2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 458 The Trend of the Big Three
Saturday, October 9.

More than 100 electric bicycle brands gathered at Xinghua Park in Luzhou City; the park was packed with brand staff and citizens out for the weekend.

A large red banner reading "The First Anhui Electric Bicycle Culture Festival" hung at the entrance, indicating the theme of the event.

"What kind of promotional methods have you prepared? Don't go too far. We're not doing anything too aggressive."

In the pedestrian area, a young man spoke casually to two middle-aged men beside him with a smile.

Judging from the three people's posture and the group of people surrounding them, it's clear that these three are not ordinary people. The fact that this young man can speak so casually with two "elders" who are much older than him suggests that his status is even more special.

Normally, someone his age would only be a supporting comedian, like the young people surrounding him.

"Let's talk about regular promotional activities, like price reductions and small gifts," one of the middle-aged men, a burly and imposing figure, replied while looking around.

The three were Tan Jincheng, who had finished fixing screws at Guoxuan, and Zhang Congxun and Dong Jinggui, who had come to watch the commotion.

It was a coincidence that the three of them came over for a stroll, which made the organizers extremely happy.

The electric vehicle industry has greater room for development, but at the same time, competition in the industry is becoming increasingly fierce. In regions with more mature markets, such as the Yangtze River Delta region, brand reshuffling has already begun.

Many uncompetitive brands have exited the industry. Although smaller brands continue to thrive in the market thanks to their low prices, their survival space is shrinking.

According to incomplete statistics, as of now, no fewer than 400 electric vehicle brands have exited the market, and the entire industry is gradually concentrating on leading manufacturers.

The advantages of big brands are gradually becoming apparent. Take Flashcar as an example: last year, the total sales of two-wheeled electric vehicles were 1900 million units, while Flashcar's annual sales accounted for only about 2.5% of the national market share.

With only about 2.5% market share, it has managed to secure the second position in industry sales, which demonstrates the sheer number of brands in the market and the wide distribution of sales.

This year, due to policy uncertainty, the electric vehicle market has seen some sales growth, but the overall expectation is only around 2100 million to 2200 million vehicles, and the growth rate is not particularly significant.

However, judging from the data released by Flashpoint this year, their market share has steadily increased to over 5%, more than double that of last year.

Where did the extra market share come from? Besides being snatched from direct competitors, it mostly came from the market share vacated by smaller brands that exited the market.

There are reasons why small workshop owners dislike Tan Jincheng. Those who voluntarily withdrew are fine; they made enough money and changed careers. But those small workshop owners who increased their investment and production efforts due to a lack of understanding of the trends find Tan Jincheng even more despicable.

However, it is inevitable that market share will gradually concentrate on the top players. For the top manufacturers, there is still a lot of market space. Currently, Flash, which is about to become the new industry leader, has a market share of less than 6%.

Even without considering market growth, based on the current scale of around 2200 million vehicles, if a number of smaller workshops are squeezed out, the market share of Flash will be even larger, and the low-end Flash brand is still very competitive in the market.

Once a market effect is formed, the trend is difficult to change. Without a doubt, Tan Jincheng, Zhang Congxun, and Dong Jinggui are the three giants in the current and future two-wheeled electric vehicle industry.

For the electric vehicle industry in Anhui Province, the first Electric Vehicle Culture Festival is a big event, but for the hundreds of manufacturers participating in the exhibition, it is just a regional sales festival and not a big deal.

If it weren't for the fact that Tan Jincheng happened to be in Luzhou at that time, they wouldn't have dared to even think about inviting him to the event. They might not even have had the chance to invite Lin Yumin. Sending a regional general manager or distributor from Anhui Province would have been considered a great honor.

What they didn't expect was that because of Tan Jincheng's unusual behavior of fixing screws for half a month, Dong Jinggui and Zhang Congxun, who had nothing better to do, came over to watch the excitement, resulting in the three giants gathering in Luzhou, which added a lot of color to this cultural festival.

It's worth noting that this year's Shanghai trade fair did not gather all three of the top executives in the industry at once.

"My Uncle Li only gave me a thousand yuan, he's so stingy; how about I work at your factory for a few days, brothers? You can pay me a higher wage so I can feel a little better."

"That's good enough. Don't you know what the wages are like in Luzhou? You're not even a skilled worker after half a month. The fact that he's offering you 1000 yuan is already giving you face."

"As for you coming to our factory to tighten screws, forget it. I'm afraid you'll take all our workers with you."

"That's it."

