Reinventing the Millennium

Fang Zhuo didn't pay attention to this unpleasant meeting with the head of LG Electronics.

We are all competitors, so what else is there to talk about?

Now there are LG Electronics China President Yu Nanjun, LG Electronics America President Wayne, and LG Electronics head Nam Yong. Who else can come next?

The Goo family of LG Group?

Koo Bon-moo, the leader of this generation of LG Group?

Fang Zhuo has already dealt with Samsung Prince Lee Jae-yong, and because of Nan Yong's appearance, he is also a little curious about LG's Goo.

However, Nan Yong is gone and there is no new news from LG.

Fang Zhuo was ready to receive a call from Goo, and even wanted to hear news about cooperation in other areas of LG, such as semiconductors. This company was not in the electronics business, but was also a large consortium entrenched in South Korea.

Unfortunately, no one called again.

Regardless of the slight disappointment in his heart, Fang Zhuo briefly communicated with Qualcomm about Huawei's willingness to improve the positioning of OEM products after obtaining consent, hoping to substantially help his own factory get more orders.

From the subprime debt crisis that occurred in the United States last year to the current economic situation, China is promoting home appliances to the countryside, and Germany wants to stimulate the economy. Many industries have felt the chill to varying degrees.

The semiconductor industry is no exception.

In the first quarter of this year, Bingxin upgraded its 65nm production capacity as planned, from 1.5W to 2.5W wafers per month.

I thought I would be able to introduce more customers soon. However, except for NVIDIA, which suffered losses due to the instability of Taiji's new process, this time it chose to allocate appropriate orders to ice cores. Other major international manufacturers are more cautious.

We are not cautious about the ice core process that has been verified by Qualcomm, but we are cautious about the global market.

The production capacity of ice core in the fourth quarter of last year was almost full, but the climb at the beginning of this year was not smooth. As of April, the Luzhou factory's capacity utilization rate was only 70%, and the Lin'an factory was even canceled by Qimonda Although only the minimum production capacity is operating, the sensor production line jointly owned by Shanghai City and Sony is still quite satisfactory.

If it is just ice core, it may still need to be reflected, but even the leading industry reporter has reported news of suspected production cuts, which can well reflect the situation.

Therefore, even though the industry is in recession, Mr. Fang is still working hard.

Ice cores have always had the first goal of breaking through advanced manufacturing processes. Looking at ice cores at this point in time, the Lin'an factory is at a loss as the global storage industry plummets. The situation of the Shencheng factory is better but not outstanding. The Luzhou factory needs to absorb the huge equipment depreciation expenses for upgrading production capacity this year...

If it had been anyone else, the industry downturn might have slowed down a bit, but Fang Zhuo wanted to play a counter-cyclical game, and wanted to keep a close eye on the flow of engineers from leading manufacturers in the industry, such as Taiji and UMC.

Taiwanese journalists all suspect production cuts. When Lehman sets off the fireworks, will layoffs be far behind?

As for the doubts arising from the situation within the ice core... Qiu Ciyun, Mr. Qiu did talk about the weakening of customer demand and overall operating issues in the first quarter.

Fang Zhuo's answer is simple.

"No matter how miserable it is, can it be worse than SMIC?"

"Don't worry, I won't tell you that I made a little money by shorting Lehman, and I won't tell my friends who are willing to invest in Lehman's listing. I will tell you that in Luzhou, they have already stated that they will fully support us."

Because of the ice core, Luzhou has initially established an industrial chain framework and has received recognition and planning from a higher administrative level.

If Zhangjiang in Shanghai New District is the "Chinese Silicon Valley", then Luzhou is now vaguely China's Little Silicon Valley, and will only support the development of ice cores more than before.

Fang Zhuo is so busy attracting customers for his family, and he also has to give some opinions to the Yikezhen Silicon Valley R\u0026D Center remotely.

After repeatedly postponing his overseas trip, and seeing that May was approaching, he simply stayed in China and planned to fly to the United States in June to see the latest status of heroes in the mobile phone industry.

On the morning of April 28, Fang Zhuo was busy working as usual at Hang Lung 23. Before he could finish signing the documents, secretary Liu Zonghong walked into the president's office and reported some of the reactions LG Electronics had given.

"Mr. Fang, the media has extensively reported on the patent dispute between Yike and LG, and there are also some abnormal personal comments."

Liu Zonghong came in with a notebook.

Fang Zhuo was surprised when he heard this. While taking the notebook, he asked: "Which media?"

