Dr. Zhang Lijun: Investment in China Arab TV is Derived from “Love at First Sight”
Dr. Zhang Lijun(right), Chairman of the Board of V1 Group and Chairman of China Arab TV, and Mr. Liu Haijiang (left), Station Controller of China Arab TV
V1 Group’s China Arab TV (CATV) received wide attention in the 2017 Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The chief correspondent Ms. Xin Yue is an Arabic beautiful woman, Ms. Xin Yue speaks with fluent Chinese and English, she interviewed with Mr. Wang Jianlin, the Chairman of Wanda Group, the Minister of Ministry of Trade and Industry of Egypt, the Ambassador of Algeria and other guests respectively. Her beautiful faces and excellent professional skills make it one of the highlights of the day.
CATV is one of V1 Group's businesses. On 22 August 2016, V1 Group and CATV officially signed a strategic investment agreement, V1 Group will make strategic investments in CATV and become the controlling shareholder of CATV.
It is the general trend for Chinese companies to go overseas, linking to the global film base camp - Hollywood has become a common practice in the video industry. LETV, Youku are doing this layout, but V1 Group has embarked on a completely different path.
There are two differentiated characteristics in this overseas cooperation for V1 Group, the first is cooperating with the cable TV, the second is Dubai as the core of the Middle East region. Such cooperation is the first time in the video industry, and thus attracted the attention of all walks of life. But people are more curious why V1 Group doing this business?
When it comes to cooperation with CATV, the Chairman of the Board of V1 Group Dr. Zhang Lijun stressed that the both parties will carry out the media convergence strategy on "Internet Plus TV", accelerate cultural exchanges and economic and trade cooperation between China and Arab countries, in order to promote the implementation of "Belt and Road" strategy.
This is indeed the Chinese enterprises should have a macro pattern to promote the implementation of "Belt and Road" strategy proposed by President Xi Jinping, but apparently, this high-profile collaboration between V1 Group and CATV was not limited to this, in fact, V1 Group’s strategy for changing lanes to overtake of "Internet Plus TV" is more worthy for analysis and interpretation, it is also the innovative ideas of future development in the video industry.
Business Model Layout: A Differentiation Strategy of "Internet Plus TV" Based on the International Collection Rights
Dr. Zhang Lijun, Chairman of V1 Group and Chairman of China Arab TV speaking at the press conference
According to Dr. Zhang Lijun introduced that the cooperation of V1 Group and CATV was twists and turns, when he went to visit Dubai in April this year, he "love at first sight" with Mr. Liu Haijiang, Director of CATV, but the process of "love" was very tortuous, there was several times almost “broke up”, and finally took a dramatic turn to reach the cooperation.
The reason why we "love at first sight" is based on the both parties recognized the business model of "Internet Plus TV".
CATV is the Chinese and Arabic bilingual television, its satellite program signals covering 25 countries in the Middle East, while cable networks connecting to the United Arab Emirates. Program contents of CATV mainly cover the major news, economic cooperation, cultural exchanges, tourism information of China and Arab countries, is an important media platform outreach "Belt and Road".
As we all know, the users in most of the world is not heavy mobile phone addiction, such as Europe, America and the Middle East, which is different from the majority of Chinese consumers, their phones stick with them every day. People get more information and entertainment from the TV or cable TV programs which is still the mainstream direction in the field of video development in foreign countries.
This is very fit with foreign video consumption trends for V1 Group to go overseas and cooperate with cable TV. To CATV, a cross-border media cannot simply rely on doing the programs and advertisements. That’s why CATV is considering how to build a greater transmission with the combination of Internet by the introduction of more flexible and faster contents.
Behind "love at first sight", it is the insight of the users’ needs in the Middle East region, this direction is the "Internet Plus TV".
Of course, the process was twists and turns, one of the reasons is that V1 Group needs to get the collection right of international contents. Eventually, V1 Group obtained the unique international content collection right among the current Internet video industry, so as to conduct the contents collection, publication and dissemination which based on the basis of new video technology.
Historically, only the traditional large media can obtain the international content collection rights, such as CCTV, because of the Internet video companies do not have such right, so they can only by way of Hollywood and combine with international film and television technology to enrich their own content production, but it is still missing the television contents, which is the core position of the film and television communication.
As Dr. Zhang Lijun said, "The traditional TV has the advantage on “credibility”, and the Internet has an advantage on “communication capability”, by effective integration of the two can build "absolute influence" of media. With the international collection rights, this is a major breakthrough in the video industry and will bring more imagination on development of China’s Internet video industry.
Market layout: The Middle East region is the Core Hub of "Belt and Road"
Chairman of the Board of V1 Group and Chairman of CATV, Dr. Zhang Lijun, introduced in the media interview
Talking about why to choose CATV, Dr. Zhang Lijun stressed the importance of the Middle East market. "On the one hand the Middle East market has always been a rich and resources are very rich, on the other hand, the Middle East market is a place not yet reclaimed for Chinese enterprises, when I went to visit Dubai this time, I finally realize that Dubai as a bridgehead to extend the hinterland is quite large.”
Nowadays, Dubai has 0.3 million ethnic Chinese, the development of Chinese SMEs and commodity based in Dubai have achieved very good results. And all this is just happened in a few years, the development speed is faster than imagined.
V1 Group as a media, with the combination with CATV, in fact, is facing a 600 million population of virgin land. When Dubai has imported with Chinese commodities, V1 Group as the enterprise with technical capability and the Internet development model to enter into the market, is also of great benefit to enhance the influence of Chinese enterprises in the Middle East region, and enhance the impact of overall Chinese enterprises’ products and the economy.
More importantly, the Internet and mobile Internet is developing rapidly in the Middle East region, who is the first to seize the Middle East market is of great significance for market development and mining of news content and video channels. As a bridgehead to Europe, the Middle East has become the core hub for the implementation of "Belt and Road" strategy.
In the future, V1 Group will become China’s key platform for international communication and media positions in the Middle East, strengthening information sharing and cultural exchanges between both parties, and also providing an important window for Chinese enterprises for international communication, in order to generate more economic and trade needs.
After several years of strategic planning, V1 Group has been found the road for future development, as Dr. Zhang Lijun said, this cooperation with CATV broadcasts V1 Group’s next step of development. The future of V1 Group will no longer be low-profile, began to accelerate in the new track force to achieve overtaking.
The brand new strategy of V1 Group is the breakout of the stalemate status in the existing development of the video industry, which should be the most thoughtful future direction of video industry as well.
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About V1 Group Limited
V1 Group was established in 2005, listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2006, became the first Chinese video media enterprise listed in Hong Kong. V1 Group Limited was named the “China’s Top 100 Internet Companies” three years in a row from year 2014 to 2016.
After eleven years of rapid development, V1 Group’s main businesses have been fully covered the Internet and mobile terminals. In 2016, V1 Group successfully transformed from the new media industry group into a new economy in the internet industry, with extensive layout in new media, online games, internet healthcare, internet travel, internet education, internet finance and many other fields, which strive to build an internet life circle to solve the basic needs for users. V1 Group is now become an integrated new industry group in internet plus life field.
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