In the business world of China, there have been several legendary figures. The most worth mentioning is Duan Yongping.

Not only did he reach 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 forefront of the domestic business world, and each of them is a big shot!

Duan Yongping’s disciples were also become “Duan’s disciples” in the business world!

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Duan Yongping was born in a poor mountain village in western Guangdong Province in 1961. He was a genius boy and was admitted to the radio major at Zhejiang-Jiang University at the age of 16. Duan Yongping went to university four years earlier than ordinary people. After graduation, he was assigned to the Capital Electronic Tube Factory. At that time, this factory was the largest electronic tube factory in Asia. Duan Yongping could be said to have been given a job and would never have to worry about food and drink in his life.

But how could a genius be willing to live such a mediocre life? He didn't want to spend it clearly here, so he was admitted to Renmin University to study for a postgraduate degree. In the early 1990s, at the age of 28, he became the director of a factory under Yihua Group with his extraordinary technical level and super high education.

In those days, people with real abilities could still make their mark. The early days of reform and opening up were also an era when many geniuses emerged in the business community in China.

At that time, the factory mainly produced counterfeit red and white machines, and it was always out of a loss. Nintendo's red and white machines entered China in the late 1980s, causing a huge sensation in the market. However, there were many domestic counterfeit manufacturers at that time, so Duan Yongping's factory was struggling.

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

He invested hundreds of thousands of yuan in advertising on CCTV at that time, and it achieved good results.

So Duan Yongping immediately invested a huge amount of money and immediately invited Jackie Chan to be the brand endorsement of Xiaobawang with an endorsement fee of up to millions of millions of dollars. The slogan of "I hope my son will be the first to be a little bullwang" was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Duan Yongping turned the game console into a learning machine and successfully became a popular market. In 1995, this factory, which once had a loss of 2 million, became a factory with an annual revenue of more than 1 billion yuan.

With Duan Yongping's ability and ambition, he naturally was unwilling to be defeated. However, because Xiaobawang could not reform the stock market, Duan Yongping had to choose to leave. However, his old boss agreed with him that he would not be allowed to make products of Xiaobawang within one year, so he specially gave him a Mercedes-Benz.

In September 1995, Duan Yongping came to Dongwan City from Zhongshan and founded Bubugao. At that time, six people followed him to Dongwan, Huang Yihe, Chen Mingyong and Shen Wei. These people became the bosses of today's oppo, vivo, OnePlus and other companies.

At that time, Duan Yongping learned from Xiaobawang's experience and distributed most of the shares to employees from the beginning. He only held 17% of Bubugao's shares, so that all employees were very energetic. When Bubugao had achieved great success, Duan Yongping divided the company into three, fissioned mobile phone companies such as oppo, vivo and Bubugao Education Company.

Because he promised his wife to settle down in America before marriage, Duan Yongping decided to retire early to immigrate to America at the age of 41. However, Duan Yongping still controlled this huge electronic empire behind his back.

After going to the United States, Duan Yongping began to invest. In addition to investing in Pinduoduo, Duan Yongping had invested in companies such as Sina, Sohu, NetEase and others many years ago. Especially in the battle to invest in NetEase, he made at least $1 billion.

Duan Yongping has been very successful in industry, but he is even more successful in the investment field. Duan Yongping himself once said that he earns more money in the investment field than he earns in industry, and Duan Yongping is respected as "Duan Feite" in the investment field.

According to the official data of Dongwan City: In 2015, 8 of Dongwan's top 20 operating income were his companies. In 2016, his two mobile phone brands Oppo and Vivo had a total sales of 270 billion yuan. Until the end of Wang Ye's dream, in 2018, the annual mobile phone shipments of Blue and Green Factory still firmly controlled the number one in the country!

In his own words, “I made more money in investment than I made in 10 years of business.”

His company is not listed or raised funds. What is his wealth? It is still a mystery...

I remember many years ago, when BBK was in full swing, there was a very interesting rumor in the market that Duan Yongping was interviewed on a TV station in Shanghai. Someone kept asking him: "Why isn't BBK going public?" He replied domineeringly: "I made a few calls to solve the problem."

