A single real estate developer, without sufficient industrial advantages, cannot drive the local economy and cannot obtain very favorable policy concessions.
A single industrial developer, without real estate qualifications, also cannot acquire large amounts of high-quality land.
It can be said that any single advantage cannot achieve a "royal flush" effect.
But Wang Yi is different; he happens to have industrial advantages like Xingyi Technology and Meiyou Technology, and also real estate qualifications.
He can not only build high-end residential areas but also construct supporting technology parks and industrial parks, providing employment opportunities and driving local GDP growth.
Combining the two directly creates a "royal flush" effect!
This is a core strength that Vanke, Longfor, Greentown, Country Garden, and Evergrande do not possess, and even more so, a core advantage.
It is also someone local governments eagerly seek and vie to cooperate with.
Especially the cooperation between Wang Yi and Jizhou involves 300 mu of technology parks, a 518 skyscraper, 1,000 mu of residential land, as well as mobile phone factories, mobile phone industrial belts, tablet factories, tablet industrial belts, and data centers!
These cooperations, let alone fully realizing them all, if even half can be realized, Jizhou's GDP can take off rapidly!
Jizhou's industrial structure will also be fully optimized and fully upgraded.
Regarding this, not only is the province envious, but other cities are also extremely envious.
Now that Wang Yi is going to invest in Daocheng, replicating the cooperation model with Jizhou to assist in Daocheng's industrial upgrading and bring tens of billions of GDP, Daocheng naturally cannot wish for anything more and it's fundamentally impossible to refuse.
Song Sining smiled:
"Chairman, as long as we hint at our intention to invest in Daocheng, Daocheng will likely quickly form a special task force and actively offer us high-quality land and preferential policies!"
Wang Yi nodded:
"This is exactly the effect we want!"
Land has been cheap in recent years, so Wang Yi can leverage a small investment for a large return, secure sufficient preferential policies, and just like in Jizhou, seize a large amount of land at ultra-low prices.
For example, in the eastern suburbs of Jizhou, which is currently still a large suburban area, the floor price is only around 2000.
With a construction cost of 2000, plus 1000 for taxes, marketing, and other expenses, the total cost is 5000.
Selling at 6000 per square meter yields a profit of 1000 yuan, meaning a 100-square-meter house can earn 100,000 yuan.
But Wang Yi has industries, allowing him to secure more concessions and lower prices.
For example, 1,000 mu of land in Jizhou should have cost 4 billion, but because Wang Yi was willing to build a 518 skyscraper and Meiyou Technology Park, it surprisingly got a 40% discount through a performance-based agreement, costing only 2.4 billion!
The performance-based agreement posed little difficulty for Wang Yi, which was equivalent to the land price being directly discounted by 40%, with a floor price of only 1200 yuan, almost given away for free.
You know, five years later, the floor price in this area will be 20,000!
But the floor price Wang Yi got was only 1200!
No comparison, absolutely no comparison.
Construction will start around 2015, and units will be sold at the peak of the real estate market in 2017-2018, selling at 30,000-35,000 per square meter!
It would be hard not to make huge profits!
Tens of billions in profit, simply incalculable!
Moreover, construction of the houses will only begin three or four years later, by then Xingyi Technology will have ample funds, so there's no need to worry at all.
Even if funds are short, the land can be mortgaged to a bank for a loan, and the borrowed money used to build the houses, still yielding several times the profit!
Throughout the entire process, Wang Yi doesn't even need to spend money; it's just a zero-capital business.
As for the 2.4 billion for land acquisition, it was a huge sum for Wang Yi last year, but for Wang Yi this year, it's completely insignificant.
With the hot sales of xphone 1, sales exceeding 15 million, profits are already close to 30 billion!
It can be said that Xingyi Technology has currently, with the hot sales of xphone 1, passed its period of capital shortage.
The surplus funds, instead of depreciating in the bank, should be used to take advantage of the current cheap land, which is only one-fifth of its price five years later, and aggressively hoard land!
Great minds think alike; indeed, Song Sining's thoughts were the same as Wang Yi's:
"Starting next month, the weather will get warmer, spring and summer will arrive, "pure desire" style dresses will again sell well, and Meiyou Zhenyou apparel will also regain its cash cow status. Coupled with Taylor Swift's endorsement, Zhenyou Cosmetics will also sell well, so there is indeed no shortage of money. The funds in the account will only increase in the future, and investing these funds in real estate is a good choice."
Wang Yi nodded:
"That's right, although semiconductor, big data, and AI R&D will burn money, Xingyi Technology earns even more. Now not only is xphone 1 selling well, the newly launched Xingyi Tablet X1 and Xingyi Tablet X1 pro are also selling well, and even the pre-sale orders for xphone 1pro are impressive, enough to support those big money-burners!"
