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Right from a LED TV to smartphone and virtual reality goggles, <keyword id="3220584" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Le-Eco">Le Eco</keyword> has created a niche for it in the Chinese market. However China’s most expensive film "The Great Wall," due to be released in next February is being produced by by <keyword id="3773010" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="LeEco-Global-Group">LeEco Global Group</keyword>, a Beijing-based company that's virtually unheard of in the West but is planning its own invasion - of the US. 
 <keyword id="310615" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Le">Le</keyword> Eco is also a multi-faceted <keyword id="4578" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="entertainment">entertainment</keyword> company, producing films like "The Expendables 2" and shows like "Go Princess Go," which tells the story of a 21st century playboy who travels back in time to ancient China. It operates a popular Chinese video subscription service and also makes electric cars and a smart bike (it has laser pointers, a heart rate sensor and built-in speaker). 
 Like other tech companies, <keyword id="3205550" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="LeEco">LeEco</keyword> (Le means happy in Chinese, and Eco is short for Ecosystem) dreams of weaving all these products and services together. Start a LeEco movie on your LeEco smartphone, resume it on your <keyword id="3261986" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="LeEco-TV">LeEco TV</keyword> and finish in your LeEco autonomous car. The company hopes this vision can resonate outside its home country. At an event on Wednesday in <keyword id="12161" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="San-Francisco">San Francisco</keyword>, LeEco is showing off a selection of products, including UHD TVs, smartphones, virtual reality goggles and electric bikes, which will soon go on sale to US consumers, reports <keyword id="29740" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bloomberg">Bloomberg</keyword>. 
 
In China, LeEco sells its hardware at razor-thin margins. It derives profits from selling subscriptions to movies and television shows (some of it produced by LeEco), in addition to offering access to streamed sporting events, digital music and cloud storage. 
 The business model will be difficult to export to the US, since the company does not yet produce any original TV shows or movies targeted to American audiences. But the process is on. In September, LeEco recruited <keyword id="3773011" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adam-Goodman">Adam Goodman</keyword>, the former president of <keyword id="21575" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Paramount">Paramount</keyword> Pictures' Motion Pictures Group, to join its <keyword id="3773013" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Le-Vision-Entertainment">Le Vision Entertainment</keyword> unit in <keyword id="6354803" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Los-Angeles">Los Angeles</keyword>. He's tasked with replicating the global blockbusters that he produced at Paramount, including the "Mission Impossible" and "Star Trek" franchises. 
 According to Bloomberg news, the company also has ambitions in <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword>. It has persuaded executives from <keyword id="10591" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Samsung">Samsung</keyword> and <keyword id="104695" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Qualcomm">Qualcomm</keyword> to join its American team. Earlier this year, LeEco purchased 49 acres of land from <keyword id="6363100" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Yahoo">Yahoo</keyword> in <keyword id="146130" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Santa-Clara">Santa Clara</keyword>, where it plans to build headquarters for up to 12,000 employees. 
 Alibaba, Tencent and <keyword id="70373" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Baidu">Baidu</keyword> have opened modest offices in Silicon Valley, and have made investments in US startups. However Le Eco is far different than these Chinese tech giants. In the US, consumers are too reluctant to experiment with new brands and stick to established ones. Now the game is on to see how Le Eco grows in the US, while most Chinese brands have only shown razor-thin margins.

