Chapter 49: Li Jianxi's Shock

  The current Samsung is still far from being a giant empire that covers the entire Korea in the future.

  They are now, but just barely recovering from the "Hanbo scandal" that nearly brought them down over a decade ago. The incident at the time destroyed the magnificent business empire built by Lee Byung-chul with his life's work in an instant, and even within Korea, they were far inferior to the Hyundai Group, which was then at its peak.

  The bribery fund that Samsung was criticized for in later generations was also formally established due to this incident, because Samsung, which adhered to the separation of government and business at that time, almost went bankrupt due to political pressure.

  This is a lesson in blood.

  Samsung Electronics, the mainstay of Samsung, was founded only 15 years ago. Even its name, Samsung Electronics, was not established until this February.

  Moreover, Lee Jae-yong's position as successor is also unstable, and Samsung's internal "prince war" is still ongoing.

  Although Lee Byung-chul's will has been confirmed to be succeeded by Lee Kun-hee, the problem is that he is not the eldest son, nor even the second son. In Korea, where Confucian culture prevails, it is incomprehensible to many people that the eldest son, who is alive and well, is not allowed to succeed him.

  It will also inevitably lead to opposition.

  So, when his second brother Lee Chang-hee sparked the Crown Prince Rebellion and was put under house arrest by Lee Byung-chul for family law, his father wanted to clear the way for his chosen successor and planned to lock up Lee Kun-hee's older brother Lee Maeng-hee in a mental hospital on the grounds that he had delusions, but Lee Maeng-hee fought back with his life, plus the efforts of Samsung's elders, this matter was dropped, but it also marked the beginning of a 14-year-long struggle for succession between the two brothers.

  Lee Jae-hyun's older brother Lee Man-hee, the eldest son, has been eyeing the Samsung succession with the support of some old ministers.

  Lee Jianxi also knew this.

  Samsung Electronics was established under his leadership, and he believed that Samsung's future direction lay in consumer electronics. However, at the time, Samsung Electronics was just a mid-sized home appliance manufacturer, and before the 1980s, it could only make a meager profit by manufacturing black-and-white TVs for Sanyo and exporting them to some backward countries in South America. Lee Kun-hee's plan to merge Samsung Electronics with Samsung Semiconductor was also blocked by his older brother.

  Then, Lee Jae-hyun finally introduced Korea's first DRAM production line to Samsung Electronics two years ago, with the tacit consent of his father, after overcoming opposition from many people. After a year of research and development, it finally produced Korea's first 64K DRAM chip.

  DRAM is an abbreviation for Dynamic Random Access Memory, which is what we commonly refer to as memory.

  However, the absolute ruler of today's memory market is Japan. Japanese companies almost control more than 90% of the world's memory market share. They relied on low prices to defeat European and American manufacturers in the past, but when Lee Jae-yong tried to use the same method to fight against the Japanese, he found that although Asian companies manufactured products, Europeans and Americans could accept Japan, but they looked down on their Korean-made products.

  "Korea? A country that can only imitate and is backward can also produce advanced semiconductor chips?"

  This is the most common phrase Lee Jae-hyeok heard when he was opening up markets in Europe and America. Almost all European and American companies were extremely distrustful of their products, even though he brought samples produced by them, even though their prices were a quarter lower than those of Japanese companies, but those European and American companies didn't even give it a glance, just a light and airy sentence.

  "Our level of enterprise will absolutely not use Korean products." Because in this era, "Made in Korea" is basically synonymous with low-quality, counterfeit and shoddy goods.

  This blatant disregard made Lee Jae-hui, who had initially been eager to open up the US market, feel the same humiliation his father had felt when he was searched for two hours on a ship because he was Korean while traveling to Japan alone to study. Back then, his father had been a slave of a ruined nation; now, it was simply because they were a Korean company.

  This sense of humiliation is indescribable for Li Jianxi.

  Jest didn't know much about this piece of history, he just roughly browsed through the development history of Samsung. He also knew that since its inception, Samsung has been fundamentally different from many Korean companies, whether it's Lee Byung-chul, who is currently in power, or Lee Kun-hee, who will make Samsung a giant from an unknown company in the future. They have always had extremely high requirements for their products, and quality has never been compromised.

