Kim Tae-hee stayed in Yeji for more than a week and spent the first Chinese New Year with Song Yi. In order to stay up all night, Kim Tae-hee learned the quintessence of Chinese culture, Mahjong.

Song Mingzhe and his wife, Liao Yu and Kim Tae-hee sat at the same table, with Song Yi serving tea and providing off-court guidance. However, Kim Tae-hee got the hang of it quickly and soon won the game one after another. I wonder if it was a gift package for novices.

Zhou Shulan kept making noises, she was not happy, "We are a family playing mahjong, and we win or lose together. It's not like Taixi doesn't know how to play, and he still needs your guidance. If you want to have a taste of it, I'll give up my seat to you, okay?"

Song Yi cannot be a military advisor, and he is not interested in this year's Spring Festival Gala, so he has to watch the cartoon "Tom and Jerry" on the computer with Song Miao.

"Taehee, do you have a program similar to the Spring Festival Gala in Korea? Is it that during the New Year, the whole family gets together and watches the same program?" Zhou Shulan asked.

"The three major TV stations will hold a year-end music festival before New Year's Day. The TV stations will award singers, actors, producers and hosts, and there will be some song and dance programs. If "Dae Jang Geum" is broadcast on MBC TV, then I will participate in MBC's music festival." Kim Tae-hee explained.

Artists under New Asia Media, Song Hye Kyo, Lee Hyori, Sung Yuri and Kim Jong Kook all participated in the 2001 end-of-year music festival. Jeon Ji-hyun missed the music festivals of the three major TV stations this year because she had no TV drama works.

Kim Tae Hee's singing ability is average, and her dancing level is only average. If she participated in the year-end music festival in 2002, she would probably only be a host MC. The trainees under Shinya have not debuted yet. In another three to five years, Shinya artists will probably dominate the music festival stages of the three major TV stations.

In addition to the SS501 group whose debut is yet to be determined, Shin Asia Media has just signed a pair of twin sisters born in the 1990s, Heo Min-jin and Heo Min-sun. They were discovered by Kim Hee-won, who then signed them to the company.

The Heo Min-jin sister was born on July 12, 1990. Their debut time should be around the same as Girls' Generation, tentatively scheduled to debut as a girl duo in 2007 or 2008.

Don’t think it’s strange to join an entertainment company as a trainee at the age of 11. Girls’ Generation’s Choi Sooyoung was born in February 1990. She participated in SM Entertainment’s talent show in 2000 and was discovered, then began her trainee career.

In 2002, Choi Soo-young left South Korea for Japan to participate in a talent show audition. As the winner of the Korean group, she formed a girl duo group Route 0 with the winner of the Japanese group, Marina Takahashi, and made a successful debut in Japan.

Later, the group disbanded in 2003, and Choi Sooyoung returned to Korea to continue her training career at SM, and finally debuted as a member of Girls' Generation. It is precisely because of this experience that Choi Sooyoung's Japanese proficiency is the best among Girls' Generation. In Girls' Generation's Japanese EP, Choi Sooyoung's voice is highly recognizable.

Girls' Generation's most beautiful member, Yoona, also joined SM Entertainment in 2002, and the youngest member, Seo Ju-hyun, joined SM Entertainment in 2003 when she was only 12 years old. It is also a common practice for entertainment companies to sign the sisters Heo Min-jin and Kim Hee-won.

When Song Yi asked Jin Xiyuan why she signed the Xu Minzhen sisters, Jin Xiyuan explained: "I think there are not many Korean double girl groups, and twin sisters are even rarer. As long as they debut as a group, they will not lack attention."

"As long as their singing and dancing skills are up to par, they will definitely be able to survive in the highly competitive Korean entertainment industry. And haven't you always liked the two sisters? With the care of our President Song, they will definitely be treated preferentially in New Asia Music." Kim Hee-won joked with Song Yi.

Song Yi touched his nose, feeling a little guilty, "Xiyuan, don't use this to test me. Even rabbits don't eat grass near their nests. How could I possibly do something to the company's trainees?"

Jin Xiyuan smiled, "My dear president, let's not be so hypocritical, okay? The reason why rabbits don't eat grass near their nests is because the grass doesn't taste good. If there were a bunch of carrots next to the nest, I don't believe you would let it go."

Song Yi thought for a moment and told Jin Xiyuan, "Tell Heo Minjin and Heo Minshan that there is only Lee Hyori, a solo singer, in the company right now, and there is no girl group debuting yet. Ask them to work hard. If they can debut, they will be the first girl group of Xinya, and I will definitely not treat them unfairly."

