65: Internet Conference

Huo Kuan was a bit shocked when he received the report about Red Star making power strips, but he didn't pay it much mind.

So what if a phone seller makes a power strip?

How many offline channels do you have? Even if you sell it openly online, how much can you actually sell?

It's just small-time business.

So, after the initial shock wore off, Huo Kuan didn't take it to heart.

After the press conference ended, the power strip was officially listed on the Red Star Mall as well as the Tmall, JD, and Pinduoduo stores. Netizens showed explosive enthusiasm for such a product.

The world has suffered from the poor aesthetics of power strips for too long!

"President Lei, are we still going to make our power strip?"

Lei Jun gave a bitter smile. Of course they would. Why wouldn't they? They had already invested a lot of money into it; wouldn't giving up now mean throwing that money down the drain?

Doing it would definitely not be as sensational as Red Star's, and a similar design might even get them labeled as copycats.

I really have to hand it to this Chen Chen. I just had the idea and invested a little money, and you already have the finished product out?

Does this mean I should do it or not?

"President Lei?"

Seeing that Lei Jun didn't respond, the product manager called out again.

"It's fine, you guys keep working on it. Just pay attention to the appearance; as long as netizens don't say we're copying, it's fine."

"Alright then."

The product manager was also helpless. Their design had already been finalized and mold production had started, only for Red Star to release their product directly.

Coupled with Lei Jun's suspicious gaze as she left, she was now starting to wonder if she was an inside mole.

Just as the person in charge of the power strip left, Lin Bing walked in and said:

"President Lei, should the Hongmi Note still be priced at the normal rate? Right now, we have the meizu blue note below us, the Brand X1 at the same price point, and the Shine Note above us. We're in a very passive position."

Speaking of this, Lei Jun felt an even bigger headache. He had scheduled his press conference for the last day, thinking he could catch the other companies off guard. He hadn't expected that in the end, he would be the one getting surrounded and suppressed.

As for Zou Hongyi's Dashen series, he didn't take it to heart at all.

Lei Jun gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "Lower the price by another 100. At the 1099 and 1199 price points, we won't have to face Red Star head-on. That Huawei Brand X1 is nothing to worry about. Also, our Mi 2A will have a synchronized price cut of 100."

The hongmi 1 was still in a loss-making state. He had hoped that making a large-screen Hongmi Note could bring in a bit of profit in the large-screen segment. Now, multiple companies were piling up to release large-screen phones.

And each one was undercutting the price more ruthlessly than the last.

Xiaomi had fan marketing, but the problem was that Red Star's marketing wasn't bad either. As for Meizu, they were the grandmasters of hunger marketing and the fan economy.

Under the constant tagging of netizens, the fourth contestant did not choose to hold a live press conference, but instead held an online conference on the internet.

The first model of the Dashen series was the Dashen F1. This phone's screen reached a staggering 6.2 inches, making it stand out as the largest among this group of phones.

In terms of configuration, there wasn't much new; it still had a true octa-core processor. As for the battery, it reached an insane 4000mAh, which was also the largest among the four phones.

After all, a larger screen required a larger body size, and a larger body naturally allowed for a larger battery.

As for charging, it was in the bottom tier at only ten watts. It would probably take four or five hours to fully charge this 4000mAh battery.

The price wasn't expensive either, at only 1299. Aside from some users who were truly interested in ultra-large screens, most others basically ruled out this phone.

The screen was too big—it was almost beyond the era's standards of 'big'.

There was no full-screen design yet. With the forehead and chin plus a 6.2-inch screen, the overall phone size was much larger than the 6.2-inch full-screen phones of later generations.

Early the next morning, Shen Rou brought yesterday's sales report to Chen Chen.

"After we opened the reservation channel yesterday afternoon, the number of reservations for the Shine Note reached 490,000."

"Power bank sales saw significant growth, increasing by 39% compared to the previous day, reaching over 8,000 units."

"Our Red Star electric fans can now be categorized as a hit product. Over 20,000 units were sold in just one night. Currently, the factory has ramped up production to full capacity."

"What about the power strips?"

Compared to the electric fans and power banks, Chen Chen was more concerned about the sales of the power strips.

In his previous life, after Xiaomi's power strip hit the market, it sold 250,000 units on the first day and reached a million sales within a month; it was an undisputed hit product.

He had copied the design and specifically introduced it at the press conference, so the sales volume shouldn't be too bad either.

Shen Rou flipped a page and continued:

"Regarding the power strips, as of 8:00 AM this morning—a total of 17 hours—310,000 units have been sold across all channels. This morning, Director Zhang Feng added an order for another 200,000 units."

"Hmm, 200,000 units is still a bit low, but Zhang Feng surely has his own reasons for adding 200,000. Tell him that the first month's sales for this power strip will likely be in the millions. Tell him to be mentally prepared so he doesn't get scolded by netizens again."

"Alright. Also, a notice came from above. An Internet Conference will be held in Wuzhen on August 12th. The organizers would like to invite President Chen to attend. Do you think we need to prepare the itinerary in advance?"

"Internet Conference? Who else was invited?"

Chen Chen felt quite unfamiliar with this conference. After all, he was just a nobody in his previous life; how could he have attended a conference of this level?

"There's also Jack Ma, Mr. Ma of Shenzhen, Xiaomi's Lei Jun, 390's Zou Hongyi, Li Dongqiang, Baidu's Sun Yanhong, and other heads of well-known companies."

After thinking for a long time, he realized he really didn't have much of an impression of this conference, but Chen Chen decided to go and see for himself.

After all, since his rebirth, he had mostly been active within the small circle of Red Star and had basically no interaction with those big shots. It would be good to go and broaden his horizons and get to know them.

It was just that Red Star was clearly a manufacturing company, so why was it being classified as an internet company?

At Company, Huo Kuan found the marketing manager waiting for him early in the morning. He looked very nervous, which made Huo Kuan a bit curious.

"Xiao Zhang, is there something important so early?"

"President Huo, Red Star released the sales data for their power strips this morning. I thought it was necessary for you to see it immediately."

"Sales data?"

Taking the report from Manager Zhang, Huo Kuan's expression changed drastically after a quick glance.

"310,000 units? How is that possible?"

"It really is 310,000 units. And that's just the data from the end of their press conference yesterday until this morning—about a dozen hours. If it's the data for the full day, it'll probably be even more exaggerated."

Huo Kuan put down the document with a serious expression and sat in his office chair, deep in thought.

A sales volume of 310,000 units in a dozen hours was simply non-existent in the entire power strip industry. If it did happen, it would only be when distributors were stocking up in large quantities.

But that couldn't truly be called sales volume, as it hadn't reached the consumers yet.

"According to your analysis, how much impact will Red Star's power strip have on us?"

Huo Kuan asked the marketing manager.