Chapter 997 Bad news

Before the Spring Festival, Zhang Ke stayed in Haizhou for most of the time and promised Zhang Yi to attend his wedding. He also attended Zhang Yi's wedding. He took Tang Jing back to Hong Kong on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year and flew from Hong Kong to the United States.

Zhang Yi considered Sun Ting's feelings, except for the newly purchased house in Kingsoft, he did not arrange a wedding house in Haizhou, and the wedding banquet was also placed in the Xicheng Hotel and did not return to the old house in Dongshe to hold a wine. Zhang Zhiwei had to accept this fact. The scenery of the wedding also made up for his psychological loss. All the officials who received the invitation in Haizhou City were absent, and six members of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee came. This was just Zhang Yi held a wedding banquet. He didn't dare to imagine what specifications would be for Zhang Ke to hold a wine in the future?

Zhang Ke did not care about these things, but compared to the trivial things in the family, it was more important to the development of the North American market since October last year.

The flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco is 12 hours long, but it is not particularly difficult to pass the time in the first class cabin. In addition to Xiao Jincheng and Fu Jun, Zhai Danqing also accompanied him in a legitimate name. In addition, Meng Le and Xi Ruolin followed Zhang Ke to San Francisco.

Meng Le will graduate from Dongda University in half a year. In the last semester after the Spring Festival, the school's arrangements are mainly based on internships and graduation thesis. Zhang Ke hopes that he and Xi Ruolin can work in North America for a while. This period is also a critical period for Kumho to explore the North American market and can best train people's abilities.

In addition to full-time managers such as Ling Xiaoyan and Shi Xinfei, Qin Gang's energy is also pouring more and more into this place. Some backbones such as Shi Xuebin and Dong Yuehua are also able to devote most of their energy to Chuangyu Company in the last semester of their senior year. Meng Le and Xi Ruolin leave temporarily, and Du Fei will not be too anxious to be angry.

For Meng Le and Xi Ruolin, being able to work in North America for a period of time is definitely an excellent opportunity to broaden their horizons.

When I boarded the plane from Hong Kong, it was dusk, and the sunset was hanging between the high-rise buildings. The first-class seats were designed ingeniously, with four seats tilting and staggering each other, forming a small meeting area for easy chat. Xiao Jincheng introduced some of the situations in the North American market to Meng Le, Xi Ruolin and the others.

Since the Hong Kong Electronics Exhibition in early October, Kumho has focused on developing the market of IPlayer in North America. After Kumho successfully digested the flash chip manufacturing technology obtained from Toshiba, it was manufactured by Zhongjing Microchip. The cost of Kumho 32M flash chips dropped from the initial $100 to less than $20, and Kumho gave all the profit margin of the cost reduction to dealers.

Regional agents were like they were stimulants. In less than four months, Kumho had built a relatively complete sales channel in North America. The monthly sales volume of the IPlayer produced by Ida in North America has also exceeded 30,000 pieces from less than 1,000 pieces, tying Scooper's sales performance in North America in August last year.

In the global market, the sales of the IPlayer cannot be compared with the md player, but in the North American market, it has tightened the nerves of the MD camp manufacturers.

Since MD player technology has always been in the hands of Japanese electronic manufacturers, the MD camp is mainly dominated by Japanese manufacturers. This feature limits the promotion of MD players in North America and Europe. In January 1999, MD's monthly sales in North America were even less than 300,000 pieces, while the player, Toshiba and Scooper reached 60,000 pieces and 56,000 pieces. In addition, Samsung's sudden emergence, the total monthly shipment of IPlayer in North America was nearly 200,000 pieces. In 1999, at least in North America, it was not a delusion that the player completely left MD behind.

In North America, price is not a decisive factor. Developing new and high-quality products that meet the market's fashion needs is the winning weapon to win the market.

If Zhang Ke wants to make a small profit but quick turnover in North American cities, the price of ordinary IPlayers can quickly drop below 20 to 30 US dollars within one year. Zhang Ke’s goal is to sell high-end IPlayer products at $400, $500 or even higher in the North American market to obtain higher profit margins.

Xi Ruolin looked at the latest 64M audio player with integrated digital radio function. She really couldn't imagine that such a milky white player as small as a palm would cost $600. This is exactly the best-selling player in North America. In China, an ultra-thin walkman with a Sony aluminum body costs only 500 or 600 yuan, but it is already quite luxurious. Ordinary students who want to listen to music are willing to spend a hundred yuan to buy a miscellaneous walkman. In addition to the fact that computers are not popular, such a high price is also a key factor in the domestic market that cannot accommodate this product.