Le Eco is now ambitious to reach out to global market

<ul class="summary-list"><li>"<keyword id="241493" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ratatouille">Ratatouille</keyword>," the 2007 Disney-Pixar film, has taken over <keyword id="6762469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="TikTok">TikTok</keyword>.</li><li>People are making original songs, memes, and videos about a fictional musical based on the movie. They call it "Ratatouille: The Musical."</li><li>The musical started with a short song from TikTok user @e_jaccs with the now-iconic lyrics, "Remy the Ratatouille, the rat of all my dreams / I praise you, my Ratatouille, may the world remember your name."</li><li>After TikToker @danieljmertzlufft created a theater arrangement for the song, the concept of a full-blown TikTok musical took off.</li></ul>Over the course of several months, a nonsensical musical about Remy, the rat from "Ratatouille," has morphed into a full-fledged <keyword id="6365529" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="musical-theater">musical theater</keyword> phenomenon on TikTok."Ratatouille: The Musical," as it's come to have been known on social media and on the short-form video app itself, isn't a formalized production. Rather, it's a meme that's taken on extreme life of its own, with people on TikTok writing songs, making choreography, and imagining staging for a show that only exists online. "Ratatouille," a 2007 Disney-Pixar animated comedy, was directed by animation veteran Brad Bird ("The Incredibles") and stars Patton Oswalt as Remy, a rat who hates garbage and has grand culinary aspirations. Set delightfully in Paris, the film follows Remy after he's separated from his family, eventually teaming up with Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano), a bumbling new hire in a gourmet restaurant. Working together (with Remy guiding Linguini's cooking from beneath his hat), the two keep the gig running for as long as they can.What started a single nonsensical (but hilarious) jingle about Remy, the film's main character, has grown into a full-blown collaborative effort that builds on previous musical theater trends on TikTok. The hashtag #<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/ratatouillethemusical?_d=secCgsIARCbDRgBIAIoARI%2BCjzX1tazSnbv0lff0I74%2BJ3nsoYlGMJVEK5QMhJdNx52BSFECkTDZ77ir%2BINSr5zVUeZl84mQrjXYsSrNwsaAA%3D%3D&amp;language=en&amp;preview_pb=0&amp;sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAYi4flqtsqutbJtQwlc0OzJESdYib06i4rvIo4Ro4daMbIpLAwZtB3FGQjci8DIIk&amp;share_item_id=6896175283183815937&amp;share_link_id=6EA2ED75-F9A1-4803-9D12-AE7EA9C400D6&amp;timestamp=1605765008&amp;tt_from=copy&amp;u_code=aia5ieefmim7l&amp;user_id=236721550278823936&amp;utm_campaign=client_share&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_mp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_m">ratatouillethemusical</a> has over 14 million views; #<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/ratatouillemusical?_d=secCgsIARCbDRgBIAIoARI%2BCjzX1tazSnbv0lff0I74%2BJ3nsoYlGMJVEK5QMhJdNx52BSFECkTDZ77ir%2BINSr5zVUeZl84mQrjXYsSrNwsaAA%3D%3D&amp;language=en&amp;preview_pb=0&amp;sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAYi4flqtsqutbJtQwlc0OzJESdYib06i4rvIo4Ro4daMbIpLAwZtB3FGQjci8DIIk&amp;share_item_id=6896175283183815937&amp;share_link_id=6EA2ED75-F9A1-4803-9D12-AE7EA9C400D6&amp;timestamp=1605765008&amp;tt_from=copy&amp;u_code=aia5ieefmim7l&amp;user_id=236721550278823936&amp;utm_campaign=client_share&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_mp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_m">ratatouillemusical</a> has approximately 88.5 million. One account, @<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@ratatouillemusical">ratatouillemusical</a>, is trying to serve as a central hub for the project, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@ratatouillemusical/video/6887726055558302981">soliciting submissions</a> for original content tied to the musical."Ratatouille" the musical has grown so big, and amassed so many songs on TikTok itself, that there are more than enough to make a selective ranking. This is how "Ratatouille: The Musical" — or, the "<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/ratatoosical">Ratatoosical</a>," if you will — became one of TikTok's biggest 2020 sensations.<h2>This isn't the first time 'Ratatouille' content or musical theater has blown up on TikTok</h2>"Ratatouille: The Musical" isn't' the first time "Ratatouille"-adjacent content has woven itself into the very fabric of TikTok. The film's most iconic song, "Le Festin," <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKAdy76G5ww">has been a TikTok mainstay for months</a>; a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1djkZL6MzE">parody cover</a> with very approximate French was widely circulated as well."Ratatouille: The Musical," <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2020/11/ratatouille-musical-tiktok.html">as Vulture noted</a>, also plays into a musical theater TikTok tendency to spin wildly elaborate jokes out of simple musical motifs. Prior to "Ratatouille," the most prominent examples of that phenomenon were <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0detHmkNxoY">"Grocery Store: The Musical"</a> (which adapted <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIKVt2MCutY">Louisa Melcher's "New York Summer"</a> into theater fare) and an <a href="https://nerdist.com/article/avatar-the-last-airbender-musical-tiktok-creator-interview-katherine-lynn-rose/">"Avatar: The Last Airbender" musical project</a> from earlier this year. Like the "Grocery Store" musical, "Ratatouille: The Musical" started with a single iconic musical snippet. In early August, TikTok user Emily Jacobson (who was <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ratatouille-tiktok-musical-oral-history-1091547/">identified by Rolling Stone</a> and goes by @e_jaccs on the app itself) posted an "Ode to Remy" that went on to become the lynchpin of "Ratatouille: The Musical." "Remy, the Ratatouille, the rat of all my dreams / I praise you, my ratatouille, may the world remember your name," she sings as sparkles, cherry blossom petals, and smoke fall over pictures of Remy. As Rolling Stone reported, Jacobson's song went viral after <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@brittany_broski/video/6881969827406236933?lang=en">Brittany Broski (who has approximately 5.9 million followers and is known to most as "Kombucha Girl") duetted</a> a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@_victoriap17_/video/6879228522368371974?sender_device=pc&amp;sender_web_id=6891259809896056326&amp;is_from_webapp=1webapp=1">video of a Disney World Remy dancing </a>that used the sound. The phenomenon that followed that initial bout of virality, however, was much bigger.