Reborn: Billionaire in College

Chapter 239: Selling Everything to Make Chips

Because of this, supply chain management has become the most important position from the production to the release of a mobile phone, and having a good relationship with suppliers is the most important thing.

No one has the core technology for assembling computers. The so-called black technology is obtained from suppliers. The machines produced are mostly similar. In the end, isn’t it just a matter of comparing whose accessories are better or whose software is more awesome?
De-risking the supply chain is particularly important. Being able to get the goods as soon as possible, spending less money, and not being stuck have many requirements.

In addition, the cost and order cycle of components are also important.

Chen Pingjiang had just started making mobile phones and had not yet made a name for himself among the top foreign suppliers, so they would not recognize his name.

The down payment alone will suck up a lot of cash flow.

Want to get someone to ship without paying? That's just a fucking dream.

This is not finished.

There are some things that you can't buy with money.

The goods are snatched away by people waving checks. If you don't order a few months in advance, there will be no goods for you.

There are quite a few low- and mid-end alternatives, but there is only a small share of high-end products and everyone is scrambling to get them.

But as a new company, Orange Mobile is simply not strong enough to compete with established manufacturers.

Everyone used to criticize Xiaomi for using hunger marketing, but that’s not the case at all.

Lei Jun really has no components!

Otherwise, do you think he is stupid?

You have money but don't want to make any money, just willingly waiting for the popularity of mobile phones to decline?

Chen Pingjiang calculated the time and found out that iPhone 4 will not be released until next summer, so it is almost impossible to come out before it.

The smart factory is still under construction. After the factory is completed, it will have to be put into trial operation before going into full production. The first generation of Orange mobile phones should be released a little later than the iPhone 4.

In this case, Chen Pingjiang would not be so desperate as to confront the opponent head-on.

It is better to carefully polish a good product.

However, Zhou Guangping smiled and said, "If we want to avoid Apple, we will have to wait until the first half of 11 to release the first generation of products, which is too long. I suggest that we find Foxconn or Inventec to manufacture the first generation. When our own factory is built, we can use it to produce the second generation of Orange phones. If we speed up, we can seize the opportunity in the first half of next year."

Chen Pingjiang turned his head and looked at Lin Bin, asking for his opinion: "Is half a year enough time for R&D and mass production? Is it too rushed?"

Lin Bin said: "It usually takes 6-8 months, but our user demand analysis has been completed, which can shorten it by 1-2 months. If we speed up in the future, it can indeed be launched during the Chinese New Year."

Chen Pingjiang calculated that there was still about half a year left. "This means that you have to hurry up and design the product appearance, user interface, and Android-based UI."

In fact, the design stage also includes circuit design, power supply design, and RF design.

Zhou Guangping volunteered: "I can take advantage of this time to go and look for suppliers. I will use Qualcomm's MSM8860 chip and Qualcomm's baseband. As for the remaining memory and lenses, I will go to Bangzi and Xiaorizi to see who has the lowest price."

"Well, okay. Thank you for your hard work, Old Zhou." Chen Pingjiang nodded.

He wanted to go there in person, but time did not permit it. Renren would be going to the United States for a roadshow soon and would have no time to visit the supply chain.

There are so many supply chains for mobile phones that he can’t keep up.

"When you go to Qualcomm, Lao Zhou, you can also visit Texas. You know Texas Instruments, right? Try to poach some people here. Yes, you can consider Samsung, MediaTek, and TSMC."

Zhou Guangping took a deep breath and said, "Mr. Chen, are you really planning to make chips?"

Chen Pingjiang grinned: "I never joke."

The layout of the chip track must be started as early as possible. Domestic manufacturers can produce other components, but chips are a little lacking.

"If you want to make chips, you must purchase Arm licenses and conduct secondary development based on ARM's public architecture."

Chen Pingjiang said, "Anyway, it's up to you. Funding is not a problem. Don't save money for me. The Orange phone must be a hit. Select the best components based on cost-effectiveness. Bring me some people back from all over the place, and don't miss out on any patent licenses you can get. Please, Lao Zhou."

Lin Bin and Zhou Guangping looked at Chen Pingjiang with some surprise.

In their view, Chen Pingjiang's move was no less than a huge gamble.

