37: Ecosystem Chain Plan

"The low-end model is 3,000, and the high-end model is 3,300."

Chen Chen slowly announced the prices of the Kunpeng mobile phones. Although these distributors were still somewhat dissatisfied, they didn't say anything more.

One could say that this Kunpeng mobile phone was fully loaded with various configurations, featuring a global debut for its charging and screen technologies. Being able to offer this price showed that Red Star was very sincere.

The low-end model offered a profit of 500, while the high-end model offered 700. This profit margin basically reached the levels offered by OPQO and VLVO, two manufacturers that specialized in the offline market. This was also an expression of Red Star's sincerity in cooperating with distributors.

The total cost for the Kunpeng mobile phone this time was 2,900 yuan for the low-end model and 3,200 yuan for the high-end model. Chen Chen was willing to give most of the profit to the distributors, as he wanted to rebuild the offline channels.

If a mobile phone manufacturer wants to go further, it must see the future development trends of mobile phones and also learn to yield profits. Yielding profits to consumers helps build one's reputation; when it's time to make money, everyone makes it together. Only then can such a business last long.

This was also something Chen Chen learned from Lei Jun. Lei Jun only invested in acquaintances when doing business. Even with Xiaomi, despite having enough capital to invest alone, he still looked for partners and investment institutions to work together.

The online market is a big cake, but isn't the offline market an even bigger one?

Back when Xiaomi encountered a bottleneck in its online development and wanted to expand offline, it found that OPQO and VLVO had already been cultivating the offline market for years and were making a fortune.

Currently, Red Star doesn't have enough capital to build its own offline stores, and Chen Chen doesn't have enough energy to develop the offline market himself.

If Red Star wants to develop the offline market and promotion, it can only choose to cooperate with these distributors.

After all, in the current market, cooperating with distributors and operators is the fastest way to develop offline.

The Kunpeng mobile phone and Red Star series chose to cooperate with distributors, so for the upcoming Shine series, the focus must be placed on the online market and operators.

The price and cost are right there.

If a phone costing a few hundred yuan still wants to have a profit of one or two hundred?

Would the resulting phone even be usable?

"I hope we have a pleasant cooperation this time."

"Rest assured, everyone, our production capacity will increase this month. I will definitely deliver the goods to you before the end of the month."

"In the future, if there's anything, contact Red Star's CEO Lu directly. He will be responsible for our offline channel business. I believe everyone is probably not a stranger to CEO Lu."

"Hello everyone, I am Lu Weiqi. I will be responsible for interfacing with you in the future. We are all old friends, so everything is easy to discuss."

"CEO Lu, easy to discuss, easy to discuss."

These distributors had dealt with Lu Weiqi more than once or twice; they had interacted with him quite a bit when he was at Gionee.

They didn't expect Lu Weiqi to have jumped ship to Red Star now.

The cooperation with the distributors this time could be said to be very smooth. Although the hongxing 2nd generation didn't have such a high profit, it had enough popularity to bring a lot of foot traffic to the stores.

With the Kunpeng mobile phone reserving such a high profit margin, the various distributors were naturally willing to continue cooperating with Red Star.

After seeing off the distributors, Chen Chen smiled and said to Lu Weiqi,

"Old Lu, I'll have to trouble you more in the future, haha."

"I think you recruited me just to work me to death. I'm currently in charge of the Shine mobile phone, the company brand, and the offline distributors. Even a donkey in a production team isn't used like this!"

The bespectacled Lu Weiqi also joked with Chen Chen while laughing.

"The more capable one is, the more work they do. I'll give you a raise later."

"By the way, Old Lu, if you know any suitable managers, you can introduce them to Red Star. Relying on yourself alone won't work. When our business grows a bit more, I'm afraid you really won't be able to handle it all.

We are short on talent!"

Speaking of this, Chen Chen suddenly felt a bit of regret for firing too many of the company's management. But as for regret, just thinking about it was enough; if he had really kept those people, he would probably regret it even more.

The two were talking as they walked, and just as they stepped out of the elevator, they ran into a hurried Lu Weibing.

"Xiao Chen, I was just looking for you. I've gotten in touch with Zhang Feng, the general manager of Inventec I mentioned to you a few days ago."

"Oh? What did he say? Did he agree to come to Red Star?"

"Zhang Feng didn't say explicitly, but he's willing to come to our company to take a look. We'll talk with him together then!"

"Good, if Zhang Feng can join us, we'll have a leader for the new project!"

Chen Chen pumped his fist excitedly.

"New project? What new project? How come I don't know about it?"

Lu Weiqi was very curious listening to their conversation. The company hadn't started any new projects recently; moreover, as the CEO of Red Star, he should definitely be the first to know about any new projects.

"It's like this, CEO Lu. I only have a preliminary idea right now that hasn't been officially implemented yet—it's the Ecological Chain Plan."

"Ecological Chain Plan?"

"What is that?"

Lu Weibing and Lu Weiqi asked simultaneously.

"I plan to invest in and incubate a batch of subsidiaries and products within the next two years. They will mainly be responsible for our Red Star peripheral products, using the Red Star brand for sales and operations. At the same time, we'll start pushing our 'Human-Car-Home Integration' plan."

"The initial plan is to start with common small items like power banks, desk lamps, and power strips, then gradually expand to small household appliances, and then to common household appliances like TVs and air conditioners. Using gateways and WiFi, all these devices will be connected to our phones. The phone will act as a control and computing hub to achieve the Internet of Everything."

"Originally it was just a smart home plan, but I feel that within the next ten years, new energy vehicles will become a new trend. The screen in the car will be the final link in our Human-Car-Home Integration. As long as we complete this closed loop, Red Star will always remain invincible."

Chen Chen briefly explained his plan. He spoke easily, but it made the two listeners gasp.

The plan couldn't be described as anything but grand, but it was definitely full of difficulties.

"In other words, in the future, we will not only involve ourselves in household appliances but also make our own Red Star cars?"

Lu Weiqi narrowed his eyes and asked seriously.

"Exactly. New energy vehicles are definitely a huge trend in the next ten years. This year, the country has plans to introduce Tesla into China, wanting it to act as that catfish to promote the development of our own new energy vehicle industry. In this regard, Red Star must definitely plan ahead."

Lu Weiqi had also heard about Tesla entering China. He had been planning to order one before, but hearing that it was entering the Chinese market and wouldn't need to be imported as an original unit anymore, he decided to wait a bit longer.

A president's money doesn't just blow in with the wind!

The three talked as they walked, and under Chen Chen's intentional guidance, they arrived at the Chip Research Institute in the Red Star Industrial Park.

The current Red Star Chip Research Institute already had over 200 Engineers, which in Chen Chen's view was far from enough.

"We still need to recruit more talent for the chip industry."

Lu Weibing smiled bitterly. "Xiao Chen, it's easy for you to say, but finding professional chip industry talent is easier said than done."

"This team was originally top talent recruited from all over the country by your father with great effort. Dr. Lu was only persuaded to join Red Star after your father flew to the USA three times."

With over half a year of effort, Lu Weibing had only expanded the team by a few dozen people, barely reaching two hundred in total.

The scale was already large for many Chinese enterprises, but for big companies like Huawei, Fruit, and Samsung, a two-hundred-person team was not worth mentioning.