128: Personnel changes

As more and more users received their ROC Phones, the Red Star brand began to gain traction on the internet in Europe; a single spark had seemingly started a prairie fire.

These users, who purchased the ROC Phone through offline stores or online, would share their experiences on local websites and forums after using it for a few days.

Furthermore, these people shared a common trait: when sharing their experiences, they used exaggerated tones to describe the unique features of the ROC Phone.

The system was smooth with dedicated optimization, the performance was excellent, the appearance was beautiful, and the hand-feel was very good.

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Most importantly, the battery life and fast charging received unanimous praise from all users.

"This is the first time I've experienced this super fast charging from China. Do you know how I feel? It's like a primitive man suddenly boarding a fighter jet! The speed is beyond imagination. Why did this fast-charging technology, which has already gone through several generations in China, only just arrive in France?"

"Not just the fast charging—do you know how excellent this phone's dual cameras are for photography? After I took a set of photos of Melinda with this phone, we had a wonderful weekend together. It was truly fantastic."

"I've really had enough of Fruit's sluggish charging! Tell me, is the ROC Phone's charging speed really that fast?"

"To the guy above, yeah, the speed is about 10 times that of your Fruit, maybe even faster."

As more reviews of the ROC Phone appeared online, more users became interested in this world's fastest-charging phone from China.

After all, based on the reviews, this Chinese phone was indeed quite good.

After selling 170,000 units in the first week, sales of the Kunpeng mobile phone gradually began to decline, but once word of mouth spread on the internet, sales instantly rebounded.

By the end of January, in just over three weeks, the 400,000 phones Lu Weiqi had prepared for the European market were nearly sold out.

During these few weeks, the hypermarkets selling the Kunpeng mobile phone offline made a fortune. Some hypermarket owners even replaced the Samsung Note 3 in the center of their promotional posters with the Kunpeng mobile phone.

The Kunpeng mobile phone was a hit in Europe!

It was truly a hit!

Having such sales less than a month after launch made Lu Weiqi feel emotional; this market expansion had required almost no effort at all.

Because of this, he flew back to China to oversee the next production run. However, it took at least a few days to ship a batch of phones from China to Europe. During this time, users in the European market would likely—probably, maybe, most certainly—have to experience what it felt like to have a stock shortage.

"The Kunpeng mobile phone has been launched in Europe?"

"Sold out in Europe in less than a month? For real? Another one of our mobile phone manufacturers has gone global? And it's a high-end phone?!"

That invisible wall always made domestic netizens slow to realize what was happening outside. A month after the Kunpeng mobile phone launched in Europe, the news reached China. Domestic users were surprised to hear that Red Star had quietly gone abroad.

And to Europe, of all places.

"It's true. A friend of mine is studying in Italy, and he told me that many mobile phone hypermarkets in Italy now have Kunpeng mobile phone posters. Oh, they don't call it the Kunpeng mobile phone abroad; they call it the ROC Phone."

"ROC and Kunpeng mean the same thing; it's just the translation for Kunpeng. I never expected this. It's always been foreign brands coming to China, but now we finally have another brand going abroad and facing the world!"

"Are there other brands? How come I haven't heard of them?"

"Are you an elementary student? Huawei is also an international brand, okay! They don't just sell in Europe; they also have a certain market share in the USA."

"Oh, I didn't realize Huawei was so impressive. I thought they were just another domestic manufacturer."

"Huawei is impressive in many ways. You should take some time to learn more about the company."

"Have you guys noticed? Why does the international version of the kunpeng phone 2 have fingerprint recognition, while our domestic version doesn't?"

"Is Red Star practicing double standards? Exactly. I just checked the specs; besides the international version of the system, it even has side-mounted fingerprint recognition!"

"@Chen Chen @Red Star Mobile Phone, are you practicing double standards? Why is the foreigners' configuration higher than ours? Are you trying to suck up to them on purpose?"

"To the guy above, are you stupid? Look at the starting price of the international kunpeng phone 2—550 Euros! That's nearly 900 yuan more expensive than in China. You call that sucking up to foreigners?"

"Ah, 550 Euros? Never mind then. But that fingerprint recognition is really useful. I hope Red Star releases an upgraded version for us soon."

"Haha, I never expected this. I really didn't. Foreigners finally have their day. I'm really looking forward to seeing their expressions when they use the super fast charging. Anyway, once I started using it, I could never go back."

At this stage, Lu Weiqi's main energy was focused on international affairs, while Chen Chen handled domestic matters. However, before leaving, Lu Weiqi had basically arranged many things, including the newly promoted Red Star Vice President, Shen Yiren.

In the last round of recruitment, while they didn't get the top talents Chen Chen wanted, they did manage to poach Shen Yiren, who was Xiaomi's brand marketing manager at the time. He joined Red Star almost at the same time as Yang Tuo.

Now, Yang Tuo had been promoted to Vice President of Red Star and President of Global Marketing, while Shen Yiren followed Lu Weiqi and reported to him. Chen Chen knew this person was also very capable and had originally intended to place him in the Red Star International Business Department to manage international operations.

However, Lu Weiqi said that Red Star's first step into the world was crucial, so he ultimately took charge personally. In this personnel change, Shen Yiren was promoted from Director of the Red Star Marketing Department to Vice President of Red Star, temporarily overseeing the mainland China market.

In the future, Shen Yiren's position would surely be adjusted further; Chen Chen planned to place him in the Red Star International Business Department. Lu Weiqi would continue to oversee the big picture at Red Star headquarters while stepping down as the head of the Shine brand, promoting the Kunpeng mobile phone's product manager to take over that role.

The ecological chain department was also reorganized into Red Star Internet of Things, the IoT Department. Zhang Feng was appointed as the general manager and promoted to Senior Vice President of Red Star, reporting directly to Chen Chen and Lu Weiqi.