Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 746 The end of the era, the decline of an iconic market
While Nanshan Special Steel is expanding its territory in various "hidden champion" fields, many companies in the entire Nanshan system are also undergoing various changes.

Among them, Honor Mobile and Nanshan Semiconductor, both affiliated to Honor Technology Group, which Cao Yang has always attached great importance to, have had many big or small things happen.

Since Honor Mobile began to produce computers, smart watches and other products, it was a bit inappropriate to continue to call it Honor Mobile, so it was simply renamed Honor Technology Co., Ltd.

In terms of size, Honor Technology Co., Ltd. is the largest company under Honor Technology Group Co., Ltd.

This is also evident from the company's name.

HONOR WATCH, which was launched on the market for the first time this year, has performed very well since its launch.

Now its sales are on par with HONOR PAD.

Even its appearance caused a huge shock to the entire watch industry.

"Mr. Cao, our smart watch sales are currently very good, and we have found a special additional profit plan."

Xia Qingqing can be said to be in high spirits during this period.

"The cost of selling these patterns is basically negligible, and it is almost pure profit."

In the past two years, taking advantage of the rapid development of smartphones, many copycat manufacturers in Huaqiangbei have made a lot of money.

Cao Yang was very aware of these changes.

"However, the main reason for this decline is not caused by MediaTek, but the copycat phone manufacturers in Huaqiangbei, which seems to have quickly turned into a sunset industry."

Who doesn’t like making money?

"Once the first purchase of a pattern occurs, the user will often continue to purchase new patterns later on."

However, it is precisely because the development speed of smartphones is so fast that various manufacturers have begun to increase related investments.

This is already the level of a proper second-tier star.

"For another example, we can design some background patterns in different styles such as landscape paintings, ink paintings, and oil paintings, and we can also integrate some of our car appearance and other information into it."

"If you sell a HONOR WATCH, you can earn dozens of yuan in revenue from pattern sales every year. When the number of smart watches reaches a certain level, the revenue will be very considerable."

"Are there other semiconductor manufacturers competing with us for orders, or is the copycat manufacturer in Huaqiangbei not working anymore?"

"Mr. Cao, our sales of mobile phone chips to Huaqiangbei through Yingang Trading have declined significantly in recent months."

"For example, this year is the Year of the Dragon, then you can design a series of Year of the Dragon patterns as the dial background."

In case your home is robbed and you don’t even know it.

As soon as Xia Qingqing finished speaking, Cao Yang probably understood what she meant.

"What additional profit plan?"

Therefore, even if Cao Yang already had some guesses in his mind, he still wanted to confirm them again.

That is to say, there are always weirdos in the Nanshan system.

Honor Technology will report the sales of smart watches every week, so Cao Yang knows it well.

Nanshan Semiconductor's sales will decline for no other reason than these two reasons.

However, since Zhang Jing came to report, he must also listen to the situation carefully.

As a result, competition has naturally become much more intense.

"The emergence of low-priced smartphones such as Xiaomi and OPPO has made the advantages of Huaqiangbei's copycat phones disappear instantly."

Cao Yang, who recognized this plan from the bottom of his heart, naturally agreed without any hesitation.

Under normal circumstances, there is an order of magnitude difference between the number of fans of an entrepreneur and that of a celebrity.

Xia Qingqing had just left Cao Yang's office when Zhang Jing came over again.

"Other semiconductor manufacturers, mainly MediaTek, have always wanted to compete with us in the Huaqiangbei market."

"If you think this plan is good, then implement it as soon as possible."

This seems to be similar to selling skins in later generations of King of Glory.

However, he was a little curious about the other profit plans Xia Qingqing mentioned.

"According to our preliminary estimates, at least one-third of users will purchase new patterns."

People can make a lot of money selling skins, so this plan of selling dial backgrounds should also make money.

Although Huaqiangbei is not Nanshan Semiconductor's only market, it occupies a relatively important position in terms of low-end chips.

However, the news he reported was not particularly good news.

As a well-known "strong woman" in the domestic workplace, her popularity is not low at all.

On Weibo, her number of fans has exceeded 1000 million.

"Currently, there are only a few default dial backgrounds. We can specially design a series of more distinctive dial backgrounds."

Xia Qingqing continued to report her plan.

"At that time, you can directly purchase related patterns in the Honor Health APP, and the price does not need to be very expensive, just 9.9 yuan each."

"According to this development trend, the number of chip sales to Huaqiangbei this year will be lower than last year."

……

"This iconic market of China's electronics industry has officially entered a period of decline."

Zhang Jing gave his judgment with certainty.

This information was given by Nanshan Semiconductor after careful confirmation.

So he was very sure.