All four products selling well made Wang Yi's finances much more comfortable.
Speaking of new products, Song Sining got excited:
"I just checked, on the first day of Xingyi Tablet X1's launch, total domestic online and offline sales exceeded 400,000 units, total overseas online and offline sales exceeded 600,000, global sales exceeded one million! Revenue exceeded 3.5 billion RMB."
"Xingyi Tablet X1 pro sold even better, with total domestic online and offline sales exceeding 600,000, total overseas online and offline sales exceeding 900,000, global sales exceeded 1.5 million! Revenue exceeded 6.5 billion RMB."
"The two tablets combined, revenue exceeded 10 billion!"
Wang Yi smiled:
"For tablets to have such high sales and revenue on their first day is truly a great success!"
"Yes, mainly because our products are good and the price is also suitable. Of course, there's also the negative contrast from the iPad,"
Song Sining said meaningfully.
"Hahaha."
Wang Yi burst out laughing:
"Indeed, thanks to the iPad being so terrible, otherwise everyone wouldn't be scrambling for our Xingyi Tablet."
"But next month, they will release the third-generation iPad, will it..."
Song Sining was a little worried.
Wang Yi waved his hand:
"No, the third-generation iPad, apart from improvements in the screen and processor, other aspects are still terrible! Especially the camera, RAM, and the pseudo-background of the iOS system are all critical flaws."
"That's good."
Song Sining changed the subject:
"By the way, xphone 1pro's pre-orders have also exploded; although it won't be launched until next month, the number of full-payment pre-orders has already exceeded one million!"
"What?"
Wang Yi was startled:
"It's only the first day, and the number of full-payment pre-orders for xphone 1pro has already exceeded a million?"
"Yes, it has exceeded!"
"I didn't expect it, I really didn't expect it to sell at a starting price of 4999 and still sell so well!"
Wang Yi's expression was a bit complex.
If it were immediate sales from stock, one million units sold on the first day would be fine.
The problem is that it's full-payment pre-sale now, and a million people have already paid for pre-orders, so the sales of xphone 1pro are similarly incalculable.
"There's no way around it, xphone 1pro has too many upgrades: the world's first quad-core, the world's first 2GB RAM, the world's first 8-megapixel front camera, the world's first beauty camera, the world's first multi-tasking split-screen phone..."
Song Sining said with a smile:
"Such an excellent phone, only five or six thousand, and cheaper than the garbage Apple – if I were a consumer, I'd buy it too!"
"That's true. Then notify Xingyi Mobile Phone Factory to stop production of xphone 1 and fully produce xphone 1pro, producing as quickly as possible, striving for a launch by mid-next month. As for BYD, first increase xphone 1pro production capacity by 1 million units."
Wang Yi chose to do a pre-sale for xphone 1pro, also wanting to see xphone 1pro's sales and then determine the production capacity.
In 2012, for a domestic phone to sell at Apple's high prices was unprecedented.
If xphone 1pro had a moderate sales boom, Xingyi Mobile Phone Factory's monthly capacity of 2.5 million would be sufficient.
If sales exploded, Xingyi Mobile Phone Factory's capacity would not be enough, and BYD would also have to be added.
Now, sales have indeed exploded, and BYD must increase capacity by 1 million units!
Subsequent adjustments will be made based on xphone 1pro's sales; if it continues to sell well, BYD's factory capacity will need to be increased further.
The market will have the final say in everything.
"Okay, Chairman."
Wang Yi continued:
"The production capacities for both tablets will also be increased. Xingyi Tablet X1 should be produced at three million units a month, add more if it's not enough. Xingyi Tablet X1 pro should be produced at four million units!"
"Okay!"
Although Xingyi Tablet X1 pro has a higher price, as a quad-core tablet, its sales are actually higher, especially overseas, where most directly go for Xingyi Tablet X1 pro.
Performance comes first!
Xingyi Tablet X1, on the other hand, also sold many units thanks to its 8-inch small screen + Qualcomm dual-core flagship chip.
The 8-inch small screen is very convenient to carry around, especially for mobile gamers, it's simply a godsend for mobile gaming!
Coupled with a lower price, its sales are also impressive.
"By the way, have xphone 1's sales decreased?"
Song Sining shook her head:
"Not only did they not decrease, but they even surpassed the hundreds of thousands from previous days; today's single-day sales exceeded 500,000 again!"
"Higher again?"
Wang Yi was a little surprised, but he soon understood the reason.
