Domestic Materials

"That seemed to be the case!"

Tian Feng Chemical's sales director felt both pleased and annoyed.

Annoyed, naturally, because Watanabe Jiro had left him speechless.

Pleased, naturally, because as a member of Tian Feng Chemical, he also took pride in what Watanabe Jiro had said.

On careful consideration, there was actually nothing wrong with Watanabe Jiro's words.

In the field of optical materials, if Tian Feng Chemical dared call itself second, no one in the world would dare claim first—not even King Material from Eagle Country would dare thump its chest and say it was number one.

In the field of optical film materials, King Material dared say that.

But across the entire optical materials sector, King Material did not have the confidence to make that claim.

Tian Feng Chemical was an insurmountable mountain in the global optics industry. Starting out by making automobiles, after decades of development, even its side business had become a leader in the optical field. Many luminescence patents belonged to Tian Feng Chemical, with the best-known example being LED light sources.

LEDs, also known as light-emitting diodes, emitted white light or various other colors of light when electricity passed through them.

As for white-light emission patents, Tian Feng Chemical had been a latecomer. Over the past decade or two, it had seized the top spot from the original pioneers and remained firmly in the lead to this day.

Domestically, every LED manufacturer licensed Tian Feng Chemical's white-light emission patents.

The heavily hyped miniLED and micrlLED displays still relied on Tian Feng Chemical's fundamental white-light emission patents.

If the domestic public knew this, they would undoubtedly feel frustrated and despairing. So all that hype was merely built on someone else's patented technology, while they themselves only made superficial tweaks?

And that was merely the most basic level.

Patents were further divided into domestic versions, global versions, and versions limited to the Little Country where life was good, with each priced differently. The domestic version was the cheapest, but it still had to be purchased. For every LED sold, a patent fee had to be paid. The global version came next, but was still 50% more expensive than the domestic version, and likewise required a patent fee for every LED sold. The ultimate version was the special edition for the Little Country where life was good, specifically designed for products exported there, and cost another 50% more than the global version!

This was exactly the same playbook as mobile phone chips: they used it to suppress you, and you had nothing to say about it.

Thinking of all this, Tian Feng Chemical's sales director naturally felt that Watanabe Jiro had not been boasting after all.

That was right. In a place with such R&D conditions, what truly valuable thing could possibly be developed in the field of optical materials?

If the foundation was unstable, the whole structure would collapse!

If domestic companies wanted to catch up with them in optical materials, they first had to solidify their foundations. Moreover, patent hegemony was in their hands, and they were one of the core members of the BOSE Patent Alliance. Unless domestic companies suddenly gained some miraculous advantage and overtook them on a bend, it would be absolutely impossible to surpass them in a short time.

The same was true in the optical materials sector.

Having figured this out, the sales director said nothing more.

As the sales director fell silent, no one else had anything to say either. After all, this was not something they needed to worry about.

Seeing that everyone had nothing more to say, the general manager chairing the meeting naturally did not consider this a problem. He ended the topic and moved on to the next one.

In his view, he very much wanted someone domestically to surpass or threaten Tian Feng Chemical's position in optical materials, but unfortunately, there was no one! At least, there would be no one for the next decade or two!

Besides Tian Le Material and Tian Feng Chemical, manufacturers in other optical materials industries, the mobile phone industry, and traders involved in related sectors also noticed the newly established Fei Yang Optics.

However, either they did not care much or lacked sufficient strength, so none of them reached out immediately. They decided to wait and see first.

Some were interested in making contact right away, but they did not receive much of a response.

Of course, some did not care at all. For instance, the domestic headquarters established by King Material of Eagle Country completely forgot about the news after seeing it.

King Material Company was headquartered in Eagle Country. Although it also had a headquarters domestically, it was merely a liaison office. It did not conduct production or business operations, nor did it establish any R&D centers.

Sales of King Polymer Optical Film domestically were handled entirely through agents. The liaison office merely coordinated trade and processed import and export paperwork. As for its original task of gathering information on competing products, that had completely vanished after decades of slow progress in the domestic optical materials market. Few people at the liaison office even remembered that such a task had existed.

King Polymer Optical Film sold very well domestically. Even defective goods produced in Eagle Country sold extremely well there. They were classified as Grade B, but still sold at Grade A prices. At most, traders would do each other a favor and offer a slight discount.

Most importantly, King Company sold this material domestically strictly through cash transactions: money and goods exchanged hand to hand. It did not have to bear any risk.

For companies unwilling to pay in cash and requiring payment terms or bank acceptance bills, King Company did not trade with them directly. Instead, it used traders to shift the risk onto them, making the traders pay first while the customers owed the traders money, with the traders serving as middlemen.

"New optical material? Did they coat it with some kind of metal again?"

While scrolling through his phone, the head of King Material Company's domestic liaison office happened upon the news. He curled his lip disdainfully, then completely forgot about it.

No matter what metal you coat it with, I can handle all changes by remaining unchanged. Polymer materials crush everything!

Dongwan City, Oupai Company!

"So this is the FY-01 material Hua Long Technology pushed forward? Its performance really is astonishing! No wonder Hua Long Technology, Zhong Wei Technology, Qian Jia, and Di Guang could not resist joining forces to invest in this material!"

Looking at the preliminary test report in his hands, then at the news playing on his computer about the four companies jointly establishing Fei Yang Optics New Material, Oupai's product chief, Li Dingguo, could not help clicking his tongue in admiration.

He had been the one leading the development and bidding for the Dual Punch-Hole Screen project. At first, he had thought this mid-to-low-end high-volume project would go to Zhong Wei Technology. Yet Hua Long Technology suddenly stepped in and won the bid, causing Zhong Wei Technology to stumble badly and leaving him greatly surprised.

After working with Hua Long Technology's team on this project over the past few days, he had finally learned where Hua Long Technology's trump card lay. It had obtained FY-01, a material with performance even better than King Material's. No wonder it had brought down the costs and was so confident it could make this project a success.

Even he could not help feeling shaken upon seeing FY-01's test report. He was strongly tempted to invest and take a share of the profits.

As a senior executive at the level of Oupai's product chief, he naturally dismissed that thought very quickly. There was simply no need.

Li Dingguo quickly thought of FY-01's potential applications and thought, At last, there is one domestic-material replacement effort that can be completed!