Chapter 172 The world knows

"A 'digital compression chip' technology has already flowed into Hong Kong, China. The player produced with it is called VCD. It is a hundred times better than the popular LD for playing pirated discs, and the price is much cheaper. This thing will definitely sell like hot cakes when it comes out."

This sentence is not original to Zhang Yunqi.

But it was these few words that changed Hu Zhibiao's life.

In his previous life, Hu Zhibiao heard this sentence from someone in a shabby restaurant in a remote corner. It was completely unfounded and unreliable, but he ran to Hong Kong without hesitation to buy chips and started the research and development of VCD. Today, he was taken to the most luxurious hotel in Xiangshan City in a luxury car worth more than 200,000 yuan. He sat in a luxurious box overlooking the entire Qijiang River and Sunxi Cultural Tourism Pedestrian Street, listening to a teenager who was younger than him but looked wealthy, talking about the future potential of the VCD industry in a professional, rational and objective tone.

After leaving Xiangshan International Hotel, Hu Zhibiao felt a little dizzy walking under the scorching sun. He rummaged through the money in his pocket and found only two yuan and forty cents, enough to go home, so he hailed a taxi. Perhaps he was too excited, and on the way home, Hu Zhibiao felt like he was dreaming, and his left hand couldn't help shaking slightly.

At this time, he had thrown the idea of ​​opening a factory to produce pirated game consoles out of his mind, and he could not quite remember the taste of the seafood dinner Zhang Yunqi treated him to. What kept echoing in his mind was Zhang Yunqi's last words to him: "I'll give you two days to confirm. You don't have to worry about the funds. You only need to be responsible for research and development. I'll pay for it. If you are willing to give it a try, come here to find me in two days and go to Hong Kong together."

Unlike Duan Yongping, the mature, steady and introverted helmsman of the Little Overlord, Hu Zhibiao is a very courageous man. He is pure, high-profile and crazy. This distinctive character gene runs through his entire entrepreneurial history. Under his leadership, during the four years from its rise to its fall, Aido was more like a high-profile and arrogant "combat commando" than an enterprise. It broke out from southern China, gathered heroes along the way, conquered cities and territories, and became known to the world, causing all the princes to look at it in silence.

Such a young talent with a difficult background but high aspirations would not miss any opportunity to make a living. Although Hu Zhibiao had no idea what Zhang Yunqi, the big boss from southern Hunan, saw in him, and he didn't know how Zhang Yunqi knew about him, an unknown electrical appliance repairman, he knew that he was just an unknown electrical appliance repairman with nothing, so he didn't need to be afraid of anything.

By the time the taxi approached his home, Hu Zhibiao had already thought it through.

He asked the driver to turn around and go to Xiangshan International Hotel.

When the taxi arrived at the entrance of Xiangshan International Hotel, the driver turned to Hu Zhibiao and said, "Here we are, boss. The fare is 3.80 yuan."

It was not until this moment that the excited Hu Zhibiao remembered that the two yuan and forty cents in his pocket were only enough for him to go home once, not enough for a round trip. But it seemed too late to think about it now. He took out the two yuan and forty cents from his pocket and handed it to the taxi driver. His young face, which was still very proud, was inevitably a little embarrassed: "Master, I forgot to bring money when I went out today. This is all I have in my pocket. How about you wait for me, I will be back soon, and you can take me home later, and I will pay you the rest of the money."

The driver took the money, glanced at Hu Zhibiao's work clothes, and couldn't help muttering, "Do I need to take a taxi to come to Xiangshan International Hotel to fix the toilet?"

Hu Zhibiao's face suddenly turned red.

He snatched the two dollars and forty cents and said, "Just wait!"

Before the driver could react, Hu Zhibiao had already opened the car door and rushed into the Xiangshan International Hotel. He followed the same path that Wang Guibing had taken him to the luxurious private room on the fourth floor of the western restaurant. Zhang Yunqi and Wang Guibing had not left yet, sitting on the sofa chatting. Zhang Yunqi was quite surprised to see Hu Zhibiao come back and asked, "Do you have anything else to do?"

