Yesterday and today, the most discussed topic online is still Zhang Xuefeng's sudden death. His career and his estate are hot topics of concern for netizens. Some media outlets have investigated the companies he is associated with and estimated his assets to be between 500 million and 1 billion yuan.
What impressed me most was the college application guidance service, which cost 12,000-18,000 yuan per session. To be honest, this was beyond my understanding of this business. I always thought that the price of this type of product was in the range of 3,000-5,000 yuan. It is surprising that ordinary families are willing to spend 1-2 months' income just to buy an information gap service.
Isn't asking AI enough for this? Use Doubao and Yuanbao (or, if you have a VPN), and ask chatgpt, gemin, and grok (all sorts of other tools) to cross-verify and find the intersection. That should give you a pretty good idea of the answer. AI will destroy all businesses that rely on information asymmetry. Its efficiency in information gathering and analysis is unparalleled. Unless your exclusive information isn't online, even the most brilliant experts can't escape this information revolution.
Of the services costing over 10,000 yuan, the only thing AI can't replace is face-to-face anxiety relief. Many parents subconsciously buy these services to shirk responsibility; they've paid the money, so they feel they've done their best for their child, even if the child faces setbacks in studies or employment later. Giving free AI this responsibility seems insincere. My suggestion is to let the child communicate with the AI themselves, expressing their preferences and future aspirations, allowing them to find suitable answers through dialogue.
The following is Gemini's operational approach, which should only cost two or three hundred yuan.
I'm not saying this out of envy for Zhang Xuefeng's high earnings. The era when he made his fortune didn't have such advanced AI tools. The world is changing, and everyone has to look forward. I still maintain that all businesses that rely on information asymmetry will be destroyed in the future, unless your information is completely disconnected from the internet.
There has been another significant development in the US-Iran situation. Simply put, the US plans a one-month ceasefire, and then, through an intermediary (most likely Pakistan), will offer Iran a peace negotiation proposal.
The US demands four points in this proposal: 1. Hand over enriched uranium and abandon nuclear weapons; 2. Limit missile range; 3. Cease support for neighboring armed groups (Houthi, Hezbollah, Hamas); 4. Open the Strait of Hormuz.
The US commitments to Iran include: 1. Complete lifting of sanctions against Iran , including the removal of the so-called "snapback" sanctions mechanism. 2. US and Israeli support for Iran's civilian nuclear energy program.
This was actually the agreement being negotiated before the war, the only difference being the addition of the Strait of Hormuz. At the time, Iran didn't agree halfway through the negotiations, Israel obtained intelligence, and launched a surprise attack, assassinating Haftar. Now that the US doesn't want to fight anymore, they're bringing up the old agreement to renegotiate.
As of the time of writing, this is still only a unilateral initiative by the United States. Iran has not officially announced its agreement to negotiations, but they have stated that they are unwilling to talk to Kushner (Trump's son-in-law) because the US killed Haftar during previous negotiations, and there is no longer a basis for trust between the two sides. It is said that they would prefer to talk to Vance, who is a potential next president, and if a deal is reached, it would be beneficial to long-term stability.
Judging from the development of the situation, the capital market believes that regardless of the final outcome, the US and Iran have an opportunity to sit down and talk, and at least in the short term, there is no need to worry about the situation escalating further. Brent crude oil prices have plummeted by 7%, and at the latest, I checked and it's around $95. Gold has rebounded by nearly 2%, returning to around $4550, and silver is currently around $73.
The above explains the background to today's gap-up opening in the A-share market. Otherwise, with a daily trading volume of around 2 trillion yuan, it wouldn't have been possible to achieve such momentum. Although there was a small dip during the session, the market rebounded in the afternoon, ultimately closing near the intraday high. The downward gap from the day before yesterday has been filled, and today an upward gap remains. Based on historical experience, the probability of filling such a gap within five trading days is quite high.
The current market is greatly affected by geopolitical situations. Due to the time difference between China and the United States, any policy changes in the United States occur in the middle of the night in our city. Therefore, it is common to wake up to a completely different situation. Recently, short-term traders have been less willing to hold positions overnight.
1. Pop Mart's stock price plummeted 22%. They released their financial results today: revenue of 37.1 billion yuan was somewhat disappointing, while net profit of 12.78 billion yuan was slightly higher than market expectations. There are two reasons for the sharp drop. First, the reliance on the Labubu series has increased, accounting for 38% of total revenue last year. The performance of other IPs has fallen short of expectations; the older ones are no longer effective, and the new ones haven't stepped up. This is actually a common problem in the content industry; blockbuster hits are difficult to replicate using a formula.
The second reason is that the company boss said that they would operate steadily in the future and strive to achieve a revenue growth rate of no less than 20% by 2026. This statement has shaken up the market's mentality. Last year, the revenue growth rate was 184%, and funds rushed in frantically, pricing Pop Mart as a super-prosperous growth stock. Now, hearing the boss say that he would strive for 20%, people's hearts sank, and they turned around and dumped their shares and ran away.
Longtime readers know I have a bias against content industry stocks. Even though everyone is pessimistic about them, they consistently underperform, with a dismal track record; the entire sector is a disaster. Actually, it's not just in China; content stocks in the US aren't great either. Disney's stock price hasn't risen in 10 years, which is practically a crime in the US stock market.
2. Today, during trading, the State Administration for Market Regulation forwarded an article from the Economic Daily titled "The Food Delivery War Should End." The title itself reveals the content. Meituan's stock price surged 13% intraday, returning to 90 yuan. Alibaba and JD.com also rose nearly 5%. If the food delivery subsidy war truly ends, these three companies still have room for further gains.
3. SpaceX plans to file for an IPO as early as this week, aiming to raise $75 billion, valuing the company at $1.25 trillion. If successful, this would be the largest IPO in history, far exceeding Saudi Aramco's previous $29.4 billion IPO. This could stimulate the domestic commercial space sector.
4. Today, everyone in the industry is talking about a scandal: a female researcher at Cinda Securities was sexually assaulted by the deputy director of her research institute. She managed to escape and reported the incident to the police. The deputy director has now been criminally detained. I read the female researcher's post accusing the man; he started groping her in the car and tried to drag her to his room in the hotel lobby, even though she clearly refused.
This behavior is outrageous. Even if he wanted to seduce a female subordinate, shouldn't he have at least asked her questions or made suggestive remarks, and only proceeded further after receiving a response? How can someone just come up and try to force themselves on her? The man is a financial elite with a doctorate, yet he acts like a completely brainless brute.
This reminds me of a clip from when Zhang Xuefeng connected with netizens. The father said his daughter wanted to study finance and asked about the career prospects. Zhang Xuefeng asked him with a half-smile, "Is your daughter pretty?"
There are few purely technical positions in the financial industry; most are service-oriented. Since these are service-oriented positions, good-looking people definitely have an advantage. Young, pretty girls in service positions are easily targeted by various people. It takes a sophisticated and intelligent woman to protect herself while also managing various conflicts effectively.
Original Article: View Chinese Version
