Wang Jianlin challenges Disney: The IP image in the era of Mickey Mouse madness needs innovation

Wang Jianlin believes that Disney has always regarded Wanda, which is also a theater and a theme park, as its strongest competitor. But Disney is just an outdoor park and has been expanding its original IP products. But now is no longer the era when Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are crazy about it. It is completely a cloning of the previous IP image. How can we do it without innovation?

Original title: Talking about privatization, talking about Wang Sicong, Wang Jianlin talked about some hot topics and even challenged Shanghai Disney.

Recently, Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, participated in the recording of CCTV Finance's "Dialogue" column. At the show, Wang Jianlin talked about many of the latest hot topics, and it is also the first time that he has publicly responded to Wanda's privatization and his views on Wang Sicong's investment.

Wang Jianlin said that when Wang Sicong first made investments, he also thought it was from the perspective of exercise, but now he finds that young people have more advantages than us, or in some places they are more accurate than themselves. "When he told me that he wanted to do e-sports, I thought it was completely unbelievable." Wang Jianlin even said with a smile that if Wang Sicong invited me to appear on his live broadcast platform, I would definitely go without charge.

In addition, during the program, Wang Jianlin also publicly challenged Disney. He said that with Wanda, Shanghai Disney would not be able to make a profit within 20 years!

Wang Jianlin believes that Disney has always regarded Wanda, which is also a theater and a theme park, as its strongest competitor. But Disney is just an outdoor park and has been expanding its original IP products. But now is no longer the era when Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are crazy about it. It is completely a cloning of the previous IP image. How can we do it without innovation?

The following content is selected from CCTV Financial's Weixin Official Accounts, and has been edited by Titanium Media:

How to evaluate Shanghai Disneyland?

First of all, Disney should be recognized as the global entertainment industry, especially the entertainment industry. The theme park is called the amusement industry. In the past, there was an association called the amusement association, which should be the number one brand. After just a century of growth, six theme parks have been opened around the world with about 130 million visitors per year. It is the world's largest tourism company. This is undoubtedly an excellent company. But I am certain that they will open Disneyland in Shanghai, and I said a word within the company that Disney China's finances will not be profitable for ten to twenty years.

I once said that Disney is just an outdoor park. Its advantage is that it has more IP, which in turn becomes a burden. It will only expand on the original IP products and rarely study new business models and new things. This brings a problem, in Shanghai completely do outdoor amusement projects, I personally think, the climate is not so advantageous, summer rain, mildew rain period dozens of days, winter is also relatively cold. Secondly, now is no longer the era of watching Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck go crazy and blindly follow them. It is completely cloning the previous IP image and previous products, without any more innovation.

And there is another very important issue, which is the high cost. This park cost US$5.5 billion to open, which makes me completely incomprehensible. We are all analyzing why it is so expensive, not one sentence or two sentences a day. Explain clearly, with such a high cost, I concluded that I can only adopt a high price to maintain financial balance, and high prices will lose customers.

Disney does not believe that Wanda exists in China and should not come to the mainland. Because we have a strategy that is that a good tiger cannot withstand a pack of wolves, there is only one Disney in Shanghai, and Wanda has opened 15 to 20 Disney in other parts of the country. Moreover, this speed is faster. This park has a completely different business format from another park. It is constantly innovating and combines indoor and outdoor. Therefore, I think I am not optimistic about Disney's, at least its financial situation and prospects in China.

Low valuations are sorry for shareholders and investors.

Many people in international markets, including those in the domestic capital market, do not understand the need for privatization. Wanda's listing has gone through ups and downs, and it was finally ready. There are domestic capital markets that have been called a suspension. Suspension for several years, there was no opportunity, so I tried every means to list in Hong Kong stocks. Only a year and a half after listing, it was privatized and delisted. It must pay a higher cost than listing. Why? The reasons may be various, and the core reasons are two:

First, the value is seriously underestimated.

