Reborn: Billionaire in College

Chen Pingjiang was in high spirits when he woke up in the morning. He was going to visit Huawei today, so he dressed more formally.

The well-known Songshan Lake base will not start construction until 2014. Currently, Huawei is still working in Bantian, Shenzhen, and has not moved to Dongguan.

The itinerary for visiting Huawei was confirmed early in the morning, so the reception standards on Huawei's side were very high.

The main reason is that Chen Pingjiang now plays an important role both in the Internet and in industrial manufacturing, and Huawei dare not neglect him.

As soon as the convoy arrived at Huawei's Bantian headquarters, Chen Pingjiang saw Yu Yaoyao leading the way as soon as he got off the car.

Yu Chengdong came up to shake hands enthusiastically and said, "Mr. Chen, welcome, welcome to visit Huawei. I will accompany you throughout the whole trip today. We will go to meet Mr. Ren later."

As soon as Chen Pingjiang saw Yu Chengdong, his mind was filled with thoughts of being far ahead.

Huawei's arrangements are also very interesting. Chen Pingjiang guessed that arranging Yu Chengdong to take the order was probably intentional.

On the one hand, they are both from the same hometown.

On the other hand, Yu Chengdong understands communications. After returning to China last year, he served as Huawei's CMO, president of strategy and marketing, and just took over Huawei's terminal business, serving as chairman, president and CEO of the terminal company. Smartphones are the main business of the department that Yu Chengdong is currently in charge of.

This identity is just right for receiving Chen Pingjiang.

In fact, Chen Pingjiang wanted to meet a lot of people when he came to Huawei this time.

Yu Chengdong, He Tingbo, Sun Yafang, and of course Mr. Ren.

Each of them was competing with each other for power.

Don’t think that Huawei was weak in 2011. In fact, Huawei’s revenue that year had reached 2039 billion yuan, and it had employees worldwide. It’s just that its reputation was not as great as it is today.

Chen Pingjiang smiled and joked: "Mr. Yu, we are all friendly companies. We can't kill each other and let Apple and Samsung benefit in the end."

"Oh, no, there are still many opportunities for us to cooperate."

Yu Chengdong is a man of wolf nature, which Chen Pingjiang admires very much. It is impossible for him to poach him. It is estimated that the two sides will inevitably have to compete in the terminal market in the future.

It will be next year, 2012, before Yu Chengdong's name is remembered by the outside world.

Because of the vigorous anti-Yu movement within Huawei.

In early 2012, Yu Chengdong cut off a large number of operating OEM mobile phones and non-smartphones, resulting in a sharp drop in mobile phone revenue and a decrease in shipments of 3000 million units. The company was in a state of internal and external difficulties. The crisis of reform led to the veterans within Huawei's terminal industry launching an "anti-Yu movement."

In the end, Ren supported Yu Chengdong, and Yu Chengdong laid off many people with thunderous means. In order to stop other people from speaking out, Yu Chengdong took the initiative and shouted out a series of shocking slogans in front of the media, such as "Huawei will become the world's leading mobile terminal manufacturer within three years" and "Sales target will triple every year".

February 2012, 2: Yu Chengdong said on Weibo: We must strive to see the day when Chinese people line up to buy Huawei phones.

March 2012: Richard Yu, head of Huawei's terminal business, posted a Weibo post: "Huawei phones will surpass Apple in the second year." "It has become popular recently because of those blind followers. I can say this without any modesty that we will launch a flagship phone that is much more powerful than the iPhone 3 at the end of this year or the beginning of next year." Soon, this Weibo post was forwarded more than 5 times and received 4000 comments, and Richard Yu's nickname "Big Mouth Yu" was born.

2013: Richard Yu joked about his nickname “Big Mouth Yu” and said, “I’m not bragging, at most I’m just not modest.”

Chen Pingjiang admires Yu Chengdong and Huawei from the bottom of his heart, and if possible, he does not want to cause internal friction between the two parties.

Yu Chengdong's eyes were full of emotion when he looked at Chen Pingjiang. When he just took office some time ago, he proposed at the meeting to kill Orange Mobile in two years, Apple in three years, and Samsung in five years.

But not long after that, Chen Pingjiang came to Huawei, which made him feel somewhat guilty.

Accompanied by Yu Chengdong, Chen Pingjiang came to HiSilicon's headquarters building, where he met He Tingbo.

The deepest impression that He Tingbo, who was born in Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, left on Chen Pingjiang was the internal letter to all employees.

When Chen Pingjiang read the letter at the beginning, he felt indescribable feelings in his heart, and today he finally stood around these people.

Although we are not the same company, we can still help each other.

"Mr. Chen, shall we go find Mr. Ren? Mr. Ren is already waiting for you."

"Okay, let's go."

Only after pushing open the door of Mr. Ren’s office did Chen Pingjiang see Mr. Ren, who often appeared in videos.

Mr. Ren is younger than expected. When he saw Chen Pingjiang, he smiled and walked around the desk to shake hands with him. "You are young and talented. You are amazing. Not only are you good at the Internet, but you are also much better than us at making mobile phones. I heard that you are also working on chips and wafer fabs."