  From the first textile to the first sugar refinery, it was all like this.

  Jester still vividly remembers a report he read about Lee Kun-hee.

  It was around the early 1990s, when Samsung had just entered the mobile phone industry. At that time, one of their mobile phones received complaints from users. Lee Kun-hee took it very seriously and personally went to inspect this batch of mobile phones. Unexpectedly, all products of this model had the same problem. After careful consideration, Lee Kun-hee ordered the destruction of the entire stock of this type of mobile phone worth $50 million.

  Juster is deeply impressed by this strict requirement for quality.

  Lee Jianxi looked at Jester with some anxiety, who was frowning and silent. As time passed, the expectant look on his face also faded away. This wasn't the first time he had encountered this situation, and he thought that this time would be like the previous ones, where he would get a response similar to those from other manufacturers.

  "We won't use Korean products."

  It was Lee Kun-hee's idea to have Samsung Electronics take over the DRAM production line from Samsung Semiconductor. If he couldn't sell the new products that had been developed with massive investment in recent years, he would definitely be impeached by his brother within Samsung, even though he had his father as a backer. To really take control of this huge company, having a backer was not enough.

  Still need enough prestige.

  It is impossible to get a company of this level without WeChat.

  Failure brings no prestige at all.

  Finally, Jester said what Li Jianxi had been longing to hear.

  "Do you have a sample?" Jester asked calmly, choosing to trust Li Jianxi once for the sake of the market. However, he still had to see the sample, after all, Samsung's semiconductor industry was just starting out, and even he wasn't sure about the quality of their products.

  Jae-seok's unexpected words made Lee Ki-hui somewhat surprised, as he had originally expected to hear a refusal from the other party.

  Although Jast's company is a small one, this is after all the first and possibly only contract that Lee Kun-hee signed for Samsung Electronics' RAM during his US trip.

  A good start is always better than nothing, Lee Jianxi could only comfort himself like this.

  It can be seen that Li Jianxi's expression is somewhat excited, and he even took the initiative to shake Jester's hand again, saying quickly: "Yes, we all bring samples of our products with us, and we can guarantee that the quality of our formal products will not be inferior to the samples."

  "So..." Jester withdrew his hand from Lee Jae-hui's without leaving any trace, and continued to ask, "How much cheaper can you be compared to the same products from Japanese manufacturers?"

  Upon hearing Jest's question, Li Jianxi's expression turned serious and he said solemnly: "Mr. Li, we can lower it by five percent at most, our price is already very sincere."

  "I know your price is very sincere." Jester nodded, knowing that being one-fifth cheaper than Japanese products was already a very good price. If the quality was similar to or even slightly worse than Japanese products, then for Samsung it would only be making some money by exploiting workers' blood and sweat.

  "But Jest continued in a very calm tone: 'What if I need at least 10 million pieces of 32KB memory? What's the lowest price you can offer?'"

  "32K……" Originally, when Jester said he wanted 32KB of memory, Li Jianxi was a bit disappointed, but when he heard the number one million, his mouth involuntarily opened wide.

  The number is really astonishing.

  His breathing suddenly became heavy, his expression also became extremely shocked, almost in a stuttering tone, he once again confirmed with Jester: "R...really one hundred million pieces?"

  Jester shrugged again, still using his previous tone of extreme calmness to repeat what he had just said: "At least ten million pieces."

  "Mr. Li." This time, Li Jianxi did not answer directly, but first calmed down his own emotions. He was a bit unsure whether the other person's words were true or deceiving lies, after all, one billion was really astonishing.

  This means that the other party wants to produce at least 10 million game consoles, but how big is the US market? The Atari 2600 sold less than 20 million units in all those years, and even now, the extremely popular FC in Japan has only sold a little over 1 million units. Even Yamauchi Fusajiro, who dared to take risks, only placed an order for 3 million PPU chips with Ricoh.

  And this young man in front of him actually dared to ask for 10 million pieces directly?

