In the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games, his electric scooters would soar alongside the Olympic athletes.
In the domestic market, he maintained a rapid momentum, leaping to second place in the industry at a single bound and holding records for monthly sales leader multiple times.
He was a pioneer among the post-80s generation in building wealth, a world champion who emerged from a small city.
"World champion? What does that mean?"
"It means our electric scooter export volume holds the top spot in the industry, and our company also has other foreign exchange income."
On December 14th, the CCTV Financial Channel aired the previously recorded "Entrepreneurs' Night." Tan Jincheng and his family sat in the living room, gathered around the television.
Following this introduction, Tan Jincheng made his appearance—he was also the last to appear that evening.
"It's Big Brother! It's Big Brother!"
Tan Jinyue pointed at the TV, jumping excitedly.
Tan Jincheng won the Annual Economic Figure Rising Star Award. This award had been won in 2004 by Brother Pony, who back then was put on the spot by the host and asked to pitch QQ to the chairman of Haier.
Compared to the Rising Star winner from two years prior, this year's winner was even younger, and Tan Jincheng faced the same kind of challenge from the host.
"Mr. Tan, two years ago we asked Mr. Ma of Tencent how he would pitch QQ to the elites present who were over thirty-five years old. As it happens, there have been rumors recently that your company, Chengzi Technology, is in talks with Mr. Ma's company regarding a collaboration. So we'd like to ask the same question: how would you pitch your company's electric scooters to the relevant people here tonight?"
Gu Qingqing was somewhat taken aback.
"How did Chengzi Technology get brought up?"
"I spent money on it," Tan Jincheng laughed. "I sponsored the program so the host would give us a plug."
"You can even advertise like this?"
"Why not? You can view this program as an honor, or you can see it as a large-scale advertising convention—a platform to promote well-known enterprises and entrepreneurs."
The VCR background video had only introduced Shanchi Technology and the apparel business of Shanchi Group.
In truth, that was quite incomplete, leaving many business branches unmentioned. It would have been a waste to miss out on such a great promotional opportunity.
During script preparations, Tan Jincheng had requested the host to add that line about Chengzi Technology.
By the 14th when the show aired, whatever negotiations were underway were essentially concluded anyway. Even if they couldn't reach a deal, it didn't matter—it was just free advertising for Chengzi Technology.
Two years ago, they put Brother Pony on the spot with the head of Haier; this year, they paired Tan Jincheng with the head of Suning—both happened to be from the Zhang family.
"Mr. Zhang probably doesn't need an electric scooter himself, but Mr. Zhang could consider buying a batch of electric scooters as employee benefits for Suning. Or, Shanchi could handle custom electric delivery vehicle orders for Suning—both energy-saving and environmentally friendly. I wonder if Mr. Zhang would be interested?"
Pitching two-wheeled electric scooters to a top wealth figure of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets—only the production team could come up with such an idea.
Speaking of which, the chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission was the first Economic Figure of the Year to take the stage tonight.
Having been outrageously busy during this period, Tan Jincheng had almost forgotten that 2007 was fast approaching, and the stock market was about to hit its historic peak.
Should he sell off the stocks in his hands first? That was a massive spread, after all—from the 6,124-point peak dropping all the way down to 1,664 points.
After the stock split and ex-rights, Moutai was approaching 80 yuan again. The market value of his 100,000 Moutai shares was nearing 8 million yuan.
Right now, the stock index was only around 2,200 points—by the time it reached 6,124, wouldn't it be worth tens of millions?
Furthermore, the most important ones were the shares he had bought in lithium battery-related companies; those were the real heavyweights.
Selling high and re-buying low would allow him to get more than double the shares at roughly the same price, saving a substantial amount of capital.
The show gave Tan Jincheng plenty of screen time. The selected entrepreneurs were all born in the 1960s or 1970s, so they viewed Tan Jincheng as a junior. Since there was no direct competition between them, everyone was relatively harmonious.
Ms. Dong had also been selected. This year, they overhauled their supplier system, leading to a surge in product sales—especially in exports, where they captured the top spot in the industry at a single stroke, while air conditioner prices dropped significantly.
Their supplier system overhaul had borrowed directly from Shanchi's system. Before Zhang Jindong could even answer whether he was willing to buy a batch of electric scooters as employee perks, Ms. Dong forcefully stated that they could place an order for a batch.
Just like Tan Jincheng's impression of her: domineering and assertive.
"Then thank you, Ms. Dong. I'll have our Guangdong suppliers contact your company later and make sure to give you a discounted price."
How could he miss such a great opportunity? He could easily sell one or two thousand units this way.
Zhang Jindong's script was originally supposed to be like the other Mr. Zhang's, declining Tan Jincheng's request.
However, after Ms. Dong's sudden intervention, if he still stuck to the original script and rejected Tan Jincheng, he would look put on the spot and outdone.
Zhang Jindong's expression was somewhat awkward, but he quickly smoothed it over:
"Mr. Tan's pitch is great—even Ms. Dong couldn't help but place an order. Naturally, Suning can't lag behind. With the New Year right around the corner, we'll purchase a batch as well."
The host snapped back to reality as well:
"Haha, congratulations, Mr. Tan! Who would have thought attending an event could yield two business deals? Here's wishing Shanchi greater and greater success!"
