New kid on block causes quite a stir ( 2003-10-29 09:18) (Shanghai Daily)
The upcoming release of the Chinese mainland "Rich List" by the Forbes
magazine is perhaps anticlimactic. While the annual list has been highly
anticipated in the past, the advent of a rival list compiled by a former
"cooperator" has taken away much of the steam from the originator. Zhang Shidong
reports.
Rupert
Hoogewerf
Forbes' decision to drop Rupert
Hoogewerf, its former China researcher, has created competition for the US
magazine that is renowned for its ranking of the mainland's richest individuals.
The Shanghai-based British accountant is increasingly being viewed as a rival
to Forbes dominance of the much anticipated annual "rich list."
Hoogewerf, who was backed by Forbes to compile the Chinese mainland's richest
people lists over the past four years, has now joined with Euromoney
Institutional Investor Plc, a UK publisher and conference organizer. His debut
list was released on October 16.
With its release, Forbes is now running the risk of losing out on the battle
for exposure for its rich list this year, a product that has made the company's
name famous in the Chinese mainland.
Hoogewerf, known as Hu Run in Chinese, and his new partner appear to have
gained the upper hand at this stage. When his "2003 Chinamoney 100 List" was
made public earlier this month, it gained huge exposure in the domestic media.
To raise the stakes, Hoogewerf spruced up this year's ranking by rolling out
three innovative separate industrial lists: ranking the top-50 tycoons in the
property field, information technology and the capital markets.
Hoogewerf admits the idea of the three smaller lists was conceived last year
but they failed to materialize because of lack of time. He believed their advent
gave him more of an edge in the rivalry.
"We have a rival now," said Hoogewerf, who was suddenly dropped by his former
employer earlier this year.
Forbes, which is now employing its own in-house
staff to compile its upcoming rich list, has been left in an unfavorable
position as its ranking will be released tomorrow, two weeks behind Euromoney.
As Hoogewerf's list has already received the lion's share of media exposure,
it remains to be seen how the Forbes list will be received. Some business
watchers feel it will have to be eye-popping and innovative to make a splash.
"For Forbes, it needs something that is eye-catching. Otherwise, it will not
get too much attention from the media," said Joean Zheng, a reporter with the
Shanghai Securities News who has covered the Forbes rich list for the past three
years. "Anyway, we cannot do the Forbes story in the same manner as we did the
Hu Run story."
In his Chinamoney 100 list, Hoogewerf underscored the recovery of the
information technology industry by putting Ding Lei in top place. The chairman
of Nasdaq-listed NetEase.com Inc had his personal wealth listed at US$900
million.
Even if Forbes churns out a fresh story in its list, the magazine might still
find itself in a position that is comparable and supportive to Hoogewerf's list.
It could also make news in how the two sides differ over the calculation of the
tycoons' wealth.
"It makes more sense to compare the Forbes list with Hu Run's than simply
just covering the content of the latecomer," said Chen Jialin, a business
reporter of Southern Metropolis Daily, a publication run by Nanfang Daily Group,
one of China's biggest newspaper syndicates.
However, Russell Flannery, the chief representative of Forbes' Shanghai
bureau, said in an early interview that this year's Forbes' China mainland list
would give more coverage to IT tycoons due to the sector's surging stock prices.
For Forbes, which has launched a Chinese edition of Forbes magazine and
recently brought its CEO global conference to Shanghai for the first time, it
surely does not want to lose its influence in the Chinese market where it is
committed to expanding its foothold.
In a fax sent to major Chinese media, Forbes claimed it enjoys more
popularity and readership than Euromoney, a highly professional finance magazine
targeting institutional investors, corporations and investment banks.
The fax said Euromoney had an audited global circulation of 27,064 in the
period from July 1, 2001, to June 30, 2002, while Forbes Global had the
circulation of 130,000.
However, Euromoney shrugged aside concerns of the emerging competition on the
grounds that the two targeted different types of readers.
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," said Tony Shale, Euromoney
Institutional Investor Asian chief executive officer.
"But we do not see head-to-head competition. Forbes is a good publication
focused on US companies and the economy. We focus on high-end
business-to-business financing activities."
However, as each seems to be determined to hold a grip on the rich list, the
competition in the coming years is inevitable. However, each has its advantages.
Hoogwerf already has cozy connections with Chinese entrepreneurs thanks to
his experience in China; Forbes is already a well-established brand name
globally.
"The two lists will co-exist for a period of time until one of them has built
up the brand name and gained public recognition," said Xu Po, a research
assistant at the case development center of the China Europe International
Business School.
Initially, Forbes first employed Hoogewerf in a loose form of cooperation in
1999 when he worked for the Shanghai office of Arthur Andersen. At the time, he
had conceived the idea of bringing to light the mainland's richest business
people.
"It was never a long-term cooperation, but a cooperation for three or four
months," said Hoogewerf, who broke the ice for the first time on his
relationship with his former partner. "That caused trouble to the stability of
my team.
"Forbes decided every year on whether to use my list. Each year I gave the
list to them and they said okay and then got it published," he said. "But they
suddenly said no to me this year. Surely, there was some reason for that."
Both Hoogewerf and the Forbes magazine did not specify.
At the Forbes global CEO conference held last month in Shanghai, Steve
Forbes, the magazine's chief executive officer and editor-in-chief, bypassed a
question raised by a reporter for his comments on Hoogewerf and the lists he
compiled.
Media reports said Hoogewerf courted trouble when he published a series of
books capitalizing on the Forbes brand name, something which eventually led to
their breakup.
However, Hoogewerf never stole the idea of the mainland rich list from
Forbes. He was the first to take up the whim of doing the job, then giving it to
Forbes and several media for publications.
"I was never on the payroll of Forbes. They only provided funds for my
research and study in China," he said.
Even today, Hoogewerf remains independent. He is not an employee of Euromoney
either. However, unlike Forbes, his new collaborator is committed to funding his
work over the long term.
"We have handcuffs and shackles for him if he wants to escape," said Shale of
Euromoney jokingly.
"There will be a rich list every year," Hoogewerf added.
He said the Chinese tycoons have already been increasingly more responsive in
their attitude toward the exposure of their wealth than they were when he first
started the work.
"There was even one person who e-mailed me, asking to be listed this year,"
Hoogewerf said. "Lots of people said they did not want to see their name on the
list. But they would be unhappy about that if they were really not listed."
Hoogewerf has now begun a new business model for his four employees and
himself in registering as a company in Hong Kong. Using the name ACRU
International, he is going to build the company into a research institute
focused on China's private sector.
He said he will also use this vehicle to publish books and organize a
conference to make the business profitable.
Forbes, which is now employing its own in-house
staff to compile its upcoming rich list, has been left in an unfavorable
position as its ranking will be released tomorrow, two weeks behind Euromoney.