Firstly, this Barcelona press conference caused a global sensation and appeared on many domestic hot searches, bringing tremendous traffic to xphone 1.
It was the same before; every time it hit the hot search, xphone 1's single-day sales could skyrocket from hundreds of thousands to 500,000!
This time was no exception.
Secondly, although the quad-core xphone 1pro has arrived, it is more powerful and higher spec, but its price is also 1700 yuan more expensive, more than half the price of xphone 1.
Such a high selling price, not everyone can afford it.
The current average monthly salary is only two or three thousand, so using more than a month's salary to buy an xphone 1 starting at 3299, most people feel no pressure.
But if they use more than two months' salary to buy an xphone 1pro starting at 4999, many people would feel pressure.
Therefore, although xphone 1pro is good, they are more determined to buy xphone 1 instead!
What suits oneself is the best.
Song Sining continued:
"Not only that, xphone 1's distributor orders have also increased significantly, and I estimate that many will be shipped to overseas customers, which is somewhat unbelievable. Logically, with xphone 1pro released, their demand for gray market xphone 1s should decrease, so how could it increase instead of decrease?"
Wang Yi smiled slightly and immediately thought of the reason:
"The reason is simple: with xphone 1pro's overseas announcement, Xingyi Mobile Phones' reputation has soared, but xphone 1pro hasn't been launched yet and is completely unavailable, which ironically makes the gray market xphone 1s sell better.
Furthermore, xphone 1pro won't be launched until next month, and domestic supply won't be enough for the first two months after launch, making gray market units even harder to find. It's better to seize the opportunity to sell more gray market xphone 1s, so they are frantically stocking up! After all, the profit from gray market xphone 1s is quite substantial."
Song Sining suddenly understood:
"So that's how it is!"
Wang Yi made a calculation:
"Pay attention to subsequent sales changes. If xphone 1 continues to sell well, BYD's current monthly capacity of 3 million may not be enough, so add another million. If sales are weak, then don't add more."
"Okay!"
Song Sining firmly noted it down.
Originally Wang Yi expected xphone 1's sales this month to drop to 4 million, and next month to drop to 3 million.
As expected, this month xphone 1's domestic sales indeed dropped to 4 million, but overseas gray market sales exploded, contributing over a million more.
Thus, xphone 1's global sales in February again exceeded 5 million, and Wang Yi was very surprised.
Next month, domestic sales will still drop, likely only 3 million, but whether global sales can reach 4 million or 5 million will depend on overseas gray market sales.
But no matter what, xphone 1 has completely exploded in sales!
Wang Yi was in a great mood:
"Now xphone 1, Xingyi Tablet X1, and Xingyi Tablet X1 pro are all selling well. xphone 1pro has a large number of full-payment pre-orders even before launch, and Xingyi Technology's cash flow will become very substantial. But in the long run, continuously investing in semiconductors, big data, cloud computing, and AI still presents challenges."
Song Sining strongly agreed:
"That's right, any one of these money-burning 'ancestors' can cost tens of billions a year and will burn money for many years."
Wang Yi nodded:
"That's right, so we need to plan carefully to make better use of the money in our hands and generate more money! For Xingyi Technology to develop better and continuously generate huge profits is the only way for sustainable development!"
"Chairman, do you have a plan?"
Wang Yi nodded:
"If Xingyi Technology wants to develop quickly and make money fast, it must combine industry and real estate, handling both simultaneously."
"Here in Jizhou, 1,000 mu of residential land is too little. Currently, we have ample funds. Near Meiyou Technology Park, in the high-tech zone, if there are land auctions, we will go bid and acquire it directly! As much as there is, we'll acquire it all."
After all, it's the future financial center, coupled with Meiyou Technology Park and a Xingyi Technology branch, this place will only become more valuable five years from now.
In the previous life, there was only a financial center, and by 2018, it sold for over 30,000.
This time, with the added boost from Xingyi Technology and Meiyou Technology, it will only be more expensive!
Of course, more land must be acquired!
"Okay."
Song Sining agreed.
Wang Yi continued:
"In Daocheng, we'll also replicate the Jizhou model. Build a Xingyi Technology Daocheng branch in Daocheng, acquire a large amount of land at low prices, and build residential communities."
"Okay."
"And Jizhou and Daocheng alone are not enough; other high-quality cities will also aggressively acquire land. For example, in high-quality cities like Sushi, Hangshi, Jinmen, Shudu, Nandou, build a Xingyi Technology branch in each, acquire land around them, and build supporting residential communities."
"This..."
Song Sining was startled:
"Chairman, isn't this too big a move?"
