Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 443: A New Strategy
"Stay calm. Never lose hope, no matter what."
"There must be a better solution!"
Pei Qian's mind raced as he fell into deep thought.
When it comes to limited sales, there are only two options. Either rely entirely on speed—whoever clicks fastest wins—which is basically surrendering to scalpers. Pei Qian would rather make money than let those parasites profit for nothing;
Or implement something like a "credit score" system, giving Tengda Group consumers higher purchasing priority, and binding the purchase to non-transferable benefits to shut out scalpers.
But Pei Qian had already tried that route with Ocean Fortress. While it did largely curb scalping, it didn't reduce profits—in fact, it pushed consumers to spend even more across Tengda Group's other businesses.
In short, neither option worked!
So the only path left was mass production. As long as supply remained abundant, scalpers wouldn't be able to inflate prices—it would solve itself naturally.
But the question was: how could they mass-produce while making as little money as possible?
Or rather… was it possible that producing more could actually lead to losses?
Pei Qian turned to Chang You. "About what I said before—the phone's profit margin shouldn't exceed 5%…"
Chang You quickly replied, "Yes, President Pei. We strictly followed that standard. Since we couldn't achieve it through hardware alone, I coordinated with other Tengda Group departments to bundle in various additional benefits!"
Pei Qian: "…"
Great. So all those extra perks were also his own doing.
But now wasn't the time to dwell on that.
Since the phone's profit margin was only 5%, it meant those benefits were essentially subsidized by other departments.
Overall, they were still making money—but not a huge amount.
The reason those 1,000 units sold out instantly was simply because supply was too low.
The phone's biggest advantage wasn't the hardware—it was the ecosystem of benefits across Tengda Group, which held enormous appeal for people in Jingzhou.
Everyone at the launch event was local to Jingzhou and already customers of Tengda's other businesses. Those perks were extremely attractive to them, and combined with the hype of the presentation…
That's why it sold out at lightning speed!
But for users outside Jingzhou, the phone wasn't nearly as appealing. Benefits like Moyu Internet Café, Mingyun Private Kitchen, and Against the Wind Logistics weren't even accessible outside Jingzhou and Lin City.
Many people had rushed to buy simply because they got swept up in the excitement of the launch—and because it was limited in quantity.
But once they calmed down, they'd likely regret it. After all, it was a heavy, expensive phone with a rather basic native system.
On top of that, tech media reviews might not be very favorable. Once public opinion shifted, any mass-produced units would just sit in warehouses collecting dust…
So—mass production. It had to be mass production!
As long as production ramped up fast enough and inventory piled up high enough, profits wouldn't be able to keep up with him!
And once the market became saturated—once the few wealthy locals in Jingzhou all had one, and others gradually realized the phone's shortcomings—those remaining units would naturally stop selling. And since they had already committed to a no price-drop policy, those products would simply rot in storage!
Of course, Pei Qian wasn't overly optimistic. He considered adding a double layer of protection, at least ensuring they wouldn't turn a profit this cycle.
Chang You and the others waited silently for President Pei's decision.
Everyone knew the next step was mass production—that much seemed obvious. But since President Pei was deep in thought, he must be considering something far beyond what others could imagine.
So they waited for "President Pei in a favorable position" to deliver the most perfect plan.
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian let out a somewhat melancholic sigh.
"Then… we'll mass-produce."
He looked at Chang You. "When can the next batch be delivered?"
Chang You quickly replied, "President Pei, production at the contract manufacturer is very fast. Some major brands can produce hundreds of thousands of phones a day on their own lines. We don't have that many lines, but the factory can still easily produce several thousand units per day."
Pei Qian: "…"
Damn, that fast?
Pei Qian thought for a moment. "Today is March 6th. Starting now, begin large-scale stockpiling and mass production."
"Sell twice a week—on Wednesdays and Sundays."
"When purchasing, users must log into their Tengda Group account and provide their ID number. Limit one phone per person. Upon delivery, they must present their ID to verify that the order, ID, and recipient all match. Otherwise, cancel the order and issue a refund."
"Next Wednesday, sell 2,000 units. Next Sunday, 4,000 units. The Wednesday after that, 8,000 units. Use the revenue from each sale to immediately fund further production, and continue scaling like this."
"Even if units don't sell out, use the available funds to replenish inventory."
"If there's not enough working capital, report to me—Tengda Group will provide funds."
Chang You hesitated. "But President Pei, the subsidies and profit-sharing from other Tengda departments…"
Pei Qian waved his hand. "Ignore that for now."
He knew very well that the current price of 8,199 yuan for the OTTO phone had a materials cost of just over 4,000 yuan—nearly half. The other half of the price was supported by concessions from various Tengda Group departments.
Originally, according to Chang You's plan, those subsidies would be returned to each department after the phones were sold.
But now, with a single wave of his hand, Pei Qian decided not to return that money for the time being—instead, it would all be reinvested into further production.
Each phone sold for 8,199 yuan while costing just over 4,000 to produce. That meant the number of units sold each round could double compared to the previous one.
Sell 1,000 this time, 2,000 next time—the scale would grow rapidly.
