Chapter 1278: Setting foot in mobile phones and communications

Facing Xia Yu's question, Chen Caijun straightened his face and spoke eloquently:

"Chairman, we have already considered this issue. After many research discussions, we have formulated a preliminary implementation plan divided into two directions.'

'If there are no unexpected circumstances, by June this year at the latest, car companies will be launching city SUVs and cheap sports cars. Our channels and brand awareness are far inferior to those of the established car companies.'

'And we won't just be up against one competitor, but almost all car companies. Everyone will be competing for this newly emerging track, and as the current market occupier, it will be difficult for us to face this situation of everyone attacking us.'

'In the European and American markets, price wars are not a good idea, so the company plans to increase marketing efforts and play the 'creator' card, with the aim of stabilising the market it already occupies and stabilising sales in Europe and the United States.'

'As for new growth directions, the company plans to focus on the local market and Southeast Asia. Statistics show that the car ownership rate in the local market and Southeast Asia is very low.'

'Take Hong Kong as an example. Currently, the total population of Hong Kong is over 5.4 million, but the total private car ownership in Hong Kong is less than 300,000. As for Southeast Asia, the figure is even lower.'

'In terms of Southeast Asia, a considerable proportion of the people in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have become rich. They have the money and the desire to buy a car. The reason is that Southeast Asian countries have many islands and scattered territories, public transport is very poor, and the subway is even more unformed.

'Another reason is that Southeast Asian countries are all oil-producing countries, so fuel prices are low, which means that consumers have a lower burden after buying a car.'

'We are also close to Southeast Asia, and the Tiangong brand is well-known. Transportation and marketing costs are relatively low, so Southeast Asia is a good place for us to occupy.'

'Based on the economic level of Southeast Asian countries, the company plans to capture the market by offering bundled discounts.

'First, as long as you are a user of banks such as Jiuding Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Hang Seng Bank, Sun Hung Kai Bank, and Guangli Yongheng Bank, you can enjoy a larger loan amount and a lower loan interest rate when purchasing a Tiangong car. Jiuding Insurance Company has also developed more affordable car insurance for Tiangong cars.

'Second, the company will establish a driving school and set up training grounds in Xiangjiang and Southeast Asian countries. As long as customers register for a driving licence at our driving school, the registration fee can be fully deducted when purchasing our cars. The company has already designed a training car.'

'Papatap...'

'Very good!'

After Chen Caijun finished speaking, Xia Yu couldn't help applauding. Chen Caijun hurriedly humbly said that it was the joint credit of everyone.

The latter two methods targeting the Southeast Asian market are both practical and effective.

The first method, not to mention the benefits to banks and insurance companies, the cost of market development for banks and insurance companies is a given. After cooperating with Tiangong Motors, the discounts offered by banks and insurance companies are combined with those of the Tiangong Motors Group to become even greater, which is extremely attractive to consumers who intend to buy a car.

In particular, the larger loan amounts and lower insurance costs will convince consumers who are still on the fence and short on cash to make the decision to buy a car.

The second method is to actively make the cake bigger, and while making the cake, attract new consumers to your side.

The training uses Tiangong cars, which leaves a deep impression, and the driving habits are also cultivated. The driving school and instructor will also keep promoting and brainwashing, so that consumers will choose Tiangong cars when buying a car.

Another, and the most attractive, is that the full amount of the driving school registration fee is deducted. You can deduct it when buying a Tiangong car, but not when buying any other car. According to human nature, the vast majority of people will choose to take advantage of this.

The driving school is owned by the company, the training vehicles are produced by the company, and the profits from training students go back to the parent company. As a result, the losses have been minimised, and the costs are similar to the marketing expenses of other companies, but the driving school has long-term benefits.

These two methods cover all car-buying groups and also secure the door to generate new consumers.

Xia Yu has already seen the future of Tiangong Motors' explosive sales in Southeast Asia.

'The methods are good, just do it this way, and make the most of the basic 4S system,'

Xia Yu finally reminded him.

'Understood!'

Chen Caijun nodded in response.

'Hm!'

'It's getting late, you go and get back to work, I still have to go and check out the other companies.'

