred the exclusive dealership model.

You can get FlashCheer products from distributors, even if they sell any brand, but they'll definitely be at the very end of the order list, there's no room for negotiation on that.

Given Flash's current production capacity, it's almost impossible for a store like his, which sells all kinds of brands, to get Flash's stock.

A week later, the leaders of the industrial park and relevant departments discovered this phenomenon.

"Should we put some pressure on Flashlink? If this continues, many small factories will go bankrupt, and the industrial base will be greatly affected."

This approach will indeed force some off-brand electric vehicles out of business. Tan Jincheng had considered this before launching the price war and anticipated the pressure he might face, but it was a market-driven strategy, and Tan Jincheng still decided to do it.

There shouldn't be such a thing as malicious price-cutting these days, right? What's there to be afraid of? Just do it!
The leaders are also having a headache. The city has withstood the pressure and relaxed the management of electric motorcycles in order to give some small manufacturers more time to seek transformation, grow stronger and bigger during the protection period, and create a big brand of electric vehicle manufacturers in Changzhou, just like Flash Motors.

Unfortunately, these people are too disappointing. They are unwilling to invest in transformation and industrial upgrading. Instead, they take advantage of the protection period to produce these substandard electric motorcycles on a large scale, which puts a lot of pressure on the transportation department.

"Forget it, this is a market behavior. Let's just consider it as FlashChi helping us force the industry to upgrade. If we don't push these small and medium-sized manufacturers, they won't know the pain."

Industrial upgrading is often accompanied by growing pains, which is a necessary process. Moreover, if we really put pressure on Flash, the business environment here will be truly ruined. It would be a losing proposition for the sake of an industrial park.

"The market economy should be left to the market; over-protection may not be a good thing," the leader remarked.

However, he does not regret protecting these companies despite the pressure. Although their behavior is not commendable and the small business owners lack vision, these companies, large and small, have genuinely solved a lot of employment problems.

Now, facing real market competition, their performance will be the deciding factor.

"However, we could try contacting the young chairman of Flash Motors to find out if they have any plans to set up shop in Changzhou."
-
Chun Ge's contract was signed on July 5th last year, and today is July 11th, so the actual contract period is less than a year.

Last year, Chun Ge's agent received Tan Jincheng. This year, the person receiving Tan Jincheng is the head of Tianyu Entertainment, and his treatment has improved dramatically.

When Tan Jincheng and his group arrived at the Tianyu building, Long Danni was already waiting for him at the entrance of the lobby with Chun Ge's agent, showing that she valued it highly.

After a brief handshake with Long Danni, Tan Jincheng looked at Chun Ge's manager standing to the side and smiled, "Long time no see, Sister Man."

I didn't see this person yesterday, and I have no idea where they came from today.

Last year, in order to sign Chun Ge as soon as possible, Tan Jincheng gave him an extra 8 yuan red envelope, and she also introduced him to the company that shot the advertisement.

Times have changed, and a year later, Manyang naturally no longer dared to treat Tan Jincheng with the same attitude as last year, and was much more respectful than last year.

"It has indeed been a long time. I didn't expect that President Tan would still remember his little agent."

"How could that be? Flash's current success is inseparable from Sister Man's support back then."

"No, no, it's all thanks to you, Mr. Tan. It's just that our Brother Chun has gained a lot of exposure thanks to Flash.

Agents and artists complement each other. Well-known agents can strongly promote their artists, and well-known artists can also promote unknown agents, at least in terms of income.

In the past year, Flash has made progress, and with the rise of Chun Ge's popularity, the rookie manager Manyang from a year ago has also made progress.

If a year ago, instead of this inexperienced agent, a seasoned agent had been managing Chun Ge, Tan Jincheng probably wouldn't have been so easily fooled. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they complemented each other.

Seeing that the two were chatting idly at the door without stopping, Long Danni glanced casually at the area behind the ornamental trees by the door.

He then invited, "Mr. Tan, would you like to take a tour of the company premises?"

Long Dani's movements did not escape Tan Jincheng's notice: "Is it alright? I won't disturb you?"

"It would be an honor not to disturb you."

The group then walked inside, and Tan Jincheng casually asked, "Were there paparazzi at the entrance just now?"

"Mr. Tan found out? There were indeed paparazzi, but we didn't arrange it," Long Danni quickly explained.

Tan Jincheng smiled noncommittally, saying that it didn't matter whether it was arranged by them or not. However, Chun Ge had participated in an event in Xiangcheng yesterday, and his influence was still there. Xiangcheng is also a city where celebrities often appear, so it's not surprising that paparazzi were staking out the area.

Tan Jincheng had never really had a proper tour of the interior of Entertainment Chronicles Company; he didn't get that treatment when he went to Shanghai last year.

It's clear that the office environment is very nice, with long corridors and large photos of the company's stars hanging on both sides. The most popular and hottest stars are naturally placed in the best locations.

“This is our main office, where we hold our weekly meeting every Monday,” Longdanni explained as they walked through the corridor and past a large office.

Then we arrived at the office area, which looked very messy. There were quite a few employees, and everyone seemed very busy.

"This office area does resemble our company's," Tan Jincheng said with a smile.

Tan Jincheng was referring to the office area of ​​Orange Technology, which looked quite messy, even more so, with folding beds placed directly in the office area.

The only difference is that most of the employees here are women, while Orange Technology is mainly male, and there are too few female programmers.

"Really? Then I must visit Mr. Tan's company when I have the chance."

“Very welcome.”

After a brief tour of Tianyu's offices in Xiangcheng, Long Danni led Tan Jincheng to her office. After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Long Danni got straight to the point: "There are rumors in the electric vehicle industry that President Tan doesn't like beating around the bush. If the rumors are true, then let's get straight to the point."

Tan Jincheng smiled and said, "The rumors should be true, but before we talk about the details, let me ask you, what is the length of Chun-ge's contract with Tianyu?"

Long Danni was taken aback: "Brother Chun was discovered by us. His contract is for five years and will end in 2010."

Hmm? 2010? Tan Jincheng seems to recall that Chun Ge had a falling out with Tianyu Entertainment once, and was even suspected of being suspended for a period of time. However, it seems that the contract was terminated in 2015. How come the contract ended in 2010?

Did I remember it wrong?

Never mind, 2010 it is.

"Then let's extend the contract until 2010, what do you think, Mr. Long?" Tan Jincheng said with a smile. "As for the salary, how about we treat it like a second-tier star?"

The endorsement fees paid by a second-tier celebrity are commensurate with Brother Chun's popularity.

During the second round of promotional activities, the live text and image voting on Kaixin.com showed that Chun Ge's fans and Leziren completely outclassed Liu Yifei's fans, and even Jay Chou's fans couldn't match them.

After a day of voting, Chun Ge's vote count was the same as in last year's finals, far ahead!
Whether it's voting, live audience numbers, or even back in her hometown of Jiangcheng, despite her own efforts, this girl still came in last place once again.

Needless to say, in the next round, Chris Lee will truly be back in CD's home turf, while Jay Chou will be going to Beijing. And Liu, who was already at a disadvantage, will be going to Nanning. If nothing unexpected happens, he will be at the bottom in all three rounds.

My heart aches for Xiao Liu! She was terribly betrayed by Tan Jincheng. During the event planning, he misled her by saying that other spokespeople had already agreed. Then, during the event, she suffered a crushing defeat in the popularity contest, and on top of that, her boss started stirring up trouble online.

I've definitely been a victim of PUA!
(End of this chapter)