NOVEL WEB Chapter 677: Mobile Phone Market
"Honey, it seems we've made quite a bit this year."
By late September, Song Yanxi had started tallying up the family's assets.
Not just the over 10 billion RMB in annual net profit they now have, the surge in overseas stocks alone has filled their coffers to the brim.
Especially NVIDIA, it's skyrocketing and just won't stop.
This made Chen Pingsheng, who originally planned to cash out gradually, tempted to wait another year or two.
After all, he's not short on money right now.
"This is indeed unexpected, but it also proves the importance of the AI industry. Both in the capital market and globally, it's highly regarded."
"Honey, didn't you plan to venture into AI smartphones? Perhaps next year we can buy a major smartphone company."
"I indeed have this idea."
It's extremely hard to penetrate the smartphone market as a new player without core technology; it's akin to a death sentence.
Look at Lady Dong who tried making phones, as well as 360 and Alibaba.
None of these players were strangers to success in the business world, yet they ended up disappointed.
The reason Chen Pingsheng wants to do this is mainly because of two reasons; one is that Tengfei AI invested over 80 billion RMB in it this year.
Over the past seven years, he has pumped 150 billion RMB into it, and another thousand billion RMB into solid-state batteries over the same period.
With these two core technologies, no domestic major factory can compare.
Additionally, the core technologies of smartphones are just a few, with Android and the Apple system dominating the global smartphone market in two camps.
Besides, there's Qualcomm chips and Samsung screens.
These are the core technologies constituting a smartphone, while the remaining components and assembly, including debugging, depend on a company's operational management capabilities.
Undoubtedly, Chen Pingsheng still has a significant advantage in industrial factories.
Furthermore, the future core technology in smartphones is AI, where he has a clear advantage.
Adding to that, he also has Tengying Entertainment and Teng You Media in his hands.
There is a significant possibility of establishing a global smartphone brand in the next two to three years.
Determined to act, he made this the top priority of the group.
On October 1st, National Day, Chen Pingsheng took his wife, Song Yanxi, along with the spoiled brat and Er Piya to tour domestic major smartphone companies.
Including Xiaomi, OPPO, and Huawei.
Apart from the tour, he also sought advice from veterans in the smartphone industry.
His initial plan was to directly acquire a top-five domestic smartphone brand.
For this purpose, he offered a full acquisition price of 150 billion RMB to the Blue and Green Factory.
His venture into smartphones is entirely based on the current AI technology he owns, including solid-state batteries.
Having these two technologies is sufficient to secure a place in the future smartphone market.
The only ones possibly available for sale domestically are these two companies.
Unfortunately, the acquisition didn't go through.
Chen Pingsheng simply decided to start from scratch, deploying a large number of senior management from the group and selecting over ten thousand senior researchers.
In Golden Mountain, he established a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tengying Group named Tengfei Mobile.
Many major factories that newly move into the smartphone industry usually start with OEM production.
Aiming to gain maximum profit with minimal cost.
Of course, it's also the best way to minimize risk.
Chen Pingsheng definitely wouldn't do that.
He had no hesitation, once he decided to do something, it had to be done well.
When it came to spending money, everything was meticulously planned.
On October 12th, he announced an investment of 13 billion RMB in Magic City's Golden Mountain to build a super smartphone factory.
With the management experience of the Tengfei New Energy super factory, this was not difficult for them.
On October 15th, he further announced an additional investment of 22 billion RMB to establish the Tengfei Mobile Ecosphere Global R&D Center.
After completing the planning and new construction of the super factory and the R&D center.
On October 18th, he announced investments of 8 billion RMB each in three other top-tier domestic cities to establish branch R&D centers.
For technology products, core technology is the most crucial.
After setting up the entire R&D team, on October 21st, he announced an investment of 13 billion RMB to acquire Meizu Mobile including the entire team from Geely.
This was the earliest domestic independent smartphone smart brand, second only to Wanwan's HTC before 2010.
Unfortunately, during the subsequent smartphone wars, it fell behind due to internal chaotic management.
Unlike Luo's venture into making phones, Chen Pingsheng didn't need financing, nor did he need to worry about revenue for the next three years.
He could fully afford to take three to five years to perfect this venture.
The ultimate goal is to become one of the world's top five smartphone manufacturers in the future.
Even further, to become a presence second only to Apple and Samsung.
Saying overtaking might be too hard, surpassing is not just about sales.
The most important thing is still profit.
Apple's annual net profit is over a hundred billion US Dollars, while Samsung Electronics' profit in 2023 is about 80 billion RMB.
In terms of sales, Samsung is the world's number one, but in profit, it's more than ten times behind Apple, not on the same level at all.
Put it this way, if Apple wanted sales figures, they could release a 2,000 or even 3,000 US Dollar Apple phone.
It could easily surpass Samsung, with no rival in the same level.
Profit is ultimately the key data that measures a company, deciding its future market value.
The global smartphone market is still dominated by Apple.