After saying this, Xia Yu gulped down the tea and got up to prepare to leave.

'Chairman, let me see you out.'

...

After leaving the Tiangong Automobile Group, the car drove around the industrial park for a while and arrived at the Tiangong Electronics Group area.

Before it was beaten by Atari, Tiangong Electronics had already seized the throne of video game supremacy. Last year was the year of Atari's collapse, and it has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. No video game company in the world can compete with Tiangong Electronics head-on.

In the field of portable audio players, Tiangong Electronics has also surpassed the island nation's Sony and seized the position of leader.

These two fields alone contributed 9.458 billion US dollars in sales to Tiangong Electronics last year.

However, this time, Xia Yulai's focus at Tiangong Electronics was not on these two areas, which were already well on the right track.

He wanted to see the new field that Tiangong Electronics had opened up, a field with unlimited prospects – mobile phones!

And this field was not directly placed in a certain department of the Tiangong Electronics Group, but a subsidiary was established – Tiangong Motorola Electronics Co., Ltd.

Yes, in the absence of technology, in order to enter the field of mobile phone manufacturing, the Tiangong Electronics Group cooperated with Motorola.

In April last year, when the ten-year patent for Motorola's first cellular phone had just expired, Motorola announced in a high-profile manner that after ten years, it had finally developed the world's first commercial mobile phone – the Motorola dynatac-8000x – and had obtained approval from the US Federal Communications Commission to produce and market the phone.

At that time, Xia Yu was on the island, but he also paid attention to this news. With the help of Polaris Capital, a major shareholder of Motorola, Tiangong Electronics Group successfully negotiated a cooperation with Motorola.

Tiangong Electronics Group, Motorola and Hong Kong Telephone Company cooperated to establish Tiangong Motorola Electronics Co., Ltd. with a shareholding ratio of 4:3:3. The new company had a total investment of 150 million US dollars and established a production plant in the Yuen Long Science and Technology Industrial Park. The funds were used for factory construction, production line assembly and commissioning, staff training, analogue signal base construction, etc.

In addition, Hong Kong Telephone Company, which had the monopoly on local communications in Hong Kong, also needed to establish Motorola's AMPS system signal base stations throughout Hong Kong to achieve full signal coverage.

The reason Motorola was willing to cooperate was not only because Polaris Capital, a shareholder, had played a matchmaking role, but also because it wanted to seize the market.

After all, at this time, Motorola was not the dominant player, and there were many followers behind it, but it was just because Motorola had developed commercial mobile phones first.

The key was instead the mobile communication system. Motorola wanted the TACS system to have a greater advantage. The TACS system was a modified version of the AMPS system and belonged to Motorola.

The AMPS system was developed by Bell Labs in the USA in 1978, but Motorola was the main equipment provider for this system.

Today, there are a wide variety of global communication standards.

In 1979, following the successful development of the AMPS system by Bell Labs in the USA, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) developed and launched a commercial cellular network, TZ-801, soon after.

In September 1981, the NMT450 system, jointly developed by Ericsson and Nokia, was launched in Switzerland, the Netherlands and other Nordic countries.

Then there was the C-Netz system operating in the 450 MHz band and used in Portugal and Austria.

The C-450 system launched in West Germany.

The RC2000 system launched in France, operating in the 450 and 900 MHz frequency bands.

The RTMS system launched in Italy, operating in the 450 MHz frequency band.

...

Now, in the global 1G era of communications, there is simply no unified standard, and it is still a time of chaos.

Xia Yu certainly would not miss out on this market.

However, Tiangong Electronics Group had a weak foundation, and even with the Tiangong Technology Laboratory, it was not easy to catch up. Instead of burying oneself in research and development and taking many detours, it was better to choose to tie in with Motorola, the future king of the 1G era, and learn from it, accumulating technical expertise, and then make a big push in the 2G era.

The purpose of establishing Tiangong Motorola Electronics Co., Ltd. was twofold: one was to establish a brand, seize the market, and make money; the other was to invest the money made in research and development. The two purposes formed a closed loop, and development came first.

Soon, Xia Yu, under the leadership of Huo Jianning, arrived at the factory building of Tiangong Motorola Electronics Co., Ltd...