Chapter 251 East Wind Overwhelms the West Wind
"Isn't this putting too much pressure on the design department?"
Su Yuanshan looked at the draft expansion plan for the factory and the next-generation product report that Duan Yongping had drawn up. Even for someone as daring as him, seeing such ambitious future development plans made him feel a bit uneasy.
"There is definitely a lot of pressure," Duan Yongping nodded honestly, "and maintaining quality and taste under that pressure makes it even harder. But, President Shan, people are often at their best when pushed to their limits..."
"According to international market research, outside of the domestic market, the entire mobile communications industry is rapidly shifting toward GSM. It's no exaggeration to say that, in the international market, what's limiting the expansion of mobile communications isn't the consumer's wallet but production capacity. Right now, Siemens, Nokia, Motorola, and even Xinghai are all expanding their production!"
At this point, Duan Yongping's eyes burned with enthusiasm.
"Therefore, if we can expand production capacity while simultaneously perfecting our pricing system, offering impressive design and technological upgrades, it's entirely possible for us to capture the international market!"
Su Yuanshan glanced at Chen Jing, who was standing nearby, smiling brightly, clearly agreeing with Duan's analysis. Su Yuanshan then laughed and nodded.
"Alright, I admit it, I was being narrow-minded, mainly focusing on the domestic market."
He spoke with genuine sincerity. Indeed, when planning for Yuanxin's mobile phones, he had always focused on the domestic market, somewhat overlooking the international opportunities.
The reason was simple: he understood just how enormous domestic purchasing power would be once it was fully unleashed.
When it came to the international market, what he valued most was the fundamental infrastructure—base station facilities.
As long as a solid foundation was laid during the GSM era, the transition to 3G and 4G in the future would naturally follow.
Chen Jing and Duan Yongping both laughed at his comment.
Chen Jing blinked mischievously and teased, "Some comrades here are a little biased."
Su Yuanshan was startled. "Where am I biased?"
Chen Jing chuckled. "Xinghai's mobile phones are selling quite well, you know."
"Ahem..." Su Yuanshan cleared his throat. "Alright, I confess. That might be part of the reason. But if you say I'm biased toward Xinghai, I must deny it. Anyone with clear eyes knows I favor Yuanxin. Carly has complained to me many times, asking why Yuanxin leads the base station design while Xinghai has plenty of capable people too!"
Chen Jing just smiled, knowing she had only been teasing. As Yuanxin's CEO, she was well aware that Su Yuanshan clearly favored Yuanxin.
Even though Xinghai's financial reports were nominally handed to the offshore Xinghai Investments, in reality, they were handed directly to Yuanxin.
Officially, the two companies were "sisters," but Yuanxin was undoubtedly the elder sister calling the shots.
After they finished their playful exchange, Duan Yongping continued,
"Now, about production capacity—I've done a rough calculation in coordination with President Jiang. Including Zhongxin, our current mobile phone production line outputs about 150,000 units per month. Once the new production line construction is completed, it will reach 200,000 units. However, even that needs to be doubled."
"While expanding production, we'll have enough leverage to negotiate with the Special Economic Zone government. That three thousand mu of land... should rightfully be ours."
"Alright," Su Yuanshan nodded.
Duan Yongping laughed.
"President Shan, if we secure that land and expand production, it will require a lot of money."
"Not enough money?" Su Yuanshan looked at Chen Jing in surprise.
"I remember we had a lot of surplus last year, right?"
"Because this year's expenses are even higher," Chen Jing immediately returned to a serious tone when discussing finances.
"Aside from R&D investments, there's also the money-eating semiconductor fabrication plant, plus the over $200 million in orders you signed off on in April. Not to mention the land we purchased in the capital for infrastructure construction... You must know that infrastructure construction is extremely costly nowadays."
"Also, in terms of base station construction, we haven't recovered costs yet this year—we've already lost nearly a billion."
"Uh, so... is it enough or not?" Su Yuanshan started getting a little nervous. Ever since selling EDA, he hadn't worried much about money.
"If we grit our teeth and move forward, it's enough. But our ability to resist risk will become much weaker." Chen Jing, seeing his guilty expression, smiled and added,
"If the phones don't sell well, this year could be a very poor year, and it would also impact next year's R&D budget."
"Alright then..." Su Yuanshan let out a long sigh of relief.
"You scared me. For a moment, I thought our capital chain was about to snap."
Chen Jing: "..."
Duan Yongping: "..."
Su Yuanshan said, "As for the base station investments, don't worry. We'll recover a lot by the end of the year. The better the phones sell, the faster the base station payments will come in."
"You seem really confident about Mobile Communications."
"No, it's not that I'm confident in Mobile," Su Yuanshan laughed,
"I'm confident in the country."
"If they dare not pay me, I'll go stage a sit-in at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications!"
Currently, Mobile and Yuanxin were operating with a high degree of mutual understanding: Yuanxin was not urgently demanding payment, and Mobile was not rushing to pay, both sides focused entirely on desperately building out infrastructure.
To Su Yuanshan, seeing his small butterfly effect lead the country to a leadership position in mobile communications applications was immensely satisfying. He was willing to lose money temporarily to help Mobile build the base stations.
Again, only he knew just how explosive future consumer spending power in this country would become.
...
Two days later, Duan Yongping returned to the Special Economic Zone with the completed two-year mobile phone development plan.
At the same time, good news came from the Special Economic Zone again.
Su Yuanshan logged into EM and accessed account 10001 given to him by Pony.
Pony's name was highlighted and flashing.
Su Yuanshan clicked on the messages.
"President Shan, EM's concurrent online users in North America have broken ten thousand!"
"So many users tried downloading that the server we set up in Silicon Valley crashed!"
"Not only did our server crash, but even Xinghai's backup download server almost went down!"
"Also, cumulative registrations have exceeded fifty thousand!"
"President Shan, is this a major success or a minor achievement?"
Reading Pony's messages, and noting the timestamps that showed he had sent them rapidly one after another, Su Yuanshan could almost imagine Pony's excitement.
How long had EM been online? About half a month...
Fifty thousand users in half a month...
Su Yuanshan narrowed his eyes slightly, let out a slow breath, and a smile gradually spread across his face.
Frankly, even in the later, more developed internet era, a brand-new product reaching fifty thousand registered users in just half a month would be newsworthy!
Not to mention now, when the internet was still in its infancy!
He thought for a moment, then slowly typed word by word in the dialogue box.
"Very good, truly remarkable."
"This counts as a major success."
"And, it signifies something."
Su Yuanshan narrowed his eyes again, paused for a few seconds, then continued typing:
"This signifies that Eastern internet thinking has surpassed the West."
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