At the joint meeting, Longteng Electronics' executives were still waiting for Chen Dong to give the final order.

“One million units is definitely not enough,” Chen Dong said, banging on the table.

The executives were dumbfounded in front of their computers. The iPod was a new product, and they had been apprehensive since they were told that they would release one million units.

After all, this product hasn't been tested by the market yet, and blindly expanding production could very well result in a complete loss.

"Hurry up and recruit workers for the production line. Once the products are online, I need to set up a new production line immediately," Chen Dong instructed.

Wang An solemnly typed the word "Yes".

Then Chen Dong typed a sentence on the chat board: "If there's nothing else, just go online."

At almost the same time, Sony IDS was launched simultaneously with iPod.

The difference is that the Sony IDS costs $500 and has radio and music playback functions, and can store 35 songs, while the iPod costs $399 and has an additional recording function, and can store 40 songs.

Sony has substantial capital for promotion, a mature business operation model, and a strong brand appeal in the offline electronics sector.

Chen Dong's product, lacking both offline promotion and physical advertising, did not achieve satisfactory results after its launch.

The engineers at Longteng Electronics were quite discouraged after receiving the sales figures for the first day.

In Chen Dong's office, Annie walked in with the latest iPod sales data, while the senior executives of Longteng next to her looked grave.

"Everyone, the product has only been online for a few days. Given the current speed of internet dissemination, a cooling-off period is normal," Chen Dong said confidently.

He experienced the era of electronic craze, and he knows what role a small MP3 player will play in the internet field and in people's lives in the future.

One million units were launched, but only 10,000 were sold in ten days.

Wang An had been involved in the project from start to finish. Although he didn't want to admit it, he couldn't help but wonder whether Chen Dong's words were trustworthy.

“Boss, since we’re not selling well online, we should increase our physical stores,” Wang An said hesitantly. “Our products have a lot of advantages, so there’s no need to rely on the internet.”

“No,” Chen Dong shook his head, “The Internet is bound to be the future trend. If we don’t seize this opportunity today, we will lose a lot of say in this field.”

He is more concerned with abstract things, such as business operations, luxury packaging, digital structures, and so on.

However, even if Chen Dong explained these abstract concepts to them, they still couldn't truly grasp them.

Lin Zhiyuan remained silent for a long time before looking at Chen Dong. "After our product goes online, it will mainly be sold in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and other places."

"The internet infrastructure in these places started earlier than in China, and the internet environment is relatively more mature. However, our disadvantage is also obvious: it is difficult for us to compete with local internet companies when we set up sales outlets in these countries."

"Actually, we can launch the product domestically at the same time, which would expand the market and perhaps solve the sales problem."

Ma Guoliang couldn't quite put his finger on it, but chimed in, "That's right! We have to put our stuff out in front of other people's houses to sell. Even though the region has given us a platform, our voices aren't loud enough!"

Wangcai had wanted to say this for a long time, and since Ma Guoliang had brought it up, he quickly added, "No one else knows that we have this, and we don't have enough brand appeal."

The iPod is not only Longteng Electronics' first flagship product, but also their first foray into e-commerce.

Chen Dong calmed down and thought for a moment, then said, "The concept of internet commerce is still too new in China. If we shift our market focus to China, we will have to give up the online market."

"Then we will lose one of the core competitive advantages of our products."

Chen Dong's main e-commerce concept is to connect factories and consumers, eliminating intermediate agents.

"I have a solution!" Chen Dong suddenly said, "We can gradually develop the overseas market. As for the domestic market, we will rent stores in several major cities and set up an integrated network of offline sales, experience, and after-sales service outlets."

Upon hearing this, Wang An felt that the idea was very feasible.

“Great! Domestic consumers don’t have the habit of online shopping because the internet isn’t widespread enough. But once our outlets are established, they can experience the products in physical stores and then place orders through our outlets.” Wang An exclaimed excitedly.

Lin Zhiyuan poured cold water on the idea, saying, "Even so, we can't focus our sales efforts on the domestic market. The price of an iPod at $399 is too much of a burden for people in China."

The product has just been developed, and many of the technical costs are still too high.

$399 is the lowest price they can achieve while ensuring the quality of the finished product.

“The target customers for MP3 players are mainly young people, but even with a base of young people in China, the market size is not large.” Chen Dong pondered, “We really need to plan this carefully.”

At this moment, Chen Dong recalled the story of Alibaba's early days.

When Taobao was first launched, domestic users did not have the habit of online shopping. Jack Ma assembled a dynamic customer service team and turned online customer service into an online community.

Even if customers don't buy anything, they can still flirt with the customer service staff.

This step is very important; it creates a sense of cohesion among users who are otherwise not very connected.

"The internet is different from traditional sales. The internet is all about hype! It's about creating a buzz!" Chen Dong said, getting more and more excited. "We need to create a trend."

Everyone looked blank and nodded in bewilderment. Chen Dong continued, "Product packaging and digitalization will inevitably become trends in the future."

"Therefore, our overseas sales will still be mainly online, with physical stores as a supplement," Chen Dong said calmly and confidently, with the air of someone who had been giving orders about the internet industry. "At the same time, we need to build an MP3 sharing community online to bring young people together and make it easier to develop potential users."

"This online community has only one theme: the use and experience of MP3. There are no restrictions on other aspects, and everyone can speak freely on it."

Lin Zhiyuan quickly realized, "We can transform community users into product users. At the same time, with a centralized community, we will have a place on the Internet and can also gather target users."

Chen Dong nodded, and had to admit that his brother-in-law had made remarkable progress recently.

Although he didn't experience the heyday of the internet, he could quickly digest the concepts that Chen Dong told him.

Chen Dong has mastered this whole set of internet thinking, but it's already quite difficult for people in this era to keep up with his pace.

“Wang An, Annie, you two will be in charge of this matter. As Lin Zhiyuan and I just discussed, deploy in the overseas market as soon as possible.”

"yes."

......