Top of the big era

This visit to Hyundai's mobile phone business department was a temporary arrangement. Zhou Buqi called up Shen Xiangyang. After arriving at the place, he got off the car three blocks early.

I met Yan Guangming, executive director and senior vice president of Asda, who came from China.

"Lao Yan!"

Zhou Buqi saw him at the door of a hotel and waved to him from a distance.

Yan Guangming got rid of the assistants, translators and other entourage around him, ran over quickly, and then gave Zhou Buqi a big hug.

Speaking of which, the two haven't seen each other for a long time, more than a year, and they didn't even see each other during the Spring Festival this year.

The reason why we haven't met each other is mainly Zhou Buqi's responsibility.

Lao Yan was always very enthusiastic. He made several phone calls to invite her, saying that his eldest daughter was already older and would be in her senior year of high school next semester. She would be taking the college entrance examination next year and would go to college next year. He wanted to introduce her to Zhou Buqi as his girlfriend.

It was precisely because of such enthusiasm that Zhou Buqi couldn't bear it.

Although Lao Yan is quite old, almost fifty, the two of them have always known each other as brothers. If he is getting close to his daughter, wouldn't it be a disgrace?

Anyway, the two of them had a good relationship, so Zhou Buqi pushed him again and again.

In the early days of starting a business, Zhou Buqi was too young. It was difficult for a boss of this age to create a sense of trust in others, and he would have the impression that he was talkative and insecure in his work.

what to do?

Pull Lao Yan up!

This guy has no education, and he knows nothing about things like IT, but he has been in society for so many years and has a lot of experience in interpersonal communication.

The reason why Lao Yan is still on the front line of Asda's management as a senior vice president is because he is good at handling business relationships, interpersonal relationships, and the most troublesome political and business relationships for many technology people.

This visit to South Korea is to further bring Asda and Hyundai closer in the mobile phone business.

time flies.

In the blink of an eye, Zhou Buqi and Lao Yan have known each other for eight or nine years. From being college entrepreneurs and small factory owners, they have each become super rich.

Let alone Zhou Buqi, he is the richest man in the world.

Even Yan Guangming ranks 17th on this year's Hurun Rich List in China, with a wealth of 35 billion yuan!

This is still a small amount.

Yan Guangming's greatest wealth is the 9.7% of Asda's shares he currently holds. Asa's current valuation is at least 70 billion U.S. dollars, and his personal wealth should be 50 billion yuan.

Hurun calculated based on the valuation of Asda in the previous round, which was obviously underestimated.

Zhou Buqi said jokingly: "Lao Yan, have you gained weight?"

Yan Guangming laughed, "Now I sit in an office every day, or travel around by car or plane. I don't do any physical work. I still eat and drink well every day. How can I not get fat?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Find a coach to help you. You still have to exercise when you need to!"

"Looking for it, looking for it!"

Yan Guangming winked.

Zhou Buqi laughed dumbly.

You can basically understand it by looking at this expression.

This old face is good at everything else, but she is not very restrained in her beauty. Judging from the way he winked, he knew that the coach must be a woman.

Maybe he just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of exercising to get someone else's female coach. Sometimes Zhou Buqi secretly wonders whether his obsession with beauty was caused by Lao Yan.

The first actress in the entertainment industry that Zhou Buqi met back then was his wife's niece. At that time, the girl was still a student at the film school and still a virgin.

After so many years, Zhou Buqi didn't even remember her name.

But there are outsiders here, so it’s hard to say much.

Zhou Buqi avoided the topic, invited Lao Yan to his car, and then drove to the headquarters of Hyundai Communications Division, "What's going on? There are some differences between Asda and Hyundai?"

Yan Guangming nodded, "It's a little troublesome."

"Didn't you say that the cooperation was good?" Zhou Buqi read a piece of data sent to him by Zhou Shaoning before, "I remember that the market share of OEM machines seems to be over 20%?"

Yan Guangming smiled, "Let's say 25%. In the past year, a total of 7.5 million OEM mobile phones were sold, with sales exceeding US$2 billion."

Zhou Buqi was very surprised, "Isn't this good? I remember it was only ten o'clock at the beginning."

Yan Guangming said: "Isn't this the acquisition of Motorola? It has increased the business of low-end and mid-range phones, and its sales in the Korean market have rapidly expanded."

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi was a little surprised, "Motorola's low-end and mid-range phones are also OEM?"

The so-called OEM machine is to reshape Asda's mobile phones, label them with a "Hyundai" logo, and sell them in the Korean market under the name of Hyundai mobile phones.

South Korea's populist consciousness is too strong, making it difficult for foreign mobile phone manufacturers to survive.

Except for Apple, which can steal some markets with its unrivaled product competitiveness, other foreign mobile phone manufacturers can't even think about it.

Therefore, Zhou Buqi formulated an OEM "Korean strategy" for Asda early on.

Modern mobile phones were once giants.

But in the era of smartphones, modern mobile phones are no longer good. But the brand is still there, the channels are still there, and the influence is still there. "Hyundai" is South Korea's super brand after "Samsung".

Asda has mobile phones, but cannot sell them; Hyundai has brands and channels, but does not have high-quality products.

what to do?

Two in one!

Label Asda's mobile phones as "modern" and sell them in the Korean market, and everyone will share the profits equally.

When Zhou Buqi first entered South Korea, the first chaebol family he contacted was the Hyundai Zheng family, which promoted the cooperation between Hyundai Mobile and Asda.

Now the effect has come out.

This kind of cooperation model is very successful!

In the past year, a total of 30 million smartphones were sold in the Korean market. Among them, Samsung’s market share is as high as 55%, Hyundai’s is 25%, Apple’s is 12%, and other mobile phone manufacturers share the remaining 8%.

You know, the Korean mobile phone market in later generations has really reached a monopoly level.

Samsung mobile phones, market share 84%!

Of the remaining share, Apple accounts for 15% and other Korean mobile phone manufacturers account for 1%. Foreign mobile phone manufacturers other than Apple cannot sell even one mobile phone in South Korea.

The emergence of Zhou Buqi destroyed this situation.

It is impossible for Samsung to dominate the Korean market as a single company. The level of domestic mobile phone manufacturers in South Korea is too poor and they are no match for Samsung. This is a fact.

But it doesn’t matter, Zhou Buqi has found a way to deal with it!

Through the OEM model, we can bypass the patriotic sentiments of Korean consumers and let Hyundai act as a middleman to compete between Asda and Samsung in the Korean mobile phone market.

I just didn’t expect that, listening to Lao Yan’s tone... Zhou Shaoning seems to have expanded this "Korean strategy". Not only did he OEM the high-end brand Aster under Aster, he also acquired the Aster, which focuses on mid-to-low-end phones. Motorola's mobile phones are also OEM.

This is a bit fierce.

You know, Motorola is a big international brand, and it also has a certain degree of popularity in South Korea. Maybe if we rush in, the Motorola brand will also have certain competitiveness?

As a result, Zhou Shaoning gave up this route without even trying it.

We started working with Hyundai on OEM.

A large number of cheap mid-to-low-end Motorola mobile phones were branded as Hyundai and entered the Korean market, which greatly increased the market share of "Hyundai mobile phones" in the Korean mobile phone market.

Such a decisive decision!

Of course, there are sequelae.

When Asda and Hyundai were cooperating so smoothly, some differences suddenly appeared between the two companies, which may very well be a manifestation of this sequelae.