Wang Yi smiled slightly:
"There's no other way. Every giant has one headquarters and N branches. This is true for BAT, and also for Huawei. Similarly, as Xingyi Technology continues to grow, the number of industries, employees, and departments will rapidly expand. One Imperial Capital headquarters, one Jizhou branch, and one Daocheng branch are not enough; we can only continue to expand!"
"Okay."
Song Sining firmly noted it down, but still had some doubts in her heart; after all, she wasn't a reborn person and didn't know how crazy housing prices would be five years later!
Wang Yi saw through Song Sining's thoughts and said slowly:
"Land prices are cheap now, but in the future, land prices will skyrocket fivefold, or even tenfold. These two years are precisely the good time for us to aggressively acquire land, build industrial parks, and construct residential buildings.
If we don't act now, and wait four or five years until land prices soar by 500% and housing prices are several times higher, at that time, if Xingyi Technology wants to expand again and build technology parks everywhere, it will be difficult!"
"So that's how it is."
Song Sining suddenly understood:
"I will immediately establish a dedicated investment department to handle this matter."
"Okay."
Wang Yi looked out the window and had a perfect plan in his heart:
In the next few years, Xingyi Technology will rapidly expand.
From 2012 to 2015, aggressively acquire and hoard land at low prices, simultaneously build technology parks, and expand industrial scale.
From 2016 to 2018, frantically build residential buildings, construct supporting schools, and build 518.
From 2017 to 2019, frantically sell houses and cash out at peak prices!
Housing prices were low in the first few years, so there was no need to rush building houses; first build industries.
After a few years, when housing prices are high, then build and sell houses.
Anyway, the real estate market was crazy in those years; a building would be sold out even before construction began!
Even if Wang Yi started building in July 2017, with handover in 2019, he could still sell all the houses by 2017.
The real estate market was that crazy in those years.
So crazy that sales offices acted like bosses, directly saying:
"Full-payment buyers, come in first to choose your homes; 80% down payment buyers, please wait a moment; 60% down payment buyers, please step back. Those with less than 50% down payment, there are no more homes, go check next door."
"What? Provident fund loans? Sorry, we don't support provident funds, that stuff is slow to get payments back!"
It was that crazy.
Moreover, if Wang Yi builds the industries first, it can also raise housing prices nearby, and local governments will be more at ease.
Local governments, to have developers build supporting industries and commercial facilities, offer residential land at low prices to developers.
What they fear most is that developers sell all the low-priced residential buildings, make a profit, and then all the unprofitable supporting industries, commercial facilities, and schools end up as unfinished projects.
In the previous life, all cities were tricked this way, every district was tricked this way, even tricked countless times.
For example, Evergrande's 518 was exactly like this: low-priced residential units sold out, profits were made, and 518 became an unfinished project!
Wang Yi's reverse operation, prioritizing industries before selling houses, is naturally more convincing.
Early the next morning, Wang Yi and Song Sining's group embarked on their return journey, returning to the country.
Meanwhile, HTC's new product launch event was held as scheduled, and many reporters also came, all for HTC's new phone.
But it wasn't just to report on HTC's new phone; it was to compare HTC's new phone with Xingyi Technology's xphone 1pro to gain popularity.
As a result, a series of specifications were all exposed and also appeared on several hot searches:
[Following Xingyi Technology, HTC released the world's second quad-core phone, HTC One X!]
[HTC's new quad-core flagship features an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 1GB RAM, a 4.7-inch 720P high-resolution screen, Android 4.0 system, an 1800mAh non-removable battery, a 1.3-megapixel front camera, and an 8-megapixel rear camera. Available in 16GB and 32GB storage versions.]
[HTC One X 1+16GB, 4499. 1+32GB, 4999! Lower specs, lower price.]
[Compared to xphone 1pro, HTC One X's specs are completely inferior; even if it's 500 cheaper, it cannot reverse the decline.]
[HTC's Manager Wang said that HTC One X has higher specs and stronger performance than iPhone 4s.]
[HTC One X dares not compare with xphone 1pro, constantly denigrating iPhone 4s throughout!]
[With the release of HTC One X, its RAM, camera, storage, and battery capacity are completely inferior to xphone 1pro!]
[The release of HTC One X further highlights the power of xphone 1pro!]
...
Looking at these news reports, Cook was furious:
"Fuck! HTC is truly shameless, not daring to compare with Xingyi Technology, constantly denigrating iPhone 4s throughout, truly no bottom line."
"Look at what she said, HTC One X's front camera is up to 1.3 megapixels, while our iPhone 4s only has a fraction of that!"
"And RAM, HTC One X has a large built-in 1GB RAM, which is double that of iPhone 4s!"
