Mickey Mouse in the Communist Kingdom
Has Mickey gone goofy?
Beijing on Wednesday announced its approval of a Disney theme park in Shanghai. The attraction, in the works for 19 years, is scheduled to open in 2014. The site is slated to be about 1,000 acres with the actual theme park to take up around 100 of them. That would make the much-anticipated attraction a little larger than the original in Anaheim. The cost of the venture is estimated to be $3.5 billion.
So what happens when you combine what is “perhaps the most iconic American brand of all” with potentially the world’s biggest market? Most people would say a sure-fire way to make money. Money will undoubtedly be made — but maybe not by Disney. As Yin Kunhua, a professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said, “It is difficult to say what the exact impact will be, but this can only be good news for Shanghai.”
Shanghai will surely benefit, boosting revenues from tourism, triggering growth in areas surrounding the park, and enhancing its position in its never-ending competition with Beijing. Disney, however, is another story. On the plus side of the ledger, the park will add to its profile in China and should help its other lines of business, such as the chain of language schools and its now-limited television programming. The park could do well too, with some 300 million potential visitors living within two hours of the site.
How Disney will actually do is an open question, of course. For starters, the theme-park business in China is generally troubled. There are already 2,500 of these attractions in China, with only about 10 percent of them making money. Many have already failed. Froebelland Park in Wujiang, for instance, closed its gates in less than a year. And one attraction shut down before it even welcomed its first visitor. That was Love Land, China’s first sex-themed park, in Chongqing, technically the world’s largest city.
Hong Kong is semi autonomous, it is not part of China. Mainland visitors are tightly regulated and cannot cross into HK at will, but receive regulated permission by Mainland Government.
The error was placing Disneyland in Hong Kong to begin with. HK is not a family fun destination, I lived in HK for several years, not too many families came with the intent to see a smaller cheaper version of Disneyland. It is very small, and lacking in attractions. It was a bad business decision because it only went halfway.
Basing Disneyland outside of Shanghai, is a good business decision. China median income grows each year, the “middle class” in China will be larger than total population of the USA within 5 years. People will flock to a well planned amusement park that caters to Chinese taste.
Theme parks in China are mostly cheap imitations of world class parks. The ones planned and built well make money. The cheap imitations fall by the wayside. Its no different than any other business venture.
A fully functioning Disneyland organized and planned along Chinese taste will be extremely successful, in addition to selling clothing and accessory lines that children will demand.
Disney’s been making lots of changes lately… have you seen the new Mickey Mouse? http://www.newsy.com/videos/mickey_gets_a_makeover
The worst part of it is that as, I understand it, the superbestest part of Walt Disney World, Pleasure Island’s Adventurer’s Club (think the Tiki Room if you’re over 21), will have its artifacts sent to Hong Kong Disney and that a version of the Club will open there — but not where it has a major cult following with Orlando-ites and regular (frequenting returning) grownup visitors. Damn them.
We will hang you by the Mouse tail you sell to us!
Russia runs there own Disneyland, what could happen?
A shortage of Mice.
So if Communist Chinese cannot cross into HK at will, that means the hundreds of thousands of Chinese here in Australia and New Zealand have been pre-screened by the Communist Chinese government… I wonder what the Communist Chinese government’s purpose was in sending these hundreds of thousands of Communist Chinese pre-approved sleepers here?
alex, the middle class in China, however you define it, will not equal the population of the United States within five years. I wish it would, but that would take growth rates that are not possible.
akorozco, thanks for the link. I had somehow missed the news of the Mickey makeover.
Bill, I will have to go to the attraction when it opens in Hong Kong. Thanks for the tip.
Chairman Cao, very clever. Thanks for updating Lenin.