Chapter 513: Sold Out in Five Minutes!
The four roommates in the dorm had already discussed it beforehand—once Chen Mo’s new handheld console came out, they were definitely buying one. On one hand, it was for the novelty, and on the other, the value for money was just too good.
Split four ways, it was only 500 yuan per person. But if they wanted to buy a phone with similar specs, they’d be looking at four or five thousand yuan at least!
“Hurry up, time’s almost up!”
“No problem, I’m all set. Refresh, grab the order!”
“Ah, damn it, the campus network is lagging! This crappy internet!”
“Quick, restart it! Refresh fast, don’t choke at the critical moment!”
Just as the rush began, the infuriating campus network suddenly dropped out. The four of them scrambled to check the connection, and by the time it was restored, five minutes had already passed.
They hurriedly opened the official website’s shopping link and clicked “Buy Now.”
“Why isn’t the page responding?”
“What’s this message? Sold out??”
“Quick, try other shopping sites!”
“Same here—no stock in the Qilu region!”
“No way, seriously? What’s going on? Is the system bugged?”
They were all stunned. What was happening?
Sold out? How could it be sold out? It had only been on sale for five minutes!
Unwilling to give up, they tried several other sites, but the result was the same—everything was sold out, all showing “Out of Stock!”
“This handheld is just as bad as Lehui phones! Are they playing at hunger marketing? How can it sell out right at launch?”
“Did they understock? Did they only prepare a few thousand units?”
Many people recalled the terror of trying to grab a Lehui phone before. Because of insufficient supply, Lehui often released limited quantities that required rushing to buy, and many accused them of deliberately using hunger marketing to whet people’s appetites.
In the end, Zhou Jiangping had to come out and clarify: It’s not hunger marketing! Why wouldn’t we sell if we could make money? It’s really that production can’t keep up!
And now, Chen Mo was pulling the same stunt?
One of the guys in the dorm checked online and said, “Oh man, it turns out this handheld is made in collaboration with Lehui! No wonder Zhou Jiangping corrupted Chen Mo too—he’s also doing hunger marketing!”
“I knew it! The culprit is right here!”
“No way, I’m going to Weibo to find Chen Mo, and I’ll curse out Zhou Jiangping while I’m at it—why can’t he teach something good!”
“Yeah, me too! And let’s see if Chen Mo has posted anything about what’s going on. Could it be a network issue?”
……
It wasn’t just these guys. All the major forums and online communities were blowing up, with countless people posting that they simply couldn’t buy one!
“Damn, I just accidentally refreshed the page, and when I tried to buy, it was gone!”
“I accidentally overslept, and when I woke up, even the controllers were sold out!”
“I tried to buy the handheld first and failed, then wanted to get the controller, but that was gone too!”
“What about other sites? Can’t you buy from them?”
“Don’t even ask—same story. I just came back from there, couldn’t get anything. Let’s ask Chen Mo what’s up!”
Soon, Chen Mo posted on Weibo.
“I have good news and bad news for everyone. The good news is that 150,000 handhelds and 100,000 standalone controllers have all sold out within five minutes—a huge success. The bad news is that students who still want to buy will have to wait until next month…”
As soon as this post came out, hundreds of comments flooded in instantly.
“What the hell? You stocked 150,000 handhelds and 100,000 controllers, and they’re all sold out? Is that even possible??”
“I thought I was in the minority, but it turns out so many people were buying!”
“Yeah, weren’t you guys supposed to wait and see? Wait and buy later!”
“I’m so mad! You people were competing with me!”
“Has anyone actually bought one? I highly suspect Chen Mo is lying—there’s no way he stocked that many!”
……
In Zhou Jiangping’s office.
Chen Mo handed over his phone to show him the Weibo comments. “President Zhou, you’ve really screwed me over.”
Zhou Jiangping looked equally pained. “President Chen, I didn’t expect it to sell this well either! And there are tons of people cursing me on Weibo too!”
Chen Mo asked, puzzled, “Why are they cursing you?”
Zhou Jiangping smiled bitterly. “Everyone says you learned hunger marketing from me, so they’re all blaming me…”
Chen Mo laughed heartily. “No mistake there—it is your fault.”
Zhou Jiangping sighed helplessly. “Fine, my fault, my fault. I’ve already pushed the manufacturers to speed up production.”
Originally, Chen Mo’s plan was to stock at least 300,000 handhelds and 200,000 standalone controllers for the first batch, but Zhou Jiangping insisted it was too risky and refused to agree.
Based on Lehui’s experience, even for highly anticipated popular phones, stocking around 100,000 to 200,000 units for the initial launch was already plenty. The main issue was that if the product didn’t sell, it would be pure loss, so there was no need to produce so much in the first batch—plus, production capacity couldn’t keep up.
Stocking 150,000 handhelds and 100,000 standalone controllers for the first batch was already the maximum Zhou Jiangping could accept.
Chen Mo actually felt this number was far too low. In his past life, the Nintendo Switch’s initial launch selling as well as it did was practically a miracle!
And many people noticed something strange: the game cartridges for Super Mario Odyssey were selling even more than the handhelds!
The handhelds and controllers combined only had 250,000 units in stock, yet the physical cartridges for Odyssey had sold 370,000—and that didn’t even include the digital version!
Everyone was baffled. What was going on?