Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3203 Hearing Aid

This matter is settled.

However, we have to wait for the official signing of the contract.

We’ll talk about it in June!

Alibaba is currently struggling with the possible selling pressure that may come with the expiration of the stock lock-up period. If the news of Alibaba entering the football industry is released at this time, it will be a huge negative for the capital market.

For this purpose, Boss Ma has to go to Wall Street again to inform the capital institutions there, just in case.

This kind of thing can be dangerous if stock prices plummet.

If things go wrong, you might get sued by American shareholders.

People bought your stocks, and then you invested blindly, causing the stock price to plummet, causing huge losses to investors, and you must pay real money to them. When listed in China, listed companies can do whatever they want, even if they cook the books, and there will be no major punishment. No one cares about the rights of shareholders.

This won’t work in the U.S. stock market.

The logic of the US stock market is to share excellent companies so that more people have the opportunity to share the dividends of the company's growth. If you share losses instead of dividends, this goes against the logic of the US stock market and you may get into trouble.

The point is sharing.

The logic of the domestic securities market is to pool investors' money and provide financing to outstanding companies, thereby solving the dilemma of many companies that have difficulty in obtaining loans but need funds for development.

The focus is on playing the financing function.

Boss Ma is going to the United States, and Zhou Buqi also wants to go.

Astar is going to IPO.

This is the thing that Zhou Buqi has been most concerned about recently. Many times he has to do it in person, so he called Zhou Shaoning and went straight to New York with their financial team to meet with the top leaders of Nasdaq.

For Nasdaq, Boss Zhou is truly an old acquaintance and old friend.

In the past few years, Boss Zhou has been able to send two or three big projects to Nasdaq every year. The New York Stock Exchange is envious and jealous, and has contacted Boss Zhou many times, wanting him to bring high-quality projects to the New York Stock Exchange.

But Zhou Buqi is loyal and his first choice is still Nasdaq.

With this relationship, the listing process will be much easier.

Zhou Buqi is a big airplane.

There is more than 30 people in two teams, which is more than enough and there is enough space.

Boss Ma actually didn’t quite understand it, so he asked during a casual chat on the plane: “In my opinion, Estar still has a lot of room for growth, right?”

"good."

Zhou Buqi nodded.

Zhou Shaoning was very honest. "If we only look at the mobile phone business, there is not much room for growth. In terms of sales, Asda is already the world's number one. In the field of mid-to-high-end phones, there are two major competitors, Apple and Samsung. It is probably difficult to gain a larger market share. The biggest growth point is actually low-end phones."

"The cheaper the goods, the greater the profit!"

Boss Ma has expressed similar views a long time ago.

The more expensive the product, the less profit; the cheaper the product, the more profit.

It mainly depends on market size and sales volume.

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "Then why did Alibaba shift its strategic focus from Taobao to Tmall?"

Boss Ma said: "Consumption upgrading is a major trend."

Zhou Buqi did not refute him, and said: "Mobile phones are different. The profit of cheap phones is too thin. It is more of an ecological construction. Especially the lawsuit initiated by Ericsson has cut off the possibility of MediaTek's chip export. The profit of low-end phones overseas is even lower."

"MediaTek chips cannot be exported?"

Boss Ma doesn't know much about the mobile phone industry.

Zhou Buqi said: "It is possible to go overseas, but you have to pay a lot of patent fees. Who can afford it? It is better to buy Qualcomm chips directly. It is okay if it is a mid-to-high-end chip like Samsung or Apple, but low-end chips are out of reach."

"It's no surprise that you're in trouble."

Boss Ma nodded. This was in line with his logic. When a company is developing at its fastest speed and has the best momentum, it should not go public easily. This would be a big disadvantage. Only when there are some possible development risks and the momentum may slow down, should it seek to go public, and then use the strong relationships in the capital market to fight against future risks.

Alibaba chose to go public last year with such considerations in mind.

Because the data has already shown it.

The emergence of micro-businesses also brings them strategic risks.

As expected, some problems have emerged in the domestic capital market this year, and the development of the Internet industry may slow down in the future.

