Germany exports automobiles, machinery products, chemicals, communication technology, power equipment, etc., and is an industrial powerhouse. At present, the rich list presents an interesting phenomenon. Let's take a look:
George Schaeffler, the fifth richest person on the rich list, is worth about 88 billion yuan and is 56 years old. What to do? Automotive engines, transmissions and chassis components, etc. Automotive industry. The fourth place, the Renault Fox family, worth 107 billion yuan, is mainly engaged in the auto parts business. Or make cars. The third place is the Covent family of BMW, worth 110 billion yuan. Make cars. Germany's second-richest man is the Heinz Hermann Thiele family, worth $123 billion. It also makes auto parts.
We can see that from the fifth place to the second place, it is all related to the automotive industry. It can be seen how developed the german automobile industry is. But that's not the point, our focus today is Germany's new richest man. And the industry he does has nothing to do with cars. What does he do? Dieter Schwartz, 81, is worth about 181 billion yuan. He is the Chairman of LIDL, a well-known German retailer. What is this LIDL for? It is the famous "supermarket for the poor" in Europe. Mainly selling food, daily necessities, small household appliances, etc., stores are concentrated in Europe and the United States, the number of more than 10,000.
Let's briefly introduce this supermarket. The new richest man, Schwartz, came from a fruit seller. Very early on, he realized the attractiveness of cheap things to ordinary people. So, I started to open cheap stores. This time, he changed his destiny. LIDL stores are small, and there are usually only 3500 items in the store. Don't look at this number seems to be quite a lot, but it is actually 10 times less than the normal supermarket. 75% are private brands, because self-produced and self-sold and then produced more, only to suppress the price so cheaply.
LiDL features one: cheap! Because there are not too many selections, it reduces the selection time. When everyone goes, they go cheaply. In the 1990s, LIDL gradually developed into a multinational retail giant. Stores are open in the UK, France, Italy and other European markets. At one point, Walmart was a mess. Now, the store has entered the U.S. market. Up to now, there are tens of thousands of stores around the world.
From this matter, it can be seen that China's e-commerce is still ahead of Europe. It can be seen that in Europe, ordinary people are still more accustomed to visiting supermarkets, and things at the same price may have chosen online shopping for mobile phones Chinese. China's mobile payment, online mall, is still one step ahead of Europe. Therefore, many people say that the new richest man in Germany is the richest man who makes money from the poor. This is really quite unexpected, because if you control BMW, you are at the top of the richest man list. People think: It's normal. Nothing unexpected. That's BMW after all. But this year's German rich list shows that these people who make cars and BMWs have not done cheap supermarkets.
Speaking of which, I would like to give you another inventory, who else is rich by "making money from the poor"?
The story of Germany's new richest man reminds me of a Chinese entrepreneur. This person is called Yue Lihua, who is the biggest invisible rich man in Hunan. What does he do? He did the same thing as Germany's new richest man, opening a cheap supermarket. This cheap supermarket is called Hibiscus Boom. Furong Prosperity opened 15,000 stores across the country.
This chain of convenience stores is mainly opened in remote areas or urban villages. It can be said that it is to serve the poor. When Yue Lihua was a child, his family was poor, and he knew how to help his family in elementary school. At that time, there was a small commissary at home, and Yue Lihua was associated with the retail industry. At the age of 17, Yue Lihua started a business and started a wholesale business. Business is getting better and better, and I have my first pot of gold. He then started running a hypermarket. At the time, it wasn't this cheap style. With the development of the times, international supermarket giants such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour have entered the Hunan market. Chinese began to get used to visiting large supermarkets. Moreover, the foreign monks chanted the sutra well, and at that time, we felt that the goods inside the foreigner's supermarket were safer and more secure.
Yue Lihua immediately felt the pressure and decided to transform in 2006. Yue Lihua closed all stores of more than 100 square meters and began to focus on small shops of 30 square meters to 80 square meters. At that time, Chinese mainland did not have the concept of convenience stores, he took the lead in starting convenience stores. At the same time, he also changed his business model from direct sales to franchises. 20,000 pieces, you can join The Hibiscus Prosperity. Don't worry about the supply problem, Yue Lihua will help you get it done. This has a huge appeal for people who run convenience stores. Due to the successful positioning, the prosperity of Furong has developed very quickly, and in 2018, Yue Lihua's stores exceeded 12,000 in total, of which more than 100 are directly operated, and the rest are franchised stores.