I cried to death!
He could have made some money by assembling machines and relying on Renren's powerful marketing, but he insisted on taking an extremely difficult path.

Chip design and manufacturing are the crown of manufacturing.

Chen Pingjiang was already planning to take out his weapon.

The 10 billion low-interest loan provided by the government was far from enough. He had planned to make up for it with all the profits from the catering business. If that didn't work, he would mortgage the land for the factory to the bank and get another loan.

According to Chen Pingjiang's conservative estimate, the cost of producing one million first-generation Orange mobile phones might be as high as 20 billion yuan, with an average cost of 2000 yuan per phone.

This includes all costs such as OEM and components.

The cost of recruiting talents and purchasing various patents is 5 million yuan.

Investing in building a factory and purchasing equipment will also cost several hundred million.

Just a rough calculation, it’s almost more than 3 billion yuan. If we purchase more lithography machines later, it will be endless.

"Damn, no wonder it's difficult to run a physical business. They're all money-eating beasts, so how could it not be difficult?" Chen Pingjiang complained. With more than 3 billion yuan spent on the Internet, he could still create several listed companies.

…………

Chen Ping looked curiously at the freshly released beta version of WeChat in front of him.

"It's basically the same as mobile QQ, but the UI is better than QQ. Unfortunately, it doesn't have any eye-catching features. Specifically, it doesn't reflect the functionality of a smartphone." After playing with it for a while, Chen Pingjiang returned the phone to Miao Bingwei.

Miao Bingwei was stunned: "Combined with a smartphone?"

"Right. Otherwise, what's the difference between it and QQ? Tencent only needs to develop a better mobile QQ and they can still beat us. After all, they have a ready-made social network and users don't need to migrate." Chen Pingjiang paused and said, "The purpose of our WeChat is to allow users to communicate. It must be staggered with QQ. In the near future, many elderly people will use WeChat. Many of them may not be able to read or have presbyopia. It is too difficult for them to type one word at a time."

Miao Bingwei thought about it and grasped the key point.

“Would it be OK if it supports voice calls?”

Chen Pingjiang nodded in appreciation: "Not bad. In addition to voice calls, we can also build a community in WeChat similar to QQ Space or our Weibo. I call it the circle of friends, where everyone shares food, moods, and dynamics."

"In addition, anonymous social networking should also be used, right? We need to allow strangers to create different sparks through WeChat. Let's add a drift bottle to the function area, and we can also use nearby people and shake it."

Chen Pingjiang had ideas one after another, and Miao Bingwei had already gotten used to it. It was not the first day he knew him.

When hearing about the so-called anonymous social networking and nearby people, Miao Bingwei smiled ambiguously. Everyone knows where these functions may be used.

The original WeChat 1.0 version was actually no different from the previous Fetion. It was the updated voice intercom function in version 2.0 that finally enabled WeChat to break through the siege and get the first ticket to the mobile Internet.

Multi-person intercom can lay the foundation for later group chats, and one-on-one conversations are the most important function of WeChat, which has opened up a new way of socializing.

Voice intercom allows parents who cannot type to participate in pleasant chats, which is something other software cannot provide.

The Empress Dowager in the family uses WeChat, so naturally the younger generations have to use it as well.

In an era when there were no dating apps like Momo and Tantan, the power of Shake and Nearby People was unimaginable. It was tailor-made for young people and would soon become a great place for hookups.

When Moments first came out, everyone said who would use Moments when there were already QQ Space and Renren. It turns out: it’s really good.

The emergence of Moments began to isolate WeChat and other software. Users can keep up with their friends' dynamics through Moments, so why bother to continue logging into SNS social networking sites?
I’m afraid that once the WeChat message comes out, Li Xi will complain again.

To be honest, most of Renren's current user base are white-collar workers, and the content quality is quite good, but the tide of history is unstoppable and cannot be changed by individual will.

The emergence of Weibo hit Renren, and the emergence of WeChat will hit WeChat again, and then hit Renren again.

Users will continue to migrate between software.

For IM, there is WeChat; for self-media, there is also Weibo; even if you want to make a date, WeChat and Momo will still stand in the way; for vertical fields, there is Zhihu. Even if you want to transform into a lifestyle travel product, Xiaohongshu will stand in the way.

Renren has no way to compete with its competitors in these competitions, and Chen Pingjiang will not allow internal friction.