Zhou Buqi said: "If it's a problem, it's not that serious."

Zhou Shaoning smiled and said: "The smartphone market is not yet saturated, but the growth rate will definitely not be as fast as in the past few years. If Astar wants to maintain its industry advantage, it needs to make breakthroughs in other areas. We will launch a new product in May, which may lead the trend."

"Oh? What product?"

"earphone."

"Headphones?" Boss Ma was very curious. "What trend can this lead? Smart headphones?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Yes, smart headphones."

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Boss Ma was a little amused. "I can still understand smart watches. After all, watches also have a display screen and can integrate many Internet functions. Aren't earphones supposed to be plugged into the ears? What functions can they have?"

"Bluetooth headset." Zhou Shaoning was very confident and pointed at Zhou Buqi. "He is the chief product manager. He designed it."

Boss Ma was very surprised, "You came out of retirement?"

Zhou Buqi hesitated for a moment and said, "Oh, by the way, I'm working on a public welfare project, a super large project, no worse than the desert afforestation project you're doing. I'm trying to find a way to solve the hearing impairment problem in China and even the world."

"Ok?"

Boss Ma opened his eyes wide.

Zhou Buqi said: "Hearing impairments are mainly divided into two types. One is a real physiological problem, which is very troublesome and requires surgery and cochlear implants. This set of procedures will cost at least hundreds of thousands of dollars. A few days ago, I looked at the data and my team has successfully performed more than 8700 surgeries, all for children under the age of 5. These hearing-impaired children, if they receive surgery at a very young age, will not affect their future ability to speak, and they can live like normal people."

"I've heard about it, too. This is a big project." Boss Ma admired it from the bottom of his heart. "This is a good thing."

"Serve the people."

"It should."

"But this is not enough." Zhou Buqi continued, "Some hearing impairments are acquired, such as being hit, having otitis media, or having a perforated eardrum. Even as people age, they will have some milder hearing impairments. They can hear, but they need the other person to speak very loudly in order to hear them, which actually has a certain impact on their lives."

Boss Ma's heart was moved. He understood what he meant. He wanted to combine headphones and hearing aids.

Even Zhou Shaoning looked shocked.

Boss Zhou had never told him this idea!

He thought that this headset, named AsterPods, was just a Bluetooth headset that can be connected to a smartphone and has good sound quality. He didn't expect that there was such a big idea behind it. This is really amazing!
It really fits Boss Zhou’s style!
Zhou Buqi said: "I have learned that the principle of this kind of external hearing aid device is actually very simple. It is nothing more than using headphones to collect external sound signals, and then amplify them and transmit them to the eardrum. But many hearing aids nowadays are expensive, have few functions, and are not portable enough. The most important thing is that they are not beautiful when worn out, and for many young people with mild hearing impairments, it is also related to their dignity."

Boss Ma thought what he said was very good. "Yes, the public often treats people with disabilities as monsters. Even if you don't have a discriminatory mentality, you may hurt them just by looking at them a few more times."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Yes, just like black people, the psychological inferiority formed by years of disadvantaged status is simply incomprehensible to people in a dominant position."

When you meet a disabled person or a black person on the street, the best thing to do is to treat them like a normal person, just glance past them or not even look at them.

If you can't help but look a few more times, even if there is no discrimination, this curious behavior will cause psychological harm to people.

For many older people, who have more experience, are more mature and accustomed to it, it may not be a big deal.

Young people may not be able to accept it.

I feel like I am different from others, like I am a monster.

If a young person goes out with a hearing aid, it will inevitably attract a lot of curiosity and observation, which will make them uncomfortable. But it is different if they wear AsterPods headphones. Young people all over the street are using this Bluetooth headset, either to listen to music or make phone calls.

Hearing impairment can be cleverly hidden in the crowd by using a pair of headphones.

Boss Ma praised: "This is what technology should do."

"That's just one aspect." Zhou Buqi smiled. "It's hard to solve a problem that's too big. In the future, we'll see if we can solve hearing and vision problems for humans. With today's engineering technology and artificial intelligence, it's really possible to solve the problems that have plagued humans for thousands of years."