May 7th, Monday.

In the afternoon, Pei Qian and Meng Chang rode together to Outuo Technology.

This visit to Outuo Technology wasn’t about the G1 phone, but rather the smart fitness clothes rack.

The G1 phone had received an enthusiastic response upon its release, with many people discussing it online. Of course, there was also a group of people viciously criticizing the phone, tearing it apart completely.

The G1 phone being criticized was actually an expected outcome.

Because the domestic digital circle, especially the smartphone circle, was considered a very deep and complex environment. Using paid commenters to attack competitors was actually very common, though no one admitted to it.

This was normal, as the smartphone industry had an extremely bright future but also faced fierce competition.

Its bright future stemmed from the fact that in the foreseeable future, people would become increasingly dependent on smartphones. Phones would integrate multiple functions such as video playback, gaming, smart home control, calling, photography, etc., affecting all aspects of people’s lives.

The continuous innovation in smartphone technology meant that update cycles were rapid—as quick as one year or as slow as two years. Most people would replace their phones, making the smartphone market an extremely vast one.

But competition in the smartphone circle was also extremely intense. Not even mentioning foreign brands like Pineapple, domestic smartphone brands were constantly chasing each other, giving no quarter. Under this life-or-death competition, it was inevitable that tensions would rise.

As an emerging technology enterprise, Outuo Technology had only released two phones so far and held a very small market share. Logically, it should have been in a state of quietly developing its own territory and enjoying peaceful times.

But the problem was that regardless of how well these two phones sold, they generated significant online buzz and naturally possessed inherent topicality!

Moreover, these two phones were priced too high, effortlessly standing in the high-end territory that many phone manufacturers struggled to reach or couldn’t reach at all. What was more outrageous was that consumers seemed quite accepting of this. How could others not be envious?

So, Outuo phones were definitely going to be criticized—this was unavoidable.

And those criticizing Outuo phones weren’t necessarily paid commenters; they could also be voluntary supporters or fans of other phone manufacturers. Unable to understand why Outuo phones sold so well, they would also attack them online.

Pei Qian casually browsed through some forums and found that people criticizing the G1 phone mainly focused on the following points: some technologies weren’t mature, reducing the user experience; the price was too expensive, suspected of being an “IQ tax”; the so-called “new technology” wasn’t mostly self-developed—similar full-screen solutions were being developed by other phone manufacturers, and similar models would soon be released.

Seeing Outuo phones being criticized made Pei Qian quite happy.

The more viciously they criticized, the fewer phones would sell, and the more losses he would incur!

But the problem was, after Pei Qian carefully reviewed the discussions about Outuo phones, he found that these viewpoints were quickly countered and didn’t affect the hot sales of the G1 phone…

Technology not mature, affecting user experience?

Obviously—we already knew that. We bought it with the mentality of being guinea pigs.

Price too expensive? Suspected of being an “IQ tax”?

People who think this phone is an “IQ tax” probably have the real IQ problem. Just do a simple calculation and you’ll see this phone is an incredible deal!

Other phone manufacturers are also developing similar technology?

Then why don’t these other manufacturers bring their products to market?

Netizens engaged in verbal sparring, back and forth, resulting in critics criticizing for half a day but failing to find any critical points to attack!

This made Pei Qian feel very regretful.

What a shame!

The public opinion battle in the smartphone field was actually very treacherous.

Some paid commenters would seize on a certain flaw of a phone brand and attack it relentlessly. Even if there were no flaws, they would fabricate them. As long as similar comments were repeated many times, they would form a stereotype, subtly influencing many consumers.

For example, hiring paid commenters to constantly proclaim that a certain phone brand had “poor quality,” “bad signal,” “serious overheating,” “cut corners,” and so on. If such claims were propagated enough and repeated everywhere, many potential consumers would label the brand similarly in their minds and instinctively avoid that brand’s phones in the future.

Of course, such criticisms were often not unfounded. Perhaps a certain model from that phone brand did have similar issues, but even if future models improved, most people would still retain these stereotypes.

Outuo phones obviously had many flaws that critics could seize upon, but the problem was that these flaws had already been repeatedly mentioned and thoroughly discussed during the launch…

When critics tried to initiate a discussion about a certain flaw, if it were other phones, netizens would reply: “There’s such a problem? I’ll pay attention!”

But when it came to Outuo phones, netizens would reply: “You only just found out? Did your village just get internet? They already mentioned it at the launch—didn’t you watch?”

How could they continue criticizing!

Pei Qian had been thinking that if the online public opinion about the G1 phone was relatively poor, he could consider paying out of his own pocket to hire more commenters to stir things up, but seeing the current trend, he abandoned this idea.

In the current situation, paying for commenters out of his own pocket was basically no different from throwing money away.

He’d be better off using that money to increase the loss allowance.

During the last settlement, the system had unlocked a new mysterious reward. Pei Qian could consume a certain amount of personal assets to increase the loss allowance for a certain industry at a ratio of 1:100, with a maximum personal asset consumption of 100,000 per cycle.

In other words, by spending 100,000 of his own money, Pei Qian could unlock a 10 million loss allowance for a certain industry, activating a crazy money-burning mode.

Wasn’t spending on this much more cost-effective than hiring commenters?

Of course, Pei Qian hadn’t decided which industry to apply this allowance to yet.

But there was no rush, as there were still more than two months until the end of this cycle, giving him plenty of time to consider.

Meng Chang was also sitting in the car, his expression somewhat awkward.

His original plan was to continue slacking off this week and start thinking about promotional strategies next week, but today Mr. Pei had specifically asked him to go to Outuo Technology together to check on the smart fitness clothes rack.

Meng Chang really had no reason to refuse, so he had to come along.

His current mood was quite complex.

Originally, Meng Chang had felt both hatred and fear toward Mr. Pei, as he had been receiving only base salary for several months, which was clearly due to Mr. Pei’s doing.

Meng Chang was being played like a fiddle by Mr. Pei but had no way to counter it—all he could do was rage impotently.

But recent events had changed Meng Chang’s impression of Mr. Pei somewhat, making it difficult to understand what Mr. Pei was really thinking.

Meng Chang had originally wanted to create a promotional strategy for the OTTO G1 phone, but Mr. Pei had stopped him. Meng Chang had thought the G1 phone’s sales were dismal, but when he checked online, he found it was actually receiving widespread praise!

Meng Chang couldn’t help but feel a bit frightened in retrospect. If he had created the promotional strategy early on, he would probably have received zero commission again!

So Mr. Pei not letting me create a promotional strategy for the G1 phone was actually protecting me?

If he had created this promotional strategy, he could basically forget about this month’s commission; without doing this promotional strategy, if he could create some reverse promotion for the smart clothes rack, he might still be able to earn a commission of several tens of thousands.

After calculating back and forth, Meng Chang realized that Mr. Pei stopping him from creating the G1 phone’s promotional strategy was actually beneficial to him, which confused him even more.

So today he came with Mr. Pei to see the specific situation of Outuo Technology’s “smart clothes rack.”

From the name alone, it seemed like a not-so-serious product.

No matter how eccentric Outuo Technology’s phones were, they were still ultimately phones with a chance of success; but a “smart clothes rack”? It sounded like it had a high probability of failure!

Of course, Meng Chang didn’t dare to be careless, especially with the “fully automated smart argument machine” as a precedent.

He would need to see the specific functions of this “smart clothes rack” in person before making a judgment.

…

Soon, the two arrived at Outuo Technology, where Chang You was already waiting to welcome them.

Jiang Yuan was responsible for the phone business and was busy with G1 phone matters, while all of Outuo Technology’s smart products were now under Chang You’s responsibility.