2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 367 Cultivating the Market
As the twelfth lunar month approaches, a persistent rainy season begins to hang over Ningbo, and clear skies have become a rare sight since New Year's Day.

It has been three months since the National Day holiday, and the relocation of all the original tenants in the Flash Tower has been completed.

The people working inside right now are all employees of Flash Group and companies related to Tan Jincheng's business.

Currently, employees from Orange Technology, ByteDance's investment arm, Jinyi Industrial, and Hangxin New Energy's Beicang headquarters all work here, as do some employees from Jinpeng Industrial and Flash Technology.

With four companies operating within the headquarters, the building doesn't feel empty.

During the rainy season, going to work is a headache, and employees without cars are very envious of the employees at Orange Technology.

"Damn it, why didn't I think of studying computer science when I was in college? Now that the internet is booming again, the employees of these internet companies are really having a great time."

"Yeah, it's awesome! Orange Technology has the most cars in this building."

After a round of financing, Orange Technology reached a cooperation agreement with Tencent. With the help of the two largest social software in China, the number of users has increased dramatically. The crops updated in Happy Farm are becoming more and more abundant, and the proportion of Happy Farm users who are converted into Happy Farm users is also increasing.

The rapidly increasing number of users and the rise in revenue from farm items have led Orange Technology, which has been established for less than a year, to distribute bonuses twice already. Employee stock options are also being designed and are expected to be completed in March 2007.

At present, Cheng Hao is the highest earner at Orange Technology. In addition to holding 1.5% of the shares, his salary is the highest in the entire company. Cheng Hao already owns a car.

Other employees, including Gu Yanning, have all seen their incomes increase to varying degrees, and they have a little money in their pockets. These programmers don't usually have many expenses, and since they are mostly male, buying a car has become a "necessity" for them.

After receiving the money, people like Gu Yanning, who came from well-off families, immediately arranged for a car, and others followed suit.

It is worth mentioning that many employees with limited savings who wanted to buy a car chose the Zhongtai 2008.
Wu Jianzhong clearly listened to the advice, and the new batch of peptides showed a significant improvement in quality, resulting in a much better reputation.

The main thing is that this thing is really cheap; you can get one for 4 yuan, which is no problem for programmers who have received a lot of bonuses in a short period of time.

It's quite convenient to drive around the city to and from get off work.

"Sigh, I'll save some money this year; next year, I'll definitely have to buy a car to commute to get off work. Winters are so unbearable. If only our boss could make cars, then we could buy one cheaply."

"Haha, our boss also has a car business, but it's just an investment. You didn't know that, did you? Our boss also has some shares in Zhongtai."

"What's the use of that? If we had our own car business, we could get an internal discount, just like when buying an electric scooter."

"Well, I wasn't thinking about buying a car. I'm saving up to buy a house. I just hope the apartment building next door will be completed soon so I can rent there. It'll be a five-minute walk to get off work, and I can sleep in for at least half an hour longer in the morning."

"That's true, delivery should be soon, right?"

"I heard it's coming soon, but I don't know when."

Tan Jincheng's 100 apartments, as well as the dormitory area in the new factory area, are actually not enough. Therefore, they are given priority to grassroots employees. Office employees who want to apply for company dormitories have to wait in line after the grassroots employees.

Therefore, most employees still rent houses with the rental subsidy. The economic conditions of newly hired employees vary. Some live far away from the company headquarters. When the weather is nice, they can ride electric bikes, but it is a bit uncomfortable in winter.

However, once the apartment building配套 with the headquarters building is delivered, the problem of employees living far away from get off work will be solved. In addition to employees who have local homes, employees of Flash Group and all of Tan Jincheng's businesses can rent apartments in the building.

For singles or couples who aren't traveling with family, studio apartments are quite convenient. They're move-in ready and have all the necessary amenities.

Most importantly, it only takes five minutes to walk to and from work, which is a luxury for office workers, especially in winter. The difference between getting up at 7:00 and getting up at 7:05 is huge.

When Tan Jincheng arrived, he also noticed that there were quite a few new cars in the underground parking garage, including five or six Zhongtai 2008s alone.

Tan Jincheng pointed and smiled at Gu Qingqing, "I heard these were all bought by employees of Orange Technology?"

“Yes, after my cousin took the lead in buying a car, they all followed suit. That white Toyota is hers.” Gu Qingqing also pointed to a car parked next to her.

Tan Jincheng took a look and saw that it was a Camry. Japanese cars still sell quite well these days.

"When we go home for the New Year, let your sister or brother or your family get a new car. I wouldn't feel safe if she, a girl, drove a Japanese car even for a day," Tan Jincheng said with a smile.

