Shein, old friend
Jiang Ming’s troubles were there. Dowooin, which he developed, does not end with gaining popularity in Korea, but will need a lot of things to establish itself as a global service such as Facebook or Instagram.
However, there is a huge gap between the difficulty of targeting the Chinese domestic market and the global market.
“It seems that Douin will definitely dominate the Chinese market, and now it has to establish itself in the US market as well.”
“Even if not, we are looking for various ways.”
“Doesn’t the American market seem to have established a musicality as well? Vine is down, so for the time being, musically solo will continue.”
Douyin is not completely Zhang Ming’s creation. There are seniors who have already launched a similar service a few years ago and are gaining popularity.
Vine, which was serviced on Twitter, but recently closed, and Musical Lee, which is now trending in the US, are the successors to Dowooin, who blend the strengths of the two services well.
“Yes. It is expected to become the biggest competitor to enter the global market.”
“Why don’t you just take over Musically?”
Eugene sneaks up on luck. Musically is also an SNS made by a Chinese company, and has already achieved 100 million downloads in the United States alone.
Swallowing it up rather than competing with such a musically might be better in many ways.
“Hmm… … It’s not bad either, but… … .”
At Eugene’s words, Zhang Ming looked slightly worried.
Eugene knows that ByteDance will really take over Musical Lee. At this point, however, it was not known whether ByteDance management was considering it.
But looking at Zhang Ming’s face, he looked a little surprised.
“Think about it seriously. We will provide funding if necessary.”
One of the reasons Eugene called Jang Ming was for this.
If it was originally, he would take over Musicaly with his stake in ByteDance and cash, but Eugene intends to induce him to pay the entire amount in cash and bring that much stake to him.
“It doesn’t matter what price you want there. If it helps Dowooin’s development, I will bear it.”
I was going to get a share of ByteDance for the price I had to pay for the musical, so I thought that the higher the price, the better.
“All right. Let me know if you need it.”
Perhaps it seemed that Eugene’s suggestion was not too bad, Zhang Ming answered without much thought.
“She seems to be very busy these days, too.”
This time the subject turned to one other guest.
“It’s only natural that the company is growing.”
Xu Yangtian, president of Xuin, a global fashion company, answered politely.
Founded by Xu Yangten, who sold wedding dresses in Guangzhou, the economic center of southern China and the heart of China’s apparel industry, Xuin is a fashion company that has seen remarkable growth in recent years.
In the two years since Eugene first decided to invest, it is already showing a nearly fourfold growth.
And as Eugene knows, this rapid growth will only increase the tax year by year.
Interestingly, Xu Yin will be hugely popular not only in China, but also in the United States in a few years.
As 2020 approaches, Sheein will become the most used fashion shopping application by American consumers, and at one point surpass Amazon in downloads.
The secret of such popularity can be found in the fact that it best embodies the essence of fast fashion.
In Korea, fast fashion, called SPA, refers to a fashion brand with an extremely short time from design to production and distribution to sales to consumers.
Whereas existing fashion brands require a long time of at least two seasons, i.e. 6 months, from design to sale, fast fashion brands complete the entire process in one month at the most, or two weeks at the shortest.
There are many advantages to having a short production-to-sale time.
The biggest advantage is that the product of the desired design can be released immediately according to the needs of consumers when the season is in full swing. This is a huge advantage over traditional fashion companies.
Shein achieves incredible results in reducing design-to-sales time from three to five days.
Through this, it was possible to maximize the advantages of fast fashion, such as small batch production of various types, and present hundreds of designs every day.
Thousands, sometimes ten thousand designs, can be presented in one season.
Consumers are exposed to numerous new designs of clothing every day through She-in, so they can spend time discovering new clothes, shoes, and accessories even if they visit every day.
Moreover, the price of clothes sold at Shein is only $10 to $30 even if it is expensive, so it has a very high price competitiveness.
In many ways, Xu Yin had all the advantages of gaining popularity not only in the Chinese market but also in the world market.
On the other hand, Xu Yangtian completely removed the Chinese color by naming the company SheIn to make it more familiar to the English-speaking world, while keeping the name of her adult Xu.
Because of that, many foreigners bought Xuin’s products without knowing that Xuin was a Chinese brand.
He is a man who can be seen as a talented manager in many ways.
Of course, Eugene has also been investing in the companies founded by Xu Yangten early on.
It owns a 38% stake in Xuin through a Singaporean venture capital led by Jimmy Tang.
At this point, Xuin’s market value is recognized at $1.5 billion, but it is a company that will be valued at $200 billion in five years, and at least $500 billion in a few years.
Here alone, you can expect at least hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.
“Recently, Ivanka Trump’s business has been very popular.”
This time, Xu Yangtian rather talked about Eugene’s other business.
“I don’t know how far into the future, but I think Ivanka Trump’s fashion will definitely have a place in the Chinese market for at least a few years.”
“If that’s the case, I’d be happy too. ah! Of course, Ivanka herself will be delighted.”
“But there are some problems with the pricing, so the limits seem obvious. If we lowered the price a little, I thought it might be enough to threaten Uniqlo’s stronghold.”
