56: Progress of the ecosystem

"Cheng, are you really leaving?"

Cheng Wenfei looked at Raphael Lawrence, who had stopped him again, and said, "Lawrence, I have already decided to return home. I am sorry to decline your offer to stay."

Cheng Wenfei had worked in the laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania for nearly ten years. He already had plans to return to his home country, and with the invitation from his old classmate Zhou Yaobo, he finally decided to return to China.

"Cheng, our research institute at the University of Pennsylvania has world-class scientific research and experimental conditions. Forgive my bluntness, but if you decided to work for big companies like Fruit, Texas Instruments, or Amazon, I would never try to keep you. But what artificial intelligence research does China have right now?"

"In my opinion, that place is simply a desert for scientific research. As for Red Star Company, I have never even heard of it."

Hearing this old foreigner speak this way, Cheng Wenfei suppressed his anger and replied:

"Lawrence, even if China is a desert for artificial intelligence research, I have decided to go back. Even in a desert, I will turn it into an oasis step by step. Please do not try to persuade me further."

"Alright, Cheng. I still want to urge you to reconsider calmly. With your research in the field of artificial intelligence, you really shouldn't go back to China."

"Sorry."

Cheng Wenfei ignored Professor Lawrence and walked straight outside.

Since he had made his decision, there was no need to hesitate!

Chen Chen showed great importance to Cheng Wenfei's arrival, leading Lu Weiqi, Dr. Zhou, and other Red Star executives to greet him at the airport. His salary and benefits were set to the top tier, and things like housing were prepared without hesitation.

On the car ride back from the airport, Cheng Wenfei looked at the city flying past the window and couldn't help but sigh, "The changes in the Beijing over the past decade or so are truly immense."

"Yes, when I came back a few years ago, I marveled at how much our China has changed. You're staying for good this time, right?"

Listening to Dr. Zhou's words, Cheng Wenfei smiled and continued:

"I'm staying. I have no ties left in the USA. I, old Cheng, am all alone now, and I'm ready to sell these old bones of mine to Red Star."

The two were originally classmates who went to the United States for further studies after graduating from Imperial Capital University. However, after graduation, Dr. Zhou chose Texas Instruments, while Professor Cheng chose to stay at the university.

Speaking of the past, both were somewhat emotional, constantly talking about the fun times they had while attending school in the Beijing.

"Old Cheng, I remember back then you were talking about something like digital immortality. How is the research going now?"

Facing Dr. Zhou's teasing, Cheng Wenfei didn't feel any dissatisfaction. Instead, he slapped his thigh and said:

"Don't mention it. Back in school, my ambitions were higher than the sky. Only when I actually started doing it did I realize there are countless difficulties. According to my ideas, our current computing power would probably require the use of all the supercomputers in the world to provide enough power."

"Haha, Old Cheng, if I'm ever gone one day, you can upload me to the internet. Then you'll still have someone to chat with when you're free."

As they spoke, the driver had already slowly driven the car into Red Star's science and technology park.

"Director Zhou, Professor Cheng, we have arrived."

Upon arriving at the company, Chen Chen wanted Cheng Wenfei to settle in first, but he didn't expect him to be such a workaholic, eager to understand his position and the development progress of Xiao Ai.

"President Chen, your father personally went to the USA to invite me years ago. At that time, I had no intention of returning home. Now, the older I get, the harder it is to leave my homeland. From now on, I'll be retiring here at Red Star."

"Professor Cheng, please don't say that. It is our honor to have a technical giant like you join Red Star. I'll have to trouble you to put more effort into our smart speakers."

With Cheng Wenfei's joining, Chen Chen's heart finally settled. His ecological chain plan had already unfolded; smart fans were already on the market, sweeping robots would be off the production line soon, and things like desk lamps and air purifiers were under intense development.

The control center on the mobile phones had long been developed, just waiting for the hardware to fill in and form a closed loop.

Others might not know the trend of the Internet of Everything, but Chen Chen knew.

Hardware would be connected with the phone as the center. The phone would be both a remote control for these devices and a supercomputing center. Ubiquitous screens would all be interconnected, allowing for mutual synergy and dialogue between any two screens.

Then there would be all kinds of smart home devices with a unified industrial design style, all of which would be able to connect to the internet.

Red Star, which had made strategic deployments long ago, now had a TV team of more than 30 people working at China Star and Foxconn to polish the first Red Star TV. The ecological chain department led by Zhang Feng was also constantly carrying out product development and investment work.

The investment method was also very aggressive and blunt, which could be considered a very unconventional type of investment. Under Chen Chen's instructions, they didn't look much at business plans but focused on the potential of the products and teams.

If a team and product met Red Star's requirements, Red Star would invest in them. One way was to directly acquire the team as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Another incubation method was for Red Star to acquire more than 50% of the shares but not participate in company management.

This was also to prevent the situation that happened in his previous life with Xiaomi, where they only invested without holding a controlling stake. In that case, after an ecological chain subsidiary grew large by relying on the Xiaomi brand, they would want to go solo, and some even produced products that didn't support Xiaomi's own system.

Another incubation method was also being carried out simultaneously: the company would propose product requirements, and the ecological chain department would incubate them by establishing separate product teams. Although this method was slower, it wouldn't escape the company's control.

Sometimes Zhang Feng and his team could finalize an investment in some companies in less than an hour. In his words, it was full of a surreal flavor.

This was also easy to understand. Since they were startup teams, drawing big pictures was meaningless as the market was not yet fully mature. Red Star was essentially learning from the Xiaomi of his previous life—doing incubation and using Red Star's resources to help these small companies and teams grow.

At the end of April this year, Zhang Feng, who had recently taken over the ecological chain department, successfully invested in a nearly bankrupt enterprise—Huaheng Electronics. When he received Zhang Feng's plan, Chen Chen couldn't for the life of him remember when China ever had such a company making smart wearable devices.

It wasn't until Huaheng's founder, Huang Wang, brought samples to Red Star that Chen Chen realized—wasn't this the Huami from his previous life?

The one that made the Mi Band.

Chen Chen instructed them to suspend other product developments and go all out to develop a wristband priced under 100 yuan. It would be best if it could be mass-produced before September, and he guaranteed that sales would definitely exceed one million units.

Chen Chen didn't know the name Huaheng, but he was all too familiar with Huami. Back then, that 69-yuan wristband swept the country, racking up millions in sales.

It took nearly 9 months for the first generation of the wristband to reach a million sales, but the second generation took only 2 months, the third generation took only 17 days, and the fourth generation took only 8 days. As a result, the Mi Band eventually occupied more than 45% of the wristband market, with cumulative sales being the highest in the world.

And all these wristbands were made by Huami before it split from Xiaomi. It took only two years for a nearly bankrupt enterprise to become a company selling tens of millions of products annually.