 Why don't more rich Asians invest in media platforms that would help Asians? It seems like it'd be worth it right now. Yeah, this is going viral right now. There was a huge Reddit thread about it as well. This is a common conversation that you hear in Asian entertainment circles. Andrew, long story short, statistically, there are some Asians that have a lot of cash, right? But their power in the West, specifically soft power, branding, imaging power is very low. Why don't they exchange some of that cash to buy a media platform to level it out? So a lot of people are like, I don't know. It just seems real simple. Why don't they do it? And this turned into a big internet debate. Yeah, guys, we're going to go through the comment section. We will give you our own insights, having, you know, kind of been in media between digital media, regular media, mainstream media for a little while, guys. We've talked to a few people about this. So please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the hot pot boys as we discuss this question on why don't more rich Asians help create and fund more content? Why don't they? Come on. I think they could fund a few more YouTube channels, maybe a few more movies, indie movies, you know. But before we get in the comment section, I feel like there's a few things people need to realize. Okay. These are things that I want you to understand. I do think a lot of rich Asians, they made their money way outside of entertainment, doing manufacturing or owning something or doing a startup, which first of all, if you make your money outside of entertainment, you don't necessarily understand the power of entertainment. Okay. That's point number one. Number two, producing movies or content or YouTube channels or TV networks has not always proven to be a good return on investment. And people get rich by investing in things that I have a high return on. Right. Have a high probability of returning on that investment. Also, I do think that Asian entertainment from Asia is becoming so strong and develop right now that a lot of people would rather invest their money in like K-pop or K-drama or whatever, that type of content that is actually more trendy than even Asian American. So I'm an Asian billionaire and I'm thinking about where I'm going to give you my money. And I'm looking at Asian America and I'm looking at Asian Asia going, I don't know, maybe Asia, Asia seems like a better bet. Yeah. I mean, overall, I definitely think there could be more done, but let's get into the comment section and see if we find anything interesting. Most rich Asians are sellouts. That's how they became rich. I don't know why I give them a dead accent button. But I actually don't agree because, David, if you think about the Asian billionaires in America that you can even name off the top of your head, how many would you say are sellouts for Asians? Right. Because I don't even know how you sell out. I think there's people who sold out to move up at their company a little bit. Right. To get like a few million dollars. Yeah. To get kind of rich, you know, rich. Like rich. But not like super rich. No, no, no. I think it really depends on what industry you're in and which ladders you had to climb, guys. There's so much variance depending on what's like game, a little square within this large gigantic game map of life you inhabited. Did Jerry Yang? Did Josiah? Did David Tran from Hoi Fong Food, Sriracha sellout? I don't know. Oh, with the Panda Express. Shout out to... Yeah, Panda Express. I don't, I don't wouldn't call them sellouts. No. No, no, no. I mean, but I don't know. Maybe people are thinking of somebody else who knows. Maybe they're thinking of people in entertainment. I could see. I don't think that there's that many Asians that got became billionaires off Hollywood or media, to be honest, because that's been a very difficult field for Asian Americans to rise the ladder in. But if they did become billionaires and they don't give back to the community, yes, I would see that as selling out. Moving on. Somebody said, this is what Mickey Lee did. She is a Korean lady that invested in South Korean media. She is responsible or at least partially responsible for the whole K-pop, K-drama boom and popularity. Oddly enough, she is from Michigan and did not become a sellout. Seems like a lot of badass Koreans came from Michigan, just like Stephen Union, et cetera, probably because they are hella racist there. Yeah, I think more wealthy Asians should take lessons from Mickey Lee and what she did. But I will say this, her situation is a little bit different because she kind of did inherit her spot of the entertainment company from her grandparents who started the company, right? Right, right, right. And then also she did invest back into Asia content and not Asian American content. Now, are Asian Americans, this is my question to everybody out there, are we going to be happy if more money and funding goes into Asia, which that content still does get exported back to America? Right, and some Asian Americans get to be part of that transition ecosystem. Or do we only want them to invest in Asian American products? Well, that's honestly a split in the Asian community and it's going to vary ratio distribution wise, person to person. I mean, honestly, I would say the Koreans of all the Asian groups, they have the closest thing to the right mindset. Somebody said, the powers that be would never let an Asian, especially an Asian man own a media source or a mainstream platform in the USA because the mainstream media in the USA is a mixture of government and private industry anyway. And yeah, they just wouldn't ever want to sell to an Asian. So why, that's why Asians don't try. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I do think that doing something gigantic in America still does require some political power. So if Asians don't have political power, even if they have money, it doesn't get you everything. Right, because you need to combine the two, right? It's almost like having technique or power and boxing. You need both. Somebody said people outside the Asian community would definitely not watch that channel, even if people put billions into it, let alone people within the Asian American community. So this guy was basically doubting that saying, definitely nobody outside of this tiny 6.6% bubble, which is realistic and probably smaller at 4%, is gonna watch it. And even within that 4% of America, how can you count on everybody to support it because Asians are so divided? Yeah, I think it's different because I think you'd have to, if it was like, let's just say they created an Asian TV network, I'd guess I'd be interested to who they're targeting because do you target the older Asians who have time to sit and watch TV or the younger Asians who want different content? What type of content do you show? You can't show all different types of content on one channel. You can't have news, politics, food, dancing, old license sitcoms. Is that true? Are you saying that the same thing