#347 - Harvard
As soon as 3:00 PM arrived, countless netizens rapidly clicked the pre-order button on Huaxing Technology's official website and paid the hundred-yuan deposit.
In less than five minutes, the once-bright button dimmed rapidly, and the deposit payment portal closed completely.
"Damn it, why can't I pre-order anymore!"
"It seems like they're out of stock!"
"I was just hesitating, and now they're gone?"
"Hesitation leads to defeat, decisiveness leads to success!"
The situation sparked heated discussions online, as some people found the pre-order channel closed while still contemplating whether to order.
Amidst the widespread discussion, Huaxing Technology's official Weibo account released a message that stunned netizens.
"The first batch of 800,000 Hongmeng SE phones has been fully pre-ordered in five minutes!"
With the announcement from Huaxing Technology's official Weibo, netizens realized that the initial stock of the Hongmeng SE phone was only 800,000 units, and they would have to wait for the next batch to pre-order.
Of course, 800,000 was not the phone's actual total inventory; Huaxing Technology did not release all available units.
The Hongmeng SE phone served as a transitional product for the company, bridging to next year's releases. Its primary purpose was to maintain the company's buzz.
It also helped differentiate the Hongmeng S series from the Hongmeng X series, solidifying their respective market positions and paving the way for the establishment of new brands in the future.
For the second pre-order batch, Lu Haifeng prepared a total of one million units, using discounted pre-order pricing to attract consumer attention.
Of these, 800,000 phones were allocated for online sales, with the remaining 200,000 distributed to offline retail stores.
Lu Haifeng believed this sales strategy would generate sufficient buzz for his company.
It would allow his company to maintain a certain level of influence in the mobile phone market before the release of new products next year.
However, Lu Haifeng had delegated the sales of the Hongmeng SE phone entirely to Yang Qiang, who would be responsible for the overall coordination and arrangement.
Lu Haifeng was now actively preparing for another very important event: the launch of the Audi R8.
As soon as Lu Haifeng arrived at Audi Motors, Zhao Jianhua approached him, informing him that the organizers of the Detroit Auto Show had contacted Audi Motors, inviting them to participate in the next Detroit Auto Show.
In recent years, Audi Motors had risen like a dark horse, gaining international recognition.
This was why the organizers of the Detroit Auto Show, one of the world's three major auto shows, invited Audi Motors to participate.
This news was also a good thing for Audi Motors.
Detroit was one of the world's largest international auto shows, and this particular show was being held in the United States, the second-largest automobile market.
This presented an opportunity for Lu Haifeng, who had always wanted to enter the US market.
"Reply to them and say that Audi Motors will definitely attend the auto show if we have the time!"
For automobile manufacturers, any global auto show was a good opportunity to promote their brand.
However, the Detroit Auto Show was still a long way off, so there was no need to rush this matter.
Moreover, Lu Haifeng wanted Audi Motors to prepare thoroughly, creating several models that Americans would love, in order to quickly penetrate the US market.
Right now, there was something even more important: the domestic launch of the Audi R8.
As for other Audi models like the Audi Q5, Q7, and Audi RS7, Lu Haifeng planned to showcase them at the Detroit Auto Show before launching them.
The domestic automobile market had been anything but peaceful in the past two years.
Initially, there was a major battle between Audi Motors and other German automakers in the B-segment car market, which later spread to the C-segment and D-segment cars.
After nearly two years of intense competition, these German luxury car companies were subdued by Audi Motors and quieted down.
The luxury car market had calmed down into a state of peace, but the low-end market was still in chaos.
In the A-segment car market, the battle between the Honda Civic and Lichi Auto's Qin PRO continued.
Honda Civic was getting desperate, launching advertisement after advertisement, seemingly determined to reclaim the A-segment market.
However, Lu Haifeng knew that Li Li was no pushover. Lichi Auto had finally gained the ability to compete with these established automakers, so Li Li would not give up the market they had seized.
Therefore, Lichi Auto launched advertisement after advertisement targeting the Qin PRO.
To gain more attention, Li Li of Lichi Auto even came up with the idea of holding a Qin PRO SkyActiv fuel-efficiency competition.
He invested heavily, offering a prize of ten million yuan, and randomly invited 500 Qin PRO owners to participate in a 1,800-kilometer fuel-saving event organized by Lichi Auto.
Lichi officially reimbursed all fuel costs for the entire journey, and the top 50 finishers received prize money.
The first-place prize was a staggering five million yuan. This event organized by Lichi Auto, with such a large prize, attracted countless Qin PRO owners to sign up.
It even generated a lot of attention online, as netizens were eager to know how fuel-efficient the Qin PRO SkyActiv version, known for its fuel economy, truly was.
When Lu Haifeng heard this news, he couldn't help but admire Li Li's imagination, being able to come up with such a method to gain a lot of attention.
Most importantly, it greatly benefited Lichi's promotion of the Qin PRO, a win-win situation.
Li Li's Lichi Auto had been incredibly successful in the second half of this year, transforming from a much-criticized automaker into a company that could rival international giants like Honda with just one Qin PRO model.
This gave many domestic automakers hope for a comeback. As a result, the heads of other car companies urged their engineers to speed up research and development.
They didn't want Li Li of Lichi Auto to be the only one enjoying the limelight. SkyActiv wasn't exclusive to Li Li; they all had SkyActiv systems.
Last month, Lu Haifeng and Li Changcheng held a media conference, representing Audi Motors and Great Wall Motors in signing a strategic cooperation agreement to establish a brand new domestic automobile brand.
This brand would focus on developing SUV models.
This news instantly caused a huge stir in the domestic automobile market. One was the undisputed leader of domestic cars, and the other was Great Wall Motors, which focused on developing pickup trucks and SUVs.
No one knew what kind of effect this collaboration would have, which made all netizens look forward to it.
However, after the press conference, Li Changcheng did not reveal the first batch of Haval models, only saying that everything was currently in preparation.