"No, no, you're too polite, Mr. Ren." Putting aside his wealth and achievements, Chen Pingjiang had to be respectful just because of Mr. Ren's age of 67.

Among the people present, Chen Pingjiang also saw Sun Yafang, who is the current chairman of Huawei. It can be said that Sun Yafang is the woman behind Huawei. Outsiders don't know her, and only people in the circle can remember this name.

It has saved Huawei from disaster many times.

"Hello, Mr. Sun."

"Hello, Mr. Chen."

After everyone shook hands, Mr. Ren made a joke: "We old men and women sitting together with Mr. Chen, do we look like grandfather and grandson? Haha, it's true that every generation has its own talented people, and every generation replaces the old."

"Mr. Ren, I am embarrassed to hear you say that. I am just lucky and I have hit the pulse of the times."

Mr. Ren smiled and said to Chen Pingjiang: "Young man, you are not arrogant or impatient, you are very capable. In fact, I have always wanted to meet you. We can cooperate in many areas."

Chen Pingjiang nodded and said, "We want to sell our Orange S3 overseas, but we are facing many patent issues, including Huawei's patents. I am here to discuss the patent cooperation between the two sides and the cooperation on chips."

Mr. Ren waved his hand and said, "Patent cooperation is a small matter, but I am very interested in the chip cooperation you mentioned."

Smart people talk simply to each other, and they all tacitly avoid talking about competition in the terminal market.

Mobile phones and tablets are the core businesses of Orange Technology, and the same goes for Huawei's mobile phones. We will not reach an exchange by damaging each other's core interests.

Since its inception, Orange mobile phone has been benchmarking against Apple and has taken the high-end route, while the mid- and low-end markets have been left entirely to domestic manufacturers.

But if Huawei also wants to make high-end mobile phones one day, then the two sides can only compete to see who is stronger.

"Before discussing chip cooperation, Mr. Ren, Mr. Sun, or Mr. He, let's make an assumption first."

Everyone was attracted by Chen Pingjiang's refreshing introduction and asked with a smile: "What's the hypothesis?"

"This is an extreme survival hypothesis. If one day all advanced chips and technologies from the United States are unavailable, how can we survive?"

"Uh."

"..."

Everyone looked at each other, and were speechless for a moment.

Yu Chengdong smiled and said, "Isn't your extreme survival hypothesis too extreme? Will there really be such a day?"

He Tingbo, the queen of HiSilicon, knows chips best. She frowned and said, "That could be a disastrous day. First, we can't use GMS services, and then we can't use the EDA software for setting up chips, which is like a painter without a pen. Then the ARM architecture can't be used, so we have to take a detour and develop the architecture ourselves. These are not so bad. If the wafer fabs are not allowed to help me make chips, then HiSilicon may have to close down immediately."

Several other Huawei bosses were stunned, and then their eyes became serious. Chen Pingjiang smiled and said, "Mr. He is right, but there is more to it. You can no longer use the Android system, nor can you use a series of services such as Google Maps. Not only that, you will lose the entire US market. Of course, Huawei has not yet shipped to the United States. Your communication equipment cannot be sold, your membership in the SD Association WIFI Alliance will be cancelled, your scientists will not be able to review technical papers, and your mobile phone OEM companies Flextronics or Foxconn may confiscate your mobile phones. You will also not be able to get storage chips and display panels."

Seeing the extremely surprised looks of Ren Lao and the others, Chen Pingjiang smiled and said, "The most ruthless thing is that any domestic companies that use American technology or equipment will not be able to supply you, otherwise they will also be sanctioned."

For a long while, no one spoke, and everyone was thinking about how to break the impasse.

After a long while, Ren Lao smiled and said, "Mr. Chen, you are not here to scare us, are you? Americans are not that crazy, are they?"

Chen Pingjiang laughed: "It's just a game, as for whether they are crazy or not, who knows what will happen in the future?"

Chen Pingjiang could only say this much and could not say any more.

After a while, everyone came to a conclusion.

"If the blockade really reaches this point, it will be the most powerful country in the world against our company, and they have allies behind them. It will be difficult for us to survive."

Finally, Mr. Ren asked, "Mr. Chen, what do you think the chances of this happening are?"

Chen Pingjiang spread his hands: "It's not a question of how big the probability is. Even if it's only 0.1%, it's % when the day comes."

Mr. Ren looked at Chen Pingjiang with admiration: "Mr. Chen is very imaginative and has strategic thinking."

Chen Pingjiang smiled and said, "I was forced to do this. Only after I started working in a wafer fab did I realize how constrained I was. We can't even smell the advanced lithography machines, let alone buy them. Of course, don't take it too seriously. You can think about it slowly when you go back. Maybe I'm just guessing."

The more he did this, the less people thought he was just guessing.

If you think about it carefully, it does make sense.

Because they are making great strides in the communications field, they have already taken a lot of advantage from the Americans...