Wanda Commercial is different from ordinary real estate companies. Pay attention to the financial report. 35% of last year's net profit came from fixed rental business, or from leasing business, which already accounted for 1/3. Looking at the previous year, it was 30%, which means an annual growth of 5.2%. This year, at least more than 40% of the net profit exceeds that of the rental industry. We cannot use a simple real estate company to value it. Our Hong Kong valuation is less than 5 times, and the market value is still lower than net assets, so this low valuation makes us unbearable.

I have worked in many industries. I have invested many times. Many friends have followed me to invest. I am very happy with every order. The only one was that my friend lost money. This is a very important point. I can't let down my friends and shareholders. So we must privatize it.

Second, this privatization has created a new global model.

All privatizations were initiated by major shareholders and purchased by major shareholders, but this time the major shareholders did not get a penny. We will not participate in this privatization. I don't borrow money for all the privatization money, and I don't go into debt. First of all, the agreement is signed clearly and there is no guarantee for these investors. Take advantage of it and come in yourself. We will not bear any expenses.

Because I own 60% of the shares in the company, the group + individual has exceeded the absolute majority. If I privatize it again, the proportion of individuals in the company will be too high, which is not in line with our consistent strategy in the future.

Wanda's core competitiveness in overseas mergers and acquisitions is money!

First of all, this sentence is a joke, because what are the core competencies of giving a speech at Harvard? I joked that I had money, and later I answered how many core competencies were. Focus on this. If you talk about money, how can it compare to state-owned enterprises? However, one problem was discovered. Some overseas investment banks believed that Wanda continued to pay equal attention to it, creating a very heavy financial burden. Actually, it's wrong. If you take a closer look, one characteristic of all mergers and acquisitions is that after the merger is completed, within one to two years, it will be capitalized. After capitalization, the money from the merger will be taken back, and it will not be in debt and expand its own business. This is not possible. So you can see that the American legend of mergers and acquisitions is. After the merger, private placement was carried out in the state-owned capital market and all costs were recovered.

The privatization of Hong Kong, more than 30 billion yuan, a lot of money, and then all these friends and investors participated. After the listing, we will issue additional shares and give them the same shares as in Hong Kong. We will redistribute Hong Kong shares to them and it will be over. Our shares have not been diluted, but the value of investors and the entire company may be enhanced. Including spending almost 2 billion US dollars on some sports companies the year before last, we will launch private placement in seven years, probably getting back all the money from sports acquisitions, probably this way.

It is just that at the beginning, we raise funds for mergers and acquisitions, do the business, and establish a leading model. The logical relationship is clearly explained, how the company will make profits in the future and what kind of business model it will be, and then through private placement or through additional issuance after listing, the cost is diluted. When you understand this, you will think that all debts are temporary and equivalent to bridging the bridge.

Ten years later, my country's sports industry will have a US$800 billion

ironman connection with Infront, but the layout is not completely related. Infront has ironman events. The Ironman World Cup held in Europe is hosted by Infront. In the sport of Ironman, WTC and Ironman Company of the United States are the absolute leaders, so we want to integrate it after mergers and acquisitions, so we will give him all the triathlon sports.

And you will also see another company that you haven't noticed. After we acquired WTC, WTC acquired La Jia Del of France a year later. It is also a title, the company of Medium Distance Ironman. In terms of Medium Distance Ironman sports, it accounts for more than half of the world's largest proportion. We also merged this company, and now we have absolute say in the Iron and Steel Company. Long-distance ironman events account for more than 90% of the world's distance, and medium-distance ironman events also account for more than 70%. This sport is basically close to monopoly. So I have connections here, but there are other projects that may not have connections.

My love for the sports industry should first come from my own self, the earliest football club in China. In 1993, I founded the first football club in China. Now we should go back to the sports industry because this industry atmosphere has an impact on industry rules. We don't buy clubs now, no matter what clubs, football, football, ice hockey, baseball, basketball, etc., because all clubs don't make money. Clubs are just those that we talk about having face and have no lining. They are all very famous clubs with high social status, but basically all profits are taken away by the players, and at most, we can maintain balance. But when we engage in industries, we have talked about it, and we are trying to move towards the B and A ends.

