Rebirth In Hollywood

After all, this is Ryan's second visit to China as the chairman of Disney's board of directors. Although this time he came to the capital, not Shanghai in the south, the two visits were only one year apart. The frequency is relatively high among the major business groups in North America.

With the development of time, China's potential as the world's largest market has been fully demonstrated. In recent years, senior executives of North American business groups such as Goldman Sachs and General Motors have also frequently appeared in this country.

Ryan and the Walt Disney Group have significant interests here.

Even last year, Walt Disney's Far East branch headquarters and Greater China headquarters were all moved from Hong Kong to Shanghai.

Ryan is very clear about the potential of this market, and he cannot be overestimated.

As long as there is enough interest, let alone once a year, even once a month, he and Disney's executives will not mind.

This is an official business visit. After Ryan arrived at the Capital International Airport, he was warmly received by the business department here. After a series of official procedures, he saw what he could only see on TV in his previous life the next day. Four. Eighty-six.

To paraphrase the official media here, the two sides held lively talks in an atmosphere of enthusiasm, friendship, equality and mutual benefit, imagined the future prospects of cooperation, and reached many consensuses. This is a successful, consummate and win-win situation. business meeting.

In other words, like a political meeting, this media-oriented business meeting is mostly just clichés and nonsense.

With so many experiences over the years, Ryan is no longer a simple-minded and enthusiastic young man in his previous life. He is very clear that if there is no interest as a bond, the so-called friendly cooperation between the two parties is nothing but a flower in the mirror and the moon in the water.

As the actual controller of Disney, Ryan is more of a mascot. Under the premise of grasping the degree of control, he fully displayed the friendliness and enthusiasm of the Walt Disney Group towards China, even if these certainly did not confuse those elite vested interests. But as long as ordinary consumers are willing to buy it, it will be fine.

But privately, he brought the business team. During the private business negotiation with this side, he was not very polite. He repeatedly pointed out that the other party was not good at protecting copyrights and even condoned piracy, which caused irreparable losses to the many cooperation plans between Disney Group and Chinese companies.

It even listed a series of Chinese companies that misappropriated Disney's copyrights.

Although Ryan understands that these may not bring about fundamental changes, some things are better than nothing. The cooperation between the two parties is based on a win-win situation.

Disney really came here to make money. But he doesn't mind showing the tough side of a number of media groups in the world behind the warm and friendly side.

Besides, in the past few years, no one has done less than the other to splash dirty water on both sides of the ocean. However, after Ryan entered Disney, he strictly restrained its media, including TV stations, and basically there has never been a case against this. Bian's remarks, presumably the leaders here are also very clear about the need to have a good relationship with a super media group that is still friendly to China.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the cooperation between the two sides is mutually beneficial. That's the foundation of everything.

There are no permanent enemies or permanent friends in this world, only permanent interests.

Perhaps this sentence is not appropriate to describe the relationship between people. It is the criterion for cooperation between interest groups and interest groups.

Therefore, in addition to talks on formal occasions, Ryan does not mind facing the Chinese media show in China, and the Disney Group has also made adequate preparations for his trip, such as the production of a special "Disney and China". The documentary was successfully broadcast on the national TV station here.

Along with this limited-length documentary, Ryan also accepted an exclusive interview with the TV station. Combined with the footage from the documentary, he personally explained Disney's relationship with China. According to him, China is definitely Disney except North America. The most reliant and trusted partner, the deep relationship between the two parties. It can even be traced back to the 1930s.

"Since 1930, Disney has had close ties with China."

Surrounded by numerous cameras, Ryan spoke in almost standard Mandarin about the 'friendly relationship witnessed by time' between Disney and China. "On February 8, 1938, Disney's first animated feature film was also "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the first color animated feature film in American film history, premiered at Shang Hai, the first place in Asia to show Disney cartoons."

"Is this true?" The hostess sitting opposite asked cooperatively.

"These are all recorded by Disney in the company's development history." Ryan said the truth, as long as you check it later, you can find it, "The premiere in Shanghai was only a few months later than North America, and even in the 1940s, Now it belongs to Disney's Captain America, and his first movie was released in China."

