123: Indian market

The news Yu Chengbei received was correct; Red Star's overseas business was expanding rapidly. After the release of red star 3, Red Star had reached a partnership with India's largest e-commerce website, Flipkart.

Red Star products would be sold exclusively in India by Flipkart.

Naturally, the sales method would only be through online channels.

Less than a month after the release of red star 3, all preparations were complete. From November 11th to November 26th—a period of just over ten days—Flipkart's reservation page for Red Star had already received over 300,000 reservations.

For this, Lu Weiqi flew specifically to India to hold a small press conference.

In an auditorium, Lu Weiqi looked at the dozens of media reporters in the audience, held up the red star 3, and introduced it:

"The red star 3rd generation has the second-fastest charging speed in the world!"

"The red star 3 back cover uses in-mold transfer technology, and the grating texture back cover has an unparalleled feel."

"The red star bracelet supports a 30-day long battery life!"

"You don't even need to take it off while bathing in the Ganges River!"

"The kunpeng phone 2nd generation has the world's fastest charging speed!"

"A 5500mAh ultra-large battery!"

"Dual-camera Sony customized sensors and lenses!"

"128GB of ultra-large storage space!"

At this moment, Lu Weiqi was full of passion on the simple stage, as if he had returned to those days when he was developing overseas markets at Gionee.

It was also the first time the Indians had seen this mobile phone manufacturer from China. Under the reports of dozens of media outlets, a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer called Red Star soon entered the view of the locals.

Three days after Lu Weiqi held the press conference, the international version of the red star 3rd generation and the international version of the kunpeng phone 2nd generation officially went online on Flipkart for sale.

Obviously, the locals had not yet experienced the "flash sales" from China. The first batch of 50,000 units of the red star 3rd generation sold out in just 12 minutes. The reason it took this long was that even Flipkart hadn't expected Red Star Mobile Phone to be so popular; on the day of the sale, Flipkart's servers quickly crashed.

Some users hadn't even reached the checkout page before the items in their shopping carts were cleared, and some users were directly overcharged two or three times.

"Flipkart is terrible. Shouldn't they have announced in advance that a successful reservation doesn't guarantee a successful purchase?"

"With this kind of technology, they want to beat Amazon? Even if you, Flipkart, drink the Ganges River dry, I wouldn't believe it."

"Is this Red Star hyping things up? Now every media outlet is reporting news about Red Star."

"I have already purchased the red star 3rd generation. I am really sick of Samsung's slow charging speed!"

"With Red Star coming to India, I'm afraid those overpriced Samsung, HTC, and Sony phones will suffer a fatal blow!"

The pricing of the red star 3rd generation in India was not much higher than in China. The 2+16 special version, priced at 1,998 yuan domestically, was priced at only 2,198 yuan in India.

The 4+64 version was only 2,999.

However, for companies like Samsung and Sony, which were making money easily in the Indian market, this was already a price with super high cost-performance.

[The mobile phone that stunned India comes from China; an in-depth analysis of Red Star Mobile Phone 3]

[Obviously, Flipkart and Red Star's inventory cannot meet demand]

[Red Star Mobile Phone is hard to find; the next sale will be next time.]

[90% of the Indian market is offline; can Red Star, which only does online, succeed?]

Several mainstream media outlets in India, along with dozens of medium and small media outlets, were reporting in-depth on this Red Star Mobile Phone sale. They maintained great interest in this newly entered brand in India.

Many media outlets were not optimistic about the cooperation between Red Star and Flipkart. It should be known that in the Indian market, at least 94% is the offline market, while online only accounts for a 6% share. Selling the red star 3rd generation only online did not seem promising to them.

"Yes, the second batch must be over 100,000 units. Air freight, it must be air freight. We need to hurry."

"A batch of Kunpeng mobile phone must also be shipped over!"

The person in charge in India, Qi Ba, felt full of energy. This market was simply a blue ocean for Red Star!

After the first batch of 50,000 units sold out, Qi Ba immediately contacted the domestic office, wanting to hurry to ship another batch over. Slow sea freight was absolutely impossible; it had to be shipped by air to seize the market while the heat was still on!

This market, which is second only to China in population, although it only has over 100 million people (100 million people and 1.3 billion livestock), the purchasing power of these 100 million-plus people definitely cannot be underestimated. They are all high-caste Indians, belonging to the elite class, and possess strong purchasing power.

As for the remaining population market, it would naturally be left to the Shining Brand to handle.

After all, they are hundred-yuan phones!

Looking globally, cheap models always have the highest sales volume.

Faced with the situation that had already opened up in the Indian market, Chen Chen decided to make a quick profit first.

Sell as much as possible, and if the situation turns bad, run away decisively. Absolutely do not make deep investments there; this country is almost completely unreasonable and lacks rules.

