Open up one channel, earn multiple kinds of wealth

Entering December, Guilin had rain for 8 days straight, and today the sun finally came out. Early in the morning, Qin Yongde hurried to his fish farming base and led the workers to catch fish; it is now the season for grass carp to hit the market.

Reporter Li Yang: About how many fish are being raised in here right now?

Jiang Zhengrong, a farmer in Lingchuan County, Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region: About 300,000 to 400,000, probably more than 400,000 jin.

Qin Yongde: There are not as many here as over at Junshan Reservoir.

This fish farming base is by the Li River. (Subtitle) What is mainly raised here is grass carp and common carp, all raised in an imitation-wild way, mainly feeding on aquatic plants. This farming base has more than 400,000 jin of fish and can sell more than 5 million yuan a year.

As soon as the fish were caught, Qin Yongde enthusiastically showed the reporter these fish he had raised in an imitation-wild way.

Qin Yongde: This kind of fish has a market gap, so we need to raise this kind of domestic fish; the market is relatively large, like here with us. For hosting banquets, eating at nearby restaurants, this kind of fish is definitely what people eat.

Qin Yongde: For this kind of fish, we also purify it in spring water and improve its quality. We ship it live to markets in Guangdong, Sichuan, and Hunan, including within our own region, and also make it into cured fish, dried cured fish, and the like.

In 2015, Qin Yongde invested more than 8 million yuan and acquired two fish farming enterprises in Guilin City; this is one of them. Qin Yongde was full of confidence, and his confidence came from his marketing channels. He could sell fish that used to be very difficult to sell to many provinces and cities across the country, and Qin Yongde was in the monk fruit business; these marketing channels of his were all built up by selling monk fruit.

Aquaculture and monk fruit, two industries that seem unrelated, yet Qin Yongde moved between them with ease. From 2015 up to November, Qin Yongde's monk fruit sales alone reached over 100 million yuan, and his enterprise's total sales were nearly 500 million yuan. So, how did he do it?

In 2000, Qin Yongde graduated from Wuhan National University of Defense Technology with a degree in computer science, and started working in computer sales in Guilin. Two years later, Qin Yongde founded his own internet company in Guilin, engaged in software development, earning more than 500,000 yuan a year, and was even called a local internet talent by his friends.

Qin Yongde's friend Wei Xiaoqiang: To be honest, at that time in Guilin, those doing the internet who were relatively authoritative and relatively good, there were four young people, and basically in the internet and IT industries at that time, they were the best. They were called the Four Great Talents at the time, and he was the leader among the Four Great Talents.

Qin Yongde's friend Li Fei: He could also be considered relatively well-known in Guilin for doing the internet, and he was in the high-tech zone. In the high-tech zone, whether in business circles or government circles, he was relatively recognized, and he did the networks for many big companies, including some companies that later went public.

In 2007, Qin Yongde, whose business had been going smoothly, wanted to expand his business to Shenzhen, but unexpectedly lost more than 1 million yuan in three months. What surprised him even more was that the company's core technical employee also suddenly resigned at this time. For a full half year in 2007, Qin Yongde shut himself at home and saw no one.

Qin Yongde: The main thing is you do not know how to take your next step, and in that process you feel you have no direction.

Qin Yongde's wife Jiang Julian: During that period he was in a particularly low point. He probably thought about too many things, and he had no funds on hand, and could not get anything going. That period was probably the low point of his life.

Qin Yongde lost all his savings. The former Four Great Talents had become a joke in others' mouths, and Qin Yongde was very unwilling to accept it. In 2008, Qin Yongde borrowed 40,000 yuan and decided to start over, and this time, he decided to change careers and sell monk fruit.

Qin Yongde's friend Wei Xiaoqiang: In the market, the survey also shows eight or nine mao, and it is still an eight or nine mao item now. Selling like this, you are joking. How much can you sell, how many can you sell in a year, can you sell a thousand, two thousand?

Qin Yongde's good friend Liu Xiaowei: At the time I also found it unbelievable. I just thought, a person doing the internet, and the internet is so hot, suddenly turning to agriculture, at the time I found it very unbelievable.

Monk fruit is a famous specialty of Guilin in our country, praised as the "immortal fruit." It is mainly sold to southern regions of our country as medicinal material and edible seasoning. For many years, local monk fruit in Guilin was planted and processed by farmers themselves, with no specific standards, and quality was hard to guarantee. The price of monk fruit had always been around 1 yuan each, and combined with a single sales channel and a relatively narrow market, many people felt monk fruit was not profitable. So what business opportunity did Qin Yongde see in monk fruit?

Qin Yongde: In fact, monk fruit has a very good effect, which is that it soothes the throat and clears the lungs. The first time I proposed that monk fruit should have a bigger market in the north, and that branding monk fruit should have a very large market.

Before 2008, Guilin's monk fruit was mainly sold to Guangzhou and Guangxi. Through investigation, Qin Yongde found that in northern regions of our country, the monk fruit market was still a blank, and he felt this was a very big business opportunity. He declared that he would not only sell monk fruit to northern regions, but also sell monk fruit that cost 1 yuan each for 5 yuan each.

In Guilin, the price of monk fruit had not changed for more than 20 years. Just relying on Qin Yongde, an outsider, to sell monk fruit for 5 yuan each, many people thought it was a joke.

Qin Yongde's friend Wei Xiaoqiang: The good ones on the market were only one yuan fifty or two yuan, the best ones. Five-yuan monk fruit was impossible at the time.

Qin Yongde: I defined this product to sell monk fruit for five to six yuan. In fact, I do not feel I sold it too expensively; rather, I set it at a reasonable price point.

So how did Qin Yongde sell 1-yuan monk fruit for 5 yuan?

In 2008, in an underground garage, Qin Yongde began selling monk fruit online. Using his advantage in the internet, he quickly opened up sales. By 2010, Qin Yongde's online monk fruit business had already achieved some success. It was also at this time that Qin Yongde began his plan to sell monk fruit for 5 yuan each!

Qin Yongde: Everyone get ready now, each person to an area, get ready, put your baskets on the ground, and start timing.

When the reporter was interviewing, it happened to coincide with Qin Yongde having invited more than 30 distributors to his monk fruit planting base to take part in a picking experience activity.

Reporter Li Yang: How did you think of bringing your child to this kind of activity on the weekend?

Tourist: It can add some experience and encyclopedic knowledge for the child, because I always feel that for children who grow up in the city, there are actually many things they no longer know.

Qin Yongde: Everyone also pay attention to look, in the monk fruit we pick, there is this shed, so that way monk fruit does not need to worry about insects getting in, and also does not need to worry about spraying pesticides.