<h2>'Ratatouille' the musical began in earnest after composer Daniel Mertzlufft made a musical theater arrangement of Jacobson's song</h2>As both Rolling Stone and Vulture reported, composer and arranger Daniel Mertzlufft was the first to parlay Jacobson's infectious jingle into musical theater gold. Mertzlufft also adapted Melcher's "New York Summer" into theater fare, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ68ndBRmZU">participated in the "Avatar: the Last Airbender" fan-made musical effort</a> on TikTok earlier this year. Mertzlufft told Rolling Stone that Jacobson's song "screamed to me a big, big <keyword id="46161" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Disney">Disney</keyword> ending, like 'Little Mermaid's' 'Part of Your World' or the ending of 'Hunchback of Notre Dame.'" With some new instrumentation and a few chord and melody changes, he turned it into a suitable Act II finale. Mertzlufft's arrangement, which he posted on October 19, blew up and has amassed approximately 1.5 million views on TikTok. The sound itself has been used in over 7,600 videos, and inspired people to create a variety of spinoffs ranging from staging to choreography to separate lines for Remy himself. <h2>From that point, people began to write other songs for 'Ratatouille: The Musical,' spinning it into a full-fledged musical phenomenon</h2>After Mertzlufft's arrangement of Jacobson's jingle blew up on TikTok, people began to create separate spinoff jingles for specific characters and moments in the movie. That included, of course, Colette, a razor-sharp chef trying to make it in a male-dominated world, and Linguini, the bumbling youth who partners with Remy, but also characters like Chef Gusteau, Remy's father and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@rjthecomposer/video/6890570549899185413?sender_device=pc&amp;sender_web_id=6891259809896056326&amp;is_from_webapp=1webapp=1">brother</a>, and even the old woman who attempts to kill Remy and his family at the beginning of the film.Much of this activity can be traced back to late October — particularly many of the most popular original songs — but people are still creating "Ratatouille: The Musical" content now, in November. Composer RJ Christian's "Anyone Can Cook" is an emotional ballad sung by Chef Gusteau, whose ghostly presence counsels Remy throughout the film. Blake Rouse's Collette-focused tango number begins with the character's iconic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgiK-HWKPjw">"You think cooking is a cute job, eh, like mommy in the kitchen?"</a> line from the movie. A duet featuring @aaacacia_ amassed over 850,000 likes. One song for Remy's dad from @fettucinefettuqueen, a musician who is <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/gabbibolt?lang=en">also known as Gabbi Bolt</a>, features lyrics like "don't waste your whiskers on dreaming;" another take from @cincinnatusstrikesagain features Remy's dad singing about how "a rat is a rat." It's not just songs, though — "Ratatouille: The Musical" has become a full musical theater experience on TikTok, with people making videos showing off potential staging, discussing costumes, and acting out what it would be like to stage-manage the show. After months of creative genesis, however, people are addressing the original song that sparked the musical phenomenon. "The fact that the lyrics make no sense fills me with an extreme, uncontrollable rage," <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@garf_/video/6888669846716812545?sender_device=pc&amp;sender_web_id=6891259809896056326&amp;is_from_webapp=1webapp=1">one TikToker wrote in an on-screen caption. </a>Others <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@lex_joyce/video/6896605032825801986?_d=secCgsIARCbDRgBIAIoARI%2BCjySQM6IAMQ5QiutEoJMySKaXlsAygiqBUc2aSUfuZ9jJ%2BqgqTkufGPa5JcOKflgQsinZBz5xfWDh99n0FEaAA%3D%3D&amp;language=en&amp;preview_pb=0&amp;sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAYi4flqtsqutbJtQwlc0OzJESdYib06i4rvIo4Ro4daMbIpLAwZtB3FGQjci8DIIk&amp;share_item_id=6896605032825801986&amp;share_link_id=A25DEC8E-E9F2-4AF6-8E56-BAA2C0694F65&amp;timestamp=1605771616&amp;tt_from=copy&amp;u_code=aia5ieefmim7l&amp;user_id=236721550278823936&amp;utm_campaign=client_share&amp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_mp;utm_medium=ios&amp;utm_source=copy&amp;source=h5_m">spoke about the way that the fandom has "openly rejected the original song."</a>Still, others argue that there's a logical place for it in the final production. <h2>'Ratatouille: The Musical' has now been recognized on Disney and <keyword id="161299" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Pixar">Pixar</keyword> social channels, and by others involved with the movie</h2>Patton Oswalt, who voices Remy in "Ratatouille" the film, acknowledged the musical, quote retweeting a video of @fettucinefettuqueen's song for Remy's dad, complete with staging from @shoeboxmusicals."My...God…" Oswalt wrote, tagging "Ratatouille" director Brad Bird in the tweet and asking if he had seen it.Bird, who also directed "The Incredibles" and its 2018 sequel in addition to "Ratatouille," acknowledged Oswalt's tweet, writing, "Whoa! It's got a life of its's own!!! Our baby is walking the earth! Roaming freely with plans of its own!!!"The official Pixar and Disney Broadway Twitter accounts also got in on the action, quoting Jacobson's original song ("the rat of all [our] dreams").<a href="https://www.vulture.com/2020/11/watch-disney-parks-joins-in-on-ratatouille-tiktok-musical.html">As Vulture reported</a>, even the official Disney Parks TikTok account posted a video "audition" for the musical featuring Disney Channel actor Milo Manheim. It's unclear exactly what the fate of "Ratatouille: The Musical" is, or whether it'll make it to Broadway. For now, it's a testament to the collaborative possibilities — and a huge amount of musical theater lovers — on TikTok. <ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/memes-best-viral-funny-tiktok-2020-10">36 of the best memes of 2020 (so far), from toilet paper to 'Tiger King'</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/lin-manuel-miranda-lip-biting-selfie-tiktok-memes-hamilton-2020-7">Lin-Manuel Miranda's lip-biting selfies have become a huge meme on TikTok</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/tiktok-teens-are-reacting-to-trumps-ban-with-memes-2020-8">TikTok teens are making memes saying they'll show up at the White House to confront Trump over app ban</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/meteor-meatier-tiktok-video-meme-dinosaurs-twitter-viral-2020-9">The creator of the 'meatier, meteor' TikTok meme cried real tears making the video</a></li></ul>