"The decline of Huaqiangbei is basically inevitable. After all, strictly speaking, many of their copycat practices are walking in a gray area and even infringe on the patents of many companies."

"Shenzhen City has also stepped up law enforcement in this area in the past two years."

"Of course, as you said, Xiaomi, Huawei and other mobile phone manufacturers have launched cost-effective smartphones. This should be the main reason for the decline of Huaqiangbei's copycat phones."

"If we can plan ahead and focus on Southeast Asia or Africa, we can still survive."

"Otherwise, we will have to completely withdraw from the stage with the decline of copycat phones."

Cao Yang thought of Transsion at this time. Although they were also developed in Huaqiangbei, they began to transform overseas before smartphones became popular.

I have to say that the leaders of Chuanyin are quite powerful in this regard.

The money spent by Nanshan Investment will definitely double its profits in the future.

"Now for our mid-to-low-end chips, we are cooperating with domestic independent brand mobile phone manufacturers as much as possible to see if we can get them to give up Qualcomm and MediaTek products and buy from us instead."

"OPPO and VIVO already have a willingness to do this, but Xiaomi doesn't have any interest yet."

"As for Warwick, most of them design their own products and then hand them over to our foundries for manufacturing, so the space for expansion is relatively limited."

Taking this opportunity, Zhang Jing reported to Cao Yang the business development plan related to mobile phone chips.

Although Nanshan Semiconductor started with automotive-grade chips, its business in the automotive field is also continuing to develop and grow.

But the fastest growing category is actually mobile phone chips.

Whether it is the chips used by Honor Technology itself or the chips sold externally, they have made considerable contributions to the development and growth of Nanshan Semiconductor.

"If there are difficulties in business expansion, it means that our chip performance is not advanced enough."

"Just imagine, if all parameters of our chips are ahead of our competitors, then even if there is no price advantage, some manufacturers will take the initiative to seek cooperation with us."

"Whether it is Xiaomi or Warwick, it is possible that one day it will become proactive."

"But if our chips simply have a price advantage and are worse or similar in performance than others, then each manufacturer's considerations will be different."

Cao Yang obviously still hopes that Zhang Jing will continue to improve the chip level of Nanshan Semiconductor.

In recent years, Nanshan Semiconductor has burned tens of billions of yuan every year.

There are two specialized communities in Magic City and Yangcheng, both of which are used to house overseas experts from Nanshan Semiconductor.

"Well, that's true."

"We at Nanshan Semiconductor have slowly passed the stage of starting from scratch and are about to start to the next stage."

"According to the current development speed, it is estimated that our chip process technology will have a new breakthrough next year."

Zhang Jing felt Cao Yang's expectations, but at this time he was no longer under so much pressure.

All the businesses of Nanshan Semiconductor have been on the right track.

At this time, no matter where you want to make a breakthrough, it is not as difficult as imagined.

"Cooperation with various universities can continue, and our own talent cultivation cannot stop. Of course, the recruitment of talents must also continue."

The most cutting-edge chip technology is still in the United States.

Even if you don't want to admit it, there is nothing you can do about it.

Therefore, Cao Yang has been asking headhunters to go to various companies to recruit people.

The one with the best results is NVIDIA.

Once Nvidia was acquired by Nanshan Semiconductor, many people were poached by Nanshan Semiconductor.

Later, people who were recruited to NVIDIA through Nanshan Semiconductor also returned to Nanshan Semiconductor one after another this year.

So even if Nanshan Semiconductor was forced by the United States to sell Nvidia, it actually gained a lot of benefits from this business.

Of course, although Nvidia was forced to sell out, Nanshan Semiconductor also set up its own team to develop GPUs.

It can be said that Nanshan Semiconductor is now a competitor with Nvidia.

The GPUs used by Honor Technology are all produced by Nanshan Semiconductor itself.

The competition between the two parties will become increasingly fierce in the future.

"Relevant departments are still very supportive of the semiconductor industry. Many key universities have also added chip-related majors or expanded their enrollment."

"I think in another five years, China's domestic semiconductor talents will be able to basically meet its own needs."

Zhang Jing has been engaged in semiconductors all his life and has a very good understanding of the development of the entire industry.

In his opinion, now is the best time for China to develop semiconductors.

Various application opportunities and various policy supports are very strong.

"Our new factory in Yangcheng will be put into production soon. At that time, we can further consider setting up a brand new factory in the imperial capital."

"The talent advantages of the Magic City and the Imperial City are still very obvious. Some people just want a certain city. If we don't have business there, it will be much more difficult to recruit people."

In the past year, with the continuous introduction of China Semiconductor Support Policies, more and more cities want to attract investment in Nanshan.

Not to mention those who found Cao Yang directly, there were already several groups who hoped to convince Cao Yang after finding Fang Sisi.

