Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Xucheng, Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park, Building 9.

Dusk settled in as a hazy gibbous moon climbed high into the sky. A cool evening breeze rustled the branches of the camphor trees.

Chen Yansen stood at the window, gazing at the brightly lit Building 6 across the way as he answered his phone.

”President Chen, 360’s new phone is all set! MediaTek MT6577 dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 4.5-inch IPS LCD touchscreen, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM, a Sony IMX145 8-megapixel rear camera, and it runs on Aurora OS 1.3. It’s only selling for 1699 yuan. Don’t you think sales are going to explode?”

Zhou Hongyi boomed, rattling off the core components in one breath.

”Sounds to me like you’re afraid the Xiaomi MI2 is selling too well and you’re rushing to spoil things for Lei Yijun.”

Chen Yansen let out a faint smile, the corners of his mouth curling up as he teased him playfully.

Anyone with eyes could see Zhou Hongyi’s little scheme: avoid the price range of the Orange C3 and Qingcheng D1S, and go head-to-head with the Xiaomi MI2.

And it was priced 300 yuan cheaper than the Xiaomi MI2!

Of course, Zhou Hongyi had cut corners on the chip, screen, casing, and battery. Factoring in the motherboard, radio-frequency parts, sensors, interfaces, and other components, Orange Technology’s supply chain prowess could bring the bill of materials down to around 900 yuan.

Even at a selling price of only 1699 yuan, after deducting costs for marketing, manufacturing, after-sales support, and shipping, there was still a 10% profit margin on the hardware.

”President Chen, you can’t blame me for this. Just because 360 and Haier teamed up for a custom phone, Lei Buqun hired a troll army to smear me online! In the end, the Haier W910 only sold 2,000 units, and the other 8,000 are still collecting dust in 360’s warehouse. Xiaomi can make phones, so why can’t 360? He’s such a tyrant!”

Zhou Hongyi snorted, offering his version of why he and Lei Yijun had a falling out.

’The Haier W910?’

Chen Yansen let out a wry laugh. ’Did Lei Yijun even need to smear you?’ he thought.

’The Haier W910 had terrible battery life, high system memory usage, and a black-screen rate of over 10%. Before the launch of the brilliant 360 G800 Pro, countless users online were flaming you. Are you telling me you never saw any of that?’

A businessman needed to be shameless and ruthless, and Zhou Hongyi had clearly mastered the art. Judging by his tone, he was the kind of person who could even lie to himself.

Chen Yansen couldn’t be bothered with his and Lei Yijun’s personal feud, so he changed the subject. ”Are you using the components from the bill of materials Cao Dahua gave you?”

He only cared about how much money Orange Technology could make from 360’s phone project. Besides the assembly fees, the revenue from component distribution markups, after-sales repair services, and patent licensing fees was also substantial.

”Yes, that’s right.”

Zhou Hongyi replied with a nod.

He knew that even if he cut out Orange Technology and bought electronic components directly from the suppliers, 360’s purchasing volume meant the final cost wouldn’t be much lower.

Thanks to its economy of scale, Orange Technology had long been one of the leading buyers in the domestic smartphone industry.

Although he knew Chen Yansen was making a killing on the component markups, there was nothing he could do about it.

Unless 360 Mobile Phone’s annual sales could reach the tens of millions, suppliers like Qualcomm, MediaTek, Sony, Jingdongfang, and Sharp would continue to quote them high prices.

”Send the specs to Cai Jingming at the Luzhou Factory. Just talk to him about the details of the manufacturing order,” Chen Yansen said casually.

”President Chen, 360 would like to get on Pinbei,” Zhou Hongyi added.

Selling exclusively on the 360 Mall would inevitably hurt overall sales. He hadn’t made any money on the 360 Shine, but he planned to turn a profit on this new 360 N1. That’s why he was thinking about expanding to third-party sales channels.

”I’ll start a group chat later and have the Pinbei team take it from there,” Chen Yansen readily agreed, open to any proposal.

”Thanks, President Chen. Next time you’re in Yanjing for the Internet Conference, I’ll be sure to thank you properly.”

Zhou Hongyi said, beaming.

In his eyes, the battle for the gateway to the mobile internet was a battle for smartphone market share. The more 360 Mobile Phones sold, the more influence they would have in the mobile era.

”No problem.”