Debuted right after graduating from high school

American young people like to follow celebrities with high profiles like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, so Fan Wumian invited them to promote the Feile brand in the United States, trying to seize market share from Adidas and Nike, which use athletes as spokespeople.

There's not much to say about this. Other brands focus on sports, while Fei Le, which was acquired by Fan Wumian, is now more like creating fashion items for consumers. Every shoe is meticulously crafted, and he personally selects the designs after they are created. There aren't many styles, but the color schemes are rich, with the main focus on trendiness and novelty.

Countless middle-aged and elderly consumers have been deeply imprinted in the minds of brands such as Adidas and Nike, forming consumption habits that are difficult to change. It is difficult to steal customers from these companies. Young people's mindset has not yet solidified, which leaves an opportunity for Fan Wumian.

Paris Hilton and Britney Spears have always been idols admired and emulated by sorority members in American schools. These sorority members have considerable influence in schools, while Kim Kardashian is followed by countless young men in America, making her a figure of immense popularity.

Hiring them as spokespeople might seem like a slightly unconventional approach, but it would undoubtedly help launch a top-down marketing campaign in schools across the United States, leveraging celebrity influence to penetrate the North American market.

That evening, Fan Wumian reluctantly had dinner with Paris and Kim Kardashian.

During this time, the two women frequently engaged in open and covert battles, discussing everything from videotapes to their ex-husbands and fiancés, attacking each other with dirt on each other, and their superficial sisterhood crumbled at the drop of a hat, as they were both very aware of each other's weaknesses.

While busy watching the drama unfold, Fan Wumian quickly reached an agreement with them on the endorsement issue. However, since their commercial value was different, the endorsement fees were also different, and the specific contracts needed to be discussed in detail privately.

He prepared a two-year endorsement contract for Britney Spears worth a total of $10 million, while Paris Hilton's endorsement fee was only $6 million, and the contract lasted for four years, averaging $1.5 million per year.

On the contrary, Kim Kardashian's contract was the longest. In order to get a bargain, Fan Wumian arranged an 8-year endorsement contract for her, worth a total of $800 million.

Kim Kardashian had just become famous, and her huge popularity had not yet translated into actual income. After hearing the terms on the phone, she didn't even haggle and agreed on the spot. She even took the initiative to ask to meet with Fan Wumian alone again to discuss her ideas for creating a reality show.

Fan Wumian didn't know anything about the show, but he vaguely remembered that Kim Kardashian founded an underwear brand in her previous life, which was valued at $40 billion and had hundreds of millions of fans worldwide, with amazing money-making ability.

A deep collaboration with this woman would be as valuable as acquiring a medium-sized listed company.

Thinking of playing the long game, he agreed over the phone to put up an additional $200 million to collaborate on the production of the reality show and to help Kim Kardashian with the sales of the show.

As for meeting, Fan Wumian simply used jet lag as an excuse to decline, suggesting that Kim Kardashian consider starting her own brand.

Back in the hotel suite, after exchanging only a few words with D'Addario, he fell asleep immediately.

The next day, I was busy from the moment I woke up.

I went through a lot of information about video websites, including the personal profiles of tonight's guests, such as their behavior, personal preferences, and family situations, to find topics to talk about and build rapport.

Wang Wei, the founder of Tudou.com, personally came to serve as an advisor to Fan Wumian. During their casual conversation, he said:

“I graduated from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, so I have no problem with normal spoken communication. Mr. Fan, you can take charge tonight, and I will explain the specifics. We are offering $10 billion to win them over. They don’t need to contribute personnel, technology, or any real money. The terms you’ve offered are so good. If they still hesitate and refuse to agree, that would be unreasonable.”

Fan Wumian began to speak:
"I'm still a bit unsure of their thoughts. They might consider bypassing me and investing in their own video website. Especially large companies like Disney, which have both money and a huge film library, might not be willing to include me."

"Cast a wide net. I've called on everyone I need to today. Even if some Hollywood giants are unwilling to agree, there will always be people interested in my proposal. For example, Paramount, which has been struggling for the past few years, has no reason to refuse to cooperate with me."

"Anyway, I'll do what I'm supposed to do. Whether they agree or not is their own business. If they don't participate and I take away their market share later, they can't blame me for breaking the rules. They can only say they lack foresight. The global market is so big that it can accommodate several video websites. Even if some competitors emerge, we can find a way to suppress them."

Wang Wei continued:

"I just looked at the documents and found that Warner and Universal are having a tough time. Putting their film library resources online is like gaining some extra money-making opportunities, but it might impact their DVD copyright business, right?"

Fan Wumian shook his head and explained:

"The DVD business isn't important. The key is how to paint a compelling picture and make them realize that their shares in the project could become incredibly valuable in the future. Assuming it grows to a $100 billion scale, a 10% stake would be worth $1000 billion. You can't make that much money just by selling DVDs."