As a businessman, Xu Yangtian pinpointed the weaknesses of the Ivanka Trump brand.
“In terms of price, now is the best time. Considering the value of the name of President Donald Trump and not anyone else, it is still cheap enough.”
There’s no way Yu-Jin doesn’t know what Xu Yang-Tian noticed. The product price of Ivanka Trump Fashion is low in the Korean market, but close to mid-high in the Chinese market.
As Xu Yangten said, if we lower the price, we can really create a brand that is more than Uniqlo, given the current momentum.
But Eugene also didn’t want the Ivanka Trump Fashion China to grow too big.
It satisfies the family’s greed in moderation, but when they left, they had to collapse.
“Of course it is. In fact, if it is the image of the US president that the Chinese people think, it is correct that it is cheap.”
Even as he said that, Xu Yang Ten looked regretful. He seems to think he could do much better if it were him.
But since Eugene has clearly drawn the line, he doesn’t talk anymore.
As a Chinese people, he seems to be well aware of the fact that it is better not to go too far in matters related to a country’s supreme power than is necessary.
After that, Eugene asked the two entrepreneurs about their current situation and told them to let them know if there was anything they needed to develop their business.
The four-person banquet continued for several hours like that.
“So my answer is this. If you want to invest in Pacific International, I would recommend investing in the two companies a little before ours.”
After the meeting was over, Eugene had a seat alone with Jiang Siwei.
“Are you saying you won’t accept investment in Ivanka Trump’s fashion group China?”
Zhang Xiwei asked with a slightly displeased expression. A close confidant of a powerful Chinese man, he decided to invest in Ivanka Trump’s fashion business in China, and he had been asking for Eugene’s help as he could not refuse the request of a person connected to the Chinese authority, Yoo Ah-ra.
“As General Manager Xu Yangtian said a moment ago, the Ivanka Trump fashion group obviously has its limits.”
“I am well aware of that. But we took that into consideration and asked for it.”
What Jiang Shiwei requested cannot be viewed simply as economical. The Chinese government wants to create an economic junction with President Donald Trump.
In her past life, she has pushed for an investment in the Manhattan Building, owned by her husband, not Ivanka Trump.
But this time, Eugene solved Jared Kushner’s problem by investing in the building, so it seems he has decided to invest in Ivanka Trump’s fashion.
“And there is also the political burden. I want to help Donald Trump, but I can’t get him into trouble with a political argument.”
However, it was difficult for Eugene to accept Jiang Shiwei’s request.
“Hmm… … It’s a pity. I thought we would help each other.”
Zhang Xiwei readily agreed with Eugene’s explanation.
it has no choice but to You can’t be pressured on a matter that concerns the President of the United States and not anyone else.
“As I mentioned before, ByteDance and She-In are companies with great potential. I think investing in both could be of great help to you.”
“If you see Chairman Kang saying that, not anyone else, it must be true.”
Only Koreans give Eugene the title of chairman. Looking at Zhang Xiwei’s attitude, it seemed that he had a great interest in Eugene.
“Until now, all the companies that Chairman Kang has invested in have only shown very remarkable results in a short period of time, haven’t they?”
“Except for a recent investment, yes.”
“For those things, not many people have invested in Chinese companies.”
“We have plans to expand further in the future.”
“In that case, if there is a company you are interested in in the future, I would appreciate it if you could give me a word. I think we can be of great help to each other.”
Zhang Xiwei looked at Yujin with meaningful eyes and said.
“I guess so. I am sure we will be able to help each other.”
Eugene readily answered with a cheerful expression.
“good. From now on, I will trust Chairman Kang as my old friend.”
Zhang Xiwei smiled broadly and held out her hand.
“I am so happy that we have become really old friends.”
Eugene also reached out and grabbed Jiang Shiwei’s hand.
Zhang Xiwei’s old friend (老朋友) is more than just an ordinary rhetoric.
The Chinese have a custom called quasi (关系). When translated into Korean, it becomes relation (關系), but of course the meaning is quite different from that in Korea.
Kwansi refers to the concept of giving and receiving each other. If I have received anything, I will give you something commensurate with it.
It is a well-known fact that the Chinese are indifferent to others.
However, it is the Chinese who are always interested in and take care of those who have formed such a relationship once.
Through many ups and downs throughout history, the Chinese have come to realize that it is best to be merciless toward those with whom they have not had any relationship, and that it is advantageous for survival to do their best to help each other with those with whom they have been in a relationship.
For the Chinese, it was natural that benevolence and etiquette were always shown as mutual favors only to those who had a relationship with Kwansi, such as family, friends, and cousins, rather than to everyone.
Zhang Xiwei’s old friend (老朋友) means to build a deep relationship with you that goes beyond just being a good friend.
It meant that he expected Eugene to get some help and, on the other hand, would help if he needed anything.
As Eugene, there is nothing bad about a proposal. We have plenty of things we can get from China over the next few years.
But Eugene is not Chinese. So no matter what their intentions or what their practices are, they didn’t make any oaths that must be kept.
For Eugene, it was just a relationship made out of necessity.