Another cheap model on the line is naturally the famous Huang Zheng, the founder of Pinduoduo, the richest man in China after the 80s. At present, the market value of Pinduoduo is as high as 100 billion US dollars, and Huang Zheng is worth as much as 45.4 billion US dollars at the age of 40. Unlike Yue Lihua, Huang Zheng is from an elite background. Graduated from Zhejiang University, studied in the United States, and worked for Google. Later, he felt the Internet trend in China and returned from the United States to start a business. At that time, Huang Zheng's accurate eye was the e-commerce platform. At first, because of the collision with Taobao, the prospects were not promising. However, with its grounded social e-commerce model, Pinduoduo quickly saved 586 million users, becoming the second largest e-commerce platform in China.
At present, the market value of Pinduoduo is as high as 187.321 billion US dollars, and Wang Zheng's net worth is also higher than Liu Qiangdong, surpassing Jingdong.
Pinduoduo grasps the low-consumption group. Cao Dewang once said that although China has a population of 1.4 billion, only 200 million people have the ability to spend. The rest, we can call the low-consumption group. And Pinduoduo's cheap strategy just satisfies these people. With the advantage of low price, Huang Zheng, together with Ma Yun and Liu Qiangdong, has become the three giants of China's e-commerce. He was much younger and had the shortest time.
From the new richest man in Germany to the two richest people in China, we have taken stock of the success stories of three people who have taken advantage of low prices and started a business. It turns out that those who buy BMW will never buy more cheap goods from supermarkets. If it were not for the impact of the epidemic, China's film and television industry would have grown all the way. Taking stock of the Chinese film industry, we will also find that the quality of many films in recent years may be average, but the box office is surprisingly high. At the very least, it is not proportional to quality. Many people are surprised by this phenomenon. This phenomenon is actually very easy to explain, that is, the cinema laying channel is sinking. Non-first- and second-tier city groups poured into the cinema in large numbers, and these crowds are the key to determining whether a box office is a blockbuster.
China is too big. Now, this sinking market, in various fields, is far from being exhausted. I believe that these places contain huge business opportunities.
With the development of business, a variety of commercial gimmicks have emerged in an endless stream. But in fact, doing business, I think since ancient times is to buy and sell, there is nothing mysterious. How crazy it is now blown one by one, and the people eat this set at a low price. Low price means traffic. Nothing mysterious. With traffic, there is an opportunity to monetize. The essence of business is popularity. Now there are so many channels to make money, with this traffic, you can bring goods, you can receive advertisements, you can do paid content, in short, you can do a lot of things. Just like the three examples we mentioned above, the essence of the business is to attract customers at low prices, and finally get things done.
The rise to the top of Germany's new richest man has given Chinese business a whole new way of thinking. What we have to do now should continue to deepen the market, refine the market, and break into the unfamiliar market that we have not entered before. In the past two years, because of the epidemic, the economy of the whole world has been affected. China took the lead in getting out of the haze, relying on the characteristics of its own large enough market capacity, and first revitalized its economic momentum. It's like a person who is sick, relies on his own strong immunity, and heals himself without the help of any drugs. This is the benefit of the big market. As the economy with the best economic recovery, there are still many development opportunities in China in the next few years, mainly from capital monopoly to intensive farming. Low price advantage, always easy to use. The more the market sinks, the more effective this strategy becomes.
Therefore, I am very optimistic about the economic trend of China in the next few years. Because, when you become the only healthy body, you will naturally be favored by the world capital. Before that, they would have a choice. For example, look at India and Vietnam. Now, not anymore. In China today, they have no choice. Moreover, they are willing to choose. This market choice is the power of capital, and in a peaceful world, it is difficult for the United States to use national power to intervene comprehensively. As someone joked: If one day, the Wall Street capital in the United States finds that hanging the American flag over the White House can no longer meet their needs to make money, they will not hesitate to choose to replace the American flag. In the next few years, capital from all over the world will pour into China to be optimistic about China, and we will seize the opportunity to use other people's money to carry out our own intensive farming. I believe that it will catch up with a very good trend dividend.