Chapter 1729： Orient Express

Being hacked did make Yang Cheng more annoyed, but he couldn't do much. After all, this is not his specialty, so he can only look at him in a hurry.

But when he put forward the idea of'self-direction and self-acting', he got Eddie's approval, "Boss, I have doubted this idea of ​​yours, because it is a coincidence. HBO is just about to launch Quanyou. When the hacking incident broke out, the other episodes also seem to be important, but in fact they have no effect. Instead, they played a role in propaganda and propaganda. They did not suffer serious harm as they exaggerated."

Yang Cheng heard that Eddie had the same opinion as himself, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Two people had the same opinion on the same thing, which basically proved the reliability of their opinions.

"If this is a means of propaganda by HBO, then what is the hacking incident we encountered?"

Eddie smiled bitterly, "Then it can only be true, after all, the other party is still asking for a ransom of 10 million US dollars."

Yang Cheng sneered, "It's really a lion who speaks loudly, hasn't he thought about exposing himself?"

"Hackers are conceited. If they don't have absolute confidence in their own technology, they may not be able to do this~"

"You are right. In short, this matter can't just be let go. We must give the most severe counterattack! Otherwise, our server will be the back garden of hackers in the future, there is nothing to talk about~"

"I understand~"

Eddie turned to ask, "By the way, I heard that Mr. Schuberg is acquiring the Orient Express Group?"

"Yes, it's Belmond, it's reorganized, why? Do you have an idea?"

"No, no, I just want to remind you. I recently met a new friend who was from Accor Group when I attended a cocktail party. After drinking, he confided that Accor Group was preparing to revive the brand ‘Orient Express’~"

Yang Cheng was taken aback, "What? Accor Group? Revival Orient Express? Do they have this power?"

"As far as I know, AccorHotels will re-launch a series of hotels after naming the brand after the'Orient Express'.

The first Orient Express hotel will be opened in Bangkok next summer, and 10 will be opened by 2030. "

Yang Cheng was really confused, "What's the situation? Their plans have been made?"

"In fact, they are ready to open~"

Eddie took out his mobile phone, flipped it, and handed it to Yang Cheng, "The person who revealed the news is the vice president of Accor Group and the executive director of the Orient Express Hotel in the future. He showed me the renderings of the Orient Express Hotel in Bangkok. I think Take a photo if it’s useful. Boss, you see, the hotel will be opened in Bangkok’s second tallest building, the 78-story King Power Genting Metropolis. This building is famous for its pixelated Lego style, and the Ritz-Carlton Residences is also there. among them.

Although the Orient Express has never been to Bangkok, the designer wanted to recreate the history of the Orient Express in new attractions by combining Thai and French art styles.

The hotel will have 154 rooms, a rooftop swimming pool overlooking the luxurious city, two restaurants, a bathing center and two bars. "

Yang Cheng looked through it and thought, "Does Accor also have the right to use the brand?"

This is something he never expected, nor did he hear Schuberg mention it.

Eddie put the phone away and said, "I specifically checked that the French ZF railway group SNCF has owned the Orient Express brand since the 1970s, and it has allowed the British Orient Express Hotel Group, which was established in 1976, to use this name. , The group has 45 luxury hotels, six luxury trains, three river cruises and a restaurant."

Yang Cheng suddenly reacted, "This is the belmond we are going to acquire?"

Eddie affirmed, "Yes, but in fact, belmond only has the right to use the "Orient Express" brand and 50% of the ownership rights.

The other 50% is in the hands of SNCF. Accor Group has launched a strategic cooperation with SNCF and is also preparing to develop the brand Orient Express, so yes! The Accor Group is not illegal to do so. "

Yang Cheng couldn't help but raised her brows. It's really a blessing and misfortune that will never come singly, with bad news one after another.

Compared with the previous Belmond hotel, AccorHotels is not only luxurious, but also more connected with historical themes. AccorHotels also tried to use the mysterious attributes of the name by injecting the story of the original train into the new hotel chain. In the future, Belmond and AccorHotels will compete fiercely on the "Orient Express" brand.

If the current status quo is maintained, Yang Cheng is not afraid of anything. One basic market is in Europe and the other is in Asia. Although the positioning is the same, the market is different, and it can also play a role in mutual drainage.

But what about the future? Yang Cheng does not believe that the Accor Group will be curled up in a market in Asia. It is expected that it will return to Europe in the future, and Belmond will not stick to its development in Europe. With Yang Cheng's intervention, it will be sooner or later to enter Asia.

In other words, the two sides will meet in the same market sooner or later to start face-to-face competition. At that time, it will definitely be a **** battle to be managed. Burning money is necessary. It is just like fighting a food reserve.

Yang Cheng doesn't want to burn money, but feels that this is meaningless. The hotel itself is not a high-net-profit industry. If all the money is burned on competition, how many years will it take to recover the cost?

