Debuted right after graduating from high school

Speaking of Eastern Wealth Network...

When Fan Wumian first raised funds, the website that specializes in "stock forums" was still very small.

This year, the market seized the opportunity presented by the shift between bull and bear markets, attracting countless investors and resulting in a surge in active users, increasing dozens of times over.

The number of stock investors using Dongbu Wealth Network has surged, and naturally, more securities firms, insurance companies, and fund companies are willing to spend money on advertising.

Last year, the small website had revenue of just over 410 million RMB and net profit of barely over 100 million RMB. In the first three quarters of this year, its revenue exceeded 6000 million RMB, and its net profit margin reached around 55%.

Currently, there are still many hurdles to overcome in entering the financial industry. Fan Wumian believes that once the policies are relaxed in the future, the prospects for Dongbu Wealth Network will be very good. It can expand into areas such as securities business, financial e-commerce services, financial data services and internet advertising services. Therefore, just two days ago, it raised an additional 30 million RMB in financing to further increase its stake, raising its shareholding from 3000% to 45%.

With the money in hand, Dongbu Fortune Network will use its cash reserves to scrape together 5000 million RMB to acquire a large number of shares in its competitor, Tonghuashun, and then lay out a C2C e-commerce website operation model in the stock market, which means buying and selling stocks and other financial products through an online trading platform.

The two companies are roughly the same size, but each has its own focus in terms of business.

Tonghuashun has close ties with many securities firms and fund companies, but it burns too much money developing new businesses, and its financial statements are not as impressive as those of Dongbu Wealth Network.

With the bear market looming, some major shareholders who have made a fortune are looking to run away and are currently trying to sell Tonghua Shun shares.

This clearly demonstrates a lack of long-term vision and a tendency to think that, like securities firms and fund companies, this year's surge in revenue is merely an accident that cannot be sustained for long and will soon be exposed as a different story.

The truth is that internet financial services in mainland China are still in their infancy, and the real boom is far from over. "Cashing out at a high price" now is undoubtedly selling the goose that could lay golden eggs.

If Fan Wumian were to take action himself, he might try to directly acquire Tonghuashun by throwing money at the problem, eliminating the competitor by cutting off its top performer. Unfortunately, Dongbu Fortune Network does not have that capability at the moment.

Shen Jun, the founder of Dongbu Fortune Network, felt that since he had no immediate need for the money and had a large amount of idle funds in his account, acquiring shares of Tonghua Shun would further increase his market share and enhance his ability to withstand risks. He then proactively approached Fan Wumian to seek a new round of financing.

Fan Wumian was only responsible for providing the money and did not interfere with the company's specific decision-making.

The current situation is that the subprime crisis has just begun, and a number of companies with ample funds and less affected are already eager to acquire smaller companies.

For example, Bosera Funds had a large amount of idle income sitting in its accounts with nowhere to invest. President Wang Yu chose to invest the idle funds in Hong Kong Mountain Bandit King Fund and WM-Rogers Hedge Fund, with a total size of approximately US$3.1 million.

Pony Ma, CEO of Tencent, couldn't resist either. He acquired a Silicon Valley video conferencing software startup for $1150 million, improving the quality of QQ and WeChat video and voice calls and reducing data transmission traffic. This also made it more legitimate for the international version of Tencent Weibo to enter the instant messaging field.

Myth Film Studio had previously received instructions from Fan Wumian to keep a close eye on the animation production field and successfully found him a company called "Illumination Entertainment Animation Company," which is the production company behind animated films such as "Despicable Me," "The Secret Life of Pets," and "Minions."

When Fan Wumian received the news, he had just entered the Gulf of Aden and couldn't wait to reply with an email, approving an initial investment budget of $4000 million for Myth Film Studio in order to produce "Despicable Me".

The box office is secondary; the Minions in this movie are incredibly popular and have huge commercial value.

Seeing that his executives and partners had been able to fully utilize their initiative and manage the company's business in an orderly manner during his time at sea, Fan Wumian made preparations in advance to relinquish as much power as possible after returning this time, so as not to be overwhelmed by the "sea of ​​emails" that averaged hundreds of emails every day.

I spent two days in Rome.

