In the business world of China, there have really been several legends, and the most noteworthy is this Duan Yongping.

Not only did he achieve the peak of his career, but he also brought out several very famous "big disciples", Duan Yongping retired behind the scenes very early, but his disciples are still active in the front line of the domestic business community, and each of them is a bigwig-level figure!

These disciples of Duan Yongping are also known as "Duan's disciples" in the business world!

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Born in 1961 in a poor mountain village in western Guangdong Province, Duan Yongping was a genius boy who was admitted to Zhejiang-Jiang University at the age of 16 majoring in radio. Duan Yongping went to college four years earlier than the average person, and after graduation, he was assigned to the Capital Electron Tube Factory. At that time, this factory was the largest electron tube factory in Asia, and Duan Yongping could be said to have received an iron rice bowl, and he did not have to worry about eating and drinking for the rest of his life.

But how can a genius be willing to just live such a mediocre life. He didn't want to spend time here, so he was admitted to the National People's University for graduate school. In the early 90s, at the age of 28, he became the director of a factory under Yihua Group with his outstanding technical level and super high education.

At that time, people with real skills could still get ahead, and in the early days of reform and opening up, it was also an era of geniuses in the Chinese business community.

At that time, this factory mainly produced copycat red and white machines, and it has been in a state of loss. Nintendo's red and white machine entered China at the end of the 80s and caused a huge sensation in the market. However, at that time, there were many copycat manufacturers in China, so Duan Yongping's factory was struggling.

At this time, Duan Yongping thought of a genius method, the main object of the game console is the students, but the students themselves have no purchasing power, and they must give their parents a reason to buy. So Duan Yongping changed the game console to a Xiaobawang learning machine, and also made the appearance of the product look like a simple computer.

At that time, he invested hundreds of thousands of yuan in CCTV advertising, and received good results.

So Duan Yongping immediately invested a huge amount of money, and with up to millions of endorsement fees, he immediately invited Jackie Chan to be the brand endorsement of Xiaobawang, and the advertising slogan of "Wangzi Jackie Chan Xiaobawang" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Duan Yongping turned the game console into a learning machine and successfully swept the market. In 1995, this factory, which once lost 2 million, became a factory with an annual revenue of more than 1 billion.

With Duan Yongping's ability and ambition, he is naturally unwilling to be subordinate, but because Xiaobawang cannot be reformed, Duan Yongping can only choose to leave, but the old club agreed with him that he is not allowed to make similar products to Xiaobawang within one year, so he specially gave him a Mercedes-Benz car.

In September 95, Duan Yongping came to Dongwan City from Zhongshan and founded BBK, and 6 people came to Dongwan with him, Huang Yihe, Chen Mingyong, and Shen Wei were among them. These people have become the CEOs of companies such as OPPO, VIVO, and OnePlus.

At that time, Duan Yongping learned from the experience of Xiaobawang, and distributed most of the shares to the employees from the beginning, and he only held 17% of the shares of BBK, so that all the employees were full of energy. When BBK had achieved great success, Duan Yongping divided the company into three and fissioned out mobile phone companies such as OPPO and VIVO and BBK Education Company.

Because he promised his wife to go to the United States before marriage, at the age of 41, Duan Yongping decided to retire early and immigrate to the United States. But Duan Yongping is still behind the remote control of this huge electronic empire.

After going to the United States, Duan Yongping began to invest. In addition to investing in Pinduoduo, Duan Yongping has invested in Sina, Sohu, NetEase and other companies many years ago. Especially after investing in NetEase, he earned at least $1 billion.

Duan Yongping has been very successful in industry, but he has been even more successful in the investment field. Duan Yongping himself once said that he made more money in the investment field than he made in the industry, and Duan Yongping was respectfully called "Duan Feite" in the investment community.

According to the official data of Dongwan City: in 2015, 8 of the top 20 enterprises in Dongwan in terms of operating income were his companies. In 2016, his two mobile phone brands, OPPO and vivo, had total sales of 270 billion. Until the end of Wang Ye's dream, in 2018, the annual mobile phone shipments of the blue-green factory still firmly held the first place in the country!

In his own words: "I made more money from investing than I made in 10 years in business." ”

His company is not listed or financed, and the exact amount of his wealth is still a mystery......

I remember many years ago, when BBK was booming, there was a very interesting rumor in the market, saying that Duan Yongping was interviewed on a TV station in Shanghai, and someone always asked him: "Why is BBK not listed?" He replied very domineeringly: "I will solve the problem by making a few phone calls to raise that little money from the listing." ”

In 1998, Duan Yongping met his current wife Liu Xin, Liu Xin was the chief photojournalist of the American "Palm Beach Post" at the time, and the two quickly got married after only two months of acquaintance, and he promised Liu Xin: "After pushing backgammon to a new level, I will definitely go to the United States to meet her." Duan Yongping did not break his promise.

