Adam Roseman

FansTang Aims to Bridge Gap Between China and Hollywood

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As many investors and entrepreneurs know, Asia is currently teeming with business and investment opportunities. Adam Roseman, an investment banker and businessman with experience in the region, recently launched a new project called FansTang. Based in Shanghai, the “hall of fans” aims to provide American celebrities with connections throughout China. According to Roseman, the FansTang data-driven approach is one-of-a-kind. The company specializes in endorsement deals, PR trips and events, and is also producing a daily segment for Shanghai’s satellite network which focuses on Hollywood.

“There was no People Magazine and no Twitter with a common language,” Adam Roseman explained. As a result, Chinese fans had no way of connecting with their favorite stars. “On the other hand, Hollywood stars have demonstrated a clear interest in China. Our goal is to obtain data, whether it’s for them in negotiating film deals or concert promotions, or linking them with the right ad agency. Given the extreme important of China across all these groups, being able to help build relationships with the fans and to activate marketing campaigns is very valuable.”

Roseman added, “We are a data-driven business, and we keep on top of online views, TV and music downloads and other trends every day. We have a better sense than anyone at any given point in time what’s popular and relevant in this market, and it doesn’t always correlate with what’s already popular in the U.S.”

“The key to monetizing China is to understand local Chinese consumers and provide them with what they want, while creating competitive barriers in an area that local Chinese entrepreneurs cannot easily replicate on their own,” Adam Roseman said in an interview. “We are seeing success in doing this because we are bridging the gap between China and Hollywood, not only for our fans but for celebrities as well.”

Roseman explained that FansTang is best equipped to serve Hollywood stars because it combines a thorough understanding of Western culture with Roseman’s extensive experience working in China.

“Chinese business culture and the culture of Hollywood are two very distinctive, strong cultures,” he said. “To be able to cross that bridge, you have to have both patience and experience.”

All Eyes on China’s Economic Expansions

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While much of the world is still feeling the economic downturn, China stands strong with its confidence in its economic future. Last week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that he is confident in China’s economy.  He has openly welcomed foreign companies like ARC Investment Partners to share in the country’s growth.

As Wen said during his keynote speech at the opening of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the northeastern city of Dalian, “We sincerely welcome foreign companies to actively involve themselves in China’s reform and opening up process and share the opportunities and benefits of China’s prosperity and progress.”

China is becoming more desirable for outside investors of all sorts. Recently, HSBC Holdings Plc. found that wealthy people in China are the youngest in Asia, outside of Japan.  In a recent HSBC report that covered Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, they found that the average age of people in China who have liquid assets of at least 500,000 yuan was 36. This was in comparison to 48 in Hong Kong and 38 in Indonesia.

According to the report, more than 25% of wealthy Asians will be investing in greater China and Southeast Asian funds and equities in the next six months. Certainly, fund companies outside of China similarly have their eyes set on this region, and on the ever-increasing economic expansions happening in China.

The expansion into the Asian market is being seen in many sectors.  In the technology sector, companies are trying to get into the market and to target products to this new rising wealthy class.  Investment managers like Adam Roseman of ARC Investment Partners have also made China their main focus on interest.  Global banks like HSBC, Citigroup Inc. and Standard Chartered Plc are expanding into this area as well.

The Changing Face of the Chinese Economy

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Many investment partners today have their eyes on China.  And for good reason.  Consumer spending in China is predicted to come close to doubling by 2015 in the retail sector alone, according to a new report by the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS).  And this comes on the back of spending that has already been increasing a great deal, as companies like ARC Investment Partners have noted.

From 2006 to 2010, retail spending saw an average growth rate of 18.1% each year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.  It is Chinese women who are leading this wave of consumer spending and that are helping to secure the future economic growth in China.

As reported in a recent financial newsletter by Adam Roseman of ARC Investment Partners, 3000 women were recently surveyed in 12 Chinese cities by China Market Research Group to see what their spending habits are like.  85% of those surveyed said that they planned to spend more in the coming six months than they did in the previous six.

This key sector of the economic market in China has yet to be taped into by western brand managers – but women are not only influencing the household budgets in China.  They are influencing the overall decision-making in the home and even in the homes of their parents.  Forbes has actually reported, in a report last year, that half of the world’s 14 self-made billionaire women are Chinese.  Raised in one-child families in China, millions of girls have been told that their parents’ futures’ rely on them; and they are fulfilling those expectations to ensure proper care for their retiring parents.