"Is there any policy? Are there any requirements regarding company car purchases?"

"There's no set rule. Buy whatever car you like. But as a senior executive, you should try to buy fewer Japanese cars. You know what I mean." Orange Technology is an internet company, and it's in the fiercely competitive social media sector. Even small things can be blown out of proportion. It's fine for ordinary employees, but senior executives should be more careful.

They receive higher salaries than most employees, enjoy company benefits, and have a certain obligation to maintain the company's image during their work.

“Okay, I’ll talk to her about it in a bit.” Gu Qingqing thought about it and agreed.

He then asked, "Do you want to go check out Orange Technology? You haven't been there in a while."

"I'll go check it out in a bit. I have some things to take care of today, so I'll talk to you after I've finished."

Awards and subsidies were given to terminal stores and outstanding distributors. The celebrity guests who came to perform were, in my opinion, top-tier celebrities today. With FlashTech spending money like water, the New Year's Day distributor conference was a great success.

Modern mobile phone cameras are decent enough, and some dealers and their families share the photos they take with friends and post them online.

With the added promotion from the marketing department, Flash's first dealer conference was a great success.

"It's a good thing the performers weren't announced in advance, otherwise Chris Lee's fans would have taken over our venue."

Tan Jincheng smiled as he looked at the heat reports sent by his subordinates.

This year's Super Girl competition was a complete flop, with terrible reviews. However, Chris Lee released a new album in September, and her reputation wasn't affected by the birth of the new Super Girl champion; on the contrary, it improved further.

The comments section under the Kaixin.com account of FlashTech is almost completely dominated by Chun Ge's fans, who are complaining that FlashTech didn't do any prior promotion.

"We really can't announce this in advance. We're holding a dealer conference, not a concert for fans. But with this experience, I think they'll pay special attention to the next dealer conference."

"It's a good thing. Mobile phones are becoming more and more popular now. With these people helping us with promotion, it will save you guys some effort in doing promotion."

We are about to enter the Internet age. Electric vehicle companies mainly rely on offline sales, but that doesn't stop them from building their brand awareness. The fans of these brand ambassadors are the best self-promotion machines.

The dealer conference was a great success, and the merchants were very happy. As a result, the acceptance of lithium battery electric vehicles has increased significantly.

People who run small businesses are generally quite conservative. At most, they might expand their store, and if a product sells well, they'll keep selling it. They're not very willing to accept new things.

Lithium-ion battery electric vehicles are still a new thing. To promote them, we need to convince not consumers, but the store owners at these retail outlets.

Only when they accept it can it be promoted to the market.

One company orders 100 vehicles, another orders 200; not wanting their orders to become inventory and tie up capital, they will naturally try to find ways to sell them.

The pricing for the vehicles was also announced that afternoon at the dealer conference. It's certain that the pricing will be higher than that of the lead-acid battery series. The Fengchi Feiyi series, positioned in the mid-range market, still has two pricing options.

With a lithium battery providing a 70km range, high-brightness projector headlights, and an ACS intelligent charging system, the entry-level model is priced at 2999 yuan, still below 3000 yuan, likely for promotional purposes.

The next-level Feiyi lithium battery model is priced at 3399 yuan, while the high-end Guan Neng model has a further improved range, with a starting range of over 100 kilometers and a maximum range of 200 kilometers.

In terms of pricing, it's the same as the Fei Yi series, with no significant increase. The prices are 4099 and 4599, which small shop owners don't find too difficult to promote.

The most important thing for new products is to cultivate the market, rather than thinking about making big money right away. Only when consumers get used to lithium battery vehicles that have long range and are lightweight and compact can they develop better.

On the other hand, Tan Jincheng also has some ambitions. Currently, Hangxin Energy is far ahead in the application of lithium battery technology in electric vehicles in China, and it has many patented technologies.

Once the lithium battery electric vehicle market matures, other companies will have to rely on Hangxin Energy's patented technologies to catch up, which is very effective in enhancing Hangxin Energy's competitiveness.

In addition, other manufacturers who want to produce lithium batteries are also quite likely to seek cooperation with Boneng in the early stages. Flash has a stake in Boneng, which is a true industrial expansion.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about today. It's almost the end of the year, and Flash has been doing so well this year, with Tan Jincheng receiving all sorts of honors. His year-end bonus definitely can't be the same as last year's.

The boss had a bumper harvest this year, so naturally he couldn't let his employees down; Tan Jincheng was planning to go all out on the year-end bonuses this year.

(End of this chapter)