"Let it go, do a good job and divide the money, if you don't do a good job, close the door, don't be burdened. Just when backgammon was in full swing, Duan Yongping split backgammon into three independent companies, which were divided into three disciples, Jin Zhijiang, Chen Mingyong and Shen Wei. These three companies are the later BBK Education Electronics, OPPO and vivo.

Whether it is Chen Mingyong, Shen Wei, or these two Duan disciples, most of their business ideas are the same as Duan Yongping. They all focus on doing a good job in a subdivided field, open up marketing channels through indiscriminate advertising, and then intensively arrange their own network layout offline. For OPPO and vivo, which do not pay attention to scientific research and technological innovation, although in a short period of time, this business concept is conducive to opening up the market, this will be their fatal shortcoming for a long time in the future, especially the smartphone industry has encountered a growth ceiling.

In 2001, Duan Yongping fulfilled his promise to move to the United States, which he explained: "Before getting married, I promised to go to the United States to settle down, and the green card was issued, and it was impossible not to go." "Rather lose the world, live up to the red face" is also rumored to be a good story, it is the true character of a great hero, and only a true celebrity is self-styled.

Since then, Duan Yongping has set foot on the other side of the ocean, managing his love and life, and focusing on his investment career.

One Saturday, Liu Zuohu, then vice president of OPPO, received a call from CEO Chen Mingyong, the general content of the call was that Chen Mingyong wanted Liu Zuohu to be in charge, and they would work together to create a new brand. After answering the phone, Liu Zuohu did not hesitate at all, nor did he discuss with his family, so he decided to do it, and he put forward a only request to Chen Mingyong, to establish a completely independent new company, and Chen Mingyong agreed without the slightest hesitation.

It didn't take long for an emerging mobile phone company to rise strongly with annual sales of one million units, the name of this emerging mobile phone company is "OnePlus", and the founder is Liu Zuohu. When OnePlus became the focus of emerging mobile phone brands, Liu Zuohu did not hype or alliance. Compared with "hype marketing", Liu Zuohu, who used to be a "disciple of Duan's family", believes that products are the foundation of the enterprise, and the Internet thinking is a set of ideas, and he just wants to watch from a distance and does not want to play.

Liu Zuohu once humorously said that I don't want to learn the Internet thinking, I can't learn it, I am still more suitable to be a quiet "beautiful man".

"Duty" is also a label attached to Liu Zuohu, and "duty" in his place includes: "do the right thing + do the right thing". There is also the following: "do something, don't do something". Liu Zuohu also applied Duan Yongping's "slow" philosophy perfectly, "Slow is fast, fast is slow, no matter what you do, you must be slow and fast, and you must make progress steadily."

In the early days of the OnePlus mobile phone brand, Liu Zuohu rejected a large order of 500,000 mobile phones from a South Korean operator. The reason is that the South Korean operator wants to make a one-time payment at the time of delivery, and Liu Zuohu wants to receive a 20% deposit when he wants to place an order, and in the end the two sides could not reach an agreement, and the cooperation was canceled.

For many emerging start-up companies, this "astronomical" order is something that others dream of but can't get, but when they come to Liu Zuohu, they are directly rejected. The outside world expressed incomprehension of Liu Zuohu's refusal, and he responded: "Many people say that I am very conservative, but the most important thing for a startup is to live, a decision If it touches this bottom line, then I would rather not do it, if one day, OnePlus is big enough, to 500,000 mobile phones are all lost, and the company is not dead, then I will do it." This is also the imprint left on him by more than ten years of OPPO's work experience, to survive, not to rush.

In 2001, in the cold winter of the Internet, Ding Lei's NetEase could not get rid of bad luck, and it was Duan Yongping who pulled Ding Lei out of Les Miserables.

One day, Secretary Duan Yongping received a call from Ding Lei, saying that he wanted to talk to Duan Yongping. "Can I sell the company (NetEase) and build another one?" Ding Lei, who looked confused, asked Duan Yongping, "You have a company now, why don't you do a good job of it?" Duan Yongping asked rhetorically. In order to give Ding Lei full confidence, coupled with his unique business vision, Duan Yongping invested most of his belongings and bought $2 million of NetEase shares from the open market to give Ding Lei charcoal.

In Duan Yongping's view, Ding Lei's NetEase is still a duty, and he has not engaged in some messy things such as blind expansion, even if the stock fluctuates, his heart is still steady. With Duan Yongping's encouragement of "I am born to be useful, and my daughter will come back when I am gone", Ding Lei regrouped, and a few years later, NetEase's market value rebounded sharply, and Duan Yongping's return on investment was nearly 100 times, for the two of them, this investment was a win-win situation in the real sense: they reaped benefits and won friendship.

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