191: Chapter 191 Southeast Asia Survey

"Your phones only have dual SIM dual standby. Transsion can do eight SIMs with eight standbys; in Africa, there's simply no comparison..."

"And your sales team is incredibly stupid."

Speaking of this topic, the agent couldn't help himself; he angrily pointed at President Choi's face:

"It's because of the stupid things your salespeople said. Now, it's not just your flagship stores; our shops, as long as they have the Samsung logo hanging up, are being frantically smashed and looted.

We can't keep running them; we really can't keep running them.

President Choi, please have mercy and hurry up and return this stock. I really don't want to get beaten up anymore."

"Hiss... Ouch..." The shop manager suddenly shrieked in pain again.

President Choi just patted him on the shoulder, but the agent's roar became even louder.

President Choi apologetically put his hands together, but still said with difficulty:

"The issue of returning orders requires head office approval. Please wait a moment. I will do my best to help you secure medical expenses."

[Agent: Since I got beaten because of Samsung, shouldn't covering medical expenses be a given...]

...

South Korea, Samsung Electronics Headquarters.

Lee Kun-hee looked at the Africa sales report and was once again left speechless.

Transsion Power3, first-week sales: 470,000 units.

Samsung new model, first-week sales: 62,000 units (including 48,000 Feature phones).

It didn't even reach a fraction of Transsion's numbers. He threw the report on the ground.

"Multi-SIM multi-standby... is it really that important?"

President Choi quickly explained: "President, it really is that important. This was designed by Transsion specifically for Africa; users over there truly need multiple SIMs."

Lee Kun-hee looked at him: "Why didn't we think of it?"

President Choi thought for a moment, hesitating, not knowing what to say. After all, not every country is as chaotic as Africa.

If you tried to do this multi-SIM thing in any other country, it definitely wouldn't be a legitimate business.

Seeing him remain silent, Lee Kun-hee stood up: "Withdraw, shall we?"

"Chairman?"

"The Africa division, withdraw it. Research again, prepare again, especially that Beauty Algorithm.

Don't think that just because you don't say anything, I don't know that this failure happening so quickly has everything to do with that Beauty Algorithm.

That employee who messed things up, handle them properly... they must pay the price."

Lee Kun-hee also clenched his fists. This batch of stripped-down phones would once again have to be digested by the South Korean public.

He believed that for the sake of Samsung, they would understand.

After President Choi left, Lee Kun-hee picked up another report and shook his head again.

"Transsion, they really do understand Africa better than them."

...

Guangzhou, Transsion Headquarters.

The "sea of devices" strategy once again proved its effectiveness. These few new phone models directly brought Transsion's monthly sales in Africa to 8.7 million units, a 3.5% jump compared to last year.

Shen Fei looked at these figures and couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear. Li Qing reported from the side: "General Manager Shen, Samsung has withdrawn again."

"They will come back, unless they snipe us in a new market."

"Boss, they've already failed twice, will they still come back?"

Shen Fei nodded.

"Samsung won't give up on Africa, but next time they won't be so reckless."

"But by that time, the Africa market will already belong to us. Oh, right, speed up the progress in Southeast Asia."

"Boss, the inspection time has been set, but for you to go personally..."

"There is another mission this time."

Li Qing nodded; she understood...

...

On May 11th, Shen Fei and his entourage chartered a plane to Jakarta.

They were expected to land at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta.

Very coincidentally, in the distance on the tarmac, a cargo plane was unloading goods. Judging by the logo on the boxes, it was Samsung.

Seeing those boxes, Shen Fei smiled; the little punk, we meet again.

"General Manager Shen, the car to pick us up has arrived."

Li Qing's words pulled Shen Fei back to reality, and he nodded. The person next to him immediately took his luggage.

This time, coming to Indonesia for the inspection, he didn't bring many people. Among the high-level staff, he only brought Li Qin, the head of the publicity department, and Wang Hua, the head of the marketing department.

This time was just to scout the market first; there was no need to bring so many miscellaneous personnel.

As for the rest... they were all specifically selected security team members.

The Africa security team had even specifically selected a group of elites to conduct site reconnaissance in advance.

"General Manager Shen... the situation here is a bit different from the Africa market, so General Manager Huang had someone arrange a meeting with Chen Group in advance, at 3 PM, at their headquarters. However..."

"However, what?"

"The person who answered the phone had a tone that was... how should I put it, not very enthusiastic."

Shen Fei didn't say anything, just sat in the car; it seemed someone wanted to play the local warlord again.

Indonesia was like China in the early years; motorcycle armies shuttled back and forth here too. The street they were inspecting had decent commercial development, with phone shop signs one right after another.

Nokia, Samsung, BlackBerry... very quickly, Shen Fei spotted a familiar color.

"Is that Gionee?"

Shen Fei remembered a familiar old acquaintance, who was also jokingly called by netizens the number one person under Lei Jun.

Lu Weibin; he should still be at Gionee now.

Wang Hua looked in the direction of Shen Fei's gaze: "Yes, Boss, Gionee phones are expanding very aggressively in Southeast Asia.

MediaTek solution, low cost, flexible pricing.

Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines—their advertisements are everywhere."

"Besides that, are there any other domestic manufacturers, like G'Five, ZTE?"

G'Five's shipment volume in Southeast Asia and India last year was extremely astonishing, at one point becoming a top 10 global player.

They mainly sold ultra-low-priced MediaTek Feature phones, following the same path as Transsion in Africa.

It's just that their path was more purely reliant on MediaTek, without considering the future.

"What's G'Five's market share like?"

"It exists, but it's mainly concentrated in India. Here in Indonesia, G'Five's share isn't as good as Gionee's."

Shen Fei nodded and didn't say anything; he was thinking about how to get Lei Jun to willingly head to the India market.

After all, if a copycat manufacturer could rely on the India market to become a top 10 global player, Lei Jun shouldn't pass up this opportunity. This was his "land of rising dragon."

After more than 40 minutes, they finally arrived in South Jakarta, the gathering place for the ethnic Chinese business district.

Compared to the fragmented areas before, there were many high-rise buildings here.

The Chinese influence increased significantly; for example, the restaurants by the roadside all hung Chinese signs, and the pedestrians on the road spoke Mandarin with a Southern Min accent.

The Chen Group's headquarters was on this street.

It was a 38-story building, with the four large characters "City International" standing on the roof. It was even more imposing than the Transsion building back home.

"Quite the display." Li Qing muttered.

Several of them walked into the lobby; the receptionist was a local Indonesian girl with a standard smile, but it carried a hint of aloofness.

"Are the three of you from Transsion Technology? Please wait a moment, I will contact General Manager Chen's secretary."

This wait lasted 40 minutes. They arrived at 3 o'clock sharp, but it wasn't until 3:40 that someone came down to receive them.

It was a young man wearing a white shirt. As soon as he came up, he introduced himself; Chen Jiahao was the nephew of Chen Group Chairman Chen Zhengguang.

"Sorry for keeping you all waiting. My uncle has an emergency meeting this afternoon and couldn't get away temporarily."

Chen Jiahao said he was sorry, but there wasn't a hint of an apologetic expression on his face.

"You all should come to my office to sit for a while first."

Wang Hua frowned; they weren't even being let into a conference room. But Shen Fei knew what was going on and said calmly:

"Then we shall impose."