"It shouldn't be called "Captain America" ​​at the time, right?" The hostess showed a curious expression.

"I can't remember how to translate it at the time." Ryan said with a smile, "In short, it's probably a name like "Invincible Detective"."

The two sides chatted for a few words, and the topic returned to the right track.

"When it comes to Disney, Chinese audiences must first think of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck." Ryan pointed to the two classic animated characters on the big screen behind, "In 1986, Disney and China Central Television officially signed an agreement, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Mice and Donald Duck made their way to Chinese TV screens, and then Disney animation products made their way to Chinese stores."

On this occasion, Ryan naturally does not mention piracy, "I wonder if you still remember, in the mid-1990s, there was a program called "Little Dragon Club" that was broadcast on many TV stations in China. It was owned by Disney. TV shows."

"It turns out that I didn't know it." The hostess added, "I've also watched a lot of Disney shows."

"But..." she added, "When you talk about Disney, you have to say "The Lion King". If I remember correctly, the script and the main character modeling of this animated feature were all written by you? You are still a child. Simba dubbed the voice and sang the theme song?"

"Yes." Ryan nodded, ""The Lion King" entered Chinese theaters as early as 1995. Two years ago, the "Lion King" on the ice world tour was also held in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. performed."

"I remember this, and I went to see it live." The hostess is a smart person.

"Since 1996, Disney has set up a formal branch in China." Ryan continued to draw closer the relationship between Disney and China, "later we established the first one in China in Hong Kong. Disneyland signed an agreement with Shanghai last year, and the second Disneyland is about to officially start construction. In addition, we also hired Mr. Zhang Zhizhong as Disney’s first managing director in Greater China.”

The Disney that people here knew in the past may only appear on the shelves, movie screens, and TV shows sporadically and in different time periods. It may not be a big company with a market value of nearly 80 billion US dollars. In fact, this company such as Most Chinese audiences today imagine much bigger.

In addition to the "Disney and China" documentary that Ryan himself explained, after the program, he also signed a cooperation agreement with China's national TV station on behalf of Disney. Several channels headed by the Movie Channel have received many Disney movies or cartoons. Play authorization, although Disney only charges a nominal copyright fee, is a necessary means of promotion. In this day and age, the other party is still the well-deserved leader in the media industry here.

There is no market without publicity, Ryan knows that.

In addition, Disney Nature Channel, a subsidiary of Disney, will cooperate with their documentary department to jointly produce two documentaries, namely "Born in China", which introduces some wild animals and natural landscapes living in China, and "Introduction to China". "A Bite of China" of Chinese cuisine.

The latter is of course Ryan's idea, and these are just part of a series of cooperation plans for this trip to China.

In the next ten years, China will inevitably become the world's largest economy. This huge market is equally important to Disney's industrial layout.

In fact, in the past few years, in addition to the film and television industry, Disney has carried out various industrial infiltrations in China. Many of the agreements signed by Ryan during his trip were the result of long-term public relations negotiations.

Most of these are concentrated on the booming consumer goods business, with Disney brand licensing across all categories of life that Chinese consumers may need.

Stationery and clothing with motifs such as Mickey Mouse and Buzz Lightyear appear in many stores in China, from authorizing Lianzhong Stationery to develop Mickey and Princess series of student supplies, to Disney's establishment of Disney Pictures Far East Development Co., Ltd. in Shanghai Companies, from Disney's launch of children's candy in China with 'ct' Nature's Treasures to the impending start of construction of a theme park in Shanghai, and this time with national TV...

Disney is improving its industrial layout in China in a fast and steady way.

Among them, the Shanghai Disneyland project is very important. The theme park means hotels, shopping areas, DVDs, games, derivatives and more, which opens a bigger window for Disney to enter China deeper, even a " shortcut".

In addition, Disney will try the direct-operated store model in several first-tier cities in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and cooperate with KFC, McDonald's and large department stores in China to sell its own products. Disney also sells Winnie the Pooh and many other toys. Cooperate with Chinese companies to develop new product lines and put these relatively low-cost products into these channels. (To be continued) ()