Reinventing the Millennium

On August 10, as Yike and China Unicom finalized the launch time of Mars and Mars, the operator stores, Yike stores and Yigou website in eight Unicom 3G pilot cities all started moving.

Because there are bosses in charge in Beijing, and there are the headquarters of E-commerce and Yike in Shanghai, Liu Qiangdong, who is in charge of China business, led his team to Yangcheng. In addition to Xiamen, he is responsible for the other five cities, and there are also senior executives at the vice president or director level. Work.

Yike attaches great importance to the debut of this mobile phone in China. The initial target is to sell 1.5 million units in three months. The older generation model Mars will sell 1 million units and the new generation Mars2 will sell 500,000 units.

Regardless of whether it is an operator or its own online or online, Yike basically treats everyone equally and requires the tying ratio of the two models to be 2:1.

Liu Qiangdong is quite confident that the company can achieve the goal set by the company.

In the current domestic market, international brands such as Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson are actually beginning to capture the market in the middle, middle, and lower tiers. Domestic brands such as Lenovo and Tianyu occupy the mid- to low-end fields. Yike Company is different from both of them. It directly takes the two tiers. A high-end mobile phone to conquer the market.

If I have to say, there is a mobile phone company that is similar to Yike. Coolpad mobile phones are labeled as high-end with dual standby technology and have received large-scale centralized procurement from China Unicom. Last year, the revenue for the whole year was 2 billion, and the price of a single machine was It’s about 3,000 yuan, which is rare.

Yike's domestic goals from August to October can be said to be two Coolpads and one Lenovo.

At 4 pm on the 10th, Liu Qiangdong arrived in Yangcheng and made final meeting arrangements at the hotel for tomorrow afternoon’s sale.

However, just in the middle of the meeting, he suddenly received news that Xiamen's operator channels were ahead of the game, and unboxing news and evaluation previews of Mars and Mars 2 had appeared on the Internet.

Liu Qiangdong was shocked. Although he had not gone to Xiamen yet, he was responsible for it and had already arranged for people to go there.

The company has decided to launch sales at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, including a series of promotional actions centered around this time point. Now there is not only a rush, but also third-party activities on the Internet. This is somewhat of an oversight.

"It seems that our partners and consumers can't wait. We are on the front line here in Yangcheng, and a lot of preliminary work cannot be disrupted because of this."

Liu Qiangdong did not hide the news, but calmly laughed about the situation in Xiamen.

Immediately, he accelerated the progress of the meeting and ended the work arrangements for Yangcheng ahead of schedule.

"Is there any price problem? Did you ask what caused it? Did Lu Mingfeng have any reaction?" Liu Qiangdong asked his secretary, and the Lu Mingfeng he mentioned was the general manager of Xiamen Unicom.

He had learned about the partners in the two cities before flying from Shanghai. For example, Lu Mingfeng was a senior general in China Unicom's system and had many years of experience in managing branch offices in prefectures and cities.

"They are sold at the prices we gave, 2,499 and 3,999 yuan. I called and asked. There was no reason. They just said consumers wanted to buy." The secretary paused, "Lu Mingfeng doesn't have a phone number."

Liu Qiangdong was a little annoyed. It wasn't because he wanted a card that was worth every penny to be sold in a day or two. It was because he knew clearly that there would be a promotional event tomorrow morning to announce the market price. Things like this were not big, but they were really annoying.

Seeing Mr. Liu thinking, the secretary said a little angrily: "How about Mr. He and Mr. Fang report this situation? It's not our fault. The business hall has to sell, how can we tie their hands?"

Liu Qiangdong shook his head: "If you tell Mr. Fang such a situation, how many things can he handle in a day? What does he think of our team? Is he not following closely enough or is he having conflicts with partners? China Unicom's channel is now the company We need it. Our most important thing right now is to capture sales. As one of the eight pilot cities, Xiamen is also an important part. Can China Unicom deal with its own general manager just because of a little problem?"

Judging from the current situation, it will take time for the domestic 3G pilot to gradually increase to formal commercial use. Under such circumstances, the market in a city is quite valuable.

"For us, we can't lose the big for the small. Generally speaking, the same goes for the other party. We can talk about this situation in the summary later. Now we have to reduce the impact. You first call the publicity department and explain tomorrow's activities. Question, let’s see how to change it more securely. I’ll have a phone call with Director Xu later.”

"This mistake is my fault. We cannot let the propaganda department take responsibility. Xiamen will follow the procedures and let Director Xu protest."

"Lu Mingfeng doesn't know his character. I won't talk to him for now, so as not to have any room for maneuver. I'll wait and see the market feedback after the launch tomorrow."

"Compared with Xiamen, Yangcheng has more markets and distribution, so I have to keep an eye on it here."

Liu Qiangdong quickly figured out his thinking and took responsibility for handling it himself. He first focused on the main contradictions, waited for the market's reaction, and then communicated with the operators.

The secretary was clearly aware of Mr. Liu's anger, but was impressed when he saw him making a decision with a clear mind so quickly, and quickly followed the order and left.