"How much does Kumho make with such a player?" Xi Ruolin asked curiously.

"How do you say it?" Zhang Ke scratched his forehead, "The North American market has not generated profits yet. The shipment volume of 30,000 units has just reached the profit and loss point..."

Xi Ruolin looked through the information and found a budget for marketing investment in North America in 1999. In 1999, Xi Ruolin stuck out her tongue, calculated it in her mind, and asked: "Why do you have to distribute more than 110 US dollars of marketing costs in each product in a monthly sales of only 30,000 units?"

"High-end products, 40% or even higher gross profits are not luxury goals," Zhang Ke said with a smile, "The key is to build the market..."

For example, another 64M player lacks a digital radio chip in structure, and the price is reduced by 200 US dollars, and the pick-up price to dealers is 250 US dollars. The manufacturing cost of this chip is only 10 US dollars. This is the profit advantage formed by the monopoly of technology patents. Whoever allows only a few companies in the world to integrate digital radio technology into the IPlayer? Scooper can only purchase digital frequency modulation chips from Ida to develop similar high-end products.

Thinking about it, Ida bought a DVD player decoding chip from Scooper for 80 dollars per coin, which was less than five dollars in actual cost. At this time, she felt anger.

Not only is the ESS experimental base located in the San Jose district near San Francisco, but the North American company and North American product development and design center in Kumho are located in San Francisco.

San Francisco International Airport is located about 21 kilometers south of San Francisco. It is the largest commercial airport in California. When boarding the plane from Hong Kong, the sunset is setting in the west. After twelve hours of flight, when getting off the plane in San Francisco, the sunset is still lying in the sunset in the west. It feels really wonderful.

Cheng Hanzhang and the heads of North American companies rushed to the airport to pick up Zhang Ke and the others. This was the first time Zhang Ke had invested nearly $300 million to the ESS experimental base one after another and wanted to come over to take a look. It was also the first time that he met Eric Kim, the president of North American companies. He had only talked through video conferences before. If the meeting went smoothly, Eric will serve as the vice president of international marketing at the Overseas Operations Department of Kumho Commercial and will be responsible for the promotion of Aida brand in the global market.

"You just got off the plane, and there might be a bad news waiting for you..." Cheng Hanzhang asked Zhang Ke to get on the car first.

"What bad news?" Zhang Ke paused and asked. Although Eric was hired as the president of the North American company, in order to ensure Kumho's control over the registered North American company, Cheng Hanzhang also served as the chairman of the North American company.

"Let Eric tell you..." Cheng Hanzhang said.

"RIAA has set her sights on us. The lawyer's letter from them believed that our equipment was too simple to lift the restrictions on downloading pirated song dictionaries. In fact, it condoned piracy and infringed on their intellectual property rights..." Eric is said to be working hard to learn Chinese, but at this time he could only communicate in English. It doesn't matter to Zhang Ke, Xiao Jin, Chengdu. Meng Le, Xi Ruolin, and Zhai Danqing's English listening skills are slightly worse. After all, they do not have the habit of communicating in English for a long time. It takes a while to adapt. Zhang Ke slightly turned his head to explain to Zhai Danqing that RIAA refers to the American Recording Industry Association, which is a traditional American record industry giant.

Although Kumho launches an online music store that sells genuine music, once the anti-piracy system of the IPlayer is cracked, users can download music on the Internet without spending a penny. This itself is the biggest advantage of the IPlayer and it is also the most troublesome thing for audio and video publishers.

"They really know how to pick soft persimmons," Zhang Ke smiled and asked Eric, "Have Toshiba, Scooper and Samsung received their lawyer's letter?"

"RIAA believes that whether it is Toshiba, Samsung or Scooper, their IPlayer product technology comes from us, and we charge a certain proportion of patent fees from other IPlayer manufacturers except Toshiba. They believe that as long as we are pushed into the dock, all problems can be solved once and for all."

At this time, Zhang Ke spread his hands to Xi Ruolin and said with a smile: "You may not know that the cost of suing a lawsuit in the United States is very high. If you don't set the price higher, how can you afford a lawyer?" Everyone smiled.

Zhang Ke said to Eric, Cheng Hanzhang, Xiao Jincheng and others: "I am worried that intellectual property rights will be infringed and that technology development and progress must be restricted. The American court must blindfold its eyes to make such a judgment. Since they want to push us into the dock, we will ask the lawyers to respond... If possible, we can throw the lawsuit to the federal court at all." He also pointed to Mengle and Xi Ruolin, "These are two intern assistants I recommend to you. I hope that with your help, they can quickly adapt to the pace of life and work in the United States."
Chapter completed!