Considering the talent advantage of the Imperial Capital, Cao Yang plans to place the next generation semiconductor factory in the Imperial Capital.

By then, three strongholds will be formed in Imperial Capital, Magic Capital and Yangcheng, and then one R&D center will be set up in Japan, Silicon Valley and Europe to attract talents according to the situation. This layout will basically be enough.

"I just want to report to you about the commissioning ceremony of the new factory in Yangcheng. Many people from Lingnan Province will attend, as well as many people from the ministries and commissions."

"I've asked Director Mi to help you make appointments on your schedule."

"Why don't you take five minutes to go on stage and say a few words that day?"

"Otherwise, with so many leaders participating, it would be a bit bad if you didn't take the stage."

Although Zhang Jing is an academic talent, as the general manager of Nanshan Semiconductor, he is not that kind of nerd. If he really was a nerd, Cao Yang wouldn't be able to put the company in charge of him.

"Okay, let's go and say a few words."

Cao Yang thought for a moment and agreed to Zhang Jing's proposal.

After all, there were so many leaders participating. If Cao Yang didn't come on stage, it would be a bit embarrassing for many people to come on stage and talk for a long time.

And while Cao Yang and Zhang Jing were discussing the decline of the Huaqiangbei market, MediaTek was also struggling.

"Luo Li, why have our mobile phone chip sales dropped instead of rising in recent months?"

Cai Mingjie stared at Sales Department Director Luo Li with an unkind expression.

MediaTek has invested a lot of R&D resources in developing new products in recent years, and Cai Mingjie has focused most of his energy on R&D.

But the corresponding harvest is not very ideal.

"China's mobile phone chips are currently mainly produced by Qualcomm, Nanshan Semiconductor, Huawei HiSilicon and a few of us. Among them, Nanshan Semiconductor's market share has increased the fastest."

"Our largest market was originally the copycat mobile phone manufacturers in Huaqiangbei, and more than half of them use Nanshan Semiconductor."

"The remaining mobile phone manufacturers continue to cooperate with us, but their competitiveness has dropped significantly. Recently, several copycat manufacturers have closed down."

"This is the main reason for the decline of our mobile phone chips."

Luo Li explained a little aggrievedly.

It’s not that their sales department didn’t work hard, it’s that the customers didn’t live up to their expectations.

Obviously my number of customers has not decreased, but my sales have been declining.

To a certain extent, the decline of Huaqiangbei's copycat mobile phone market is the end of an era.

MediaTek once enjoyed the biggest dividends from Huaqiangbei's copycat phones. Now that the market has declined, the dividends are naturally gone.

"Didn't those copycat phones sell very well in the past two years?"

"Why is it declining so quickly now?"

Cai Mingjie can't understand why the world changes so fast.

Two years ago, he felt that Huaqiangbei's copycat mobile phones would completely change the pattern of China's mobile phone industry.

But now according to Luo Li, Huaqiangbei is completely out of control.

"The various mobile phone manufacturers in China are really too busy."

"For example, Xiaomi's mobile phone, which costs more than one thousand yuan, has about the same performance as Apple's mobile phone which costs several thousand yuan."

"Domestic brands such as OPPO and VIVO are also developing rapidly."

"Lenovo is constantly lowering prices in order to maintain its market share."

“Today’s smartphone prices have successfully fallen into the starting price range of less than 1000 yuan.”

"This led to the complete collapse of Huaqiangbei's copycat machines."

"After all, their original main price range is around 1000 yuan."

"Now that there is no price advantage, no brand advantage, and even no performance advantage, it is inevitable that sales will plummet."

As the sales director of MediaTek, Luo Li still has this vision.

Of course, even though she clearly saw this change, she herself felt that the change was too fast.

She still likes the days before where nothing much changes throughout the year.

She even missed the peaceful life of her childhood.

"According to your statement, then Nanshan Semiconductor's sales in Huaqiangbei have also dropped significantly?"

Cai Mingjie asked a question that he was very concerned about.

In his view, Nanshan Semiconductor is MediaTek’s main competitor.

There is no one like that.

If his opponent's life is also difficult, then his mood will be much better.

Just like stock trading, if everyone falls, even if you fall a little less, you will be in a good mood.

But if you fall and others rise, then your mood will be completely different.

Even if the latter kind of decline is not as big as the previous one, the mood will be worse.

This is human nature.

"Yes, Nanshan Semiconductor's sales in Huaqiangbei have indeed dropped a lot."

"Even their decline will be greater than ours, because their chips are supplied by copycat manufacturers that produce smartphones."

“And the one that’s been hit the hardest is smartphones.”

Luo Li gave her answer with certainty.