Dong Jinggui and Zhang Congxun completely ignored Tan Jincheng's questions about the promotional plan. They were already traumatized by the question. They didn't believe it even if the kid said he wasn't doing any big promotions.

Instead, they started teasing Tan Jincheng about his screw-tightening skills. They'd gone to check on him, and the kid was genuinely working on the production line. When they saw him, it was the last two days of screw-tightening. Li Zhen mentioned that he was much more skilled than when he first arrived. It was clear he was really dedicated, which made them even more puzzled. Why was he so seriously learning how to tighten screws? This wasn't the way to do technical work! They really couldn't understand these young people nowadays.

The three of them walked in from the entrance, and the exhibition organizers, who were busy inside, immediately came to greet them warmly after receiving the news.

Although it was a coincidence and there was no preparation, the group was good at putting on a show and wouldn't let the organizers feel superior. When they passed by the FlashChe booth, the group stopped.

The small booth was suddenly surrounded by a crowd, attracting the attention of consumers who came to the exhibition.

"I don't recognize the others, but the young man in the middle looks like the CEO of Flashcar. What's he doing here?"

"Isn't that their booth? They're probably here for an event."

"Are you kidding me? This isn't some high-level event. One manager is enough. Why does he need to attend?"

"I know that. I saw online a while ago that this guy went to Guoxuan's factory to tighten screws, so I guess he was just doing it on the side."

"Are you kidding me? He's so rich he'd go out and fix screws? Is this just a show?"

"Haha, it might be a show, but if it's a real fight, Guoxuan has posted photos of him working on the production line these past few days. You can check them out online when you have time."

"Tsk tsk tsk, not only is he so young and rich, but so many people are surrounding him. How glamorous he must be."

Outside the crowd, there was much discussion, and people would occasionally take out their phones to take pictures. Since Tan Jincheng came to Luzhou to open Jinxin Times last time, he has become quite well-known in Luzhou, and his photos often appear in newspapers and television media.

He's not a celebrity, and when he appears on TV shows, it's just a simple lighting adjustment, not much different from his offline appearances, so it's not hard to recognize him.

Not only do many employees at Guoxuan Factory recognize Tan Jincheng, but many ordinary citizens in Luzhou also recognize him. Taking photos with celebrities is a habit, and people like Tan Jincheng are used to it as well.

At this moment, Tan Jincheng, who was surrounded in the middle of the FlashChe booth, was listening to the person in charge of the Luzhou side introduce the situation of this exhibition. Dong Jinggui and Zhang Congxun were also listening from the side.

"Wow, you really didn't do anything big?" Zhang Congxun said, somewhat surprised.

To be honest, they didn't really believe that Tan Jincheng was staying in Luzhou to fix screws. They thought he was there for the cultural festival, since the National Day holiday was coming soon and it would be a peak sales season.

Like Tan Jincheng, they haven't been very busy lately, but they're not so idle as to be completely idle. They mainly wanted to come and see if this guy was up to something.

"Don't think so badly of me. We're already at the venue. Do you think I need to lie to you about whether I've caused any trouble or not..." Tan Jincheng said helplessly.

Tan Jincheng's usual tactics of playing the victim, along with his reputation with Little Ma, have created a fixed impression of him in the business world, an impression that cannot be erased overnight.

Sigh, it's like I invited the tank myself, I have to go to sleep even with tears in my eyes.

Forget it, let them think what they want. This is good too. It keeps the opponent taking things seriously, which is a kind of recognition of Tan Jincheng's abilities and Shan Chi's strength.

On the other hand, being constantly watched by competitors allows Flash to focus its work more effectively, preventing the Flash team from becoming complacent after essentially securing the top spot in industry sales.

We should learn from Ahri's mistake. If they hadn't been so invincible in those years, causing the company to become incredibly arrogant, using a bunch of incomprehensible jargon, and holding countless meetings, they would have been much better off.

Even layoffs are touted as sending talent to society. How arrogant is that?

It's not necessarily a good thing for a company to have no competitors in the short term; at this cultural festival, FlashCheer didn't really make many moves. The price of raw materials for lead-acid batteries has risen significantly in the second half of the year, which is also a pressure on costs.

Resisting the pressure and not following the trend of raising prices is the most responsible thing FlashCheer can do for consumers at present. As for discounts, we really can't afford to do that, after all, companies also need to pursue a certain profit.

Compared to Chip Day and Yadi, FlashDrive's discounts were the smallest at this cultural festival, which is why the two were quite surprised.

The two of them seemed a bit unaccustomed to Tan Jincheng not making any moves, and they appeared somewhat uninterested in the details of the subsequent activities.

(End of this chapter)