How a fake musical inspired by the 2007 Disney-Pixar movie 'Ratatouille' took over TikTok

<a href="https://www.insider.com/asian-american-pacific-islander-highlighting-heritage-from-here-2021-5"></a><div type="image" title="Headshots of Asian American YouTubers: Philip Wang, Cassey Ho, Ryan Higa, and Michelle Phan" height="1800" width="2400" msid="83063401" hostid="261"></div>Today's Asian American twenty-and-thirty something's understand Michelle Phan's beauty advice to be the law of the land.With Phan's modulated voiceover on their heels, they waded headfirst into the glittery world of beauty. They smeared egg whites onto their skin and carved their eyes with white liner, following Phan's bathroom-lit webcam tutorials to a T. Phan said the egg whites could cure oily foreheads and brighten dull skin. And the white liner trick key to her character transformation videos, creating Lady Gaga, Barbie, and Sailor Moon's doe-eyed faces. Phan, boasting now more than 8 million <keyword id="10879" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="YouTube">YouTube</keyword> followers and 1.1 billion lifetime views, is largely credited as the one of YouTube's first A-list beauty gurus. Her clout comes with both the expertise in which she painted sunsets on her eyes and the ethnicity in which she graced user's screens. As a Vietnamese-American woman, Phan revolutionized a white beauty industry and galvanized a generation of <keyword id="426188" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Asian-Americans">Asian Americans</keyword> who, for the first time in their lives, saw visions of themselves on screen. "We could see ourselves and our skin and our eyes and our features that were not Western, and were flatter, and rounder, as something beautiful. Like a playground of discovery and creativity," said artist and incoming graduate student in Asian American studies student Jocelyn Chung. Phan was not the only creator. Wong Fu Productions, Ryan Higa, Kev Jumba, Jenn Im, Cassey Ho, Clara C, Kina Grannis, and many more. Household names filled a void left in entertainment: an empty space to be colored with Asian greatness. While <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crazy-rich-asians-review-extravagant-hilarious-and-poignant-2018-8">Crazy Rich Asians</a> sparked <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crazy-rich-asians-success-shows-power-of-asian-american-consumers-2018-8">a renaissance</a> for Asian representation in media, early Asian YouTubers projected online the multidimensionality of the Asian American experience for millions. And that impact has not been lost."There's a legacy here. I think about Kina Grannis being featured in Crazy Rich Asians, and that made me cry," Chung told Insider. "Asian Americans grew up with Kina, and so to see her on screen, it was like this huge, chilling moment where I was like this is our connection point.". <h2>YouTube didn't have any red tape</h2>All they needed was a camera and a computer. And suddenly, they could speak to the world. "YouTube is such a low barrier to entry, unlike mainstream media where it is so hard to break into," said media strategist Vanni Le.Some actors attend hundreds of auditions before landing a 10-second role in a commercial. The same goes for musicians, before hundreds of sparse crowds before getting approached by a prospective manager - if they're lucky."In the traditional Hollywood sense, it's either because you're a legacy Hollywood family, or you get represented through a major talent agency," Le said. With YouTube, Asian creators didn't need to be scouted or discovered by industry big-shots. Singer CLARA C's YouTube start was simple: she covered songs that she liked and recorded videos with her friends. Philip Wang, co-founder of Wong Fu Productions, said it was initially all for fun. He and his friends bought a website and posted videos for their friends around the University of California, San Diego's campus. <div type="image" title="A selfie of Phillip Wang and the WongFu Productions team" height="2320" width="3088" msid="83063392" hostid="261"></div>When their site's bandwidth ran out, Wong Fu moved their videos to YouTube. Health and fitness influencer Cassey Ho wanted to find a way to connect with her real-life pilates students as she moved from Los Angeles to Boston for college. "When I first started, I wasn't paying attention to the rest of the scene that was going on in YouTube because my goal wasn't to become a YouTuber," Ho said. What began as a passion project for her and other creators blossomed into what many Gen-Z and millennials remember as their first taste of representation. A line of Pidgin or Vietnamese. Creators who shared the same intergenerational trauma passed on from the Southeast Asian diaspora. And short films featuring first dates in boba shops. "I didn't feel like I needed to apologize for being Asian," said Wang. "And I think people were really empowered by that because it just was the most authentic that there could be."Showcasing Asian life in all its complexity drew audiences towards these early-2010's Asian YouTubers. "It was the first time I saw people like me or who lived similar lives to me," said Trang Dong, 23, an Instagram content creator. "There was no one way to be Asian or Asian-American." This representation, the warmth in your heart when your story is shared. The empowerment that uplifts communities through storytelling that resonates with forgotten souls - this is what drove Asian American YouTubers to viral success."I think it was so fresh and it was so strange for them to see an Asian face, even though it wasn't on TV and it was just on a YouTube screen or a computer screen," Wang said. "That was already such an impactful thing for them."<h2>Filling a void </h2>Sitting at the top of Wong Fu Productions most-popular videos: "Strangers, Again." The short <keyword id="681" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="film">film</keyword> is a love story starring an Asian couple, Wang himself and actress Cathy Nguyen Banaag. The piece's ubiquity aside, "Strangers, Again" accomplished what movies, sketch comedy and television in 2011 did not. It cast a regular Asian couple, going on ice cream dates, taking walks on the beach and playing video games until dawn. Mainstream media of that era, and even today, struggles to produce well-rounded Asian characters. A <a href="https://scholar.dominican.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&amp;context=honors-theseseses">2018 study</a> notes that even films set in Asia, like "The Last Samurai" or "Godzilla," feature white characters as their leads, "Wong Fu Productions and the YouTube space greatly shaped what it meant to be Asian American before mainstream media created space for us," Chung said. "At that time in Hollywood, most portrayals of Asian-Americans were background extras or nerdy, or socially awkward, best friends."As these romantic shorts skyrocketed Wong Fu's channel popularity, Wang felt a duty to his audience: to empower Asian Americans through storytelling: made by people like them, for them. This responsibility, he said, pushed him to create more content and produce Asian "role models and representation" for his viewers. Young Asian musicians found a role model in CLARA. Cultural and social pressures often push Asian Americans into <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/16/asian-american-jobs-success-myth-arts">pursuing</a> higher-paying, dubbed "safer," jobs. Music and art don't typically fall into this category. "I get so many emails about how [fans] want to pursue art, but their parents are pressuring them to do something more academic or more lucrative," CLARA said. "I am so fulfilled to be there for someone, to be a beacon of hope for someone to do what they wanted to do." <div type="image" title="CLARA poses before a crowd" height="1000" width="1500" msid="83063397" hostid="261"></div><h2>A work in progress</h2>On April 1, 2021, Wong Fu Productions announced "Strangers, Again 2," a sequel to their acclaimed short. On May 2, 2021 they released another video. A screenshot fills the frame: "Dear Ryan, can you make anti-Asian hate stop?" Ryan Higa chuckles. Exasperated, Higa says, "I don't even know how to start."From there, 28 Asian YouTubers, all stars in their own right, speaking out against anti-Asian racism. The world may not celebrate Asian stories just yet. But, for its famous creators, YouTube still provides channels where they can be unapologetically Asian. For many of these creators, YouTube was not initially meant to be an outlet that highlighted Asian voices. It existed as a space to create. "When I was in college, a lot of these issues actually weren't even that familiar with me in terms of representation and where the community is at," Wang said. "So I was really just trying to make things that I thought were funny, that I thought were meaningful." "I wasn't cognizant of the boundaries out there," CLARA echoed. "I just kinda knew that nobody looked like me on TV, but I still wanted to do this."But as web statistics translated into fame, the racial gravity of their success mattered. "I did see Wong Fu and Michelle Phan and the other creators," Ho said. "But when I crossed from social media to media, I realized I was the only Asian female in the fitness space that had recognition." YouTube success did not translate to the silver screen. After years of success, Wang and his team attempted to break into Hollywood. They wrote scripts and contacted producers. But companies told them that Asian leads would not create profitable films. <a href="https://annenberg.usc.edu/news/research-and-impact/asians-and-pacific-islanders-are-erased-silenced-and-stereotyped-popular">USC researchers</a> found that across films produced from 2007 to 2019, only 5.9% of speaking characters were Asian or Pacific Islander. 39% of all films failed to depict even one Asian character. Feeling voiceless fuels CLARA's activism. "I'm firing on all cylinders," CLARA said. "All the knowledge that I've acquired so far is rippling out of me to everyone. [I want to] help people heal, to share our stories, to keep the community going and the conversation going." It's difficult, Le said, to imagine a world in which Asian activism can take a pause, when the work can stop. When celebrating Asian joy becomes embedded into the everyday. Le believes society must change to make space for not just Asian identities, but all underrepresented groups before this can happen. "The entertainment industry is a microcosm of what this world thinks," Le said. "Before entertainment has to change, politics has to change. Society has to change."Media representation is just one of many starting points to thinking about the pain Asian communities face. "There's a reckoning of who we are and how we want to be, and that is happening right now," Chung said. "Unfortunately around our own communities' pain. We went from invisible to being visible because of our pain as a community."Blockbuster films like "Crazy Rich Asians" help prove that Asian talent is not a liability. Eradicating that perceived risk is progress. Wang "heard for a long time in the early-2010's that there were no bankable Asian stars.""It took a long time to convince people to take risks on Asians. I'm really excited that we're going to get more chances to play ball." Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Philip Wang's name. Insider regrets the error.

