A report quietly appeared on the pages of the Guangdong Commercial Daily.
"A new type of video disc player comes out - the rapid rise of Wanyan VCD!"
News headlines are in black and bold, which is particularly eye-catching.
It only took a few months from the time Wan Yan started marketing until the product became popular in the market. Wan Yan paid a heavy price. In addition to spending a lot of money on advertising, he also purchased a large amount of audio and video publishing companies.
Part of the video disc copyright, a new type of disc, vcd disc, was produced that is different from ld disc.
Compared with LD discs that cost 70, 80 or even hundreds of dollars, the VCD discs produced by Wanyan only cost half the price.
Not only that, vcd discs are smaller and easier to carry. As soon as they came out, they suppressed the ld disc market on a large scale.
In Guangdong Province, the first batch of Wanyan VCDs also arrived in department stores in Yangcheng and Shenzhen. The products were robbed as soon as they were put on the shelves, and they were all sold out.
Shenzhen City, Dongmen Old Street, Luohu District.
This is also one of the earliest commercial streets in Shenzhen City.
Even though it was already afternoon, the commercial street was still very busy, and the originally spacious street looked crowded because of the stalls set up on both sides.
The road in the middle is less than four meters wide, and pedestrians and occasional motorcycles often make this road crowded.
Children often get lost because of the crowds here, so the standard action of parents is to hold their children tightly with one hand.
Given such an opportunity, almost all children will take the opportunity to cry and eat a bunch of candied haws.
"Mr. Chu, what did you bring me here for?"
Wearing a suit and tie, Hu Zhibiao followed Chu Tianyao and looked at the scene in front of him with some curiosity.
Chu Tianyao suddenly asked what market research he wanted to do, so he called out Hu Zhibiao who was working in the factory.
Hu Zhibiao was still a little confused at first, but now that he saw the destination, he couldn't understand what Chu Tianyao was thinking.
Even for market research, going to a department store is better than going to a shopping street, right?
"Just follow me, and you'll understand naturally after a while."
Chu Tianyao gave up and then strode towards the crowd.
In a crowded old commercial street, in front of a row of stalls selling various audio and video products, Chu Tianyao led Hu Zhibiao to the stall owner and selected from a pile of pirated tapes and CDs.
"Brother, you want to see new products!"
Seeing that Chu Tianyao was still dissatisfied after picking it for a long time, the boss immediately picked up a box from the shelf and placed it in front of Chu Tianyao.
"Here, these are the latest VCDs that I have released. There are several new Hong Kong and Taiwan movies, including the bilingual version of Tang Bohu and Qiu Xiang, and the high-definition discs of East and West. A set of two discs only costs 20 yuan, which is comparable to the world.
The ld discs on the Internet are much cheaper!”
With a big beer belly and eating with bowls and chopsticks in his hands, the middle-aged boss introduced Chu Tianyao and Hu Zhibiao with all their treasures.
"Are these pirated VCDs?"
When he saw the hundreds of sets of CDs in the box, Hu Zhibiao was stunned before Chu Tianyao could say anything.
He never expected that not long after Wan Yan's VCD came out, pirated discs would already flow into the Shenzhen market.
"Hey, young man, look at what you said, why do you care about so many pirated and genuine copies? You can just watch them. Nowadays, a VCD player costs thousands of dollars per unit, but a set of discs costs dozens of dollars. Can you afford it?
"
The middle-aged boss glanced at Hu Zhibiao with some disdain.
I have gone to a commercial street like this to buy things, and yet I still want to buy genuine goods. Isn’t this just pretending?
"Boss, he's still young and doesn't know how to do it."
Chu Tianyao smiled slightly, then picked a few sets of discs from the box, and took out a hundred-dollar bill from his bag.
When he first saw Chu Tianyao's generosity, the boss's expression suddenly changed.
"Boss, I just want to ask, how is your VCD business doing here?"
Chu Tianyao handed the banknotes to the other party. He didn't care how much the discs in his hand cost, he just asked aloud.
The boss quickly put down his bowls and chopsticks, reached out to take the banknotes, shook them, and looked at the sun.
The banknotes were real, and the boss's attitude became even more enthusiastic. He replied without thinking: "The business is not bad, I can sell a box every day, but not many people can afford to buy VCD players these days.
They all come to my place to watch movies."
"Watching a movie?"
Chu Tianyao was also startled when he heard this.
Perhaps he was too happy, and the boss seemed to have let something slip for a moment.
"Hey... everyone knows this. Only old buyers know the way. I think your guest should have a VCD at home, but we still have a lot of good products."
With a look that only men can understand, the boss leaned into Chu Tianyao's ear and whispered softly: "Ye Yuqing, Ye Yimei, Weng Hong... all the new costume dramas released in Hong Kong City this year are in my store.
Yes, how about it, boss, would you like to go in and take a look?"
Chu Tianyao couldn't help but be surprised when he heard these familiar names.
The names of these Hong Kong female stars, let alone Chu Tianyao, how many male compatriots had never heard of them even in mainland China in the mid-to-late 1990s.
In that era before the Internet was popularized, Teacher Cang from the island country had not yet captured many otakus through the Internet. These female celebrities from Hong Kong City were the goddesses in the hearts of most male compatriots.
Even Chu Tianyao has to envy a fat director named Wang Jing.
"Boss, our prices are very affordable, it only costs ten yuan to watch a movie!"
The middle-aged boss continued to speak, and this voice suddenly awakened Chu Tianyao, who was deep in thought.
"How many people can come to your house in a day?"
Chu Tianyao did not answer, but asked again.
Looking up, I saw that in the alley behind the middle-aged boss, there was indeed a video parlor with a sign called Pink Impression.
"Since the introduction of these VCDs, there have been a lot more customers. There are always over a hundred people a day."
Although he didn't understand why Chu Tianyao asked so many questions, the middle-aged boss still answered casually.
Hundreds of people a day!
Hearing this answer, Hu Zhibiao, who was silent on the side, was also a little surprised.
You know, there are at least seven or eight informal video parlors like this on this commercial street, not to mention the entire Shenzhen city.
After calculating this, the potential users of VCD discs are far more than he imagined!
"This is the charm of knowledge dissemination!"
Chu Tianyao couldn't help but sigh.
In the 1990s, one of the reasons why home VCD players were able to attract many users even though their prices remained high was because of the developed film industry in Hong Kong.
Of course, erotic movies are movies too!
For the mainland, where the film industry was still in a backward and conservative stage at that time, films like Hong Kong City with rich plots and sensory stimulation were almost dominant in the mainland.
That era was also called the golden age of Hong Kong movies.