Chapter 409 Opportunities and Planning for Southeast Asian Cinemas

"Doraemon? That's quite catchy." Zhang Zhiyuan said with a smile after hearing it.

Yang Wendong said: "There are three tasks for the Doraemon comics. The first is that I only provide Doraemon today. Your internal team needs to set up the other characters, including their personalities, family situations, relationships, etc.
Secondly, we will draw Doraemon and other characters, which will be the foundation of our comics in the future.

The third thing is to find a suitable suburb of the town as their activity area, and then draw it all out. This is very important because the town will change in the future, so you must have an unchanging overall map of the town. If you still can't remember it, you can also find Changxing Real Estate and ask them to make a sand table for you. "

"Sand table? Okay, I understand." Zhang Zhiyuan nodded and said.

The speed of social development in Hong Kong is changing with each passing day, and demolition is happening everywhere. The "Doraemon" comics are obviously going to be drawn for many years, so an unchanging town is needed, otherwise the team may not be able to remember what the originally designed town looked like in the future.

Yang Wendong added: "After these three points are taken care of, we can write the story step by step."

More haste, less speed. The main market for the previous comics was still the Chinese. In an era when they cannot enter the mainland, the market is very limited.
But "Ding Bell" is the first comic book to enter the international market, so it must be cautious and fully prepared before launching it into the market.

"Leave it to me." Wu Hailin promised, and then said, "It's just that it will take a lot of time for us to draw this comic. We need to publish it in comic weekly first, and then film it into an animation. Even if everything goes well, it will take more than half a year. I'm afraid TVB won't be able to get our help in the short term."

"I know that you can't come up with a new animation right away." Yang Wendong said, "So there is another reason why I asked you to come here today, which is to help TVB find suitable animations overseas in the short term, and then negotiate to buy the copyrights and give them to TVB.

You are professionals, I think you can do a much better job than TVB, they have so many things to do right now and don’t have the energy to do animation.”

Wu Hailin and Zhang Zhiyuan looked at each other and agreed: "Okay, we will take responsibility for this matter."

"Okay." Yang Wendong added, "As for the expenses, TVB will pay for the copyright and the hard work of your staff."

All subsidiaries within the group will conduct normal transactions involving fees. They will not refuse to charge money unless it is a small matter.
This is also for planned management, otherwise the utilization of internal resources will become chaotic. Large companies must have rules.

"Okay." Wu Hailin said with a smile. He also knew the rules of the group.

"Okay, let's leave it at that." Yang Wendong nodded and asked, "What is the weekly sales volume of our comics worldwide now?"

It is very difficult for a normal newspaper to enter other countries. One reason is political reasons. Other governments are very sensitive to this kind of media, and many countries simply do not grant licenses. The second reason is that all the content needs to be edited. Taiwanese people will not be interested in the content of Hong Kong newspapers, and it is even more different in other places.

But it is very simple to publish comic weekly. After translating the language, it can be sent directly to other countries. There is no censorship and no different content. It is very easy. Besides, it is not current news. Even if it is a month in advance, the comic weekly for the next month can be sent to those countries in advance, which also reduces the transportation cost.

Therefore, Changxing Comics Weekly has been published in more than 30 countries in Asia, but its main customers are still the Chinese community and a few groups influenced by the Chinese. It is difficult for others. Calabash Brothers and Black Cat Sheriff are better. The stories created based on ancient Chinese culture may not be understood by others at all. This is also one of the shortcomings.

Zhang Zhiyuan replied: “Mr. Yang, currently our comics have a weekly sales volume of about 32 to 35 copies in Asia, of which about 3 copies are in Hong Kong. We reached that number a long time ago and it is difficult to increase it;

Most of them are in Southeast Asia and Japan, especially our comics based on Chinese mythology, which have high sales in Japan.”

"The Japanese still like Chinese ancient culture very much." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Well, let's continue to develop and expand the market. For future movies in this field, we will discuss with Zou Wenhuai and have them screened in Japanese cinemas, even if they are sold at a lower price abroad.