Jin Xiyuan and Song Yi also discussed the future group name of Xu Minzhen and Xu Minshan. Song Yi felt that the sisters had fair skin, which was fair with a hint of red, so they decided to call it the strawberry and milk combination, with the elder sister being strawberry and the younger sister being milk. Xu Minshan might be able to earn the nickname of "Xu Minshan with milk skin" by then.

Song Yi didn't want to stay at home and watch cartoons, so he took his niece Song Miao to the playground of Bianzhou University to set off fireworks. While Ye Ji hadn't banned firecrackers and fireworks yet, Song Yi and Song Miao wanted to have fun.

Cha Tae-sik and his team carried a total of 20 boxes of fireworks to the playground and laid them out in a straight line. Song Yi held Song Miao's hand and went to light the fuse together. As a result, before the fireworks were lit, Song Yi deliberately dropped the lighter in his hand, which scared Song Miao.

Song Miao knew that Song Yi did it on purpose, and she chased Song Yi in the playground in a rage. After Che Taizhi and the others lit the fireworks one by one, Song Yi covered Song Miao's ears and pointed to the sky, "Look, what beautiful fireworks!"

The noise on the playground startled the four people playing mahjong upstairs, and Song Mingzhe and his friends came downstairs to enjoy the fireworks show. The gorgeous fireworks illuminated the playground like daylight, which was truly a night of fireworks and silver trees.

Kim Tae-hee felt a little sorry, "Such a beautiful fireworks show should be recorded with a camera, the beautiful moments are always fleeting."

Song Yi smiled, "Not everyone can afford a camera. After the Liangxi wafer factory jointly built by Asan Electronics and LG Electronics goes into production, Xinya can try to develop smartphones. With smartphones, we can use photos or videos to record the beautiful moments in life anytime and anywhere."

"Smartphone?" Kim Tae-hee was a little confused.

"Smartphones have an excellent operating system, and users can freely install various application software. The phones will have larger screens, higher-pixel cameras, larger running memory, and full touch-screen operations. The functions of future smartphones will be more powerful than a laptop." Song Yi described the bright future of smartphones.

Apple officially started developing the iPhone smartphone project in 2004. Song Yi is making preparations ahead of time, so there is still time.

In October 2001, Apple launched the iPod with a scroll wheel, with two versions: 5G and 10G. The public still has no knowledge of the iPod, but Song Yi knows that within two or three years, the iPod will become the undisputed king in the mobile player market. The iPod is the best digital media player that combines hardware and software.

In January 2001, Apple launched iTunes, a free digital media player application for Macs and PCs, at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

Obviously, iTunes Store is the predecessor of Apple's mobile application store App Store. iPhone can be said to be a larger iPod, but with the addition of calling and photo-taking functions.

After entering 2002, Apple CEO Steve Jobs had foreseen that the mobile phone market would pose a threat to the iPod market, after all, the iPod's functions were relatively simple. However, Apple's focus is still on the iPod, its flagship product, because Apple has no experience in making mobile phones. Even if they want to enter the mobile phone market, they can only rely on the telecommunications giant Motorola.

After the New Asia Group successfully goes public through a backdoor listing, Song Yi plans to first acquire a small mobile phone manufacturer. He can apply for the trademarks of the GALAXY series of mobile phones and the Note series of mobile phones first, and take away the luck of Samsung Electronics.

Song Yi originally wanted to acquire Ssangyong Motor and enter the electric vehicle market, but after careful consideration, he decided to take it slow.

South Korea is a small country, which is very suitable for the development of electric vehicles. However, in the early 2000s, the electric vehicle market was not yet mature. Even if you knew the future development trend of the automobile industry, you could not build a Tesla in advance.

Moreover, if Song Yi enters the automobile market too early, he will basically be an enemy of Hyundai Motor. Now that the New Asia Group is still in its infancy, it will not be good for Song Yi to confront Hyundai Motor in advance. Moreover, if the Hyundai family quarrels among themselves, competitors such as Samsung and Lotte may take advantage of the situation and shake the foundation of the New Asia Group.

On the contrary, smartphones are also a technology-intensive industry. Smartphone hardware is mainly divided into processors (chips), which mainly include radio frequency chips, radio frequency amplifier chips, processor chips, power management chips, storage chips, and touch screen control chips.

If Xinya plans to produce smartphones, the Liangxi wafer fab jointly owned by Eshan Electronics and LG Electronics can produce memory chips. Compared with the rising domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei, OPPO, VIVO, and Xiaomi, Xinya already has a cost advantage.

Eshan Electronics has already sold its LCD panel production line, and Song Yi is ready to promote Eshan Electronics to produce small OLED mobile phone screens. Between LCD and OLED, Song Yi certainly chose the latter without hesitation.