'I didn't need to apologize for being Asian:' Since its start, YouTube allowed creators to celebrate Asian joy

<keyword id="3205550" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="LeEco">LeEco</keyword> (formerly Letv), a leading global Internet technology company, was awarded “Best of <keyword id="111480" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="mobile-world-congress">Mobile World Congress</keyword> - Most Innovative Company” by leading UK technology site <a href="http://www.alphr.com/technology/1002790/leeco-wins-alphrs-most-innovative-company-award-at-mwc-2016">Alphr.com</a>. LeEco was recognized for its high quality products, innovation and market disruption notably in the smartphone and automobile industries, where it’s generated headlines around the world. 
 
“We’re honored to receive the ‘Best of Mobile World Congress - Most Innovative Company’ award from Alphr,” said Eric Mika, senior vice president of open ecosystems, strategic alliances and partnerships at LeEco. “LeEco has made tremendous momentum over the past year having just entered the smartphone market last spring, and expanding to India and the U.S. this year. This award reinforces our vision to bring consumers everywhere a truly connected lifestyle that is powered by an Internet ecosystem of content and accessible, innovative products.” 
 
David Court, editor at Alphr.com said, “It’s pretty clear that LeEco is one to watch. The spec of its flagship handset, the Le Max Pro is tantalizing; we can’t wait to test it. Combined with some of the innovations they are working on in Car-Tech, as well as their Smart ‘Super Bike’ make LeEco the winner of Alphr.com’s ‘Most Innovative Company’ award for MWC 2016.” 
Among LeEco’s recent innovations are the world’s first Qualcomm® Snapdragon 820-powered smartphone the Le Max Pro, which was unveiled during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this past January, as well as its electric, connected smart bicycle, the Super Bike. 
 
The Le Max Pro boasts a robust set of features, including the Snapdragon SenseTM ID fingerprint technology, the mobile industry’s first comprehensive ultrasonic-based fingerprint biometric solution, providing a more secure, spoof-resistant alternative to capacitive-based fingerprint sensors. The Le Max Pro also features 802.11ad WiFi for real-time wireless streaming and Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 2.0 for up to 75% faster charging than conventional methods. 
 
The sleek, modern Super Bike is optimized for an eco-riding lifestyle, focused on Android connectivity, state-of-the-art software and top-of-the-line hardware to offer riders a futuristic transportation experience. The Super Bike features a smart riding system, fingerprint identification, a smart lock, two-way radio, sensor group and power management system. This first-of-its-kind bike is currently available in China and will be available in the U.S. later this year. 
 
This week, LeSports, the sports arm of LeEco, acquired exclusive international broadcast rights covering five seasons for China’s top football league, the Chinese Super League (CSL). Starting in 2016, LeSports will live stream CSL matches in the U.S., mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Canada, Southeast Asia, and more. The partnership exemplifies LeSports’ continued disruption to the global sports industry with its ecosystem of content, smart devices, event operations, and customer service. 
Freshly inked this month, LeEco announced a joint venture with luxury sports car maker Aston Martin in which the two companies plan to co-develop a range of next-gen connected electric vehicles, including a production version of Aston Martin’s RapidE slated to hit the market by 2018. The two companies will work together on research and development, production, manufacturing and sales of electric cars for brands including Aston Martin and LeEco. 
 
About Alphr.com 
Launched in June 2015 Alphr.com has become one of the UK’s biggest technology websites. Covering the amazing technologies that change the way people work and live, Alphr is a website for people who embrace new technology and thrive on change. 
 
About LeEco 
LeEco is a leading, global Internet technology company that converges culture, content, innovation, lifestyle and entertainment with a jaw-dropping array of products and experiences that fit perfectly into a broad spectrum of lifestyles. LeEco opens new opportunities for consumers, and the technology and entertainment industries, with an integrated ecosystem that spans smartphones, TVs, transportation, sports, film, entertainment and more. LeEco was recently named one of Fast Company’s 2016 “Most Innovative Companies.” To learn more, visit LeEco’s official <a href="mailto:www.leeco.com">website</a> and follow them on Facebook and <a href="https://twitter.com/letvusa">Twitter</a>.