After Chen Pingjiang positioned Renren.com as a niche website, it would act as a troublemaker in the Internet industry.

"We will work hard to develop these functions by the end of the year. After internal testing, they can be put on the market after the new year."

WeChat will be the second to last piece of the puzzle in Chen Pingjiang’s social empire, and the last piece will be TikTok.

However, TikTok will not have any chance for a while. Whether it has the technology or not is secondary. The most important thing is that only after the users’ Internet charges are reduced, there will be soil for short videos.

This is actually similar to live streaming.

After thinking about it, Chen Pingjiang called Li Xi over again.

"Don't be so sad. I called you here this time because I have a great project for you. After it's developed, it will be a hit product in no time."

When Li Xi heard about this good news, she was worried about losing her hair at a young age. "Mr. Chen, what is this product?"

“Make a smartphone app that recommends information to users and connects people and information.”

Li Xi asked curiously, "Doesn't that mean it has the same functions as Weibo?"

Chen Pingjiang shook his head: "They are different. Toutiao focuses on information services, while Weibo focuses on social networking. The timeliness of the two is also different. Toutiao focuses on the information database, while Weibo only captures the current hot spots. Weibo is dominated by celebrities and Internet celebrities, while Toutiao highlights the grassroots. What this means is that we should put new media and self-media on Toutiao more purely as a channel for sharing news, features, current events, and opinions."

Li Xi's eyes lit up. He had a grasp of Chen Pingjiang's idea and had a general idea in his mind.

"I understand what you mean, boss. Toutiao is actually an information distribution platform?"

"Yeah!" Chen Pingjiang nodded.

The Toutiao project should still be placed under the main body of Renren to stabilize the stock price.

When it comes to live streaming and TikTok in the future, Chen Pingjiang plans to do them together, set up separate entities, and even combine them with e-commerce.

Chen Pingjiang knew very well that once he achieved that goal, there would be no need to expand the business empire under his name.

Instead, it has turned to high technologies such as AI and cloud computing.

Even if they want to expand, they will face the iron fist of antitrust.

Chen Pingjiang is not very interested in taking taxis, sharing bicycles, and sharing power banks, and he does not have enough energy for that.

After talking about work, the two started chatting about family matters.

"I heard from Lao Miao that you've been in high spirits lately and have a girlfriend?" Chen Ping looked at Li Xi with a smile.

Li Xi chuckled: "She is from our University of Finance. I liked her when I first entered university, but I never dared to confess my feelings until recently."

In the past, I only dared to have a crush on her because Li Xi was not confident enough.

Li Xi is now considered a wealthy bachelor. Once Renren successfully goes public, he will have over 100 million yuan in funding, not to mention his eight-digit salary income each year.

Before, many single girls with good conditions in the company had shown their affection to Li Xi intentionally or unintentionally.

Chen Pingjiang is the man they can't get, but it would be nice if they could get Li Xi.

But Li Xi looked down on all these beautiful girls and was determined to pursue his own white moonlight, and finally his dream came true.

Now he has bought a 300-square-meter apartment in Dongjiang, and his parents, younger brothers and sisters have also moved in. At the age of just over 20, he is already a winner in life.

If it weren't for Chen Pingjiang's dazzling brilliance in the company, he would have been a hot commodity anywhere else.

"When do you plan to get married?"

"She just got admitted to our school as a graduate student, and both families want to get married after she graduates."

Chen Pingjiang nodded: "Remember to invite me to the wedding banquet when you get married."

"Of course. Anyone can refuse an invitation, but you cannot refuse one."

Li Xi did not lose sight of himself just because he was rich and had a high status. The extremely difficult living environment since childhood also cultivated his simple and mellow character.

He was clear in his heart that Chen Pingjiang was his only benefactor. Without Chen Pingjiang's trust and promotion, he might not even have trouble renting a house, let alone buying a house or finding a partner.

If possible, Li Xi would like to stay at Renren until retirement and grow together with Renren.

Looking at Li Xi's departing back, Chen Pingjiang had a smile on his face.

For him at this stage, money is more like a numbers game. As long as he doesn't spend too much, he can spend it all.

The increase in the account numbers no longer caused him the same amount of emotional fluctuations as before.

Changing the fate of those around you can make up for this.

(End of this chapter)