From here, only two scenarios were possible:
If everything went smoothly, the market would quickly become saturated. The phones would stop selling, inventory would pile up, and the subsidies from other departments would never be repaid—resulting in a successful loss for President Pei.
If things didn't go smoothly and every batch sold out, then by the 30th—the day before settlement—the inventory stockpile would reach around 100,000 units.
At that point, as long as they couldn't sell all of it, even making a little less profit would still count.
Of course, he could have directly used surplus funds from other departments to massively ramp up production right away, spending a huge amount instantly. But that came with significant risk—once the products were made, they had to be sold. It could lead to catastrophic losses within the same cycle.
By stretching the production cycle over a month, he could at least ensure nothing went terribly wrong within this settlement period.
Chang You was deeply moved.
In his eyes, President Pei had temporarily redirected all the concessions from other departments to support OTTO phones' funding and supply.
It showed that OTTO Technology was a crucial part of the group's industrial chain—and that he himself was highly trusted!
Moreover, this strategy effectively curbed scalpers while also taking care of ordinary consumers.
Limiting purchases to one per person, and requiring ID verification upon delivery, greatly increased the cost and difficulty of scalping.
Holding sales every three days, with each batch doubling in size, meant consumers wouldn't feel desperate enough to buy from scalpers at inflated prices—they could simply wait a few more days.
"President Pei… I won't let down the expectations of all Tengda Group departments! Even if I have to personally go to the production line and tighten screws myself, I'll make sure supply is guaranteed!"
Chang You was instantly fired up with motivation.
…
Back in his office, Pei Qian slumped into his chair, looking utterly drained.
This feels awful…
Although he had come up with a remedy, the success of the OTTO phone launch still dealt him a heavy blow, leaving him feeling indescribably uncomfortable.
He opened his computer and browsed the forums.
And then—another piece of bad news.
That puzzle had already been solved by the players!
PYFFDEWHVJ
At first glance, this string of characters looked completely random. In reality, it was encoded using the "double pinyin" natural code system.
Double pinyin is a special input method where finals (vowel combinations) are assigned to specific keys. This way, each Chinese character can be typed with just two keystrokes.
For example, "F" represents the final "en," so pressing "FF" produces "Fen."
Thus, to people familiar with double pinyin input, this string became:
pgfendewangzhan!
Which clearly pointed to the TPDb website.
As a result, a large number of players flooded into the TPDb site, checking every section and clicking every button. But at this point, they hit a dead end—there was no further useful information to be found.
"Even though not many people use double pinyin, there are still some. It's not surprising the code was cracked."
"This puzzle… should hold out until settlement, right?"
Pei Qian suddenly felt a bit nervous.
…
…
March 8th, Tuesday.
Qiao Liang and his fans were battling away in other Tengda Group games.
Previously, like everyone else, Qiao Liang had been frantically searching for clues on the TPDb website—but found nothing.
Some players had even gone to other review websites, which was clearly the wrong direction.
As Qiao Liang often said, based on his understanding of President Pei, there was no way he would collaborate with random external games or platforms.
So the "review website" clue had to refer to TPDb—no doubt about it.
But then why had so many people searched for nearly three days since Sunday without finding anything?
Was the clue just hidden too deeply on the site?
That was possible.
But there was another possibility: the clue "review website" wasn't complete!
Qiao Liang realized that ever since finding that hint in Lonely Desert Road, everyone's attention had been fully focused on solving the puzzle through TPDb. No one had gone back to search within Tengda's games.
Could this be a classic diversion tactic?
Maybe there was more than one clue hidden across Tengda's games?
Right now, players were too fixated on TPDb and had forgotten to look back into the games—that meant they had fallen into the trap!
So Qiao Liang decisively rallied his fans to search through Tengda Group's other games again.
Although many people had already searched before, it was clear they hadn't been thorough. There had to be more hidden clues.
At the moment, Qiao Liang was replaying earlier levels in Ghost General, trying to see if this older game contained any hidden information.
Just then, his fan group suddenly became lively.
"I found something! In Game Producer!"
Qiao Liang quickly checked the screenshot sent by the fan.
The image showed a scene just before one of the endings in Game Producer. Qiao Liang remembered it—it was called "Total Failure," where the player's game flops completely after release, receives no attention, and they are forced to leave the gaming industry.
This screenshot captured the moment right before that ending—the point where the game's sales were finalized.
In the scene, there were disappointed fans, angry players shouting insults, reports of catastrophic sales, and harsh low-score reviews from the media…
And in the corner of the room, there was a stack of documents. Among them was an inconspicuous sheet of paper with a long string of numbers:
2210211021110211101012011021210101202110212101021210111102121021110212102111
"As expected! There are more clues hidden in the games! My direction was right!"
"I knew it—I'm totally President Pei's soulmate!"
Qiao Liang couldn't help but feel excited.
This code… looked much simpler than the previous one!
<+>
Tn: I updated the story daily, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter in Patreon: Chapter 468: Tengda Group Cornerstone Award[1]
Link to the latest chapter: https://www.patreon.com/posts/157991757?collection=1399284[2]
https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded[3]
[1] https://www.patreon.com/posts/157991757?collection=1399284
[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/157991757?collection=1399284
[3] https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded