On January 7, Hong Kong's stock market calmed down, and Hengyi Group's stock was officially included as a member of the Hang Seng Index.
On this day, Chen Zhiwen also came to the new headquarters of Hengyi Group, which is also located in Admiralty and has a total of 22 floors. Hengyi originally wanted to buy this building, but the current office building prices are very high and the owners are not willing to sell it at all. Liao Xin believed that the price would increase in the future, so in the end he could only rent it. After half a year of renovation, the entire Hengyi Real Estate Group also moved in.
"Do you think the floors here are too short for you?" Chen Tianfu said with a smile.
"It's okay, 20 or so floors is actually the norm for buildings in Hong Kong. Those with 40 or 50 floors are basically built in recent years." Chen Zhiwen said with a shrug.
"If you hadn't said many times that there would be problems with Hong Kong real estate, I would have bought it long ago. Fortunately, you reminded me that there are indeed problems in the current real estate market." Chen Tianfu sighed.
"The office market is expected to be stronger, but I guess it will soon be over, and there will be a long-term sluggish period." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
Although the real estate crisis broke out in September 1982, the early symptoms of this crisis were completely different from the last time.
In 1973, before the crisis broke out, Hong Kong's land prices and stock prices were still very strong, and only a few people discovered the possible crisis. But this time, as early as the second half of last year, there were already abnormal signs.
For example, HSBC began to shrink its real estate business, the residential vacancy rate began to increase, and the transaction and rental prices of industrial real estate were also declining. However, commercial prices are still strong. The fundamental reason for this may be that international capital is cooperating with the mainland through Hong Kong. Although The current transaction amount is not high, but if it is all swallowed up by Hong Kong, it will also have a very strong effect.
"The projects I have on hand are basically short-term projects. If this is the case, the company's business will decrease sharply in the second half of the year, and I'm afraid the stock market will not look good." Chen Tianfu said with some worry.
"There is nothing you can do about it. Even if you continue to develop real estate projects, it will not be as easy to sell as before, and it will be easy to lose." Chen Zhiwen said that when real estate prices do not fluctuate much, many people will wait and see. Even property speculators will stop because they already have many houses in their hands but cannot sell them.
This is the sluggish period of real estate. If some large real estate companies had not been promoting market speculation, it is estimated that land prices would collapse earlier.
"So I am preparing to invest in Shenhai City on a large scale. You also know that I have two hotels there. People from Shenhai City sent me a message, saying that they hope I can build office buildings on a large scale. Their demand for office buildings is increasing. The higher, what do you think?" Chen Tianfu asked.
"That's no problem. Since you have enough funds, let's give it a try. Deepsea is also attracting a lot of foreign investment. It's normal for the demand for office buildings to be high." Chen Zhiwen nodded.
In the entire country, real estate development is basically prohibited, except for hotel projects, because it is helpful for foreign trade and is really needed domestically. Therefore, many Hong Kong real estate giants’ investment projects in the country are hotels, and other projects are basically No more. If you want to build office buildings or residential complexes, that is simply not feasible.
However, Shenhai City is different. On the front line of reform here, many policies are decided by Shenhai City itself. As early as the second half of 1979, Shenhai City began to develop real estate communities together with Hong Kong real estate developers and sell these communities to Hong Kong people, or Hong Kong residents. Relatives in China are even provided with household registration for promotional purposes, just to help Hong Kong people bring their relatives over in the Mainland.
However, residential communities are projects that can make quick profits, and Hong Kong real estate developers are happy to do so. However, when it comes to office buildings, which are long-term operating projects, they are not willing to invest. After all, the Hong Kong real estate market was also rising at a rapid rate at that time, and deep sea The city itself has insufficient funds and is relatively short of office buildings, which is normal.
"Well, I will mobilize funds to build office buildings in Shenhai City and then rent them out. If Shenhai City can develop to 1/3 of Hong Kong's current size, then I will make a lot of money." Chen Tianfu said with a smile.
"Try to choose a better location in Shenhai City and build office buildings. Don't pursue building skyscrapers. About 20 floors is enough." Chen Zhiwen smiled and didn't say much more. The future of Shenhai City is no less than In Hong Kong, housing prices may be lower.
Nowadays, from the initial financing, listing and current real estate cash-out, the cash assets in Hengyi's hands are estimated to be 2 to 3 billion. If only half of these funds are used in Shenhai City, no one knows how many office buildings can be built. After all, Compared with Hong Kong, where office buildings, even in the city center, land prices are basically 0, and the only cost is the construction cost.
"Of course, the land there is cheap, so you will lose money by building high-rise buildings." Chen Tianfu asked again: "Do you want to invest together? Your Hutchison Whampoa and Wharf have a lot of spare funds on hand recently, right?"
"No need, the current Shenhai City does not need so much funds. When Shenhai City becomes larger in the future, I will also decide the investment direction of their funds." Chen Zhiwen said. It is not a loss to go to Shenhai City now, but Shenhai is currently a slightly larger city. Investing too much money in the real estate field will exceed its affordability. If there are too many vacancies in the future, it may cause the same situation as Hong Kong If the bubble bursts, that would not be good.
"Well, many of your industries are better than real estate, so there is no need to spend too much time here." Chen Tianfu said with a smile.
"Just leave it to someone to manage it. I just need to confirm the big investment." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. At first, he valued real estate mainly because he needed to rely on the funds to develop other real industries. Now, in the 1980s, The electronics industry will be his focus in the future.
However, he will still strive for good opportunities. The real estate market will always be the largest market in the human economy. He will not give up. In the future, the rent of a building in Central will be more than one billion Hong Kong dollars. Many large companies cannot make money in a year. With so much and enough real estate, it means that there is a super cash cow behind it, which is enough to support the future expansion of his major industries and compete with international giants.
Nowadays, several of its real estate companies have matured and they only need his guidance in the future. For example, the Hong Kong real estate market was a bull market from 1984 to 1997, the Japanese market was a bull market from 1982 to 1991, and after 1984, it is suitable for large-scale investment. Domestic and so on, if the development direction is established, then professional managers will naturally know what to do.
On January 20, Hong Kong also experienced a rare major cooling, and the cold wave from Siberia rushed directly to the vicinity of Eastern Guangdong Province.
Because of the cold weather, winter clothes in Hong Kong were suddenly out of stock. Fortunately, Galaxy Trading had several large warehouses in Hong Kong, which contained down jackets purchased from the mainland. Chen Zhiwen ordered the warehouses to be opened directly, and he made a small profit.
Although the weather is a bit cold, Chen Zhiwen is very excited because Midea's first personal computer is ready to be launched after several optimizations.
Early in the morning, Chen Zhiwen rushed to Midea Industrial City in Yuen Long. There is a large laboratory here, where hundreds of Midea-1 computers are being tested.
"It's really hot in here." Chen Zhiwen walked into the laboratory and immediately felt much hotter than outside. The corridor outside was at normal air-conditioning temperature, not cold, but it was hot here.
"Some of the computers here are running at high power, so the temperature is a bit high, which is perfect for testing the status of computers in high-temperature environments." Lei Shengli explained with a smile.
"This mouse is good." Chen Zhiwen came to a computer and touched the arc-shaped mouse. As early as when he was preparing to develop the computer, Chen Zhiwen asked the team to develop the shape of the mouse separately, and it must simulate the shape of the human hand. It gives people the best feel. Try it now, it is indeed very good.
"We have registered a large number of mouse shape patents around the world. No matter which one is used, it is much better than the mice currently on the market. Once it is launched, many people will definitely like it." Lei Shenglixiao said.
"Well, this can be considered an advantage. Coupled with our split design, it can also solve the heat dissipation problem very well, although it will not last for a long time." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
In this era when personal computers have just begun to rise, all companies focus on the performance of the computer and what it can do, or software, etc., while the appearance of the computer basically remains the same type, and the only consideration is heat dissipation.
Starting from Apple, and later HP, TI, and IBM, all computers are integrated, that is, the computer is on top and the host is below, and the two are integrated.
The first-generation computer that Chen Zhiwen requested to develop is a split type in the future. The host and the screen are separated, so that the heat dissipation problem can be well solved. You must know that the current all-in-one computers will become hot on the keyboard if they are turned on for a long time. Yes, it's just that people are generally used to this, so it doesn't matter. When it gets hot, turn up the air conditioner, or if it doesn't work, use an electric fan to blow it.
Although the weight of the computer is still the same, it is much easier to move because it is not one-piece. Speaking of which, the split type is much stronger.
But just like a mouse, even if a patent is registered, people can bypass it. There is no absolute patent monopoly on appearance, but you can have an advantage for a year or two. The only thing that can make long-term profits is the middle button of the mouse. This is a unique patent. People may not need the middle button of the mouse now, but when computers become more powerful, Midea can just sit back and collect some patent fees.
A big-ass computer is above the table, and under the table is the host computer. If you don't bend down, you can't see it. Chen Zhiwen controls the mouse and controls the computer. There is currently no image management system. Many of them require entering dos commands to control it. This A large number of non-professional players are basically excluded.
Chen Zhiwen is naturally aware of this problem, but developing an operating system is too complicated. Midea currently does not have the personnel reserves. It took more than a year to develop this new computer, and the current computer market does not allow any further delay. , and the operating system will be a very sensitive field. Once successful, it will be suppressed. In the 1980s, a Japanese company was preparing to launch its own system, but was quickly suppressed. If Midea did the same thing, the operating system would not be able to cause trouble. If it is small, it is very likely that other industries will also be suppressed, and then the gain will outweigh the loss.
However, the operating system does not have it, but it can also have some auxiliary methods. For example, there will be a dot in the lower left corner of the screen. As long as the mouse clicks in, several options will pop up, including games, word text editing, Excel table editing, etc. Wait, it can be considered the most basic version of the shortcut.
Games naturally include games such as Minesweeper, Solitaire, Magic Blocks, Snake, etc. This is Midea’s strength, so it naturally needs to use this as a bait to guide consumers. After all, in addition to company computers, most people buy computers just to play. Computer games will also be one of the main battlefields of Midea's game department in the future. It has not officially started yet, and it is just a benefit for your own computer.
Word and Excel are very basic versions of mosquito editing and table editing. These two softwares are what Chen Zhiwen has been paying attention to. The versions currently on sale basically include the most basic editing functions for future generations. They will be very useful for ordinary clerks. .
Although these functions are not perfect yet, they have registered global patents and will be gradually optimized according to user needs in the future. Once you have established a foothold on this track, you can realize your dream of making money while lying down.
Lei Shengli continued: "We have installed Wubi software on our computer. Whether it is traditional Chinese or simplified Chinese, you can input it, but there may be some imperfections."
"It doesn't matter, it would be nice to have it. This input method will be made public for free when Midea launches its computer, and everyone can use it." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
One of the problems currently plaguing China is that while Western characters can be easily input into computers, Chinese cannot. This is tantamount to decoupling from the world. Many people have also thought of solutions and succeeded, but the efficiency is too low. The input speed is very slow, maybe only seven or eight words per minute.
Therefore, Chen Zhiwen also requested the development of Wubi. However, as a person in the 21st century, he did not know Wubi, so he could only ask the development team to develop it from scratch based on the basic rules of Wubi. What is developed now may not be the same as the original one in history. It's completely different, but that doesn't matter. Things like input methods are actually a matter of habit. Once you get used to it, even if there is a better one later, it will be difficult to change it.
With this solution, you can actually make some money from this, but Chen Zhiwen decided to do it completely for free. One is because he doesn't like the money, and the other is to gain a good reputation. There is no need to make all the money.
Before the emergence of intelligent Pinyin input method, Wubi was the absolute king.
"Okay." Lei Shengli nodded and said.
(End of chapter)