"Shameless, truly shameless!"
"Why don't they compare with xphone 1pro?"
"Why don't they say that their HTC One X's front camera pixels are only a fraction of xphone 1pro's?"
"Why don't they say that HTC One X's RAM is only half of xphone 1pro's?"
"They really pulled a tricky stunt, and now, great, everyone is coming to scold us Apple."
"So much so that those media rankings all show xphone 1pro first, HTC One X second, xphone 1 third, and our iPhone 4s has become fourth!"
The more Cook thought about it, the angrier he got:
"What's wrong with 512MB? It's not like it's unusable!"
The vice president nodded:
"With our Apple's background mechanism, 512MB is usable, but a 300,000-pixel front camera is truly unusable!"
"..."
Cook opened his mouth, thought for a long time, and couldn't think of anything to refute:
A 300,000-pixel front camera is indeed unusable.
But he also couldn't foresee the future direction of mobile phone development, where the front camera would also become a primary feature!
In 2012, the general impression among all mobile phone manufacturers was that front cameras were just secondary features; 300,000 pixels or 1.3 megapixels were sufficient.
No one would actually use the front camera for serious photography.
But who would have thought that Wang Yi disregarded conventional ethics and made the front camera 5 megapixels on his first phone, directly making users realize that selfies are most important and the front camera also needs high pixels.
Let alone Cook, even Steve Jobs had significant limitations.
The simplest example is, Steve Jobs opposed large-screen phones, believing 3.5 inches was the soul and large-screen phones were garbage.
Fortunately, the subsequent Cook firmly took the large-screen route; if he had followed Steve Jobs' thinking and continued with the 3.5-inch small-screen route, Apple would probably have been finished long ago.
But these strategic visions, Wang Yi was perfectly clear about, while competitors gained nothing and had to gamble!
If they gambled correctly, it would be fine, but once they gambled incorrectly, even one wrong step could lead to losing everything.
Like the iPhone 4s's 300,000-pixel front camera, 512MB RAM, and 1420mAh battery, all became points hammered by competitors and complained about by users.
Especially the emergence of xphone 1 and xphone 1pro, as if they were the bane of iPhone 4s, completely stifling Apple.
The only consolation was that xphone 1 and xphone 1pro could only be sold in China and would not affect iPhone 4s's overseas market.
But now HTC One X has arrived, also relentlessly highlighting iPhone 4s's shortcomings, that's a big problem.
As Cook thought about this, his tone became solemn:
"xphone 1pro cannot go global, so its impact on us is limited. But HTC One X selling globally will have a significant impact on us."
The room full of executives suddenly understood and spoke up one after another:
"The Chairman is right, we can fail in the Chinese market, but we cannot fail in the global market!"
"That makes sense, a globalized HTC One X is our iPhone 4s's biggest enemy!"
"Once HTC One X sells well globally, then our iPhone 4s will be in real trouble, we must suppress HTC One X!"
"Exactly, treat HTC as the primary enemy and completely suppress HTC One X!"
"As for how to do it? Still the old rule, patent lawsuits!"
"Okay, we'll first collect evidence, and as soon as HTC One X is launched, we'll sue!"
Cook nodded:
"Yes, that's what we'll do. We must sue in multiple countries in Europe and America simultaneously, demanding a ban on sales of HTC One X! The Chinese market has been heavily impacted by Xingyi Mobile Phones; we have already suffered heavy losses and will absolutely not allow HTC One X to snatch away more market share!"
"The market share taken by Xingyi Mobile Phones, we will reclaim from HTC. As long as HTC One X is banned from sale, our iPhone 4s will not only be unaffected but can also seize the market share vacated by HTC!"
"Exactly, this way, with gains and losses, we might be able to recover the volume lost in China!"
Cook smiled coldly:
"Then let's concentrate all our efforts to initiate patent lawsuits against HTC and ban HTC's sales. This is both a suppression of HTC and a warning to Xingyi Mobile Phones, warning them not to sell overseas, otherwise, they will face the same fate as HTC!"
What Cook feared most was Xingyi Mobile Phones going global.
Excellent phones like xphone and xphone 1pro, once sold globally, iPhone 4s would truly be difficult to sell!
Therefore, Cook decided to act decisively, using HTC to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys!
"Killing two birds with one stone, killing the chicken to warn the monkeys, the Chairman is wise!"
Subordinates flattered continuously, and admired him even more in their hearts.
They only thought of dealing with HTC, but Cook thought of using patent wars to suppress HTC and simultaneously warning Xingyi Technology not to internationalize recklessly!
(End of Chapter)