This made Cai Mingjie breathe a sigh of relief.

However, Luo Li then said something else, "Over there in Huaqiangbei, there is a company called Transsion. They used to use our chips, but later switched to Nanshan Semiconductor."

"They have vigorously developed overseas markets in the past two years. I heard that their monthly mobile phone shipments have now reached 300 million units."

This news suddenly made Cai Mingjie feel bad again.

Although the emotional family Nanshan Semiconductor also suffered misfortune in Huaqiangbei, the development of Transsion they supported was very good.

As for Honor Technology, Nanshan Semiconductor's main customer, Cai Mingjie didn't want to think too much about it.

Because the more you think about it, the worse you feel.

He was powerless to change the situation.

"It seems that we need to further promote the improvement of chip technology and let more manufacturers realize our cost-effectiveness."

"Otherwise, if Nanshan Semiconductor seizes the market like this, our life will be very difficult in the future."

As a technology geek, Cai Mingjie was not discouraged at this time.

Of course, his idea is very good, but it is hard to say whether it will be realized by then.

……

"Cousin, fortunately we have already started to expand the market for polar bears and other countries, otherwise life would be very difficult now."

As soon as Hu Ying got off the plane, he came to Huaqiang City in Yangcheng to meet Guo Shuyin.

In the past year, he has spent almost half of his time traveling.

Now Nanshan Semiconductor has become the largest mobile phone chip supplier in Polar Bear.

These are the results of Yingang’s trading efforts.

"This market is indeed changing too fast."

"According to this trend, there is no need to wait until next year. In December this year, the sales volume of mobile phone chips in Huaqiangbei is expected to drop to less than 12 million."

"Two years ago, this number was 1000 million."

Guo Shuyin is also a little frightened now.

Fortunately, his main business is auto parts. Yingang Trading only made a casual investment, and the cost has long been recovered.

"There is no way. Although the mobile phone market has not become smaller, it has even become larger."

"But the advantages of Huaqiangbei's copycat phones are quickly lost."

"In this case, a collapse in sales is inevitable."

Hu Yingang is in contact with mobile phone manufacturers every day, so he is very aware of the changes in the industry.

The previous rise of Huaqiangbei was partly due to the ugly appearance of various domestic giants.

But any better mobile phone is not priced below 2000 yuan.

Cheap and has no features.

However, many consumers hope to buy a mobile phone with full functions at a price of about 1000 yuan.

In this way, the emergence of Huaqiangbei's copycat mobile phone factory can satisfy this part of the market very well.

"Will the polar bears be like Huaqiangbei in the future?"

Guo Shuyin was like a frightened bird, feeling that he needed to be prepared now.

"Unlikely."

"The situation of polar bears is completely different from ours. The competition among their domestic mobile phone manufacturers is not so fierce."

"Besides, they are not as diligent as us. The launch cycle of a new mobile phone is at least half as long as ours."

"This is a good thing for our chip trade."

Hu Yingang is now very familiar with polar bears.

In the past year, he has had many in-depth and simple exchanges with the Mao girls there.

He would choose polar bears as the focus of the future development of Yingang Trade. This was determined after careful consideration and various inspections.

"Don't put your eggs in one basket."

"The polar bear market must be developed, and the markets in Southeast Asia and South America must not be left behind."

"Otherwise, one day the polar bears will decline like Huaqiangbei, and your Yingang trade will be in trouble."

Guo Shuyin reminded Hu Yingang quite seriously.

He still has feelings for this cousin.

After all, we all grew up together when we were young.

"No problem, we will try all overseas markets."

"Especially at Nanshan Semiconductor, all mobile phone chips can now be sold to us. When I come back this time, I will attend the commissioning ceremony of the new factory in Yangcheng. The latest chips produced there can also be sold to Polar Bear. Go aside."

Hu Yingang told Guo Shuyin his main purpose of returning to China this time.

When Nanshan Semiconductor's latest factory is put into operation, in addition to inviting relevant leaders, suppliers, equipment manufacturers, and dealers must also be invited.

As the largest agent, Yingang Trading is naturally qualified to be invited.

“In addition to helping Nanshan Semiconductor sell its products, you must also collect market information in a timely manner and feedback it to Nanshan Semiconductor.”

"In this way, when everyone comes and goes, the cooperative relationship will be closer."

Guo Shuyin has been in business for so many years, so he obviously has rich experience.

Hu Yingang naturally listened carefully to this.

Someone once said that if your family members are in business or work in government departments, then you must listen carefully to their opinions.

But if your family members are farmers or workers, then you must remember to listen less to their opinions and be discerning.

Otherwise, you will probably make wrong choices in your life.

Although Hu Yingang has never read this, he completely understands the truth.

(End of this chapter)