Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 1026: Fitness Battle Paying Mode?

“Boss Pei, this way please.”

Chang You led Boss Pei and Meng Chang to the entertainment room of Otto Technologies.

Meng Chang saw the special machine in the corner of the entertainment room at a glance.

The design was very unique, but one could tell at a glance that it was some kind of fitness equipment.

Chang You introduced. “This is a sample sent over by the factory a few days ago. To be honest, it’s slightly more troublesome to assemble than ordinary fitness equipment. After all, the structure is more complicated, and the parts are very heavy. Therefore, we must include delivery and installation in the package. It would be more difficult for customers to install it themselves.”

Pei Qian nodded. “Of course, we have to install it. Isn’t that natural?”

In fact, it was not difficult to install the equipment. Many fitness equipment used a similar model: find special distributors to work with across the country and give them a sum of money. Let the workers at the distributors learn how to dismantle the equipment and conduct simple malfunctions and maintenance. Once the goods were delivered, let the workers in the same city install them at the consumers’ place.

Of course, it would be even simpler if they were in a city with Upwind Logistics. These things could be handled by the express delivery personnel of Upwind Logistics.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and added, “Not only do we have to install it, but we also have to include delivery for moving. Customers can move it for free once every year after purchasing the ‘smart drying rack’. Our after-sales personnel would dismantle the product, install it, and move it to their new home in the same city.”

“Of course, the money would have to be calculated differently if they exceed the number or moved to a different city.”

Pei Qian’s idea was to give as many benefits as possible. Once this promise was made, wouldn’t he be able to lose money every time the consumers moved?

Chang You pondered for a moment. “Er... this is not difficult to achieve. However, it will increase our future maintenance costs.”

“Our product itself might not be able to make much money. If we were to move it for free, the cost would accumulate. It would be terrifying!”

“However... This is great news for customers. After all, most of the people who buy fitness equipment are young people. They don’t have their own houses, and they often have to move. They can’t move such a huge piece of equipment by themselves. If they hand it to the movers, they won’t dismantle it, and they might have to pay extra. These renters would be very happy if we can solve this problem.”

Pei Qian said, “That’s great. Making customers happy is our motto.”

“As for the cost, that’s a small problem. We can always think of ways to make up for it elsewhere.”

Chang You nodded. “Yes, Boss Pei makes sense.”

Pei Qian was elated that he had managed to spend another sum of money.

Both Meng Chang and him continued to size up this “smart fitness drying rack”.

The material of this thing was very different from what Pei Qian had imagined. Obviously, after the product manager of Otto Technologies repeatedly communicated with the factory, the overall safety, practicality, portable packaging, and other factors had been modified many times.

Chang You explained, “This machine can perform nine types of exercises. They are butterfly crossover, straight back crossover, reverse arms, lat pull-down, rowing, pull-up, cable curls, bench press, and weighted squats. The muscles that are trained include the core muscles of the chest, back, waist, arms, legs, and so on. However, you have to adjust the machine when you carry out different movements...”

Chang You explained as he adjusted the machine.

What was worth mentioning was that even though many functions of this machine were exactly the same as some of the equipment in the gym, there was a huge difference in its appearance.

For example, bench press and squat in the gym use a gantry frame with barbell bars, hooks and barbell plates.

But there are two problems with practicing squats like this. The first is to use the shoulders and neck to remove the hard top metal barbell. Unless the trapezius muscles are particularly developed, it will be very uncomfortable. Many people use yoga mats to cushion their necks. Doing squats was very inconvenient; secondly, if you wanted to change the weight, you would need to manually replace the barbell plates, which was still more troublesome.

The smart fitness drying rack optimized this problem on the other hand. First, it added a protective soft cushion in the middle of the barbell. Second, it added a basic weight-binding module on both sides of the barbell to maintain balance. It also shared weight with butterfly crossovers, lat pull-down and other movements. That saved the trouble of changing the barbell pieces. It was enough to directly change the position of the weight.

What’s more, this would save them more space.

The only problem was that this meant that all the parts used on the smart fitness drying rack could not be used with other fitness equipment.

However, this was not a big problem. After all, it was the only fitness equipment that customers could use in most scenarios.

Pei Qian’s expression turned serious after listening to Chang You’s introduction.

It seemed... Quite reliable?

However, the more reliable it was, the more ridiculous it was!

This “smart fitness drying rack” was completely Pei Qian’s idea. At that time, he felt that it would definitely be a pile of steel garbage that no one would buy.

