Billionaire Wang says Disney is no match for Wanda’s ‘wolf pack’
American entertainment giant ‘should not have come to China’ says Dalian Wanda Group chairman, who predicts Shanghai Magic Kingdom will price itself out of existence
Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, whose Dalian Wanda Group is launching a chain of theme parks and entertainment complexes around China, has taken aim at rival Walt Disney ahead of the Magic Kingdom’s opening next month in Shanghai.
Disney “should not have come to China,” and Wanda aims to surpass the rival entertainment company as the world’s largest tourism company by 2020, Wang told state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) on Sunday.
China’s Dalian Wanda Group empire has Disney in sights
The chairman and founder will preside over the opening of a Wanda City featuring its own theme park, movie complex and hotels in Jiangxi province next to Shanghai this weekend.
One tiger is no match for a pack of wolves. Shanghai has one Disney, while Wanda, across the nation, will open 15 to 20
Though Wang has jeered at Disney before, his latest comments signal an escalation in the rivalry between the world’s biggest entertainment company and China’s largest as both prepare to open multi-billion-dollar parks.
At stake is dominance of China’s burgeoning entertainment industry as the number of middle-class Chinese consumers is expected to swell.
“One tiger is no match for a pack of wolves,” he said on the talk show. “Shanghai has one Disney, while Wanda, across the nation, will open 15 to 20.”
Wang, who often vies with Alibaba Group Holding Chairman Jack Ma for the title of China’s richest person, forecasts the conglomerate will reach US$100 billion in revenue and US$10 billion in net profit by 2020.