"Thank you for the good wishes."
Zhang Suzhi and Gu Qingqing watched with keen interest. Seeing her big brother on TV was a novel experience for Tan Jinyue, who ran around the room in delight.
"Slow down, don't fall! If you hurt yourself, you'll need a shot!"
"Oh oh oh! Tee-hee!"
Riding her toy rocking horse, Tan Jinyue was in high spirits and paid no mind to the warning.
On the television screen, Tan Jincheng was sharply dressed in a suit and tie, neatly groomed—a stark contrast to his current appearance in casual loungewear, lazily sprawled across the sofa.
Except right now, Tan Jincheng was lying on the sofa reading documents.
"Since this was recorded, was the part about buying the scooters scripted too?"
Zhang Suzhi asked curiously.
"It was scripted, but the part about buying scooters was a bit of an accident. The lady who sells air conditioners wasn't scheduled to speak, and the script originally had them turning down my offer."
"Then why did she chime in? Didn't they correct the mistake in the script?"
"How would I know? But it's a minor matter anyway. It's just around a thousand scooters, costing each company barely over a million yuan to distribute as employee benefits. Why bother editing it?"
Both companies had ordered 500 units of the Guanneng series each as year-end rewards for their employees. Worth several thousand yuan per unit, that was exceptionally generous back in those days.
Ms. Dong's constant advocacy for treating employees well probably stemmed from ideas she held back then. As for old man Zhang, Tan Jincheng felt he was mostly just goaded into it and couldn't bear to lose face.
CCTV Financial Channel's "Entrepreneurs' Night" enjoyed extraordinarily high viewership ratings and possessed a massive audience base.
That night, people who knew Tan Jincheng and those who didn't all got to know this young man through the Financial Channel—a youth who spoke eloquently and displayed not an ounce of fear in front of a crowd of industry giants, leaving a deep impression on everyone.
The side story of selling 1,000 scooters also became a major talking point of the broadcast, adding vibrancy to the gala's atmosphere.
Tan Lihua watched the show alone at home, while the young and old of Tan Village, as well as relatives from Zhang Suzhi's side of the family, all gathered around their televisions when night fell.
Before the official broadcast on the 14th, a promotional clip was shown. Once the promo aired, Tan Lihua and Zhang Suzhi no longer had to suppress their excitement, calling relatives everywhere to tune in.
Zhang Xupeng was currently in Jiangcheng.
GXG planned to open flagship stores in eight major domestic cities within the year. Seven of the eight stores were already fully renovated and had entered trial operations, with Jiangcheng being the last one.
Before New Year's Day, all eight stores would be open for official business.
This marked GXG's brand debut in the domestic market. Meanwhile, the men's wear operational team was also being assembled.
This batch of products was manufactured through OEM processing, boasting refined materials and craftsmanship, which meant relatively high production costs.
All of this was to make a name for the brand and establish its position as a mid-tier menswear line.
At the same time, Zhang Xupeng leveraged Tan Jincheng's connections with the Olympic Organizing Committee to contact other participating countries, attempting to sponsor their entry and award ceremony outfits—especially for nations with strong gold medal prospects.
As for their own country, that was out of the question—that sponsorship had long been settled.
Inside his hotel room, Zhang Xupeng watched the "Entrepreneurs' Night" broadcast on the Financial Channel attentively, his heart calm and composed.
By now, he no longer harbored any desire to compete with Tan Jincheng; he was bound to lose the 80,000 yuan bet over the wedding betrothal gift.
Yes, Zhang Xupeng admitted he was inferior to Tan Jincheng, but that did not mean he would simply give up. On the contrary, the more outstanding Tan Jincheng became, the harder it pushed him to strive.
Having already appeared on CCTV's Financial Channel, Xiao Tan was destined to leave his mark on the business world and build his own corporate legend.
As a childhood friend who grew up with Tan Jincheng, ventured out to sea with him, and co-founded a business with him, wherever Tan Jincheng went, Zhang Xupeng would be mentioned.
If he gave up now, who knew what kind of reputation he would leave behind?
Now, his only path was to work hard at managing the GXG brand and turn it into a rising star in the domestic apparel industry.
Only then could he live up to his title as Tan Jincheng's childhood buddy and business partner, avoiding being labeled by reporters as a wasted talent.
What was it like to have a friend who was extraordinarily talented?
Zhang Xupeng would tell you that even if the friend did nothing at all, you would unconsciously push yourself to make progress and keep up with his pace.
Only by working hard to stay alongside him—sharing common ground in both career and life—could your friendship remain uncorrupted over time.
GXG's future path was clear. Having opened eight stores this year, the plan was to expand to 100 offline stores by the end of next year.
Additionally, stores on various internet platforms would be launched next year as well. Though he didn't quite understand how Xiao Tan had figured it out, Xiao Tan had said that within a couple of years, the era of online shopping would arrive.
"People's lives will become completely different from now. In the future, you'll only need to carry a cell phone when going out. Clothing prices will also become much more transparent—no longer will it be an era where an item costing ten yuan to make can be priced arbitrarily at three to five hundred. We must keep up with the times to ensure our clothing business lasts in the long run."
Going out with just a mobile phone and no wallet? Wouldn't pickpockets go out of business then?
(End of Chapter)