After Xinya Networks went public, Song Yi officially started his inspection tour in the mainland. Song Yi's tour will pass through many cities in the mainland, from south to north, inspecting many industries under SA Group and visiting some partners.
The first stop of Song Yi's inspection was Pengcheng. Accompanied by the city leaders, Song Yi visited four companies, BYD, Vanke, Penguin and Huawei. Song Yi deliberately chose Huawei as the last stop of his inspection in Pengcheng. SA Telecom purchased telecom equipment from Huawei, and Song Yi expressed his intention to purchase more telecom equipment to further expand SA Telecom's market share in South Korea.
Korean telecom companies previously purchased telecom equipment from Motorola, Nokia and Siemens. It was not easy for Huawei's telecom equipment to gain a foothold in the fiercely competitive Korean market. Huawei warmly entertained Song Yi and his party.
Song Yi also explained to Huawei the purpose of this inspection, hoping that SA Group and Huawei could carry out deeper cooperation in 4G standards and patents.
The 4G standard was completed around 2008 and commercialized around 2011. The world's first commercial 4G license was issued by Sweden. This 4G network uses LTE technology, which increases the upload and download network speed to 100M/s and supports higher quality and larger capacity audio and video transmission.
Song Yi said: "This year is a key year for 3G networks. High-speed downlink packet access technology (HSDPA technology) has been introduced into 3G networks. This technology increases the data transmission rate to 14M/s, which is an important milestone in the development of 3G networks."
"The development of communication technology will bring about tremendous changes in consumer electronic devices. Although Nokia is in its heyday today and is the absolute leader in the mobile phone market, if they do not actively embrace changes in technology and the market, it will only take three or four years for this company to decline." Song Yi gave his own judgment.
Some Huawei executives disagree. As Nokia's old rival, they are well aware of Nokia's strong strength. They also see the gap between Huawei and Nokia in the field of mobile phone manufacturing.
In 2005, the global mobile phone shipments reached 825.5 million units, of which Nokia had a global market share of 32.1%, firmly occupying the top position of mobile phone manufacturers, Motorola ranked second, Samsung and LG ranked third and fourth, and Sony Ericsson ranked fifth. These five mobile phone manufacturers accounted for 3/4 of the global mobile phone market.
Huawei entered the mobile phone industry in 2003 and established Huawei Terminal Company. In 2005, Huawei produced its first 3G mobile phone U636, which was rated as the "Best 3G Mobile Phone Award" by Charlton Media Group.
However, Huawei phones are not well-known at the moment, and they mainly make OEM phones for the three major operators, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad and Lenovo, the four major mobile phone manufacturers, later became the four major smartphone giants in the mainland by making OEM phones. After Apple and Samsung entered the mainland, Huawei was the only one left in the China Cool Alliance.
Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei seemed to be thinking about something. Huawei's current terminal business is not profitable. This department does not account for a large proportion of revenue. Huawei's board of directors once considered giving up the mobile phone manufacturing business. Song Yi's words are definitely not aimless. He almost explicitly told Huawei that the consumer electronics business contains new opportunities for Huawei.
After Song Yi and his team left Huawei, Huawei's executives discussed the views Song Yi had just expressed.
"I admit that Song Yi has great insights into the Internet and capital markets, but the SA Group has not yet entered the mobile phone manufacturing industry and is a layman in this field. What makes him so sure that Nokia will decline in the next few years? Among the top five mobile phone manufacturers, Nokia's market share is growing the fastest. Now almost every college student has a Nokia phone." An executive was somewhat unconvinced.
"No matter how powerful an empire is, it cannot escape the historical law of rise and fall. The more successful Nokia's current business model is, the more difficult it will be for them to transform. After all, the company is too large, and it takes a lot of time from high-level decision-making to front-line implementation. Small companies also have their advantages, and a small ship is easier to turn around." Some people have different opinions.
"Song Yi wouldn't mention Nokia for no reason. SA Electronics has also applied for many patents in the fields of mobile phone manufacturing and communications in recent years. SA Electronics' research center in Puhai occupies four office buildings. Many students recruited by Huawei eventually joined SA Electronics. SA Electronics just hasn't launched mature mobile phone products yet, but it doesn't mean that they have given up on the big cake of consumer electronics." Mr. Ren expressed his point of view.
The executives understood what Mr. Ren meant. “Mr. Ren, you mean SA Electronics is going to launch a new mobile phone that is ahead of Nokia in terms of technology, thereby dethroning Nokia as the leader in consumer electronics. Is this possible? After all, SA Electronics has only been established for four years.”
“A lot can be done in four years. The Liangxi semiconductor factory jointly established by SA and LG has also been put into production. SA Electronics’ new mobile phone should be available soon. The prototype is undergoing the final stage of testing. Once the final packaging test is completed, it will enter the large-scale production stage. SA Electronics is still in a state of uncertainty. It depends on whether SA Electronics’ new mobile phone can bring consumers an extraordinary user experience.” Mr. Ren concluded.
Song Yi's inspection brought many changes to Huawei. Mr. Ren recalled Yu Chengdong, who was in charge of the wireless business in Europe, and asked Yu Chengdong to take over Huawei's consumer business.
"President, I feel that you attach great importance to Huawei. Why?" Zhou Zhiyi, who accompanied the inspection, asked Song Yi.
Song Yi explained, "In 2003, Motorola was ready to acquire Huawei for $7.5 billion. Later, Motorola changed its CEO, and the new CEO felt that $7.5 billion was too high, so the sale failed in the end."
"Huawei is a vibrant high-tech company with its own core technology and innovation capabilities, and it can adapt quickly. In the field of smartphones, we in SA have three strongest competitors: Apple, Samsung and Huawei."
"In the second half of the year, our SA Electronics' first smartphone, the Galaxy S1, will be officially launched. This is a groundbreaking product that will inevitably change the way consumers use their phones. But for Samsung and Huawei, as long as they disassemble the S1 and focus on research and development, they can produce a phone of the same level and price as the S1 in a year and a half at most."
"I have never doubted that SA Electronics can become the new king in the field of consumer electronics. We have enough strength to defeat Nokia. However, a newcomer in an industry may not necessarily maintain its technological advantages. We need to invest more funds in research and development to ensure that SA Electronics always maintains a leading position in technology."
"In order to prevent SA Group employees from becoming slack, we need rivals like Apple, Samsung and Huawei to keep chasing us from behind. Starting from the launch of Galaxy S1, I decided to spend 10% of sales revenue on product research and development every year. SA Electronics is taking the route of technological expansion, which can lay a solid foundation for SA Electronics to cope with the confrontation with electronics giants." Song Yi said.
Zhou Zhiyi glanced at Song Yi. For the first time, she saw that Song Yi did not hide his ambitions in his career. Nokia's sales in 2005 reached 48.55 billion US dollars, and Samsung Group's sales in Greater China in 2005 reached 25.3 billion US dollars. Galaxy S1 has not yet been launched, but Song Yi has enough confidence to surpass these two electronic giants.
The Galaxy S1 uses a self-developed processor and RF chip, a capacitive touch screen provided by LG Electronics, a mobile phone battery provided by LG Chem, a Sony camera, and memory chips produced by the Liangxi Semiconductor Factory.
After the division of Hyundai in 2001, Hyundai Electronics was renamed Eshan Electronics. Eshan Electronics sold its 2nd, 3rd and 3.5th generation LCD production lines with an annual output of 3 million pieces to BOE in a one-time package for US$360 million to ease Eshan Electronics' debt crisis.
Although Song Yi intended to retain the LCD production line, Xinya was too weak at the time and had no way of taking over the world's ninth largest LCD production line. Therefore, the Galaxy S1 phone could only use the LCD mobile phone screen provided by LG Electronics for the time being.
In order to ensure the stability of the supply of LCD mobile phone screens, SA Electronics has also invested in LG Electronics' LCD business. SA Electronics and LG Electronics will set up a new company to invest in the sixth-generation TFT-LCD production line.
Song Yi remembers that the world's first mobile phone with an OLED screen was the N85 released by Nokia, but it was Samsung and Apple that promoted OLED technology. Apple began using OLED screens in the iPhone X, which was also the first time that the iPhone adopted an OLED full screen. In order to retain the Face ID facial unlocking function, the iPhone X has an ugly bangs on the top.
Song Yi does not plan to adopt Samsung's strategy of launching a large number of products, but instead plans to release at most one or two high-end smartphones each year like Apple.
As a heavy user of smartphones before his rebirth, Song Yi is well aware of the future development trends of smartphones. SA Electronics' R&D department can focus on R&D funds and directions according to Song Yi's requirements, which is equivalent to an open-book exam, avoiding SA Electronics from taking detours in the technology R&D route and saving SA Electronics' R&D funds. This is the capital and confidence that SA Electronics can compete with electronic giants such as Apple, Samsung and Huawei.
In the choice between LCD and OLED mobile phone screens, Song Yi chose OLED screens without hesitation. However, the miniaturization technology of OLED screens is not mature enough and consumers' market acceptance is not high. Considering the production cost of OLED screens, Song Yi decided to wait two or three years before using OLED screens on Galaxy S series phones.
The period from 2006 to 2008 was a downturn in the global LCD market. SA Electronics could also take advantage of this period to acquire an OLED LCD screen production line to prepare in advance for the large-scale commercial use of OLED mobile phone screens.
"President, to be honest, I can't wait to go to SA Electronics Puhai R&D Center to witness the prototype of our Galaxy S1. I also want to know what kind of surprises the more than one billion R&D funds can bring us." Zhou Zhiyi said.
The biggest difficulty for SA Electronics and Apple in developing new smartphones is multi-touch technology. Although multi-touch technology has been developed for many years, no company has ever applied this technology to consumer electronics products.
Before the first generation of iPhone came out, Apple produced a total of three iPhones, and the second real machine was produced in 2006. This iPhone used an aluminum body, which was very textured. It was also the proud work of Jobs and design director Jonathan Ive, but it caused trouble for Apple's engineering production department because the aluminum alloy body would hinder the transmission of wireless communication. Apple's large-scale use of aluminum alloy bodies had to wait until the iPhone 5S series.
Song Yi had extended an olive branch to Jonathan Ive through a headhunting company a long time ago, inviting Ive to join, but Ive was not interested in leaving Apple and joining an unknown electronics company.
The headhunting company told Song Yi what he had said, but Song Yi was not angry. Song Yi was well-known in the technology circle, and it was impossible for Jonathan Ive to not know him.
Inschool officially entered the North American market in 2005 and opened registration. Currently, the number of members has exceeded 50 million, making it the second largest social networking site in North America, second only to Facebook. In order to kill Facebook, the competitor, in advance, Song Yi offered Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg $1 billion to acquire Facebook in full. Once the news of SA Soft's acquisition was announced, it caused a sensation in the North American technology circle. With a purchase price of $1 billion, as long as Mark Zuckerberg nodded, he would immediately become the richest man in North America.
The Jewish consortium behind Zuckerberg did not agree to sell Facebook to SA Soft, so Zuckerberg had to reject the acquisition.
Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed and answered why he rejected SA Soft's acquisition, "I want to be the best social network in the world, I want to be the top Internet company."
When the reporter asked Song Yi what he thought of Mark Zuckerberg's remarks, Song Yi shook his head and said, "As we all know, inschool is the best social networking site in the world. Users in most parts of Europe and Asia like inschool very much. Facebook certainly has the potential to become an excellent Internet company, but whether it can become the top Internet company depends on the right time, right place and right people."
Although Facebook rejected SA Soft's acquisition, it agreed to SA Soft's investment in Facebook. SA Soft acquired 4% of Facebook's shares for US$40 million.
This type of financing is also very common in Internet companies. For example, Yahoo has invested in Google, and Google has also invested in Facebook. Internet startups use equity to exchange for passes to Internet giants. When InSchool entered the Japanese market, it also brought in Japan's SoftBank as a shareholder of InSchool Japan.
The reason why Song Yi has high hopes for the Galaxy S series of smartphones is that before the advent of the mobile Internet era, he wants to use the built-in application inschool on the Galaxy S series of smartphones to develop new inschool users through smartphones to achieve a dimensionality reduction attack on Facebook.
"Don't worry, I am quite satisfied with the prototype that SA Electronics has produced this time. Although it is still some distance away from the real phone announced at the press conference, at least we can see the real Galaxy S1. There will not be any major changes in the appearance of the phone." Song Yi answered Zhou Zhiyi's question.
At this time, Zhou Zhiyi remembered BYD, the first company Song Yi visited on this trip. BYD showed Song Yi their first independently developed BYD brand car F3. F3 is also the first single model of China's independent automobile brand to enter the "10,000 vehicles club".
At that time, Song Yi asked BYD’s management many questions about the F3 and seemed to be very interested in the automotive industry.
"Chairman, since our SA Group is ready to shift its main business to the mobile phone manufacturing field, now is not the right time to enter the automotive industry. It may also attract the hostility of Uncle Meng Jiu. The gain will not outweigh the loss. What do you think?" Zhou Zhiyi advised.
Song Yi laughed dumbly, "Is it so obvious that I want to enter the automotive industry?"
If you want to choose the person Zhou Zhiyi hates the most in the entire Hyundai family, it must be Zhou Mengjiu. Zhou Zhiyi certainly hopes that SA Group can enter the automobile manufacturing industry and launch a strong challenge to Hyundai Motor Group, but she understands the principle of biting off more than she can chew.
Currently, SA Group's main businesses are the Internet, media, real estate, finance and consumer electronics. If an automobile business is added, SA Group will face double pressure from Samsung Group and Hyundai Motor Group in South Korea, and its living environment will suddenly become much worse.