"Moreover, just like physical music albums, DVD sales will also be impacted by the internet model, making it difficult to sustain in the long run. The choices facing these Hollywood giants are simply to cooperate with other video websites or to build their own streaming platform."

"What I'm worried about now is that they choose to develop independently in order to boost their stock prices. The profits in this area are too great, and someone will definitely be tempted."

These days, any company that's even remotely associated with the word "Internet" tends to have a much higher price-to-earnings ratio than traditional businesses.

For example, last year Disney Group's total revenue was $344 billion and its net profit was about $26.5 billion, which, based on a price-to-earnings ratio of about 10, supported a market capitalization of $280 billion.

Once the company transforms into a video website business and starts making grand promises to the outside world, giving investors ample room for imagination, the valuation method will change. Even calculated at a price-to-earnings ratio of 15, the total market value can reach the threshold of 400 billion US dollars.

Small business owners often think about how to make more profit, while major shareholders of listed companies tend to think about how to drive up stock prices to make a profit.

For the somewhat stagnant traditional Hollywood giants, transitioning into the streaming arena is indeed an excellent opportunity.

Night fell in the blink of an eye.

After 6 p.m., Paramount CEO Brad Gray, Disney CEO Robert Iger, Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, and others arrived by car to keep the appointment.

The fact that Fan Wumian was able to summon the heads of these Hollywood giants at the same time is enough to show that his current "status in the industry" is not low. As a newly rich man with billions of net assets, he is actually much stronger than these professional managers.

But high net worth doesn't mean everything is great. At least in the Hollywood film industry, even Paramount, which only produced a few movies last year, was able to control Fan Wumian's Myth Film Studio by virtue of its accumulated foundation of more than half a century.

People often go to Hollywood with a lot of money to try their luck, only to lose everything and leave in disgrace. This is mainly because the major Hollywood film companies maintain a tacit understanding and work together to monopolize the market.

From production, distribution, theaters, special effects to celebrities, they have long since extended their reach to all aspects of the upstream and downstream of the industry chain, with support from Wall Street behind them.

DreamWorks, once aspiring to become the ninth largest film studio in Hollywood, was broken up a couple of years ago. Its business, except for its animation studio, was packaged by Viacom and incorporated into Paramount.

The United States has cultivated a strong cultural hegemony in the global film and entertainment industry for many years. If Fan Wumian wants to develop, it will be difficult to bypass it, and he can only make some trade-offs.

After a few polite exchanges, everyone took their seats and ordered food.

Disney CEO Robert Iger, accustomed to a strong stance, was slightly annoyed by Fan Wumian's suspense and asked:
"Everyone's here. Tell me why we organized today's gathering. Is it to develop Marvel superheroes?"

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs know that sometimes, just one stroke of inspiration can secure a lifetime of financial security. People always pay attention to the first product to launch, and being one step ahead often gives you a significant competitive advantage. To gain a sufficient time advantage, Fan Wumian didn't reveal much information beforehand. Considering his recent acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, it's no wonder that Disney CEO Robert Iger would make such connections.

Fan Wumian shook his head and replied:
"I don't know if you've heard of it, but I built a video website in China called Tudou.com. It already has tens of millions of users and a market valuation of $8.5 million."

"This Mr. Wang Wei is the founder and CEO of Tudou.com. Now people can watch long videos directly online, pause, fast forward, and rewind at any time, and also insert advertisements to attract users to pay to become members."

"I'm now planning to incubate a similar video website in the United States. After evaluation, I've found that collaboration with everyone here will make it easier for it to develop smoothly. This time, I'll be contributing my mature technology and $10 billion in cash, and I hope you can invest in me by contributing digital rights to films and TV series, to jointly establish this new company with me."

Everyone in the film and television industry has heard of Tudou.com to some extent.

Some people have even conducted a special evaluation of this company and concluded that incubating similar projects in the United States would be too costly in terms of customer acquisition and operating costs, while yielding very low returns in the short term. As the investment amount was too large, they had to give up for the time being.

Brad Gray, CEO of Paramount who works closely with Fan Wumian, asked curiously upon hearing this:

"You're offering $10 billion, and we're contributing digital copyrights as equity? Are you serious? How will the equity stake be calculated? What will the membership fee be?"

To become the CEO of a large company, one must have real skills. Paramount CEO Brad Gray is smart and grasped the key point instantly.

Howard Stringer, president of Sony Pictures America, then pressed further: "You're going to provide all $10 billion, and we're just responsible for providing the digital rights?"

Fan Wumian replied:

“That’s right. I will be in charge of the $10 billion. It will be invested in this company over three years. $2 million in the first year, $3 million in the second year, and $5 million in the third year. The funds will be in the account before the end of 2010. If we need more money later, we can raise additional funds according to our shareholding ratio, or we can raise funds from the outside.”