Liu Qiangdong considered the situation in Yangcheng and Xiamen, and called the deputy director sent to Xiamen, asking him to maintain channel order tomorrow morning, and then went online to check out the Mars and Mars 2 mobile phones sold in advance.

The person who got the phone for the first time and uploaded it to the platform for evaluation was obviously not an ordinary consumer, but fortunately, the evaluation he gave was generally good, which makes it even more harmless.

However, the price of this mobile phone was also leaked in advance, and many people were already surprised that the price was unexpected.

Because, some time ago, the mobile phone pictures accidentally leaked from the Tesco website had a clear price, which was 2999. Unexpectedly, when it was actually on sale, the price dropped by 500 yuan.

2,499 for a 3G mobile phone.

2499 touch screen phone.

2499 for smartphones.

What's there to hesitate about?

Unlike Europe, Japan, South Korea and other regions that launched 3G services a few years ago, this has just been piloted in China. The term 3G is extremely fresh and represents the latest trendy products, and at a price of 2499...

It doesn’t even cost 2500…

"Xiamen? Why can I buy it in Xiamen??"

“I just browsed around on Tesco, but it’s not online. Isn’t this a parallel-imported mobile phone?”

"The older generation of Mars was released in June last year and went on sale in December. The new generation will go on sale in July this year. Has it dropped 1,500 in less than a year?"

"Buy new electronic products rather than old ones! However, Mars1 seems to be very new too!"

Both Weibo and Zhihu have caused some public outcry due to Xiamen Mars’ early start.

Just two hours later, affected by this rush, the e-commerce website launched the pre-sale of two Mars mobile phones in advance. This was regarded as the official official announcement of the domestic retail price of Yike mobile phones. As expected, it was 2499/3999 yuan that was revealed online. However, this pre-sale is only open to eight pilot areas.

From Spring Festival Gala sponsorship to Olympic advertising, and mixed with Yike mobile phone sales and lawsuits abroad, Yike's publicity this time was beyond the expectations of the company and the industry.

Now, it seems that the time has come for such propaganda to be fulfilled.

When domestic friends came after hearing the news and wanted to check out the pre-orders on the Yiguo website, they found that the page had expired and the pre-order function could not be refreshed.

"What's going on? Is there something wrong with the website? Aren't you the domestic B2C leader?" Di Zhiyang, the vice president of Lenovo Mobile, is very concerned about Yike's trends. He is increasingly hearing that the group wants to sell its mobile phone business and has even wanted to sell it for a long time. The sound of wind.

"Uh, Mr. Di, maybe the pre-sale is over, limited quantity." A colleague next to him who was also working overtime reminded the situation.

Di Zhiyang was stunned, and after subconsciously refreshing the page, there was still no change. He couldn't help but said incredulously: "It's still limited? What kind of mobile phone is still limited? Why do you dare to limit it?"

This is an operation that has never been done on Lenovo mobile phones. It is inevitable that it will suddenly appear on a new mobile phone manufacturer.

However, no matter how he evaluates it, Tesco did this to give priority to other channels. The official online sales of Yike mobile phones in China are not on the official website, but on the Tesco website. The symbolic significance here is currently greater than the actual sales significance. .

At this stage, Yike mobile phone sales include a series of operations such as opening a China Unicom card and opening a business. The company hopes that more consumers will purchase phones offline.

In order to cater for this kind of work, all Yike stores opened in eight cities are not far from China Unicom's business halls, in order to shorten the process and simplify the procedures so that consumers can use 3G functions as soon as possible.

On August 11, the content of the original promotional activities of Tesco Mobile was adjusted, and due to the sales and pre-sales in Xiamen and Tesco websites, other cities also had sporadic early sales.

By noon, all eight cities were basically unlocked and normal sales began.

This is earlier than planned in the afternoon.

Judging from the situation on the Weibo platform, there are queues in many stores, because the pre-sale page of the Yiguo website is first launched and then closed. Many people say that the supply of Yike mobile phones is limited this time, so those who are willing to try it out The wait started really early.

In addition, the processing speed of China Unicom mobile phone cards and related services has caused more and more customers to queue up.

From afternoon to evening, many consumers who got the mobile phone and experienced it for the first time began to express their experience on the Internet.

They experienced the happiness that foreign users had accumulated for a period of time all at once.

——This screen is so big!

——The touch screen operation is very simple, much easier to adapt to than I thought.

——"Fruit Killer" is fun!

——This is the news I posted using Weibo mobile software!

——Front camera, front camera, interesting!

From the hardware front-end of the phone itself to the touch experience to software and games, mainland consumers are getting Mars phones equipped with Android system that have been feedback and optimized.

If we say what kind of surprise Mars brought to foreign consumers last year, what is now presented to domestic consumers is double the surprise.

There are many experiences that are difficult to experience just by looking at the web page.

Today, the front-facing camera is still unique in China, the unique feel of the glass back cover, and the new touch human-computer interaction... Only when you put these in front of you can you understand why Yike mobile phones can stir up troubles in the global industry.

