I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 109 Mr. Lei, I'm sorry, I still want to make a mobile phone

"Good morning, Mr. Chen!" Seeing Chen Yansen coming in, he greeted him with a smile.

"Mr. Li, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. Should we talk about cooperation first or take a tour first?" Chen Yansen asked as he stepped forward.

"Let's finalize the game joint venture first. Mr. Lei is in a meeting and will come over later." Li Wanqiang explained.

"Okay." Chen Yansen nodded in response.

Several people walked into the elevator and went directly to the floor where the marketing department was located.

Then he entered Li Wanqiang's office. He asked his assistant to call an employee in charge of channel docking and show Song Yuncheng Xiaomi's profit sharing information for third-party promotion channels.

Xiaomi acted as the publisher, with a spreadsheet listing hundreds of popular games, all individually negotiated by the marketing department. Some games offered commissions of up to 70-80% of the top-up amount, with a commission of 5-12 yuan per registered user.

Of course, FoxTao cannot get such a high proportion, but Li Wanqiang gave a base of 40%-50%, which shows that he attaches great importance to the FoxTao channel.

The settlement cycle is every half month, which is very sincere.

Chen Yansen didn't dwell too much on the profit sharing. He gave Song Yuncheng a slight nod and sent the electronic version of the contract to the legal department for review.

If there are no problems, the contract will be signed on the same day.

"The R&D center is upstairs. Can I take Mr. Chen for a look?" Li Wanqiang suggested.

"Then I'll trouble you, Mr. Li." Chen Yansen smiled and walked towards the elevator with Li Wanqiang.

Song Yuncheng stayed and was responsible for following up on the subsequent cooperation process.

With a ding sound!
The elevator door opens!

An office area of ​​several hundred square meters appeared before him. Li Wanqiang pointed to the front and said, "This is the MIUI development team. We update the system every week based on user feedback."

Chen Yansen only had a superficial understanding of development, but he understood that in order to develop a mobile phone system, he had to know what kind of talents he needed to recruit.

He asked very detailed questions in this regard. When Li Wanqiang introduced the core R&D personnel of the team, he pulled them aside and asked what computer languages ​​and system frameworks they needed to master to do this job.

I even found out the programming languages ​​and development tools they used.

Li Wanqiang looked skeptical. He couldn't understand why Chen Yansen, an entrepreneur who was engaged in e-commerce shopping guide, was asking these technical questions.

If Lei Yijun were there, he would definitely see a similar expression on Chen Yansen's face as when he first visited Meizu.

Li Wanqiang pondered it for a while and thought that Chen Yansen was just curious about the technology, so he didn't delve into it any further.

Then he was shown the industrial design sketches of the Xiaomi phone, but the only information he could get was about the appearance, materials, and colors.

At this stage, Xiaomi was still integrating its supply chain, and core components such as screens, processors, and batteries had mostly not been finalized, so Chen Yansen could get very little information.

However, after some understanding, Chen Yansen had a clear understanding of making mobile phones: there are many links, from industrial design, structural design, hardware design, software development, to supply chain management, and finally building sales channels.

Chen Yansen is the best at sales, so you don’t have to worry too much.

But in terms of technology, Li Wanqiang was more knowledgeable. From software to hardware, Chen Yansen listened carefully and took note of the general idea.

He concluded that if he wanted to make a mobile phone, he really had to recruit an experienced expert from the industry to have a chance of success.

There must be reliable people in charge on both the product and procurement sides for the project to proceed smoothly.

Otherwise, if there is a problem with the supply chain, the project will fail.

It was not until eleven o'clock that Lei Yijun arrived, accompanied by a thin middle-aged man wearing glasses. After the introduction, he learned that the other party was Xiaomi co-founder - Lin Bing.

They found a conference room and sat down to discuss the matter. During the discussion, Lei Yijun mentioned that he would hold a brand-specific event on FoxTao after the Xiaomi phone was launched.

"Jun'er doesn't have enough confidence in himself."

Chen Yansen thought to himself that it was a little funny.

You should know that after the Xiaomi mobile phone was launched on the market, the pre-order volume reached 30 units in 34 hours, far exceeding Xiaomi's production capacity at the time.

"Mr. Lei, why don't we sign the contract first?" Chen Yansen suggested with a smile.

Selling mobile phones has limited profits, but it can increase FoxTao’s revenue, which is very helpful for the next round of valuation increase.

"But Xiaomi doesn't even have an engineering version yet." Lei Yijun smiled awkwardly, feeling warm in his heart at Chen Yansen's enthusiasm.

"It's okay, I trust Mr. Lei." Chen Yansen waved his hand, not giving Lei Yijun a chance to hesitate.

When Chen Yansen left Xiaomi, he took with him a 10 million yuan brand promotion contract, of which 1000 million yuan was for advertising and 400 million yuan was commission for the phones. The contract stipulated that Xiaomi would provide 600 units of inventory within six months.

Lei Yijun calculated that the return on investment was at least 20%.

This made him feel a little guilty, as if he had taken advantage of Chen Yansen. When he saw Chen Yansen off, he kept calling him "brother".

"If Jun'er can't deliver the goods, I'll use the contract as leverage. I wonder if he'll turn against me."

Chen Yansen narrowed his eyes and waved goodbye to Lei Yijun.

After the two left, Li Wanqiang suddenly realized what was going on and whispered, "Boss Lei, I took Chen Yansen to visit the R&D center this morning, and he asked very detailed questions."

"Do you think he can make a mobile phone?" Lei Yijun asked back, not taking this matter to heart at all.

The mobile phone industry is very different from shopping guide e-commerce. The mobile phone industry is an asset-heavy and technology-heavy field, while shopping guide e-commerce is an asset-light model.

The two steps of industrial design and supply chain integration of a mobile phone alone usually take a year.

An outsider like Chen Yansen has neither technical accumulation nor supply chain resources. Let alone manufacturing a smartphone, even making a copycat phone with a ticker tape is not an easy task.

In 2011, the domestic mobile phone market was an era where copycat phones and branded phones coexisted.

Chen Yansen remembers that at that time there were brands such as Tianyu, Bird, Newman, Big Coke, Big Pineapple and DOOV. Even the God of Songs Jacky Cheung endorsed a domestic mobile phone called Gao Xinqi.

But in the end, only a few can win, and most of them fall into the ditch of time until no one is left.

Chen Yansen sat in the car, thinking about how Xiaomi made its fortune. Unlike other mobile phone manufacturers, Lei Yijun had no intention of making a profit from hardware from the beginning.

He focuses his profit on three aspects: pre-installed apps on new phones, app stores, and game franchises, making money from the software level.

Take pre-installed apps for example. The pre-installed price of each app is 0.5-2 yuan. If you install dozens of apps on a mobile phone, you can earn 20-50 yuan.

The advertising and revenue sharing revenue from the app store should not be underestimated either.

Not to mention game joint ventures, the commission rate for some games reaches 70%-80%.

For a smartphone priced at 2000 yuan, the software revenue alone can exceed 200 yuan over a three-year service life, which is much easier to make a profit than hardware.

After all, the phone is expensive, and users can notice it when they buy it.

"Unfortunately, I have no money!"

After thinking for a long time, Chen Yansen sighed and murmured to himself.

(End of this chapter)