Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

’What’s more, every Redmi 1 will come equipped with Aurora Future OS 1.0. Unlike Zhou Hongyi, who’s playing both sides, I’m betting big this time, going all-in on supporting Orange Technology’s in-house OS.’

Seeing that Lei Yijun knew how to play ball, Chen Yansen returned the favor. Leveraging his position as a major shareholder in Jingdongfang and Desai Battery, he helped Lei Yijun get the bill of materials down to 520 yuan per unit.

In reality, after factoring in production, shipping, after-sales service, and marketing costs, Xiaomi wasn’t even making a 5% gross margin on the hardware.

The lion’s share of the profit was going straight to Orange Technology!

Lei Yijun was well aware of this, but his hands were tied. With Xiaomi’s current shipment volume, there was no way he could negotiate the same supply prices that Orange Technology received.

The bargaining power you have with suppliers when ordering a few million units a year is vastly different from when you’re ordering tens of millions.

’Let Zhou Hongyi be smug for a few more days!’

’Once the Redmi 1 launches, I’ll give him a hard slap in the face!’

Lei Yijun narrowed his eyes, stewing in his thoughts.

Seeing no reaction from Lei Yijun, netizens couldn’t help but flood his comments section. ”President Lei, Zhou Daqiang just dropped a new phone. Don’t you have anything to say?”

”President Lei, can Xiaomi win this round?”

”Just say something! If you don’t respond, Sect Leader Zhou’s one-man show will be no fun.”

Plenty of people were trying to fan the flames.

Before, watching the two of them trade insults online had started to feel a bit old.

Now that they had stopped fighting, the netizens were actually starting to miss it.

Lei Yijun couldn’t even be bothered to look at the comments. He was determined not to say a single word until the Redmi 1 launched.

「Meanwhile.」

When Zhou Hongyi saw that Lei Yijun wasn’t taking the bait, he grew suspicious. Knowing Lei Yijun, he would never just swallow his pride and stay silent. ’Is he drafting a long-winded takedown piece?’

At this thought, Lao Zhou grew excited, already plotting how he would clap back to generate even more buzz.

To his surprise, by midnight, there was still no activity on Lei Yijun’s Weibo or Toutiao accounts.

His plan foiled, Zhou Hongyi thought for a moment before deciding to call him out directly by name: ”President Lei, giving up on the sales competition? You scared?”

He then waited another half hour, but there was still no response from Lei Yijun. Even the notoriously hot-tempered Li Wanqiang was completely silent.

’Did they actually chicken out?’

Zhou Hongyi wondered in confusion.

He didn’t know much about Xiaomi’s new product.

But he was certain Chen Yansen knew. Zhou Hongyi had tried to probe for information, but Chen Yansen hadn’t revealed a single thing.

Instead of being angry, Lao Zhou was actually pleased.

It meant that Chen Yansen was a man of principle who understood professional boundaries. If he wouldn’t reveal Xiaomi’s product information, then he surely wouldn’t leak 360 Mobile Phone’s business secrets to Xiaomi, either.

Zhou Hongyi was very satisfied with this.

「The next day, May 26」

The 360 F1 went on sale right on schedule. The first batch of 100,000 units sold out in just over nine hours.

This included 10,000 units of the Aurora Future OS edition of the 360 F1.

The success of the 360 F1 once again proved a simple truth: for a budget smartphone, as long as it has a large screen, takes clear photos, operates smoothly, and doesn’t lag, it will win the favor of the market.

It was a crude but effective strategy, no fancy tricks required.

At 8:00 PM that night, less than a minute after the in-stock listing for the 360 F1 was taken down, a new pre-order link went live.

Customers placed orders in a frenzy. On its launch day, a total of 144,000 units were sold. While this couldn’t compare to the Qingcheng D2, it was enough to easily place 360 Mobile Phone among the top ten smartphone brands in the country by shipment volume for 2013.

The following morning, Chen Yansen led Gao Weilin, Meng Yun, Song Yuncheng, and others to Yanjing. They were there to attend the 2013 Global Mobile Internet Conference and, while they were at it, Xiaomi’s new product launch event.

After all, the Redmi 1 was only the second smartphone in the world to come fully equipped with Aurora Future OS. For the sake of his own ecosystem’s expansion, Chen Yansen had to make an appearance to support Lei Yijun.