"Even if we don't do the video website business, someone in Silicon Valley will. Netflix, which rents DVDs, is trying to do this, but it hasn't produced any real results yet, only a plan under development."

"Technology is constantly evolving, and many changes are unstoppable. If it weren't for the need to directly avoid conflict with you, I could have completely bypassed you and produced my own TV series to release on the platform."

"Once this video website is built, we will charge users a membership fee of about $10 per month. New movies that have finished their theatrical run can generate additional revenue online, as well as income from advertising, merchandise, copyright operations, and more. At that time, we will cover billions of people worldwide. You can imagine the potential market size."

"Regarding the issue of shareholding percentage, we can find a valuation agency to price the digital copyrights you hold, or calculate revenue based on the number of plays."

Disney CEO Robert Iger and Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons didn't look too pleased, because they had already discussed the idea of ​​building a video website in their board meetings, but felt that the timing wasn't right and chose to wait for the time being.

Seeing that Fan Wumian was serious, Disney CEO Robert Iger took a sip of his drink and continued:

"Our Disney copyrights are extremely expensive, worth billions of dollars in total. You're only offering $10 billion and expecting so many companies to cooperate willingly? That's not fair, is it?"

Fan Wumian calmly said:

"It's true that peripheral rights, adaptation rights, and DVD rights are valuable, but how much revenue can digital rights generate for you now?"

"It's different if you exchange your shares for those of a video website. It might grow to the same level as Google or Oracle, which would be like making effective use of your idle assets and bringing in new profits for the company."

"This is a win-win opportunity for everyone. Let's work together to conquer the global market. Just license your digital rights to me, and you won't need to worry about the rest. Just wait for your assets to appreciate."

Howard Stringer, president of Sony Pictures America, suddenly said:

"From this perspective, it seems that only you, Mr. Fan, are superfluous. We are perfectly capable of raising several hundred million dollars in start-up capital and then kicking you out to cooperate."

As soon as this was said, everyone laughed.

Fan Wumian was also laughing, half-jokingly and half-seriously, and said:
"Then I can partner with other film and television companies and Silicon Valley internet enterprises to create a decent film and television library, and then add another $20 billion to specifically produce TV series that will only be streamed online. Believe me, you would never want to encounter a competitor like me, and my video website can go live at any time, developing a year or two ahead of yours. Why don't we save ourselves the trouble and just cooperate to open up a new market?"

After hearing this, everyone present had their own thoughts.

Representatives from Paramount and 21st Century Fox, both looking for an easy and hasty collaboration, have begun considering the feasibility of partnering with Fan Wumian.

Digital copyrights are indeed a bit of a waste in their eyes. Even if they know that these digital copyrights may be very valuable in the future, as professional managers, who would like to do the foolish thing of planting trees for others to enjoy the shade?
As CEO, the most crucial thing is to ensure the company's short-term performance; otherwise, you could be replaced by the board of directors at any time, as your interests are not entirely aligned with those of the shareholders.

Meanwhile, representatives from relatively well-funded companies like Disney and Sony Pictures were busy considering starting their own ventures, and naturally began to regard Fan Wumian as a competitor, carefully assessing the potential gains and losses in their minds.

Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, having just led the company out of the shadow of its early 2000s acquisition of AOL, with limited funds in the company's accounts, asked:
"According to your plan, is the digital copyright exclusively licensed to you, or can it also be licensed to other companies? I think doing copyright operation business independently seems like a very good idea."

Fan Wumian explained:

"It depends on the specific cooperation method. Choosing an exclusive license would allow us to take a larger share, but I would also welcome a non-exclusive license. As I just mentioned, the copyright fee can be calculated based on the number of views. In the early stages, the company will be small, and there will be additional subsidies. I plan to burn through this $10 billion within three years to seize a large market share in advance."

He was well aware that the timing wasn't right yet; network transmission speeds were too slow, and investing money too early would be counterproductive. But if other companies waited until they were ready, they would miss the best opportunity to rise to prominence.

Between two evils, choose the lesser. Rather than handing over market share, Fan Wumian would rather spend more money in the early stages of development. As long as there are enough active users and the monetization channels are attractive enough, he can eventually earn back the principal and interest.

Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons then asked:

"What if you burn through all the money and the video website still hasn't taken off, and you can't get any more funding from outside? What will you do then?"

Fan Wumian said to him:

"If the company's performance is poor, I can reserve the right for you to cancel any further cooperation. After all, it's just a matter of contributing digital copyrights as equity, so what real loss would you suffer?"

“I’m different. I’ve lost $10 billion, so I will do my best to develop this video website.”

"Actually, I only need two or three companies to cooperate. If anyone chooses to invest, taking a 10% or 15% stake, once this platform is successfully incubated, it has the potential to bring you billions of dollars in revenue." (End of Chapter)