This is a patent lawsuit between Yike and LG. It stands to reason that the media should not write nonsense or take arbitrary positions. Even Penguin, who has a bad relationship now, will not make such an obvious distorted report on this matter.

"It is South Korean media, including Korean broadcasting company KBS, Chosun Ilbo and other mainstream media." Liu Zonghonghui reported.

Fang Zhuo has no objection. He is not really standing around. His position is quite correct!

He flipped through the translated reports and wondered: "And the Chosun Ilbo?"

"The Chosun Ilbo is a newspaper in South Korea, and it is the newspaper with the largest circulation there." Liu Zonghong answered the boss's doubts, "Not only newspapers, TV stations, but also online new media are all reporting on our company's LG mobile phone The prosecution was clearly guided by public opinion.”

He continued: "Now, some people in several BBS forums in South Korea have announced that they will boycott Yike mobile phones, which may cause losses to our market in South Korea."

Yike Mars has now entered the Japanese and Korean markets and aims to achieve the 8 million sales target before the replacement.

Although South Korea is not a big country, it is one of the fastest-growing markets for 3G services in the world. The proportion of 3G users is much higher than that of Europe and the United States, reaching more than 35%, while Europe and the United States are less than 30%.

The first time Fang Zhuo heard the words "boycott Yike's mobile phone", he couldn't help but look up at his secretary and commented: "It sounds weird."

He continued to browse media reports from neighboring countries and found that there was also an interview with Nam Yong, the head of LG Electronics.

"LG Mobile launched a full touch-screen mobile phone as early as the end of 2006, earlier than the iPhone, and also carried out patent reserves."

"China's Yike Company is now taking advantage of patent loopholes and trying to stifle our competitiveness."

"LG mobile phone sales exceeded one million units in the second month in the United States. This is a success of innovation!"

"If Yike jumps out to stop LG at this time, it will not succeed!"

"Fang Zhuo is a conspirator hiding behind Yike and patents. He is destined not to get everything he thinks of!"

Unlike the generally polite people who visited Shanghai, Nanyong scolded Yi Ke and Fang Zhuo in an interview with the TV station.

Fang Zhuo was stunned for a moment. After the pragmatist and the doer, there was another conspirator's evaluation?

Since when had he been hiding behind his back?

Everything is clear.

He shook his head slightly, and after turning the page, he saw the rather wordy title of the report - "The Traitor Fang Zhuo!" 》

Forget about being a traitor, the word "Fang Zhuo" is still crossed out.

This newspaper from South Korea's Dong-A Ilbo not only reported on the patent dispute between Yike and LG, but also dug deeper and talked about the fact that China BOE turned into a tainted witness and stabbed Samsung and LG in LCD panels.

Without any evidence, the Dong-A Ilbo directly blamed Fang Zhuo for this incident, trying to explain the word "treacherous hero" in the title.

Moreover, its review goes beyond that. Things such as "hostile acquisition of Sina" and "hunting investment institutions" were also revealed to denounce China's richest man in the mainland for his lack of business ethics.

Fang Zhuo nodded frequently.

After a long time, he sighed: "How come BOE recognized me? They never mentioned it to Wang."

Liu Zonghong was a little indignant. Not to mention the hostile takeover and hunt for venture capital, this LCD stabbing incident cannot be blamed just because the boss took the lead in helping!

This is what the media fears most about reports. It is easy to tell if they are all false, but nine of them are true and only one is false. This is very annoying!

"It's so unfair that the Korean media is so irresponsible and unjust!" Liu Zonghong frowned.

Fang Zhuo nodded, his capture was somewhat accurate.

The problem is that this is the media of a neighboring country, this is their home court, and we cannot go to the line.

What should we do now?

Find the media yourself and let Sina follow suit and write about LG?

Fang Zhuo doesn't think it's necessary. There shouldn't be many people in China who have nothing to do to pay attention to Korean public opinion. As for the Korean market, just let the company deal with it coldly.

Although South Korea's 3G business is developing rapidly and has a high consumer penetration rate, its total limit is there, and there are entrenched Samsung and LG. If there is any loss, there is nothing to do. Just wait for the call back in August. .

Liu Zonghong saw his boss changing a cup of tea and asked for his opinion on how to handle this matter: "Mr. Fang, what should we do now?"

Fang Zhuo glanced at the secretary who had been following him for a long time and said: "There is no need to make a PPT for such a summary of public opinion next time. You did a really good job with the PPT."