On April 11, the world's largest retailer Walmart announced that due to the company's poor operating conditions and continued losses in South Korea, Walmart has decided to sell 100% of Walmart Korea's shares and 16 stores in one package to SA Soft's physical mall Souhan Mall. The transaction price is 883.5 billion won, or about 950 million US dollars.
Shinsegae Department Store once raised its offer to 837 billion won (US$900 million), but still failed to impress Walmart's board of directors.
Shinsegae Vice President Zhou Rongzhen was very annoyed that Sohan.com disrupted Shinsegae's plan to acquire Walmart Korea.
"Sohan Mall has only two offline stores in Seoul and Jeju Island so far, and has never had any experience in operating large chain supermarkets. Sohan.com's offer is higher than Shinsegae Department Store's actual valuation of Walmart Korea. I don't know how Sohan.com can turn the loss-making Walmart Korea into a profit."
"SA Soft is clearly an Internet company, but it spent a huge sum of US$950 million to acquire 16 Walmart stores. Even if SA Soft has not yet gone public, it cannot act so recklessly in the capital market. This is not a manifestation of responsibility to shareholders," Zhou Rongzhen criticized.
Sohan.com's acquisition of Walmart Korea not only aroused the hostility of Shinsegae Department Store, but also Shinsegae Department Store Vice President Zhou Zhixuan urgently contacted Song Yi and asked Song Yi to explain Sohan.com's acquisition of Walmart Korea.
Song Yi's reply was very direct. "Souhan.com has no intention of entering the physical retail industry to compete with Hyundai Department Store. The reason why Souhan.com acquired Walmart Korea is to promote Souhan.com's newly launched Souhan Baitiao business. Souhan.com's users can use Baitiao to pay directly in Walmart Korea supermarkets, which is also to better help Hyundai Department Store compete with Shinsegae Department Store."
"If Hyundai Department Store is unwilling for Souhan.com to acquire the Korean Walmart business, Souhan.com can sell Korean Walmart to Hyundai Department Store at the original price, and the transaction taxes and fees will be borne by Hyundai Department Store." Song Yi's attitude was very sincere.
Of course, Hyundai Department Store cannot afford to spend a billion dollars to buy Wal-Mart Korea. Even if it could, Hyundai Department Store is unwilling to buy Wal-Mart Korea, a loss-making business. After this battle, the Song Yi family and the Zhou Menggen family, the third branch of the Hyundai family, have become estranged.
Song Yi has already had an unpleasant argument with the third wife Zhou Menggen over Walmart Korea. If the SA Group announces its entry into the automotive business, Zhou Mengjiu will probably turn against Song Yi tomorrow.
In Zhou Zhiyi's eyes, his grandfather Zhou Zhengyong had clearly handed over the Hyundai Group to his father Zhou Mengxian, and Zhou Mengxian was the legitimate heir to the Hyundai Group. However, Zhou Mengjiu, together with his third uncle Zhou Menggen and sixth uncle Zhou Mengzhun, led Hyundai Motor, Hyundai Department Store and Hyundai Heavy Industries to leave the Hyundai Group, divesting the three most valuable businesses of the huge Hyundai Group and handing over a mess to Zhou Mengxian, who was also imprisoned.
If Song Yi hadn't stepped forward, his mother Zheng Enxuan would have had no way to save the Eshan Group after the split. Now that the SA Group, which was merged with the Eshan Group and the New Asia Group, has become one of the top ten conglomerates in South Korea, the Zheng Enxuan family of the fifth branch of the Hyundai family is also qualified to compete with the second branch Zhou Mengjiu family and the sixth branch Zhou Mengzhun family.
Zhou Zhiyi also vaguely noticed the ambiguity between her mother Zheng Enxuan and Song Yi, but for the sake of her family and her mother's reputation, she kept it to herself. Zhou Zhiyi certainly wanted to bring down Zhou Mengjiu's family, but she felt that the SA Group should not make enemies everywhere at the moment, and still needed to be patient.
"Believe me, besides you, there are many people who hope that SA Group will enter the automotive industry. Elon Musk has entered Tesla's management and is focusing on the research and development of electric vehicles. Tesla and BYD will become the leading companies in the electric vehicle manufacturing field. Our SA Group will enter the automotive manufacturing field sooner or later, but not now. If SA Auto is established, Uncle Mengkui will be the only candidate to be the head of SA Auto." Song Yi answered Zhou Zhiyi's question.
Thank you for your monthly votes. After the adjustment, Girls' Generation and Tara will definitely be accepted, don't worry. Even if the main story is not accepted, the extra will be accepted.
(End of this chapter)