Once the film has an impact in Japan, we can sell all kinds of cultural products there as well.”

"Okay." Zhang Zhiyuan agreed and asked, "Then wouldn't it be the same if our Journey to the West is made into an animation in the future?"

Yang Wendong also said: "Yes, if Journey to the West is made into an animation and becomes famous in Japan, then our Changxing culture will have a big market."

Although the current Japanese economy is still far behind that of Europe and the United States, it is just like Hong Kong and will continue to develop rapidly in the next few decades. Any product that can maintain its position in this market will definitely make a lot of money.

"I understand. Next I will focus on developing the Japanese market." Zhang Zhiyuan nodded and said.

Yang Wendong added: "The same is true for Doraemon. Japan will also be its main market. Our other comics in the future will be similar. Compared with Southeast Asia, the culture of Japan is actually the closest to that of China."

Not to mention culture, even the writing is very similar. At least that's the case for now. South Korea is actually the same. It was not until the 21st century that they gradually removed Chinese characters.

"Yes." Zhang Zhiyuan also said: "Japan also has many children, and the country's consumption capacity is not weak."

Yang Wendong added: "That's it, remember these things and complete them. The first and most important thing is to find a suitable overseas cartoon for TVB."

Wu Hailin agreed and said, "Understood, Mr. Yang, I will go check the information of overseas cartoons this afternoon."

"Yeah, okay." Yang Wendong nodded.

Time quickly arrived in mid-September.

The development of TVB TV station is also very rapid. Even though its programs are not perfect yet, its competitor ATV has been in a "monopoly" position for a long time, so its programs are not very good either. In this case, when paid programs meet free programs, it will immediately collapse.

In more than half a month, TVB's television ratings have reached nearly 60%, especially the evening time of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", which is as high as nearly 80%. The rest of the shows are not broadcast, most likely because of the British foreigners. On the other hand, due to the emergence of free TV stations, coupled with the current surge in real estate, stock market, trade and exports, TV sales in Hong Kong have also skyrocketed. Among them, Honor TVs with the best cost-effectiveness are the best-selling ones.

On the 17th, Wei Zetao and Zou Wenhuai came to the door of Yang Wendong's office together. It happened that Yang Wendong came late today. When he arrived at the door, he found the two together and asked curiously, "Why are you two here together?"

"I just happened to come across it." Wei Zetao said with a smile.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Is this an important matter? If not, why don't you two come in together?"

Generally speaking, different business subsidiaries do not need to know each other's situations unless there is a need for cooperation, then they can have appropriate knowledge with permission; however, many things cannot be kept confidential, so if it is not top secret core business information, there is no need to be on guard against each other like in spy movies.

"I don't have anything important to say. I just want to report something to you, Mr. Yang, that needs to be made public immediately." Wei Zetao said with a smile.

Zou Wenhuai also said: "Me too."

"Then come in together." Yang Wendong motioned for the two to come in.

Afterwards, the assistant served coffee to the three of them, and Wei Zetao said, "Mr. Yang, TVB has been very popular recently, and many people in the group can hardly buy TVs. So I thought of placing an order with Honor Electronics in the name of the entire company, for about 2000 TVs, and then use it as a benefit for outstanding employees or some high-quality suppliers."

"Annual benefits?" Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "Okay, Changxing Industrial already has similar rewards, so this year we will change it to a TV, which happens to meet the needs of many people."

Changxing Industrial can be said to be one of the most successful companies in Hong Kong, with very high profits, and naturally good benefits. Therefore, there is an outstanding employee award every year. This award is not given to just a few people, but to 5-8 percent of employees.

After all, there are more than 10,000 direct employees. If you reward only a few dozen people, it may not seem like a big deal and people may even think it is a company-determined quota. But if the number is larger, it will seem real and can really encourage employees. Outstanding employees are selected from the perspectives of technological innovation, discovery of major quality problems, process reform, outstanding managers, recovery of company losses, safety officers, etc. Most of the award-winners are well-deserved.

"Okay, then I'll go and discuss with Mr. Wang to get a preferential price." Wei Zetao said with a smile.