that's going to appeal to Tita is not for the Gen Z? Yeah, what I'm saying appeals to your Tita, like is not necessarily the same thing that would appeal to a young Asian kid. Yeah, Aiden. Aiden's not listening to the same thing. Somebody said, you know, there's actually no real big rich Asians in America with like 200, 300 million plus net worth, except a few select East Asians and Indians who came during a very specific tech boom era. And basically a lot of Asian Americans that have worked super hard and networked super hard only have a net worth of like one to like 15 million. So they basically have enough money for them and their family to take nice vacations, have nice cars, maybe even a Ferrari, but nothing even close to having influence in media which takes like way more money than just like a good life for you and your family. Right. Somebody said, yes, you would need a billionaire with a few billion in cash, then they would have to be willing to exchange that cash for power. And plus, I think that the internet's overtaking mainstream media anyway. Why invest in something that's already going downside? Yeah, I just do think that even funding a few premium YouTube channels or TikToks or like some type of those type of platforms, I think actually would do a lot. And I do think some rich Asians have enough money for that. I don't know if they have enough money for a whole universal studios that's Asian or a whole TV channel, but they definitely have enough for YouTube channels. If you told me that we were gonna get a hundred good, well-funded, premium Asian-American web channels over one mainstream network, they probably cost the same and I'm easily taking a hundred YouTube channels, to be honest. And of course, you can use the other digital, free distribution platforms as well, TikTok, whatever, whatever. Somebody said rich people, once they get to a certain level of wealth, just identify as a rich person, jetting around the world in a private jet. They can shelter themselves from the overall big picture that everybody else who is not ultra rich is subject to. For everybody else who is high income, let's just say 150K a year to even 700K a year, they basically just have enough resources to improve things for them and their family. Do you think that's true? I mean, or do you think that those people that are at the ultra light rich category could pull together? Or is that that's unfair to ask for? No, I've seen, there are a lot of the rich guys who still pull their money together for a lot of nonprofit reasons. I mean, there have been some media pieces that have been invested in by rich people. There's a few cases of it, but there's not a lot. You know what I've seen, Andrew, in America? There's sort of this high-low distribution, and it's kind of weird. In Canada, a lot of the Asians are middle class, the upper middle class. Sometimes I see Canadian Asians, like specifically in Toronto, it's like they have more organization, and they seem to be more on the same page about how they want to run their systems. That's from what I noticed. Somebody said, this is just the crabs in the bucket mentality that Asians have always been stuck in. We will never get to the point that it's similar to Jewish people where different people from the Jewish diaspora put their differences aside and decided to show unity as a community. Asians just simply struggle to do that. Yeah, I would agree. And somebody said, at the end of the day, there's probably just way better ways to make a lot of money with less risk. Yeah. I mean, do you think that if the barriers were lowered for Asians to make media buys or whether it's on the content side or owning it on the back end, they would more go into it? I think, I do think that the money should funnel into something that has to do with the internet. I do not know if just spending a lot of money on building like one Asian movie, because you could spend millions of dollars on a movie, versus you could spend like three million dollars instead of producing an indie film, you could spend that three million dollars funding multiple YouTube channels. You probably could seed realistically 10 YouTube channels, 300K each. Yeah, and I'm not just saying YouTube channels, because we're on YouTube, I'm literally talking about like funding TikTokers and content creators and somehow unifying them under one brand. I think that would work. And why do you think there's so much money that's pouring into Asian food, or maybe even the Asian consumption of like gadgets or luxury goods, but it seems like none of it is going into media, at least on a front end. I don't know, there might be back end channels, we're not familiar with. I think Asian food is so good, man. You're saying it's undisputably good. Yeah, I know so many guys who want to like open up restaurants and they're like, oh, I'm part of this hospitality group. Oh, I'm opening my 10th location of this thing. They're not thinking about media, man. They're thinking about real life tangible food. So is the responsibility on the light rich or the ultra rich? Because there's a lot more Asians in there that are light rich than there are ultra rich, but almost a lot of people are saying that media is the playground of the ultra rich. I think it does rely on the super ultra rich and I don't know if they're watching this video right now, but they need to do something, man. And I'm not saying that because I think that a TV network is like an Asian TV network is gonna do the same numbers as like a BET or something like that, but I just think there needs to be more that's done. So hit us up if you have any questions. For sure, for sure. I'd love to have that convo with you. Also, I think that people gotta identify and break off into smaller teams. You know, like an Asian sports network could work. You know what I mean, like niche it out versus like, I think a lot of people are trying to be everything at one time and that's like really difficult because sometimes what's good to this person is not only neutral to this other person but might even be bad to them. Now you're catering to two groups that like disagree. They almost like offended by each other's content. Or how about this? There's already pre-existing channels like Amazing HQ and I would count our channel as one of them, but there's a bunch of other channels out there I could identify that like, if given funding over the next like three, four years, I mean, who knows, they could really do some cool things. Yeah, and I think that every perspective honestly needs to get acknowledged for what the situation that Asians are in right now. And like we said, there's this big gap. You know, some Asians got a lot of cash. Of course, I guess most people would agree Asian soft power in America pretty low. I don't know, could it equalize? Could it actually make money? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. It's been a debate that's been going on for quite some time, but it seems more real than ever now. Until next time, we'd hop out, boys. We out. Peace.