At the end of 2001, China had joined the WTO and was about to take off and become the world's factory. Barron was also preparing to start his layout there.
Just like Puma Electronics, which was previously acquired by Digital UK, setting up a production plant in Shenzhen, China, was an attempt.
The last time he went to China, because Barron's funds were not abundant, he only invested in the most important BAT Big Three which would bring the greatest future returns, and did not involve any physical entities.
However, this time when he went to China, Barron had just made a lot of money in crude oil futures - his strategy was to use the money earned from the financial market to develop the real economy - so this time he was able to make arrangements in the real economy.
And this time his destination will not only be China, but also several Asian countries.
Just like Barron said to Yulia, he wanted to take her to China. Not only because of her physical condition, but also because Yulia usually devotes most of her time to work. She can be called a "workaholic". He could take this opportunity to take her out for some fun.
In addition, this opportunity can also be used to promote the industries under the family trust fund in Asia.
The most important one is the Cultural Tourism Group. In addition, the Cavendish Hotel Group can also start to enter the Asian market.
As for the ecological agriculture company, there is no rush.
After all, even in Europe and the United States at this time, organic food can only be said to have just begun to emerge, and it is still only an option for rich people. It will have to wait until after 2005 for ordinary people to start accepting and buying organic food.
China's acceptance of organic food will take several years longer, at least seven or eight years.
That night, Barron and Julia stayed in the Bilu Castle. Although it had not undergone a large-scale renovation, it had been maintained and was usually staffed by servants. When the old duke was alive, family members would come and stay for a while every summer, so there was no problem in entertaining them.
"Yulia, you are of Russian descent, so do you speak Russian?"
After dinner, Barron asked this specifically when he saw Yulia taking out a stack of documents from her briefcase, as if she was ready to start working.
Yulia's ancestors came from the Russian nobility, and they had been reproducing in England for three generations. As far as Barron knew, when Yulia's great-grandmother first came to England, she was just a little girl less than ten years old.
That is why Barron asked this question.
"I can speak some, but I haven't spoken it for many years. When my mother was still alive, we would usually communicate in Russian at home."
As she said this, a look of reminiscence appeared on Yulia's face.
"You know, I'm also very interested in learning languages. Please teach me Russian."
After hearing Barron's words, Yulia stared at him for a moment and said,
"If you are not afraid that after you learn from me, the Russian you speak will not be understood by Russians..."
"If that's the case, I'm afraid I'll have to doubt whether you did it on purpose..."
Of course, what Barron said was just a joke.
However, he really hopes to learn a few more languages. After all, mastering a few more languages would be very convenient in many situations.
Just like when there were other people around, his personal assistant Wang Wanting talked to Barron about things involving company secrets, and they all communicated in Chinese, which sounded like a code word to others.
Moreover, Barron discovered that after his rebirth, his thinking ability and memory were very good, even superior. He also wanted to know if he could learn languages faster.
Come to think of it, it seemed that there had rarely been such a relaxed and harmonious atmosphere between Barron and Yulia before.
This may also be related to the fact that Yulia's attitude towards Barron has changed greatly without her noticing.
Before this, Barron always called Yulia "Ms. Moore" in conversation, but this time, he called her by her name directly. These are subtle changes in such an atmosphere.
…
As time came to mid-to-late April, Bonnie Stuart became busy again.
Now Bonnie is the head of Summit Studio under Summit Media, responsible for the production of film, television and variety show content.
Prior to this, Summit Studio had just acquired an independent production company, Ealing Studios, and incorporated its personnel into Summit Studio - this company was the independent production company that originally produced "Downton Abbey".
The acquisition of Ealing Studios is just the beginning. Later, Barron plans to have Summit Studio acquire more independent production companies.
The reason is that in July this year, the British Parliament will approve a very important bill - the Communications Act 2003.
This bill is very important for independent production companies. It is no exaggeration to say that this bill will play a vital role in the future development of British film, television and variety show content production. It also paves the way for independent production companies to conduct commercial operations and global expansion.
Because the Communications Act 2003 changed the trading status between broadcasters (TV stations) and suppliers (production companies), production companies gained unprecedented rights.
In the past, once a program was sold to a TV station, all rights attached to the program belonged to the TV station.
The bill authorizes producers to retain these rights, including all distribution rights (including the right to broadcast on terrestrial television, cable television, online television and international television stations) and all ancillary rights - such as developing supporting books, CDs, mobile applications, online downloads, etc. through commercial operations and licensing.
The producers become the owners of the content and own the intellectual property rights attached to the television programs.
This new intellectual property system allowed small production companies that once barely made ends meet to grow into rapidly expanding large companies, triggering a round of mergers in the independent television program production industry.
Barron's plan is to enhance Summit Studio's production capabilities through mergers and acquisitions before the bill is officially introduced, while the value of those more powerful and potential production companies is not that great yet.
After all, no matter what, Barron can only remember so many popular variety shows and film and television works from the original time and space. It is impossible for Summit Studio to rely solely on his memories to produce programs in the future.
The best path is to directly acquire those future potential production companies, network those creative talents, and add them to the Summit Studio.
The reason why the original ITV later achieved a huge increase in profits was due to its timely change of thinking and continuous mergers and acquisitions of independent production companies, thus gaining strong capabilities in content production.
Now, after acquiring Ealing Studios and as the weather warms up, Summit Studio is about to start working on new projects.
These include the second season of the reality show The Traitors, which will be filmed at Callan Castle, and the third season of the drama series Downton Abbey.
The first season of "Downton Abbey" has already been broadcast on SDTV, and the second season is expected to start in the second half of the year - the first two seasons of this TV series were filmed together.
After "Downton Abbey" finished broadcasting on SDTV, ITV purchased the second-round broadcasting rights in the UK, Sinclair Group purchased the broadcasting rights in North America, and TV stations in many countries including Europe and Australia are also contacting Summit Media to introduce the broadcasting rights to this TV series.
The increase in the broadcast range has also led to an explosive growth in the number of viewers of "Downton Abbey" around the world. In addition to receiving unanimous praise, the actors who starred in the series have also gained much more fame.
As for their pay...of course it's also rising rapidly.
Fortunately, with Barron's reminder, Summit Media signed contracts with these actors directly for six seasons of TV series and one movie. Otherwise, the actors' salaries for the third season of "Downton Abbey" alone would have increased by an unknown amount.