Yang Wendong said, "Then tell him that your application today is also a sales idea. For example, they can cooperate with some large groups to sell TV sets in bulk to employees of large companies in Hong Kong at wholesale prices. This is also an idea."

The real estate crisis will begin next year, so this year will definitely be the time when Hong Kong consumers are least concerned about consumption. Therefore, we must take advantage of now to sell more televisions.

Of course, the local market in Hong Kong is not very important to Honor Factory, but TVB needs it very much. Only when the local market is large enough and TVB can generate its own revenue, will it be able to produce better quality TV programs, and thus its own cultural industry can achieve its goals sooner.

"That's a good idea. I'll tell Wang Sheng about it." Wei Zetao nodded and said.

"Okay." Yang Wendong looked at Zou Wenhuai again and asked, "Old Zou, what's the matter with you?"

Zou Wenhuai said: "Mr. Yang, do you remember the plane crash in Taiwan in June?"

"I know." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Is it related to Lu Yuntao?"

Lu Yuntao was another film tycoon in Hong Kong history who could compete with Run Run Shaw. He was not very famous in mainland China in his previous life because he died too early.

In June 1964, Lu Yuntao, 6 years old, died in a plane crash, causing chaos at the film giant Dianhan (later renamed Cathay) Pictures.

Yang Wendong was also shocked when he learned about this, because with his influence on Hong Kong's business and film market in recent years, it stands to reason that many people's actions will inevitably be affected by the butterfly effect, especially various accidents, etc. If something still happens, it means that it may not be an accident.
Therefore, he did not investigate the matter any further, but simply strengthened the guards around him, especially paying more attention to flying.

"Yes." Zou Wenhuai said: "The Lu family behind Lu Yuntao is a huge Southeast Asian family capital. Lu Yuntao is just a branch of the family. He prefers movies, so he has achieved what he has today.
Now that Lu Yuntao has passed away, the Lu family intends to sell Lu Yuntao’s former capital, including cinema chains in Southeast Asia, 55 of which are in Singapore, and more than 30 in Chinese-populated areas in some cities in Southeast Asia.”

"Nanyang's cinema chain?" Yang Wendong's eyes lit up. This was a good opportunity for him to get into Nanyang's capital and it could also help his own film industry.

Zou Wenhuai went on to introduce, "Mr. Yang, before Mr. Lu came to Hong Kong, he was a local cinema tycoon in Nanyang. However, he could not compare with the Shaw family in terms of scale. The Shaw family has more than 120 cinemas in Singapore. Outside of Singapore, it is said that there are about a hundred more. This number is not yet certain, but it should be about the same."

"How many people are there in Singapore now?" Yang Wendong asked curiously.

He had not done any detailed research on Singapore. He had originally planned to invest in Singapore after it became a nation next year, but he did not expect that this accidental opportunity would fall upon him.

Zou Wenhuai said: "Singapore has a total population of about 185 million, of which 7% to 8% are Chinese. It has always been the largest market outside of the Hong Kong film market, except for Taiwan.

The reason why Shaw Brothers could dominate Hong Kong was essentially because the films made by Run Run Shaw in Hong Kong could be sent to Southeast Asia. The same was true for Lu Yuntao before him. With these two points, plus their strong capital, they easily beat other film companies. "

"Then we also need to have a cinema chain in Nanyang." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

Selling movies overseas actually just means giving you some soup while the foreign parties are eating the meat. It was not until the Hong Kong movies became popular in the 80s that big film companies like Golden Harvest had a stronger voice.

There are selected lines in Southeast Asia, which can attract millions or even more Chinese in Southeast Asia to watch. The consumption capacity of these people is far greater than that of Hong Kong and even Taiwan, because the Chinese community in Southeast Asia is itself a wealthy community in the local area, and it is the one that survived after a century of commercial competition.
"Yes." Zou Wenhuai replied: "If we can take over the cinema chain that Lu Yuntao once owned in Nanyang, we can control our future movies in Waifu ourselves."

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)

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