Thinking of this, he suddenly wondered whether he should bring out the brand of ‘Orient Express’ to cooperate with Accor Group?

In his view, cooperation is a win-win situation, competition can only hurt both sides, the plate is large enough, cooperation is more profitable than eating alone.

Moreover, the two sides have the basis for cooperation, and they hooked their fingers at Eddie, "You gave me the phone, I just haven't finished reading it~"

He was referring to the interior part. Just now he only looked at the renderings of the exterior part. Now when he looks at the interior, as he thought, the interior designer of the Bangkok Hotel used the sleeper train as a source of inspiration, incorporating a colorful Elements such as oval windows with glass and leather panelling.

In the guest rooms, custom-made banquet chairs and leather headboards with small pockets are installed. These small pockets can be used to store items such as phones, books and glasses, and old photos are displayed on the wall, recorded in each room The history of the train.

The renderings also show the entertainment activities of the bar. Its inlaid edge counter is surrounded by champagne bottles and woven lantern racks. It seems that these decorations will be applied in all the Orient Express hotels in the future. In addition, the letters of the bar name are also the same as the original train cars. Have the same name.

It can be said that the elements of the ‘Orient Express’ flooded every corner of the hotel. Yang Cheng put down his phone and sighed, "The style is almost the same~"

Eddie couldn't help but said, "Isn't it a ‘jumping shirt’?"

Yang Orange nodded, "There are only two ways, either cooperation or competition. I personally prefer cooperation~"

Eddie agreed, "Me too, but I don't know what Accor Group thinks~"

Yang Orange shook his head, "Accor Group is now the world of Middle Easterners, and these local tyrants are not short of money!"

"The world of Middle Easterners?"

Eddie has always been in the media field. Even if he is now the CEO of an Internet giant, he usually has little time to pay attention to news in the hotel industry.

"Don't you know? At the end of last year, Accor Group acquired the parent companies of Fairmont and Swissotel, and used a portion of the cash to issue additional stocks. After the additional issuance, the Qatar Investment Authority and Arab Kingdom Holdings held 10.5% and 5.8%, respectively, basically in control The board of directors, terrible Middle Eastern tyrant."

As soon as he mentioned the Arab tyrants, Yang Cheng immediately turned into lemon essence and almost made himself to death~

Eddie said with emotion, "Middle Easterners are really pervasive~"

Yang Cheng joked, "If there is oil under your home, you can also be pervasive~"

Eddie touched the heavier and washed curls and chuckled, "It's a pity that I don't have such a good life~"

After laughing, Eddie said, “In fact, it’s not a loss to talk about it, and the Middle Easterners have been trying to break into the mainstream Western society in the past few years. For this reason, they are willing to spend a lot of money and are willing to separate the benefits. It's just recognition."

Yang Cheng smiled and said, "You're right, then talk about it. Go and talk to Schuberg. It's better for me to look at his dead face less a few times.

With a few jokes, Eddie withdrew the topic to the hacking incident, "Boss, after all, this is the second time CW TV has been hacked. Do you want to rectify the TV station?"

Yang Cheng was puzzled, "Huh? How do you want to rectify?"

Eddie euphemistically said, "I think Mark should work in a position that suits him better~"

Yang Cheng's face sank, "Do you want to remove Mark?"

Eddie opened his hands, "I don't think his ability is enough to continue to serve as the CEO of the TV station~"

Yang Cheng leaned back on the back of the chair with the pen in her hand, "Then who do you think is suitable?"

"Richard Plepler~" Eddie spit out a name faintly.

"The CEO of HBO?"

"Yes, he has worked for HBO for more than 20 years~"

"Then why did he leave? We can't dig it~"

"No, the parent company Warner has always wanted to directly control HBO, but because of Richard's existence, HBO has been in a state of being released. Warner is very dissatisfied. I heard a lot of talk about it. They are ready to do something with Richard. ~"

Yang Cheng straightened up, "Really? If this is the case, you can really consider~"

During Richard Plepler's reign, HBO can be said to have undergone earth-shaking changes. It cannot be said that all the credit is due to his CEO, but his credit cannot be ignored.

Eddie said with admiration, "Among the media group CEOs in the United States, there are not many people I admire. Richard is definitely one. Don't look at Netflix's recent popularity, but in my eyes HBO is the real conscience. , And under the tremendous pressure of Netflix, only HBO in the United States can compete head-on. Others, including our CW TV station, are not rivals in the field of dramas. We must admit this disadvantage~"

Yang Cheng also nodded and admitted, "The biggest problem with Netflix is ​​that all of their big hits are not their own originals~"

Netflix's support for originality is very strong. It can be said that it is invested at any cost. However, Netflix has always kept confidential the number of viewers, duration, and ratings. The market can only provide feedback through relevant third-party research and monitoring data.

This is the problem. Internal professionals know that external programs account for 72% of the viewing time on the Netflix platform, which means that most of the traffic on Netflix is ​​brought by competitors.