: When making mobile phones, there is money

At 9:30 am on December 31, Gao Yang took Xu Xin and Lin Yunjiao to meet the founder of Huawei Company for the first time, Ren Zhengfei, who is already 63 years old.

Gao Yang held Ren Zhengfei's hand and was very excited: "Mr. Ren, I'm so sorry to bother you during the New Year's Day holiday. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity."

Ren Zhengfei smiled heartily: "Please sit down. For your business, my ex-wife Meng Lijun called me, and your father-in-law Mayor Wu also called me personally. I can't even see you."

Gao Yang said in surprise: "Mr. Ren, do you know my father-in-law?"

Ren Zhengfei said: "I don't know you, but I have worked in Jinyang for more than ten years. Mr. Wu was the leader of the city at that time. He visited our research institute. I have seen Mr. Wu. Mr. Wu is very respected by the people of Jinyang.

I heard that you want to invest in a large amount of mobile phone projects and are still interested in our Huawei mobile phone business?"

Gao Yang said: "Our 51 Group is preparing to invest in a smartphone project in Shudu Hi-Tech Zone and build its own brand. Today we meet Mr. Ren. First, we are seeking cooperation with Huawei Company, and second, we are looking for Mr. Ren to give advice."

Ren Zhengfei said curiously: "You want to cooperate with Huawei, how do you cooperate?"

Gao Yang said: "Mr. Ren, in the smartphone project, I would like to ask Huawei Company to cooperate with 51 Group in all aspects, invest together, and make this project bigger and achieve world-class level."

Ren Zhengfei laughed: "Smartphones are not that easy to make, where does your confidence come from?"

Gao Yang took out two phones from his bag, both of which were the latest version of iPhone 3G:

"Mr. Ren, these two 3G versions of iPhones, one is the original version of Apple. This one is the open source operating system android, used for testing.

Android is a Silicon Valley startup company. A friend and I have invested in it for 3 years and owned 60% of the equity.

Android has spent more than two years developing this smartphone operating system and has been released in the United States for several months. It is currently working with several telecom operators on customized models.

The user experience of Android is no worse than that of iPhone iOS. We also firmly believe that open source systems have great development potential and are even expected to become the mainstream of the market.

Android will invest in the establishment of a Huaxia R&D center in Shudu this year, developing a Chinese version, focusing on serving the Chinese market, and plan to start from the Chinese market and seek cooperation from mainstream mobile phone manufacturers around the world.

We have the Android system, funds and some partners, as well as strong support from the Shudu and even the Shuchuan governments.

Now, the key is lacking technology and talents in hardware research and development design, so I hope to cooperate with Huawei Company.

Huawei is an extremely excellent telecommunications and network equipment technology company with strong R&D capabilities.

If Huawei can deeply participate in this project and invest resources, the probability of success will be very high..."

Ren Zhengfei listened carefully to Gao Yang's introduction, then experienced the test version of the android English version, and suddenly asked: "Mr. Gao, how old are you today?"

Gao Yang said: "Mr. Ren, I am 34 years old this year. You are the entrepreneur I admire the most and an elder. Just call me Xiao Gao."

Ren Zhengfei smiled slightly: "34 years old, so young, how many years have you started your business?"

Gao Yang briefly talked about his work as an IT reporter in Beijing in 1999, founded Jiaoyang Company in 2002, and subsequently invested in Internet projects, and developed into a 51 Group with more than 10,000 employees.

Ren Zhengfei asked again: "How big is the revenue scale of 51 Group now?"

Gao Yang said: "51 Group currently has more than ten holding subsidiaries and hundreds of subsidiaries, with small revenue scale. It is expected to have just exceeded 3 billion last year."

Ren Zhengfei asked again: "Then, do you plan to invest in a smartphone project, where does the funds come from? Do you rely on financing or bank loans?"

Gao Yang decided to tell the truth: "We all have our own funds. 51 Group's current debt ratio is very low and it holds hundreds of billions of cash."

Ren Zhengfei was stunned: "Do you have hundreds of billions of dollars in funds, or do you own funds?"

Gao Yang said: "Yes, Mr. Ren, A-shares have just experienced a super bull market. We invested heavily in A-shares in 2005. In two or three years, we made a profit of dozens of times.

This is considered a high level of trade secret, and only shareholders and some senior management personnel in our company know about it.

I am telling Mr. Ren now that I want to show that we have sufficient capital to invest in mobile phone projects.”

Ren Zhengfei looked at Gao Yang, silent for a moment, and suddenly sighed:

"Huawei Company has worked hard for 50,000 or 60,000 employees for two or three years and has earned less than 100 billion yuan. Then tell me, how did you plan the smartphone project specifically and what are the medium and long-term goals?"

Gao Yang said: "We only have a general plan now, and the goal is to be a world-class smartphone brand, and plan to benchmark Apple in advance to develop and produce high-end models, and then gradually develop mid- and low-end models.

Establish a brand image with high-end models, ensure project operating profits, and increase market share with mid- and low-end models."

Ren Zhengfei asked again: "According to your idea, how do you cooperate with Huawei Company?"

Gao Yang said: "Mr. Ren, we hope that Huawei and 51 Group and other investors will jointly establish this company. 51 Group needs to be absolutely holding. Huawei can invest part of its capital and inject its current mobile phone business into this company as a whole.

Huawei can account for about 30% of the company's equity. We hope Huawei will invest more resources to cooperate in R&D and design, including introducing a group of excellent project management talents.

With the advent of the mobile Internet era, after 3G is commercialized on a large scale, smartphones will be rapidly popularized. If this project develops smoothly, it will be very likely to achieve a sales scale of 200 to 300 billion in a few years.

We start from the Chinese market and can market globally and participate in global competition in the future.”

Ren Zhengfei shook his head and smiled: "You have lofty ideals and great ambitions, but Huawei's mobile phone business is now very weak, mainly to provide value-added services to operators and make customized products.

This business has made very little contribution to Huawei, and it is even useless, so we are considering selling it.

To invest in such a large project as smart brand mobile phones and participate in global market competition, from R&D design, internal management to marketing and other links, it is a huge system project and very complex."

Gao Yang said: "Mr. Ren, I still think that things are artificial. The 3G era is not far away. This is a great opportunity for domestic mobile phone brands to get rid of the backward situation.

51 Group can ensure the capital investment required for the project. Huawei Company does not need to invest too much money, and it is no problem to invest in technology mainly.

In terms of technological research and development and innovation capabilities, I believe that there is no technology company in China that can be compared with Huawei Company.

Therefore, it depends on whether President Ren is willing or not and whether he is determined to invest resources. Let us work together to make this project bigger and stronger.

The advantages of 51 Group are, first, sufficient funds, second, there is an open source operating system of Android, and third, 51 Group's various Internet platforms have nearly 900 million user traffic.

This has a strong help in marketing our own brand consumer technology products.

In addition, through investment in the US capital market, and Android currently holds 20 to 3 billion US dollars in cash, and there will be more in the future.

We plan to invest in the global smartphone industry chain through Android, such as investing in chip design companies like Arm, chip production companies like Qualcomm, and even downstream chip foundry production companies.

The goal of Android company is to establish a broad cooperative open source platform in the entire mobile phone industry chain and find alliance partners in the mobile phone industry chain.

The long-term goal of Android is to develop into a world-class Internet technology company like Google…”

Ren Zhengfei smiled and said, "Xiao Gao, if other young people talked about such a huge plan and such a huge goal in front of me, I would only think he was talking big.

Your Internet career has been successful and you are doing well. Why do you still have to take risks in investing in the industry?”
Chapter completed!