Reinventing the Millennium

There were 28 days in February 2002. Just as China was gradually immersed in the New Year atmosphere, Tanaka Mito, deputy director of the electronic design department of Sony EMCS, returned to Tokyo from New York.

New York, USA, neon Tokyo.

It's like two worlds.

In particular, when Tanaka saw the vice president of Sony telling him face to face about his shocking experiences outside, he only received indifferent comfort from the other party, which made him feel the huge difference between inside and outside.

"Tanaka-kun, as you said, Apple's Ipod only has a sales volume of 100,000. Even if it supports Windows, Huaxia's products are only 200,000. This is enough to prove that the prospects of so-called digital music players are not that broad. "

"Not to mention the walkman who attacked us."

"Tanaka-kun, you may not know that Sony also released a digital music player, but it hardly caused any waves."

"Our Walkman is the best product in the world."

"Our G-Protection shock absorber system can never skip sound. You said that the Ipod uses a hard disk for storage. How does it solve this problem? Isn't the shock absorber of a micro hard drive difficult to deal with?"

"What are consumers listening to? Isn't it the sound quality?"

"How can such a crude piece of hardware defeat our Walkman?"

"Tanaka-kun, you are worrying too much."

The vice president's well-founded words made Tanaka Ming confused.

However, after he left Sony headquarters and went back to check out the digital products produced by Sony, he discovered that the player model "MC-P10" did not support the mp3 format. It only supported the ATRAC3 format and memory cards developed exclusively by Sony.

It can be said that there is not much difference between the MC-P10 and the mini walkman sold by Sony.

After much thought, Tanaka Mito came to Sony headquarters again. This time he went directly to the president, Mr. Nobuyuki Dei, and excitedly described the development of the MP3 market.

Nobuyuki Idei is the only president of Sony who is not from a technical or entrepreneurial team. He calmly listened to the statement of the deputy director of the electronic design department of his subsidiary company, and then gave the first response.

"Tanaka-kun, I understand your feelings, but you should respond to the marketing department first instead of finding me directly."

"My office wouldn't be able to function if everyone came in as close to breaking in as you did."

Nobuyuki Idei believes that Tanaka Mito is going beyond the rules.

"Tanaka-kun, the value we at Sony have confirmed from Mr. Morita is not to make products with low added value. The MP3 player you mentioned only focuses on the stacking of hardware and only seeks profits from the combination of different hardware. Its added value It’s very low.”

"Our walkman has hardware, copyrights, CDs, MDs, and patents. What does Apple have?"

President Nobuyuki Idei stood from a different angle and asked the deputy director of the design department who had returned from New York rather forcefully.

"As you said, even a small Chinese company can make a player with no technical difficulties. Why do we want to enter such a market that is destined to be cheap in the future?"

Tanaka Min was asked.

Moreover, it is indeed widely circulated within Sony that Mr. Akio Morita does not make low value-added and cheap products.

Tanaka Min left in a daze.

He walked on the streets of Tokyo and looked at his reserved compatriots, becoming more and more confused. What the vice president and president said made sense, but the world outside didn't seem to be like this. MP3 was obviously booming.

Could it be that everything I saw was fake?

Tanaka returned home confused and fell into deep thinking.

Two days passed like this, and the confusion was not resolved. The idea of ​​​​starting a business that originally flashed in New York sprang up like wildfire.

At this moment, New York was exposed to the directness and ferocity of those Westerners, which drove away the depression and flattery in his bones. He made a crazy decision that was difficult for his family to understand.

Resigned from the position of deputy director of Sony EMCS electronic design department and started his own business!

Tanaka persuaded his family impassionedly, went to the company resolutely to complete the procedures, used his contacts and accumulation to come up with the first entrepreneurial capital, and started to register his own brand. Everything went smoothly.

Considering that the disassembled Ipod and M1 have little technical content, he is confident that he can produce offline products within 2 months.

However, when Tanaka took two competing products to Toshiba in person at No. 1-1 Shibaura 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo, the other party rejected his order request. The reason given was "We have signed contracts with the two companies." The supply contract cannot supply goods to a third party."

Nani? ? ?

Tanaka was stunned.

Worse was yet to come. After asking around, he found that none of the domestic hard drive manufacturers could provide 1.8-inch commercial microhard drives.

やめて! ! !

Tanaka-kun felt great pain.

…

Shencheng's CEO Yike didn't know that a new player in a neighboring country was in a dilemma. He spent a few days before the Spring Festival studying Sina's goal in depth.

At this moment, the three portals listed in the United States are almost all at low market value. Sina is particularly weak due to the dispersion of equity. If time goes by, both opportunities and costs will be doubled.

At present, the funds that Fangzhuo can mobilize are the payment for goods sold by Yike Technology in China, and it can only use a small part, which cannot affect advertising, product reproduction, and production line expansion.

The expansion of the US market is not only like this, but also requires more additional funds, because matters involving software and music copyrights must be prepared for a rainy day.

Fang Zhuo briefly met with two banks that have loan cooperation, and considered pledging part of Yike Technology's equity for financing. In addition, he was also looking for venture capital and private equity in Xiangjiang, but these are things that will not be responded to until next year. .

On February 24, two days before New Year's Eve, most of the company's employees had already gone on vacation. Fang Zhuo also returned to China and saw the haggard Zhou Xin for the first time.

"Brother Fang, did you let Guahao.com make a purchase of J1?"

"Well, yes, they are used to give away to the leaders of various hospitals during the Chinese New Year. Yike basically keeps no profit. Now it happens that our own products have a brand name, which saves trouble." Fang Zhuo met at the President Office of Yike This sad man in love arrived.

Zhou Xin nodded: "It's a win-win situation. Yike's J1 can be regarded as a far-reaching publicity."

"Mr. Zhou has really made progress, I think so too." Fang Zhuo said with a smile.

"Brother Fang, this is the computer course textbook that is going to be launched in East China this year. The registration and use of the registration network are written on it as a case." Zhou Xin was much calmer, "This batch of textbooks will be updated when the school starts in September."

Fang Zhuo took the textbook and saw the words "Guanhao.com" on it. He felt very happy and said with emotion: "Guanhao.com has gained a lot this year. This alone deserves a special mention. You have worked hard."

"It's not hard work, but life is hard." Zhou Xin sighed, "Brother Fang, I want to buy a car to drive. What do you suggest I buy?"

Fang Zhuo pretended not to hear the first half of the sentence and said: "BMW, buy a BMW."

Zhou Xin sighed deeply: "Okay, just listen to Brother Fang."

"Ahem, Xiao Zhou, um... Happy New Year." Fang Zhuo gave his blessing sincerely and perfunctorily.