Liu Zonghong was solemn. If the superiors do something good, the subordinates will not do it. If the superiors say not to do it, they will not do it next time.

"Let the company make a statement in South Korea. Patents are subject to legal procedures." Fang Zhuo added.

Liu Zonghong waited for a while, but after seeing no further words, he hesitated and said, "Where are those smear reports from the media?"

Fang Zhuo hesitated. The quality of media reporters ranged from high to low. Objectively speaking, the writing style of the report in the "East Asia Daily" was relatively neutral, but it listed some things more energetically.

How did people discredit it?

Tell me what you have done.

This is not easy to respond to.

He finally shook his head: "Forget it, I don't know Korean anyway, just let them be."

Liu Zonghong hesitated for two seconds and did not say anything about the Chinese cultural radiation circle. The East Asia Daily's "Treacherous Hero Fang Zhuo" was a direct use of Chinese characters, and the following content was specially translated.

"LG's reaction was so big and so intense, it was like stepping on their tail." Fang Zhuo shook his head and sighed, "The problem is, I'm not the first one to step on them. It's Apple who steps on them first. If Apple steps on them, I will step on them." No?"

Liu Zonghong couldn't give an answer.

LG Electronics is indeed being treated unfairly. Mr. Fang was just angry and did not take any other actions, so he was really kind to others.

"Tomorrow, ah no, in the afternoon, let the company also sue LG's touch screen machine in China. Isn't it going to enter the mainland market in June? Try to prevent it from entering." Fang Zhuo thought of practical measures.

Liu Zonghong took back what he was saying.

Well, the boss is different from LG. The boss is fair. If you wronged me, I will sue you. It is very fair.

Seeing that Mr. Fang really had no other instructions, he picked up his notebook, left the CEO's office, and urgently dealt with the LG matter. The first thing he had to do was initiate a domestic lawsuit.

What? LG’s new phone hasn’t been released in China yet?

No matter what, Mr. Fang said he would sue, so he should sue as soon as he comes in.

As the secretary left, Fang Zhuo was not emotionally disturbed.

It's just some media reports from neighboring countries. If they can really influence the choices of the local market, I am willing to admit defeat. There is nothing to say.

Fang Zhuo continued to deal with his work.

On this day, the president of LG China once again accepted an interview with Chinese media, but the content did not stir up much excitement.

Even the issue of Zhihu’s tendency to carry foreign reports was suppressed after a slight ripple.

Cold processing, cold processing is enough.

Fang Zhuo originally thought that this matter would end there, and he only needed to pay attention to Nokia's possible response. After all, the head of LG Electronics came and scolded him, and guided public opinion. What else could he do?

As a result, on the last day of this month, what surprised him most was the inquiry he received from the diplomatic line.

On April 30, Seoul, South Korea held a symposium on trade, diplomacy, and enterprises. LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics were both present. They all talked about a recent patent case that caused an uproar in South Korean public opinion.

This is followed by informal channels of contact and inquiry.

LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics, the two names in front are the big ones and the behemoths.

For example, Samsung Group’s revenue last year accounted for 15% of South Korea’s GDP. LG Group is also a large consortium with businesses in electronics, chemicals, communications, finance, etc. They all have strong influence.

This impact is not just a numerical representation of revenue.

For example, Fang Zhuo considered investing in Germany and sought better investment conditions. When he really started to do this, he gathered a group of people from the Yangtze River Delta to jointly conduct economic and commercial exchange activities. This was not limited to an investment in Bingxin. The power of numbers.

LG and Samsung have used this influence through special channels to exert pressure.

Fang Zhuo was really surprised this time. He never expected that LG or Samsung, which also came to help, would actually do this for Yike, who was the second person to initiate a patent lawsuit.

Fair, fair, fair?

"In normal patent disputes, everything is in accordance with procedures." Fang Zhuo's response was very normal. He was neither excited nor backed down. "It's just market competition and will return to the market."

So much for informal questioning.

Mr. Fang is right, this matter is in accordance with the procedures. Yike was infringed and the response was in accordance with the procedures. Do you have to call yourself a traitor after being contacted?

There's no point in putting pressure, right?

Just go through the procedures and ask Fang Zhaoxiong casually, that's all.

I can’t write down the plot of May 2008, so I can only give it a brief summary.

The first is the scale, and the second is the worry of hurting emotions. If possible, I will write an extra chapter in the future and watch it when the time comes.