Yu Chengdong curled his lips: "I can't eat dinner today."

Mr. Ren thought for a moment and continued to ask, "Mr. Chen, does your company have a solution to this extreme hypothesis?"

"No!" Chen Pingjiang said straightforwardly, "But I am looking for a solution. I design my own EDA, prepare my own wafer fab, and suggest to the upper management to support the development of chip-related industries. If they don't give me a mobile phone system, I will make it myself. If they don't give me an architecture, I will develop it myself. Everything is a race against time. I am keeping it as a backup. What if that day really comes? If there is no day, then I will challenge them in these areas."

Mr. Ren looked at Chen Pingjiang with admiration: "Yes, Huawei also needs a backup plan. We can't let others strangle us. And our two companies can advance and retreat together."

He does not mean that.

Chen Pingjiang's extreme assumption scared them.

No one can pretend not to hear it.

After reaching some preliminary cooperation plans with Huawei, Chen Pingjiang came and left quickly.

Elder Ren looked at his capable men and said, "We must also prepare for a rainy day. We can't be outdone by a youngster. If the situation in the extreme hypothesis really happens, we really won't have any means of resistance. If Chen Pingjiang hadn't said it, I wouldn't have realized it. Now that he mentioned it, I have a feeling that this day will come."

He Tingbo nodded: "I will ask HiSilicon employees to list the American technologies that need to be used, and then start research and development little by little. But I can't do anything about the supply chain. I can only wait for domestic manufacturers to grow up."

Ren Laodao: "If there are signs, just stock up more. It can hold out for a while."

Sun Chuanfang also expressed his approval, and then changed the subject: "No wonder this young man can achieve such a scale in just a few years. This kind of brain and foresight is not something that ordinary people can have. If Huawei makes high-end mobile phones in the future, it will be troublesome to compete with him."

Yu Chengdong also sighed: "I will go and compete with Xiaomi for the market, so I won't provoke him for now."

……

After coming out of Huawei's headquarters, Chen Pingjiang in the car slowly exhaled.

He said a little too much today, but he couldn't let himself pretend that nothing had happened, so he finally had to raise it in the form of an extreme hypothesis. After all, they had also raised the extreme hypothesis among themselves.

I hope today’s trip to Huawei will allow them to make more preparations.

Chen Pingjiang also got the patent he wanted during this trip, which means that Orange S3 can be released overseas. As for other patents, they should be paid for. If there is a slight infringement, it’s okay. At most, he can file a lawsuit.

At this time, Chen Pingjiang's work phone rang. Guan Yifeng, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat, glanced at the caller, turned around and handed the phone to Chen Pingjiang: "Mr. Chen, it's Mr. Lin Bin calling."

"Hey, Lao Lin, what's wrong with calling me?"

Lin Bin's voice came from the other end of the phone: "Mr. Chen, I just received an invitation letter from Lei Jun, inviting you, me and Lao Zhou, the three of us to go to BJ to attend the Xiaomi new product launch on the 16th."

"Oh? Xiaomi M1 is going to be released?"

"Well, I think so. Are you free on the 16th?"

"Yes, let's go and take a look."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Pingjiang smiled and shook his head.
Xiaomi M1 is finally here, and Lei Jun has also stepped onto the stage of the press conference.

No one denies the place of Xiaomi M1 in the history of Chinese smartphones.

This may be a milestone in changing the domestic mobile phone market.

It was then and it is now.

Orange S2, Apple, Samsung, these are all high-end products, and most people can't afford them.

Most domestic brands could only exist as knockoffs, and the market was in chaos. However, Xiaomi, with a price of 1999 yuan, completely changed this situation and brought a revolutionary impact to the Chinese smartphone market.

Chen Pingjiang had already anticipated Xiaomi's entry and was not worried at all.

The ones who should really be worried are Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, and Meizu.

Of course, Xiaomi will definitely affect sales. But at the same time, the market has been divided up so much that if Xiaomi launches M1 now, it will not be as popular as it was in the past.

Chen Pingjiang chuckled: "Lei Jun is really brave. He invited me to the press conference. Isn't he afraid that I will lower the price on the spot and smash the Xiaomi M1 directly?"

Xiaomi M1’s main price-performance ratio is 2000 yuan per unit.

The lowest version of Orange S2 is 3299 yuan.

Seems like a big difference, right?

But what if the price of Orange S2 drops to 2999 yuan or even 2800 yuan?

Anyway, if the price is reduced to 2800, Chen Pingjiang will still make some profit. The output has increased and the cost has been reduced long ago.

I wonder if Xiaomi can withstand it?
It is almost foreseeable that once the price of Orange S2 drops, it will definitely be a blow to Xiaomi.

The configuration is higher than yours, and the price is a few hundred dollars higher than yours, but S2 is already the second generation of Orange mobile phone. Compared with the first generation of Xiaomi mobile phone, it has been tested by the market and recognized by consumers.

There are definitely a large number of people who would rather spend a few hundred dollars more to buy the Orange S2 than the Xiaomi M1. (End of this chapter)