  Also too reckless and arrogant.

  Thinking of this, Li Jianxi's face turned somewhat unsightly. He looked at Jester with a stern expression and said in an even slightly angry tone: "Please don't joke."

  "Haha." Jester chuckled nonchalantly, took a sip of champagne, and then said to Li Jianxi, "I'm not joking. This isn't the right place to discuss this matter in detail. I don't know if you'll be interested, but would you like to come to Costa Mesa tomorrow with your samples? If your samples are really suitable, I can sign a letter of intent with you immediately. However, your price must also satisfy us."

  Lee Jae-hyun is currently the vice chairman of Samsung, so it's also correct for Jester to call him Chairman.

  Jester's current questioning is not worth mentioning, in history, Super Mario has sold 40 million sets, FES has sold 60 million units, and the sales of 10 million game consoles are perhaps an unimaginable number to these people now, after a few more years, this will be just a sales figure of less than two years.

  The times are about to change.

  "Alright." Li Jianxi heard Jester's words and gritted his teeth, speaking in a resolute tone, "Although the final price still needs to be decided by my father, but if Mr. Li's company really wants an order of at least 10 million pieces, I can guarantee that the unit price per piece will be lower than the Japanese manufacturer's quote by one-quarter, which is almost the lowest price we can offer."

  "Let's talk about specific things tomorrow." Jester stretched out his hand to Li Jianxi.

  "Definitely." Li Jianxi also shook hands with Jester, and he still didn't fully believe Jester's words until now.

  When leaving, Li Jianxi still said some words that he had wanted to say but hesitated before.

  "Mr. Li, from my standpoint, I shouldn't be saying these words, but I couldn't help this curiosity... Do you really have such a good opinion of the electronic game market? You should know that even one million copies of cheap 32K memory would be extremely expensive."

  Jester's face lit up with a brilliant smile once again as he looked at Li Jianxi, whose face still wore a shocked expression, and continued to reveal another piece of news that would surprise him even more.

  "One million pieces of 32KB memory chips are just the first agreement between us. As for your question about my views on the prospects of the electronic game industry, I can tell you without a doubt that I invested tens of millions of dollars in purchasing your memory not to help you solve the crisis. The future of electronic games is bright and destined to be brilliant, which I am absolutely certain of. Moreover, we also have the intention to purchase your 64KB memory, as well as 16KB and 8KB memory. We can discuss the details tomorrow."

  "Your aura is impressive." Li Jianxi said this after a few seconds of silence.

  As Li Jianxi left, Carly Terry, who had been quietly watching Jester and Li Jianxi negotiate, suddenly spoke up, her tone also carrying a hint of shock that she couldn't hide.

  "Do you really think so highly of the future of video games?"

  "Of course, I'm extremely optimistic about video games." Jester looked at the CEO of his own publishing company with a serious expression, without any hesitation, and almost cut to the heart.

  Upon hearing Jester's response, Carly fell silent, her brow furrowed in thought as she swirled the champagne in her hand, seemingly lost in contemplation.

  "Madman."

  Finally, a smile suddenly appeared on her face, and she glanced at Jester who was staring at her, uttering a simple word.

  Jester's words just now were like those of a madman in her eyes.

  "Madman?" Jester took another sip of the champagne in his hand, repeating this word with a tone that was neither affirmative nor negative, then smiled faintly.

  "Maybe."

  PS2: Many people say I'm a bootlicker of the PS2, since I mentioned three stars in this chapter, I might as well give an example of a three-star.

  Samsung had just introduced DRAM production lines and was developing 64K DRAM at that time, but it was almost zero in the semiconductor field. To attract talent, Lee Byung-chul followed his father's advice and personally visited the United States to persuade Chen Da-ji, who was working at Intel at the time, to return to Korea. After repeated visits and persuasion, Chen finally agreed to leave Intel and help Samsung complete the development of 64K DRAM in a short period. Later, Chen also became one of the co-CEOs of Samsung Electronics and was known as "Mr. DRAM".

  I don't know if this counts as boot-licking?