In addition to memory chips and OLED screens, Song Yi also attaches great importance to mobile phone batteries. LG Chem is a giant in the battery industry. Song Yi plans to cooperate with LG Chem in technology in the early stage, and then gradually develop its own research. Whether it is a smartphone or an electric car, battery technology is an indispensable part.

If Xinya Group can establish a supply chain for mobile phone memory, mobile phone screens and mobile phone batteries, then Xinya Group will have the hope of competing with Samsung Electronics for the title of the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer.

In addition to the hardware part, Song Yi plans to hand over the software part of the smartphone to Xinya Network. In addition to inschool, Xinya Network's focus is on building a semi-open mobile operating system.

The closed iOS system is the primary reason why Apple phones can run so smoothly. Song Yi has no intention of copying the iOS system. Unless Xinya Mobile can occupy more than 20% of the world's mobile phone market, a separate mobile phone system is undoubtedly a fantasy.

However, Song Yi has no intention of joining Google Android. Song Yi can completely join forces with early smartphone manufacturers, such as BlackBerry, LG, HTC, etc., to create a semi-open mobile phone system.

Why is it called semi-open? Because Apple's iOS system is impossible to be opened to other mobile phone manufacturers. And Song Yi has no confidence in developing a mobile phone operating system that is better than iOS.

For example, the mobile phone operating system developed by Xinya Network is like a rough house, whose layout, area, orientation and balcony location are all fixed.

Other mobile phone manufacturers can decorate the rough house into what they want to attract customers to buy. However, no matter how you decorate it, the system kernel cannot be changed. You can't knock down the wall in the house, and you can't change the kitchen into a bathroom.

The various applications are like the furniture and items in a room. The room will be equipped with basic furniture, such as an integrated wardrobe, a water heater, and a gas stove. This is like the system-built applications in mobile phone applications.

The developers of various applications are like furniture manufacturers outside. Users can purchase the furniture they need according to their own needs. A small house is like a low-end memory mobile phone, which can only hold a few furniture. A large flat or villa is like a top-end memory mobile phone.

After listening to Song Yi's description, Kim Tae-hee instantly developed a strong interest in smartphones. "Let's not talk about anything else. As long as you can make the phone have a larger screen and a higher-pixel camera, you can attract a lot of users to buy it. Now the camera function of mobile phones is useless. When I upload the photos on my phone to the inschool homepage via a data cable, the photos are a little blurry after zooming in."

If Song Yi decides to develop smartphones, as a heavy smartphone user, he knows the future development trend of smartphones very well. If Apple, Samsung or Huawei are still wavering about which technology route to choose, Song Yi can make a decision in a shorter time and develop an excellent smartphone at a lower R&D cost.

"Now is not the time for smart phones. Even if Xinya concentrates its technical manpower and funds on the research and development of smart phones, it will take at least three to five years to come up with an excellent product. If inschool cannot become the largest social networking site in Asia, Xinya may not have so much money to develop smart phones. After all, the products of technology-intensive industries are made with money. In the future, large technology companies will need tens of billions of dollars in research and development funds a year." Song Yi said.

However, Samsung Electronics has become a technology giant with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars thanks to its chip business and smartphones. Even though Apple phones are so strong, it still needs to import OLED mobile phone screens from Samsung and let Samsung manufacture its A-series processors.

After Xinya Group becomes a smartphone giant like Samsung, it will not be too late for Xinya to enter the electric vehicle industry. By then, the battery technology of electric vehicles will be more mature, and Xinya will also have a technological advantage in the field of automotive chips.

Song Yi remembers that after Puqi acquired Ssangyong Motor, it was unable to adapt to the local environment and Ssangyong Motor eventually went bankrupt.

In 2009, Ssangyong Motor filed for bankruptcy, and Puqi Group, which suffered losses of billions, withdrew from the Korean market. This transnational marriage ended in disharmony. Two years later, India's Mahindra, with the spirit of "not afraid of losing", acquired 70% of Ssangyong Motor's shares. Ssangyong Motor, which changed hands seven times, finally went bankrupt and filed for bankruptcy protection again in 2020.

According to this time schedule, if the Xinya Group launched its own smartphone in 2006 and developed for another four or five years, it would be able to acquire Ssangyong Motor. Xinya Group would then develop the electric vehicle industry based on Ssangyong Motor.

By 2010, the New Asia Group will have become the largest Internet company, financial group and mobile phone manufacturer in South Korea. Even if New Asia enters the automobile industry, Zhou Mengjiu and his son of Hyundai Motor will not be able to do anything about it. 　See you tomorrow, and have a good weekend. 　　 　 (End of this chapter)