On the evening of August 12, a new spontaneous topic appeared on Weibo. The platform did not restrict it after considering it, and it soon became a hot topic among users who were watching the excitement.

—— # No wonder Nokia sued you #

The mobile phone experience is very good, no wonder your friend wants to sue you.

Coincidentally, similar questions appear competitively on Zhihu.

——Q: If you were the head of Nokia, how would you face such strong competition as Yike Mobile?

——A: Resign immediately and ask Mr. Fang to take charge of the overall situation.

——Further answer: The current measures are very good, sue Yike and ban the sale of Mars.

On August 18, Fang Zhuo, who took the ice core team and leadership reports for several days after the launch of Yike mobile phone, went to the Olympics again to watch the competition events. This time he happened to witness the birth of a Chinese gold medal, which was won by He Kexin. The women's uneven bars event in competitive gymnastics won gold.

After He Kexin confirmed the highest score, he was interviewed by CCTV media on the spot and was asked what he wanted to say to the TV and the audience at this moment.

The little girl blurted out: "I want to buy an Yike mobile phone, but I tried to grab it twice but couldn't get it."

Today, Fang Zhuo, who was happily watching the game while chatting with Xiong Xiaoge, almost choked on his own saliva.

Faced with Xiong Xiaoge's strange look, he quickly explained: "It wasn't arranged by me, it wasn't an advertisement, it should have been her own initiative."

CCTV media had long noticed the audience at the scene, and they took He Kexin to find Mr. Fang and asked if they could satisfy the wish of today's newest Olympic champion.

As the richest man in the Mainland, Fang Zhuo naturally could not be stingy and promised in public: "No problem, not only He Kexin, but also our women's gymnastics team, one for each person, will be sent over later."

However, the secretary next to him Liu Zonghong reminded him in a low voice: "Mr. Fang, Mr. Fang, it will take two days, and it is out of stock today."

Fang Zhuo was startled: "Out of stock?"

Although He Kexin is the champion, she is still a 16-year-old girl. She said straightforwardly: "I bought it twice on the Tesco website but failed to buy it. The coach also said that it is difficult to buy offline."

"Then we will definitely deliver it tomorrow." Fang Zhuo said this, "Thank you to the Olympic champion for his love for our mobile phone."

He Kexin blinked and looked at the secretary Liu Zonghong who had just spoken.

Fang Zhuo didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and glanced at the secretary. He indeed knew the situation better than himself in the past two days.

Liu Zonghong said bravely: "It may take another two days."

Fang Zhuo immediately corrected his words and said to He Kexin: "In two days, I will definitely send the latest Mars mobile phone to the gymnastics team."

However, after two changes in her statement, He Kexin obviously didn't believe it anymore. She looked at Liu Zonghong, then at Fang Zhuo, and asked, "Is it true?"

Fang Zhuo's expression is difficult to express simply.

But the entire interview, which had a strong sense of impromptu, obviously achieved unexpected results. The innocence of the 16-year-old Olympic champion successfully struck a chord with the sophistication and calmness of the mainland's richest man.

On Weibo, many users who cannot buy mobile phones in e-commerce and offline initiated real-time topics - # Is it true? #

Really? Mr. Fang?

Some people also copied Mr. Fang’s comments about Nokia at the press conference in June this year.

——Yike is facing the most dangerous moment since 2001!

——Fang Zhuo: Can’t buy a mobile phone? Call me!

——Fang Zhuo doesn’t know the sales situation of mobile phones. This means that the head of Yike has been unable to discern the right direction from the company’s bureaucracy and is losing control of the giant ship of Yike!

So...this also gave birth to a problem.

From the rush to Xiamen on the evening of August 10th to the out-of-stock interview on August 18th, how many mobile phones did Yike sell online and offline in these 8 days?

On August 19, Liu Qiangdong, who couldn't wait to tighten screws at the Foxconn factory, flew back to Shanghai. He gave a rather clear answer when being called by reporters.

"We have carried out mobile phone sales in eight cities. In fact, not all of them are out of stock, and we are currently replenishing them urgently."

"This batch of online and offline products is about 900,000 units."

The three-month target was 1.5 million units, with an initial distribution of 900,000 units. This was considered more than enough, but unexpectedly, the market response was even more optimistic than expected.

The main misjudgment is that a considerable part of the supply has flowed out of the pilot cities. Some people would rather use 2G services first than buy Yike mobile phones. For them, Nokia's N95 is also 2G. Such a trendy Mars only costs 2500, which is completely acceptable. It won't be too bad to wait on the side.

When Wu Yunjun, vice president of China Unicom, actually called Mr. Fang to make a high-level urging for replenishment, the latest overseas sales volume of Yike mobile phone Mars2 was updated as usual on the official website.

On August 20, Mars sales exceeded 2 million, excluding China.

On August 21, just two days after Liu Qiangdong accepted the phone call, Yike's informal channels confirmed that the domestic sales of this batch had exceeded 1 million.

For a time, both at home and abroad were blooming, and friends and businessmen felt cool.