In 1998, Duan Yongping met his current wife Liu Xin. Liu Xin was the chief photographer of the Palm Beach Post in the United States at that time. The two quickly got married just two months after they met. He promised Liu Xin: "After pushing BBK to a new level, they will definitely go to America to meet her." Duan Yongping did not break his promise.

"Let go and do it. If you do it well, you will be able to close the door. If you don't do it well, you will have no burden." Just when BBQ was at its peak, Duan Yongping split BBQ into three independent companies, and delegated power to the three major disciples Jin Zhijiang, Chen Mingyong and Shen Wei. These three companies are the later BBQ Education Electronics, Oppo and Vivo.

Whether it is Chen Mingyong or Shen Wei, the business philosophy of these two Duan disciples is mostly exactly the same as that of Duan Yongping. They are all focused on making products in a sub-sector, opening up marketing channels through bombarded advertisements, and then intensively arrange their own outlet layout offline. For oppo and vivo, which do not focus on scientific research and technological innovation, although this business philosophy is conducive to opening up the market in a short time, this will be their fatal shortcoming in the future, especially the smartphone industry will encounter a growth ceiling.

In 2001, Duan Yongping fulfilled his promise to move to the United States. He explained: "Before getting married, he promised to settle down in America, and after getting a green card, he would not be able to go." "It would rather let the world down than let the beauty down" was also rumored to be a good story. It is a great hero who can be the true nature of his own heroes, and only the true celebrities are romantic.

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

One Saturday, Liu Zuohu, who was then the vice president of Oppo, received a call from Chen Mingyong. The general content of the call was that Chen Mingyong asked Liu Zuohu to be responsible and they went to build a new brand together. After answering the call, Liu Zuohu did not hesitate at all, nor did he discuss with his family, so he decided to do it. He made a only request to Chen Mingyong to establish a completely independent new company. Chen Mingyong agreed immediately without hesitation.

Not long after, an emerging mobile phone company rose strongly with an annual sales of one million units. The emerging mobile phone company was named "One Plus", and the founder was Liu Zuohu. When OnePlus became the focus of emerging mobile phone brands, Liu Zuohu did not hype or affiliated. Compared with "hype marketing", Liu Zuohu, who was once a "Duan's disciple", believed that products were the foundation of the enterprise. The Internet thinking style only wanted to see from afar and not play with it.

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

"Duota" is also a label attached to Liu Zuohu. In addition to the "Duota" he includes: "Do things right and do things right" and "Duota" is also: "Dota what you do, and don't do anything". Liu Zuohu also applied Duan Yongping's "slow" philosophy to perfection, "Slow means fast, fast means slow, no matter what you do, you must be slow and steady to make progress."

In the early days of founding the OnePlus mobile phone brand, Liu Zuohu refused a large order for 500,000 mobile phones from a Korean operator. The reason was that the Korean operator wanted to pay in one lump sum when delivering the goods, while Liu Zuohu received a 20% deposit when he wanted to place an order. In the end, the two parties could not reach an agreement and the cooperation was cancelled. It is said that in order to reach a cooperation with OnePlus, the Korean operator stayed in OnePlus office for more than a month.

For many emerging startups, this "astronomical" order is something that others can't dream of, but when they come to Liu Zuohu, they are directly rejected. The outside world expressed their incomprehension about Liu Zuohu's refusal this time. He responded: "Many people say I am conservative, but the most important thing for a startup is to live. If a decision touches this bottom line, I would rather not do it. If one day, OnePlus is big enough, as big as 500,000 mobile phones are wasted and the company is not dead, then I will do it." This is also the mark left by more than ten years of oppo's work experience, to survive and not make a rash progress.

In 2001, in the cold winter of the Internet, Ding Lei's NetEase failed to get rid of the bad luck, and Duan Yongping was the one who pulled Ding Lei out of the Miserables World.

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 it well?" Duan Yongping asked recurrence. In order to give Ding Lei full confidence and unique business vision, Duan Yongping invested most of his assets and bought 2 million US dollars of NetEase stocks from the open market to help Ding Lei with timely help.
Chapter completed!