Just then, Fan Wumian heard that the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, was holding a special exhibition in conjunction with the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, so he took Zuo Ziyan there in his private jet to join in the fun. It wasn't until he read the introduction that he learned that Van Gogh had more than 2000 surviving oil paintings, drawings, and watercolors, which Fan Wumian found rather uninteresting, not as rare as discovering only two pieces of the Qianlong Emperor's shroud.

Behind every painter whose works can fetch astronomical prices, there are vested interests who help promote and advocate for them. They often hoard a large number of works by a certain painter first, and then drive up the price to make a profit. As early as the late 19th century and early 20th century, a French art dealer named Ambroise Vollard achieved great success by speculating on Van Gogh's works.

Today, Van Gogh, mythologized and revered, is a master painter. Even Fan Wumian feels a pang of regret when buying his oil paintings. Standing before "Wheatfield with Crows," he remarked:
“A hundred years ago, you could buy something for the price of cabbage, but now it’s worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. The increase in value is much higher than investing in gold, land, or real estate. What business can offer a higher return than investing in art?”

Zuo Ziyan said speechlessly:

"I came here with you to look at paintings, and you're already thinking about the return on investment. There are so many painters around the world who are hyped up by galleries, but how many of them can actually succeed? This kind of business is too niche. Even if you buy 10000 oil paintings worth $100 each, a century later, there might not be a single one worth hundreds of millions of dollars."

Fan Wumian finally remembered Jeff Koons, the pop artist from New York, and said in a puzzled tone:
“I placed an order for a sculpture a long time ago, but it hasn’t been made yet. I also asked Leng Jun, an oil painter from mainland China, to create a painting in the same series called ‘Empress’, but there has been no news for so long.”

Zuo Ziyan remembered these things, and after quickly browsing through Van Gogh's works, a smile appeared on her lips.
"Perhaps slow and steady wins the race. Maybe it's already finished, but it's been left in the warehouse to prevent you from thinking the process was too simple and that you wasted your money."

"Like those luxury goods, they always like to say how long it took to make and how carefully they were handcrafted by old artisans, but who really knows?"

"Didn't you also mention that many processes are outsourced to the mainland, sent to France or Italy, labeled, and transformed into 'Made in Europe' products?"

Fan Wumian's Valentino also sourced a large amount of hardware, leather, and accessories from the mainland. Finding suppliers in Europe was not only more expensive, but many of them were still sourced from the mainland, so there was no need to let the suppliers take a cut.

By acquiring factories to produce parts, they can ensure quality and control the supply chain to prevent outsourcing. Similar to other luxury goods companies, they tacitly conceal a lot of key information.

After listening, he said to Zuo Ziyan:

"I'll find some time to urge them on. If we encounter a truly talented artist who is worth marketing, I'd like to try promoting one or two of them, making biographical films for them, and building personal museums for them. This would also monetize their traffic in the entertainment and internet sectors. Since there's an opportunity to earn hundreds of millions or even billions of Hong Kong dollars, wouldn't it be a waste not to make good use of the resources we have?"

Zuo Ziyan said with a smile:

"It might be a bit cliché, but if you can make the painter famous, the profits can be substantial. I'll keep an eye out for related news and try to find some talented people for you."

Fan Wumian continued:
“Yes, I’ve acquired a building on the Bund in Shanghai and plan to turn it into a private museum. If I rely on buying things from outside, the prices will be too high. If I can stock up on a batch at a low price in advance, it will save me a lot of trouble.”

When recalling promising new artists worthy of hype, Fan Wumian immediately thought of Banksy, the creator of "Balloon Girl".

He installed a paper shredder inside the frame, destroying his £100 million artwork, which garnered widespread attention and discussion worldwide. The artwork was then repurposed and, within a few years, resold under a different name for £1850 million.

The hype tactics don't stand up to scrutiny; for example, installing a paper shredder inside a picture frame and yet no one notices it.

It's hard not to suspect that it's just a publicity stunt by the auction house and others, treating people like fools. Yet, after gaining fame, they actually encounter collectors who are willing to spend huge sums of money to frantically buy Banksy's works.

A mysterious, genius artist whose identity is unknown, unconventional and fond of criticizing reality, which many people find appealing.

Fan Wumian has already grasped the secret to generating traffic and doesn't want to cooperate with Banksy. He's considering mentoring a newcomer himself, or perhaps personally getting involved to try and have some fun. (End of Chapter)