However, Pei Qian suddenly felt that it seemed to be attractive to ordinary consumers after looking at the sample!

Dangerous, very dangerous!

Chang You had already finished introducing the basic usage of the machine. He looked at Pei Qian and said, “Boss Pei, the ‘Smart Fitness drying rack’ game, ‘Fitness Battle’ has almost been completed. The DEMO has been sent over. Do you want to experience it yourself?”

Pei Qian remained silent for a moment and looked at Meng Chang. “Go!”

Meng Chang was dumbfounded.

Chang You was asking Boss Pei to go alright!

Pei Qian saw Meng Chang’s confused expression and coughed lightly. “You’re in charge of the publicity plan. How can you not experience it personally? I’ll give you a chance to experience it first. Go.”

Meng Chang cursed inwardly but had no choice. He still sat down.

Chang You took a tablet computer from the side and pulled down a simple retractable frame from the top of the smart fitness drying rack. It was just right to place the tablet computer there.

Chang You explained, “We designed this frame according to the size of the tablet computer. Of course, the cell phone supports it.”

“If it was a particularly rich customer, they would be able to set up a television directly opposite the equipment without using this stand.”

“After the Fitness Battle and the smart fitness drying rack are connected through the bluetooth, they will sense the current state of the equipment through the sensors inside the equipment. They would guide the customers to make adjustments to the equipment when they want to do something.”

Meng Chang tried it out as Chang You introduced the game.

He decided to do a more basic action, the butterfly crossover.

The chest was obviously one of the parts that was worth training the most for male beginners. That was because the chest muscles were bigger when compared to the back, abdomen, and other parts. It was the fastest to train and could train the arm at the same time.

As long as the muscles in his arms and chest were trained, it would have a very obvious effect of “being able to support his clothes”. His entire temperament would also be significantly improved.

What’s more, as long as the chest muscles were big enough, the belly would not be so obvious. On the contrary, training the abdominal muscles would not actually reduce the fat on the belly.

Due to the fact that it was DEMO, many of the guidance functions at the beginning were temporarily lacking. Meng Chang clicked on the screen and began training after choosing a character.

He chose a cute little girl. The cute girl first guided him to adjust the state of the smart fitness drying rack. Then, she began to explain the movements of the butterfly crossover and the areas where the strength was exerted. Finally, she did the movements with him.

This cute girl was slightly plump.

For young women, they were considered to be in a relatively good state with 20% body fats. 25% meant that not much excess fats could be seen from their stomachs. They would not be visibly fat if they were clothed at 30% body fats. However, one would be able to see their bellies if they exposed their waists. When they reached 35%, they would be able to clearly see the “spare tires” on their stomachs.

This character’s body fat rate had basically reached nearly 35%, and her goal was to train her body fat to below 20%.

During the exercise, the cute girl on the screen would cheer Meng Chang on.

Pei Qian suddenly thought of a problem and asked, “The characters, costumes, props, and scenes inside... these should all be value-added services, right? Do we have to draw them or buy them directly?”

Chang You answered, “I only confirmed the profitability of free games and value-added services previously, but I haven’t decided on the exact method.”

“We might seem like we have more conscience and our reputation would be better if we purchase directly. We might earn more money if we get them to draw for it, but we might also be scolded.”

“Of course, that would unless they were to draw something like Ghost General. However, the investment for ‘Fitness Battle’ is much higher than Ghost General. Honestly, we would not be able to recover our capital.”

“Boss Pei, you decide what to do next.”

Pei Qian fell deep in thought.

His first reaction was direct purchase. Everything, be it costumes, props, or scenes, should be clearly priced. The price would be lower. For example, spending one or two hundred yuan to buy all the costumes should make less money than the lucky draw.

However, on further thought, something was amiss.

Wasn’t Ghost General popular because of this?

At that time, Pei Qian had wanted to create a krypton gold online game that did not have paywalls. However, he had not expected gamers to think that they were very conscientious and spent more money without thinking. They made a lot of money with small profits but quick turnover.

It was the same for ‘Fitness Battle’. What if the price was too good and the gamers expressed that they wanted to buy them all?

He should not make the same mistake again.

If it was a lucky draw, he could lower the probability of producing goods. That way, he would definitely be scolded. However, the problem was that some people would curse while drawing but the more they could not draw what they wanted, the more excited those ballers would be.

In the end, he would be scolded and still earn money. How uncomfortable would that be?

Could he think of another in-app purchase model?