It's not just consumers who are putting pressure on iPod; even sales platforms are putting pressure on it.
What initially attracted consumers to Amazon was twofold: firstly, it was the only official online sales channel for iPods; secondly, the massive traffic generated by iPods attracted many distributors to the website, leading them to set up shop there.
Amazon provided a platform for resellers, and the influx of numerous resellers also brought Amazon more visitor traffic.
As the number of products on Amazon decreases, the variety of goods will become scarce, consumers will not be able to find satisfactory products, and foot traffic will gradually decrease.
"Now that the iPod's reputation has declined, even if Amazon restores its previous traffic, it will probably be difficult for sales to pick up," Chen Dong replied directly.
Lin Zhiyuan thought for a moment and said, "The engineering department staff have returned from their vacation. Since the iPod project is in a dead end, why don't we shift our focus to the ICQ project?"
"Alright," Chen Dong nodded.
They don't want to get caught in the crossfire now, given the current momentum of public opinion.
Sony, on the other hand, is in a terrible situation.
Already unable to compete with Longteng Electronics in the MP3 electronics field, it has now been dragged down, resulting in a direct halving of its product sales.
At the headquarters' senior meeting, the heads of the European and North American regions both looked very grim.
It was them again this time.
The copyright dispute originated in North America and quickly spread to Europe, with Southeast Asia and Japan experiencing more severe consequences, but North America was the hardest hit.
After all, the leading companies that advocate for respecting copyright are North American music media companies.
"Longteng Electronics, they are truly our mortal enemy!" Yoshida Ichiro wished he could go to Longteng's headquarters immediately and tear Chen Dong apart.
"President, MP3 players are facing a collective boycott, and our offline sales figures are very poor," the head of the European region said with a distressed face. "Sales of new products are not keeping up, and there are no other products that can replace them."
"Although Sony has a lot of products, the people who are willing to spend money are young people, and our current products can no longer meet their needs."
Sony stores not only sell MP3 players but also various cameras, video recorders, televisions, and other electronic products, but the latest products are still MP3 players.
They've spent too much on advertising MP3 players, and now sales are so bad that their warehouses are overflowing with stock.
"The boycott of MP3s is mainly concentrated in Europe and America, while Southeast Asia and China are rarely affected," Simon added.
“Think of a way,” Yoshida Ichiro twitched his mustache and continued, “Let’s bring back the MP3 players from Europe and America first, and then we’ll establish new distribution points in Southeast Asia.”
McDilland was starting to panic. If they shipped MP3 players to Southeast Asia for sale, wouldn't that mean their products would be withdrawn from the European and American markets?
"President, we could actually put all the MP3s on Amazon and offer a discount. I believe we can clear out the inventory quickly," Mike suggested.
"Besides, shipping products to Southeast Asia involves time and money for freight, customs clearance, packaging, and renting new warehouses. Selling them online and paying a discount will at least save us time."
Upon hearing this, Yoshida Ichiro whispered a few words to the vice president and said, "Didn't we already list it on Amazon? As a result, the sales of Idis were crushed by iPod, and customers didn't buy it."
"It's not that I don't trust Amazon, it's that Amazon favors the iPod and gave them an entire section."
Simon and Mike were mainly in charge of this matter, and they both lowered their heads in shame upon hearing about it.
"President, we initially listed the products on Amazon, but at the time, in order to allow offline consumers to buy IDIS without having to queue, there was a limit to the number of goods available on Amazon."
The head of the European region said, "As long as we remove this quota and promote sales with low discounts, sales will quickly pick up."
The North American head quickly added, "I agree."
After discussions among senior management, it was ultimately decided to sell these MP3 players locally. However, the main sales channel changed from offline to online.
Sony has a wide variety of electronic products, and its technology is among the best. Its product structure is also very scientific. Therefore, although the decline in MP3 sales caused them to lose money on this project, their other projects were guaranteed to make a profit.
Longteng High-Tech Industrial Park.
Chen Dong, along with Annie, Wang An, and Lin Zhiyuan, arrived at the ICQ project management center of the engineering department.
The engineers and technicians responsible for developing ICQ are all in place.
"Boss, the ICQ beta version has five functions: chat room, file transfer, chat scene, screenshot, and recording playback. These functions have been tested and proven to be fully capable of supporting this software."
As Mr. Chen took out the latest blueprints, he explained, "According to the comments left by users after using the beta version, many users hope to add international square, music download and playback functions to ICQ."
"The reason we released the beta version online was to get feedback from customers after they used the product, so we could collect their habits and preferences. Once we've reached a conclusion, we'll just satisfy it," Chen Dong said.
As soon as he finished speaking, all the engineers and technicians looked at each other in bewilderment.
“International Plaza is great, but playing music here… I’m afraid now is not the right time to launch it,” Wang An said hesitantly.
Chen Dong frowned, and quickly realized what was going on.
There's still no conclusion online about the iPod player; the debate continues. At this critical juncture, if music playback functionality were added to ICQ products, wouldn't that just be a virtual MP3 player?
“We will only add music playback functionality, not download functionality,” Chen Dong said, opening his mind and once again bypassing the point of contention. “Users can download music on their own computers and then play it through ICQ, but they cannot download directly through ICQ.”
How about this idea?
After a brief discussion, the engineers all exclaimed, "That's a great idea!"
Chen Dong put on a serious expression. "I'm giving you five days to resolve the problems with ICQ as soon as possible. Add the features that need to be added, and optimize the features that need to be optimized. The internet waits for no one."
"Understood, boss."
A few days later, a storage floppy disk was delivered to Chen Dong's office. Wang An said that the first version of ICQ had been adjusted.
"Now we await your orders!" Wang An said with a smile.
With great excitement, Chen Dong downloaded ICQ from the floppy disk to his computer. After trying out a few functions and finding no problems, he immediately announced:
"Starting today! No! Starting at 10:00 AM today! ICQ International Version is officially launched!"
Upon hearing this, everyone in the conference room began to applaud excitedly.
......
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