LeEco Awarded Most Innovative Company at Mobile World Congress

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Bobby Yip/ReutersRen Quan (R), actor and cofounder of Star VC.</div></div></div>Many stars of China's entertainment industry have also become serious investors.Late last year, He Jiong set off a wave when he joined Alibaba Music. Later, Chinese rock legend Zheng Jun would join Taihe Rye Music.This year, investment firm Star VC has become a model for this trend.To an Internet finance company, the star power these celebrities bring is even more valuable than their funds.Having a devoted following and appealing to the "economy of fandom" corresponds strongly with brand demand in the internet age.Unfortunately for some companies, the effect of having a famous star running an Internet company has already lost some of its freshness.When it was reported this year that Li Xiang would become chair of Qihoo 360, announcer Liu Yuxi would join LeSports, and Hong Tao would be the executive producer of karaoke app Changba, there wasn't much excitement.The public gradually becomes numb to the news.More importantly, investment fever has been cooling throughout 2016, and capital cooling is on its way. Celebrity investors have yet to show that they possess superior resilience to make it through more challenging periods. <h2>Former partners splitting up</h2>In its early days, Internet venture capital firm Star VC sought out China's most innovative companies, declaring they would not just be shareholders - they would give the company an attractive persona.Star VC was founded by Ren Quan, Huang Xiaoming, and Li Bingbing. Each founder owned 30%."At the beginning we discussed splitting it three ways" Ren Quan once told a reporter. "We decided it would be better if all three of us had to agree on every decision. Otherwise why do it at all?"<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Mario Anzuoni/ReutersHuang Xiaoming, an actor and cofounder of Star VC.</div></div></div>This equity structure gives an impression of collective decision making, which can make professional investment firms nervous. The fear is that there might not be anyone to take responsibility when faced with real-world risk.This was equally difficult for their investors group. Because every investment decision is made after considering the balance, costs of communication are several times higher than most funds'.Handu, an internet fashion brand, was the first company Star VC invested in. Handu was releasing 30,000 new products a year, more than global industry leader Zara.In 2015 they only took in $181 million, $4.7 million in profit.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Benoit Tessier/ReutersActress Li Bingbing - also a cofounder of Star VC.</div></div></div>An executive at one company receiving investment from Star VC told Tencent Tech that because Star VC's partners come from the entertainment industry, they mainly co-invest with others.Sources show that Star VC's investments in billion-dollar tech unicorns like Qihoo 360 and Xiaokaxiu were mostly small co-investments in the middle stages of funding.In August 2014 Star VC made only a small co-investment in Miaopai's $50 million round C financing lead by Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers. By November 2015, Miaopai was a unicorn valued at $1 billion.Star VC's relationship with this unicorn - and others it's invested in - is not very significant.<h2>Regulators get involved</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Bobby Yip/ReutersActress and investor Sun Li.</div></div></div>Stars are also using their resources to found companies as entrepreneurs, then selling them when the opportunity arises.For film and TV companies, actors' compensation is an ever-rising cost. However, by buying the actor's shell company, this cost becomes income and everyone makes a shiny profit.When the listed value goes up, the shares can be sold to retail investors focusing on film and TV in second-tier markets.In the view of CEC Capital founder Wang Ran, film and TV companies buying shell companies from their stars is a "brilliant act of substitution."Both the artist and the director's investment is transformed into profit.According to Wang Ran, this additional income can almost all be turned into profit, which is then multiplied several times by the capital market's price/earnings ratio before being sold to another investor or an A-stock company."Through this process, the artist sells all or part of their shares," Wang Ran said. "Having finished raising the shares' value, the artist takes an early return on investment."On May 6th of this year, when LeTV announced it was buying Le Vision Pictures, the company also bought out Le Vision Pictures' 44 investors.Among those investors were Chinese celebrities Zhang Yimou, Guo Jingming, Sun Honglei, Huang Xiaoming, and Sun Li.The net worth of these celebrities doubled, and many received net profits many times their initial investment.In 2016, however, this highly profitable form of investment ran into problems with regulators.The failed acquisition of the company Wuxi Aimeishen Movie &amp; Culture was a sign that the model famous actors used to reap huge profits in capital markets was cooling down. A commission stopped the acquisition because the investors' issuance of shares to purchase assets was not approved. This story originally appeared on <a href="http://www.qq.com/">QQ.com</a>. Translated by Tyler Olson. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/time-lapse-videos-show-china-infrastructure-expansion-change-satellite-images-2016-12">Time-lapse videos of China show how overcrowded it's become over the years</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="loNmg4ODE6eeSnqovGpqBloUuaZBe1Vq" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Some of China's biggest celebrities have become serious investors

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Concept+cars&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Concept cars</a> date back to 1938 when <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=General+Motors&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">General Motors</a> chief designer <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Harley+Earl&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Harley Earl</a> designed the Buick Y-Job. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Concept+cars&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Concept cars</a> are a great way for companies to gauge the public’s reaction on new forms and functions. That would in turn determine what could be incorporated into production models. 
 
Here are some of the most innovative <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Concept+cars&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">concept cars</a> from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=BMW&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">BMW</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Audi&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Audi</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Posche&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Posche</a>’s stables that best envisage the future of driving. 
 
<keyword id="6355119" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="BMW">BMW</keyword> i Vision Future Interaction 
 
<a href="http://image.motortrend.ca/f/167255159+w640/BMW-i-Vision-Future-Interaction-Concept-MT-homepage.jpg">Image Source</a> 
First introduced at the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Consumer+Electronics+Show&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Consumer Electronics Show</a> (CES) in Las Vegas, this i Vision looks like a roadster iteration of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=BMW+i8&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">BMW’s i8</a> hybrid sports car. The car outlines the company’s cutting edge <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=autonomous-driving+tech&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">autonomous-driving tech</a> and cabin-design features. 
 
What’s New? 
The i Vision has three driving modes - fully autonomous, normal and assisted. The seats are tilted towards each other, as if to encourage the driver and passenger to initiate a conversation. 
 
You can control several features like entertainment, communication and navigation with only hand gestures. Even parking is a breeze with the new Air Touch feature. 
 
Any Change of Production? 
The company’s chief designer Karim Habib has said, “We usually don’t show things that we can’t produce.” Whoa! The roadster is expected to be equipped with the coupe’s plug-in hybrid power train. 
 
<keyword id="45673" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Porsche">Porsche</keyword> Mission E 
 
<a href="http://static.highsnobiety.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/porsche-concept-study-mission-e-interior-design-000.jpg">Image Source</a> 
Electric is the new in thing, and the Mission E is a completely electric vehicle. The max range is310 miles, and its 600 BHP all new drive-train propels this four-seater from zero to 62 mph in less than 3.5 secs. 
 
The car borrows external design elements from 911 and 918 Spyder, and tech from the Le Mans–winning 919 hybrid race-car. 
 
What’s New? 
There’s an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=eye-tracking+system&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">eye-tracking system</a> in the cabin that uses cameras to detect what you’re viewing. Some info can be projected on the holographic center display controlled by hand gestures. 
 
Much like your smartphone, this Porsche also comes with Turbo Charging! It charges the car’s battery from empty to 80% in only 15 minutes. 
 
Any Change of Production? 
Porsche says it expects to see the Mission E as a production car by the end of this decade. Who knows, it just might become the next-gen Panamera! 
 
Mercedes IAA 
 
<a href="http://images.car.bauercdn.com/pagefiles/19343/1040x0/mercedesiaaconcept01.jpg?scale=down">Image Source</a> 
One of the most special features of the IAA is that at speeds of 50 mph or faster, it shape-shifts! 
 
Its tail extends more than 15 inches to achieve a low drag coefficient, far lower than an average production car. It also comes fitted with the Merc’s Car-to-X tech, which helps it avoid collisions with cars or other objects. 
 
Any Change of Production? 
Sadly, Merc execs have said the IAA will not go into production in its current form. However, it surely offers a rare glimpse into how future four-door business sedans would look, maybe the next generation of the S-Class. 
 
<keyword id="6363321" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Audi">Audi</keyword> H-Tron Quattro 
 
<a href="http://www.inautonews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Audi-e-tron-Quattro-Concept-8-1024x597.jpg">Image Source</a> 
This AWD mid-size crossover comes with hydrogen fuel cells. Its motors together produce 272 BHP, and the cells enable a range of 372 miles. 
 