Hu Zhibiao, sweating profusely, said, "Mr. Zhang, could you lend me a hundred yuan first?"

Zhang Yunqi was a little puzzled, but didn't ask. He gestured to Wang Guibing, and Wang Guibing took out his wallet and took out a 100-yuan bill and handed it to him.

Hu Zhibiao said thank you and immediately turned and left.

Wang Guibing looked at his back and asked Zhang Yunqi with a smile: "Boss, is this guy reliable?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "It's reliable now, but it's hard to say whether it will be reliable in the future."

Wang Guibing didn't understand: "What does this mean?"

Zhang Yunqi did not answer. Although it was the first time he met Hu Zhibiao, Hu Zhibiao's impetuous behavior had confirmed what many media reports in later generations described: decisive and hot-blooded, a rare marketing genius, but lacking strategic vision and foresight. He was suitable for fighting, but could never be the commander of a large enterprise.

This is vividly reflected in the history of Aido's demise. It may be difficult to imagine that in its previous life, Aido was a large enterprise with sales of more than 10 billion yuan and 3000 employees. It had never had any medium- and long-term strategic planning since the first day of its establishment. Until its demise, it had not even formulated a practical two-year plan. You must know that Hu Zhibiao was surrounded by a large number of marketing planning experts, and their execution capabilities were first-class. However, if the decision itself is blind, the stronger the execution capabilities of these experts, the more fierce the competition in the market, and the greater the damage to the company.

It is worth mentioning that, including Hu Zhibiao and Duan Yongping, China's VCD heroes have always been just "assembly heroes" who have been having fun in the front stage. Core components such as chips and movements are all foreigners. In order to extend the life cycle of VCD products, C-CUBE and ESS respectively launched upgraded versions of chips. After several rounds of fierce price wars, the East China faction such as Shinco, Panda, Shanghai Media Group, and Hualu, whose chips were provided by ESS, and the Guangdong faction such as Aido, BBK, and Senco, whose chips were provided by C-CUBE, once again formed a new confrontation. In order to seize the initiative in the Chinese market, the East China faction proposed to upgrade the name of the product and changed it to SVCD, while the Guangdong faction insisted on calling it CVD.

Hu Zhibiao is an enthusiast of this name dispute.

He regarded himself as the leader of the Guangdong faction, and through his powerful marketing planning network, he made the name dispute a mess throughout China. Finally, the relevant state departments had to step in to mediate. It should be noted that Xinke and Shanghai Radio and Television of the East China faction are both old state-owned enterprises with strong backgrounds, while the naive Hu Zhibiao attempted to force the relevant state departments to accept the concept of CVD and the industry standards they proposed through strong reports from domestic media. Later, when he learned that the country might adopt the compromise name "Super VCD", he took the lead in raising the stern question of "Is the product standard determined by the enterprise or the government", so that a certain bigwig angrily accused the Guangdong faction of "not knowing the immensity of heaven and earth".

In comparison, in this name dispute, Duan Yongping, who belongs to the same camp as Hu Zhibiao, is much more mature and experienced. His BBK did not make any move and just followed behind Aido to reap the benefits. Looking back now, this dispute has actually foreshadowed the fate of the two most famous entrepreneurs in Xiangshan City in the 1990s: one was thrown into prison, while the other was living freely on the other side of the ocean with his beautiful wife.

As Zhang Yunqi was thinking, he was a little sad. Then he saw Hu Zhibiao running in from the door again. He was sweating and breathing heavily. Zhang Yunqi wanted to get up and get him a bottle of water and have a good chat, but Hu Zhibiao said to him directly: "Mr. Zhang, when are we going to Hong Kong?"

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(End of this chapter)