If they say they will fine you, they will fine you; if they say they will fleece you, they will fleece you.

In the previous life, which company—Xiaomi, OV, or even Qualcomm—hadn't been fleeced by India?

It was just blatant fattening up for confiscation, an empty-handed white wolf strategy.

Therefore, Chen Chen did not intend to deeply cultivate the Indian market. As for building factories?

Building factories and investing is impossible!

If the signs are wrong, retreat immediately.

As for Xiaomi wanting to enter India in the future, let them come. Once they arrive here, Lei Jun will just be working for free for India.

When dealing with Indians, not to mention that what they say cannot be trusted, even what is written on paper cannot be trusted.

You can only believe five words and one punctuation mark—pay first, full payment.

Compared to the Indian market, although the European and American markets are also a group of people who don't follow rules, those companies also have businesses in China. If you are unreasonable, you need to worry about your assets in China.

Moreover, even future sanctions and trade wars would be within certain rules and not as insane as India.

"Mr. Lei, Red Star sold out 50,000 units of the red star 3rd generation in 12 minutes during its first sale in the Indian market. Should we also launch an export plan?"

Xiaomi's president, Lin Bing, holding the report he had just received, came to Lei Jun's office and asked.

Currently, in the competition for domestic market share, Xiaomi is completely no match for Red Star. Xiaomi also lacks offline channels and cannot enter the field to compete with OV for offline share.

Seeing that Red Star had achieved a good start in India, and was even using the "flash sale" model adopted by Xiaomi, Lin Bing started to have ideas.

Since I can't compete with you, Red Star, domestically, I might as well go overseas.

Lei Jun had not failed to consider going overseas. In fact, Lei Jun had already begun laying out business in India several months ago. For this, he had specially established a Xiaomi office in India, and a 32-year-old young Indian man named Manu became the general manager of Xiaomi's Indian company.

In the original plan, after the mi 3 generation achieved certain results domestically, they would choose to test the waters in the Southeast Asia market and the Indian market.

But the chip-swapping scandal and heating issues of the mi 3 generation forced this plan to be postponed.

Since Red Star has taken the first step now, Xiaomi cannot continue to fight to the death with Red Star domestically like this.

"Has Red Star also established a company in India?" Lei Jun asked.

"No, they are cooperating with India's largest e-commerce company, Flipkart. This company has exclusive sales rights for Red Star in India."

"It seems Chen Chen just wants to test the waters in India and hasn't specifically established a company."

After Lin Bing finished speaking, Lei Jun's eyes instantly lit up.

"That is to say, Red Star is only prepared to give sales rights to Flipkart and has no intention of deeply cultivating this market."

"India is now the country with the largest population besides China, and they are also developing rapidly. The potential of this market is absolutely huge!"

"As long as we, Xiaomi, grasp this market, its prospects are no smaller than domestic ones!"

"While Red Star has not yet completely established a foothold in India, we must act quickly to deeply cultivate this market!"

Lei Jun said decisively.

"Not only that, labor costs and some other costs in India are much lower than in our country." Lin Bing added.

"Contact Manu immediately; we also want to cooperate with Flipkart! Open up the Indian market as soon as possible."

At this time, Manu, who held the position of general manager of Xiaomi's Indian company, finally received news from the headquarters.

In the past few months, he had registered an entity company in India. Mainly, he had no choice but to register. Whenever he talked to applicants, people would ask: "What kind of company is Xiaomi? Where is your company?"

Manu could only bite the bullet and reply: "We are an entity company, but we don't have an entity yet. The company office hasn't been negotiated, so we can only work in a coffee shop."

Often, the conversation would end there.

When Manu had recruited enough staff and rented an office, there was no news from the headquarters. For a time, Manu didn't know which direction the company's business should develop, and this left Manu idle for nearly two months.

When he received Lin Bing's call, he almost blurted out: "My God, did you finally remember that Xiaomi still has a company in India?"

"I'm very sorry, Manager Manu. The headquarters has had some situations recently, but they have been handled. It is almost time for you to show your skills."

"Mr. Lin, what do you need me to do?"

Lin Bing on the other end of the phone said: "Didn't you already have some business contacts with Flipkart? I need you to contact Flipkart; we also want to sell Mi Phone on their website."

"Mr. Lei and I will fly to India in a few days. You are responsible for contacting media reporters; we will hold a small press conference to build momentum for the mi 3 generation."

Hanging up Lin Bing's call, Manu clapped his hands at the idle employees in the office and said: "Guys, let's get moving. The headquarters has given us a task!"

Manu acted quickly. In a few days, he reached an agreement with Flipkart and also contacted some small media outlets through their connections. It wasn't that he didn't want to contact those large media outlets; it was that even if he contacted them, they wouldn't want to come.

"Xiaomi? What kind of company is Xiaomi?"

"An agricultural company?"