While this may not be the first hydrogen-powered vehicle; BMW and General Motors have been experimenting with hydrogen for years. The lack of quality fuel stations, high R&amp;D costs, and lukewarm customer interest have pushed development deadlines. However, the trend is coming back, and the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=H-Tron+Quattro&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">H-Tron Quattro</a> is more sophisticated than the cars <keyword id="596" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hyundai">Hyundai</keyword> and Toyota are selling in the United States since last year. 
 
Any Change of Production? 
Since mass-market brands already offering hydrogen-powered vehicles, Audi is expected to offer a version of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=H-Tron+Quattro&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">H-Tron Quattro</a> in limited numbers for California and other markets where alternative-fuel vehicles are most popular. 
 
<a href="http://wordlesstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BMW-i-Vision-Future-Interaction-Concept-2.jpg">Image Source</a>

Concept Cars from Porsche, BMW,
and Others that tell you how future Supercars cars would look

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>Twitter <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-acquires-periscope-for-a-sizable-amount-2015-3">acquired live video-streaming app Periscope earlier this year</a>, giving it a valuable tool to expand into live entertainment and other video events. Twitter has been mum about how it might eventually make money from Periscope, which consumers can download for free. But longtime Twitter investor Chris Sacca has a theory.In a lengthy, nearly 8,500-word blog post on Wednesday, Sacca <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-sacca-what-twitter-needs-to-do-2015-6">expressed his views about what Twitter needs to do to re-ignite growth</a> and get it out of the Wall Street doghouse. In that post, the Lowercase Capital founder touched upon what he says is Periscope's big monetization opportunity. Periscope's goldmine lies in building an archive of old videos created with the app by users ranging from magician David Blaine to entrepreneur Richard Branson: When the time comes to monetize Periscope (which I agree is not yet), the easiest path will be to place very short/Vine-length ads just before the playback of archived broadcasts. There is absolutely no need to place ads into a livestream and interrupt the user experience. The archived video playback alone will generate incredible cash-flow in addition to being perfect for search results and a huge honeypot for attracting new users. There's only one problem: Periscope videos currently disappear after 24 hours, a feature that Sacca calls "heartbreaking," and concerning to him as an investor. "Each of those videos would otherwise be interesting and watchable for a long time to come, but now they are gone.""All broadcasts on Periscope need to be archived for playback permanently, unless the broadcaster chooses to delete the recording," he says.This vision for Periscope runs contrary to the current trend of ephemeral social media content, epitomized by Snapchat's disappearing photos and videos. Perhaps the bigger opportunity, at least in Sacca's view, is for Periscope to be more like YouTube, a repository of evergreen videos that attract a steady stream of eyeballs and advertising dollars. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitters-ipo-on-the-nyse-2013-11">What It Was Like On The Trading Floor During Twitter's IPO</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="phamt4ZzpxeEsH-ezdBXWahE3cdQ6_dg" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Here's how Twitter could make money from its Periscope acquisition