First, become an international individual organization, and this sports organization must be able to expand its industry. We go to this sports organization to obtain its exclusive agency rights or become a commercial partner. We will announce two cooperation projects this week and early June, which is to reach agreements with two major international sports organizations to become its only partner. In this way, we can get agency rights. Football and basketball are indispensable to this kind of sport. When we sell broadcast rights, we will definitely get a harvest from selling production fees. This is the first thing to get a profit, which is stable, and this kind of income is very good.

Second, there is a basic logic for all our acquisitions of sports companies, that is, the company's sports can be implemented in China. That is to say, only when the industry is done in China can it have high profits and high growth. Because in Europe and the United States, although the sports industry is very stable, it is every year. For example, Infront's agency fees for international football and seven ice and snow events are enough every year, and the profits are very stable and there is no big growth. However, on the contrary, we are in China, we will start a project.

What is China's sports industry? Infant period, just born. Our sports industry per capita is only 1/50 of that of the United States, and it is extremely backward in the world. Our sports industry has just begun, and our China is so big that it only costs a few million dollars. Our sports industry country has an ambitious plan to achieve 800 billion US dollars and 5 trillion RMB ten years after 2025, becoming one of the country's pillar industries.

The highest level of doing business is karate. You can play it without spending money.

I once said a few years ago. Within the company or on a small scale, the highest level of doing business is karate. You can play it without spending money. However, this karate is based on absolute strength and brand. Is Disney karate? It's karate. If you invest in various places, you basically don't make any money. You use brands, franchises, etc., like McDonald's, KFC, franchises that are now popular around the world, you don't take a penny. To use my brand, I collect money, etc., the same.

Because we have established our own brand in the entertainment industry, we have now bought Legend. We conducted private placement two months ago and took 15.8 billion yuan, which is more than the merger money. After removing the tax, it is equivalent to taking all the money from this merger back. I just diluted a little equity in my film and television industry, so I have no debt. Therefore, if this kind of M & A follows this model, it will continue to be carried out in the future. Of course, it is difficult to reach this level. It must establish long-term public reputation and brand influence. Others trust you, believe you, and invest your money to make money.

What I value is the "Big Six", but he doesn't sell it to me, not to the extent that he can trust it to sell it to you. You can buy it outside the Big Six, and it has a good influence and IP product image. It is legendary. After the Sixth National Congress, there will be two companies, one is Lionsgate and the other is legendary. How to buy Lionsgate? A 5% acquisition will have to be announced. If it goes on, it will be particularly difficult to control the trough. Legend is a private company. We talked about it at the time before they submitted for an IPO. In the end, the actual transaction price had not reached US$3.5 billion, and there were probably a series of profit guarantee arrangements. As you can also see, the listed company has issued an announcement and transaction details will be available in a few days.

Legend is a company that is ups and downs and is not too stable. In the best years, the final profit exceeded 200 million US dollars and the loss was almost several hundred million US dollars. The core reason is to look at the products. One or two big products were launched this year, and the financial results were good. There were no good works this year, so one work was invested. This work suffered a huge loss, which caused a loss. Now that we have bought this company, we had a long discussion before the negotiation. During the negotiation, we had already made institutional arrangements for this type of future risk control, which required how to invest every year and how to ensure profits.

If Wang Sicong invited me to appear on his live broadcast platform, I would definitely go, and I would be awesome for the future without charging

. When Wang Sicong first made investments, I also thought it was out of the perspective of exercise, but now I find that young people have more advantages than us, or some places are more accurate than me. When he told me that he wanted to do e-sports, I found it completely unbelievable.

Now it looks like this industry has been promoted, etc., including his earliest live broadcast, but now it seems that entrepreneurs of our generation have a disadvantage. So he is his own personal company, I am a joint-stock company, I do mine, and he does his. If one day I was invited to make an appearance on his live broadcast platform and build some popularity for him, I would definitely go and do it without charge. It's not that I want to think about him. He doesn't want to. He has his own life goals and may feel too tired to work in this position. He has his own ideas and he is willing to live a life with his own personality.

Editor: vian