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Real Vision Television Raoul Pal.</div></div></div>Raoul Pal comanaged the GLG Global Macro Fund for GLG Partners and retired at 36 in 2004. Since then, Pal launched <a href="http://www.globalmacroinvestor.com/index.asp">Global Macro Investor</a> and <a href="https://realvisiontv.com/channel/realvision/videos">Real Vision TV</a>, a sort of "Netflix for finance," according to the website. His newest venture, <a href="https://www.realvision.com/publications">Real Vision Publications</a>, launched earlier this month and aims to bring independent financial research to the average investor.Business Insider recently caught up with Pal to learn about his thoughts on the market going into 2017 and the launch of his new business. The following a lightly edited transcript of the conversation. Wadhwa: Towards the end of the last year, you predicted a recession and you were actually quite bearish on the market compared with a lot of other analysts. Now that Trump is President and the markets are rallying, do you agree with the market's reaction, or do you think this is just the calm before the storm?Pal: I think it's almost impossible to assess the impact that the new Trump administration will have on the US economy or the global economy, and for the markets to extrapolate some future Ronald Reagan within a few days after he was elected is naive and somewhat dangerous. So the speculative positioning in many parts of the market, be they <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-funds-positioning-for-trump-2017-1">short bonds or long oil, and many of these things are now so far extreme that we've never seen this kind of positioning in the history of financial markets</a>. So all I'm saying is the economy is relatively strong right now. It's stronger than I expected. It was very weak at the beginning of last year and it's stronger than I expected, but I think everybody is betting on it remaining strong and for the markets to be in a kind of low volatility, goldilocks state going forward. I think the probability of that is low. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image">Eric Schultz/APPresident Donald Trump holds up his book "The Art of the Deal" during a presidential campaign stop.</div></div></div>I think the probability of the volatility coming out of the administration of which nobody understands what they're trying to do or what the impacts are. Nobody understands what the impact of higher tariffs on trade means for the US dollar. If it means the US dollar goes up, then global trade falls. There are so many linkages and I'm not sure they are all thought through. And I think that's one of the issues we need to face, trying to assess the actual risk to these things rather than just assuming that a few tax cuts and fiscal stimulus will make America great again. It's much more complicated and nuanced than what the markets are expecting right now. Wadhwa: So are you long volatility? Do you expect it go up? Pal: The problem is, the market is record short volatility. And record short Vix ETFs and record Vix futures and their implied investment strategies are also short volatility strategies. So the market has taken a huge bet that volatility is not going to return. So there is a problem should the generalized level of volatility rise, it could cause enormous portfolio unwind and other stresses within the system. So we need to keep our eye on that right now. A small event could trigger a much larger event right now.Wadhwa: Over 2016 the dollar index strengthened significantly. What's your view on dollar strength going into 2017? Pal: My view remains that Trump's policies of repatriation of profits and restriction of free trade are very dollar positive. If we take into account the dollar short position offshore in the Euro-dollar market, ie the Euro dollar interest rate market, which is about $10 trillion, the balance of probability remains that the dollar goes higher. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/license/617289772">Justin Merriman/Getty Images</a>Raoul Pal expects the dollar to strengthen.</div></div></div>It won't do it in a straight line but it has been correcting recently and I think the dollar strength trend will continue. And I think it will go much further than people expect. Wadhwa: What's your outlook for the European banking system, particularly in Germany and Italy? Given the political climate and key upcoming elections, how do you see this playing out?Pal: Everybody expects something to happen in European elections. People expects Le Pen to win, people expect changes in Germany, so I'm not sure there are tradable events there. We also know that the European banking system is insolvent, we know the Italian system is insolvent, we know the Spanish system is relatively insolvent, we know Deutsche Bank is insolvent. All I know is that if we have a recession, then everything becomes unsustainable. If we don't have a recession, everything can just about pull its way through, slowly. Wadhwa: What's your outlook for China? Do you think a devaluation of the yuan will solve China's problems?Pal: This is something that most people are expecting, and something the Chinese themselves are expecting, so whether this devaluation comes quickly or slowly, it's not new news for the market. We've all been following this story for the last five years or so. All I do know is that it continues to add pressure for the US dollar to rise because the Chinese want to get their assets into US dollars and out of renminbi. Wadhwa: What do you see as the biggest risk to the global economy in 2017?<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image">Thomson ReutersHedge funds are betting on copper.</div></div></div>Pal: The biggest risk always to the global economy is recession. The biggest question is whether or not we get a recession in 2017. All I do know is that after a two term government has changed and a new government has come in, regardless of which side of the house they're from, there's a 100% chance of recession, dating back to 1910, within 12 months. That doesn't mean it's definitely going to happen, but there's a very high probability of there being a recession.Wadhwa: Given that forecast, what risks should investors be taking and what they should avoid?Pal: They should avoid group think. Don't do what everybody else is doing. If everybody else is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-funds-positioning-for-trump-2017-1">short bonds, long equities, long oil, long copper</a>, then don't do those things, is the simplest answer. Look for other sources of return so they're not so crowded as everybody else's because those are the ones where the maximum risk lies. It may just be a short-term reversal, but the reversal can be very painful if too many people are involved in a certain trade.Wadhwa: You've talked before about your frustration with the poor forecasting records by the Fed and Wall Street economists. What do you think they are doing wrong and how can they improve?Pal: People within the industry are incredibly concerned about the Fed using economic models that don't work in the real world. Model based economics is proven not to work. It's one of the reasons we got in trouble with the financial crisis. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Gary CameronFederal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.</div></div></div>It's one of the reasons we have this enormous balance sheet that the central bank has, one of the reasons why rates went negative, it's all theoretical model based economics. And the real solution I believe is with the advent of big data and the development of behavioral economics, we could be much better in truly understanding how economies actually work by looking at the data and not models. That's a big shift that needs to come. Aside from that, the other key thing the Federal Reserve forgets is that there is a business cycle. Economies do ebb and flow, and their models never forecast that which is why they are always wrong. Tina Wadhwa: Can you tell me more about this expansion of Real Vision TV into the publishing arena and what you are trying to achieve?Raoul Pal: When we started Real Vision TV, we realized that it was a great opportunity to disrupt financial television. Financial TV was going towards sound bytes and advertising, and they were losing the seriousness of the finance business in it. They treated finance as entertainment. And it wasn't fair to people to treat their own life savings as entertainment. We knew we could do something better and different, although we knew absolutely nothing about the media industry.When we started that, we also realized how low quality much of the research publications were for the average guy. They were all getting spammed to death, given sensationalist headlines by numerous newsletter writers and they weren't get access to the best quality Wall Street research or the high-end research providers like myself. So we thought there was a real opportunity to do something better, to give people the quality of information. Just because they are the average investor, doesn't mean they should get average research. So that was the idea behind the publication, and we spent nine months developing it, building a platform out for it and finally launched it about a month ago.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://vimeo.com/118191235">Real Vision Television</a></div></div></div>Wadhwa: Who's your target audience?Pal: The target audience is basically anybody involved in financial markets. Professionals are generally well catered for already, but a lot of it is the bulk of the average investor, the RIA in America, the guy who invests from home, people who invest their life savings, the average guy from those 100 million brokerage accounts in America. They deserve better research. They deserve better trade ideas, they deserve to understand the world better. So that's why we started the publication. And we've gone about it in a really unique way. We're showcasing 30 of the world's best writers, and giving people examples of a fantastic array of people. Some charge up to $40,000 or $50,000 a year for their research, others charge maybe $300 a year per research. Combined, you're never going to get that depth or breadth of information in one place, and it's only $300 a year. Basically for someone to replace one of their existing newsletters, they can get 30 of the best people in the world for the same price. We think the value proposition is ludicrously good.Wadhwa: How does it work exactly? What are you offering for the subscription price? Pal: What happens is once you sign up, you can visit the site whenever you want. We release something like two pieces of research a week, plus some bonus editions. They are all on this beautiful engaging platform where you can take notes, you can comment on it, exchange views with others, rate the quality, and actively engage with the content.Wadhwa: You touched on this a little bit with the bias and sensationalism you see, but in your opinion, what's wrong with bank research and why?Pal: Having come from that business myself and understanding what it's like, bank research is very cautious in how it is written. The inherent bias in bank research is that they don't really want to be negative because it doesn't play well to investment banking customers, where a lot of their revenue comes from. You can't really say things that you mean. You have to be very cautious of the vested interests, particularly out of the M&amp;A business. So what you end up with is research that doesn't really play its purpose, which is to get the smartest people in the bank to tell you what's going on in the world. It tends to get slightly watered down. And so there's an opportunity, which is why I have an independent research publication called Macro Investor. I can speak differently in a different way and I can be free in my thoughts.Real Vision publication is not really for the bank research business - it's for that newsletter business, which is huge, but below the radar screen. It's virtually unregulated and you can make a 1000% return in a month. We think people deserve better. You need to treat people with respect and dignity, and I don't think it's being done right now. Those newsletters are the way the average guy gets his research, and they're not really good research services. The people who write them don't have a track record in the industry, they kind of come out of nowhere and start writing stuff. We think people deserve better than that.It's been one of the most incredible launches we've ever had. 40% of the Real Vision client base for Real Vision television signed up to the publication in three weeks. It's like there was a desperate pent up demand for this type of thing, so it's been astonishingly well received. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-finance-coinbase-buy-sell-trade-bitcoin-app-coinbase-2017-1">Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="8xa3Z1ODE6jmPca8bIn4JsdTak2saJbY" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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