I was surprised to see Bernard Arnault as the richest man in the world, above Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates. He owns an empire of fashion and jewelry brands like LV, Givenchy, Tiffany Co. etc. as well as luxury booze companies like Moet and Hennesey.
How are fashion and jewelry businesses worth more than tech and innovation in the year 2021?
Are there really masses out there spending all there disposable income on 500 dollar t shirts and 6 thousand dollar bags? Flexing on Instagram and popping bottles in the club. I’ve seen the type on Instagram, but I thought surely they must be a minority, and not large enough a market to top giants like Elon Musk and Amazon. I must be really out of the loop.
In: Economics
You’re assuming he is only in fashion and luxury. He is also in media, music and entertainment if I remember correctly. He is quite diverse.
Wealthiest men get their worth evaluated mostly through their stock shares. Stock prices reflect hypes of investors at the moment. It’s not any real dollar until the shareholder sell it and someone wants to buy it. They don’t take the accountant report when they calculate those flashy headlines about richest men. It’s all just tabloid reporting really.
Besides the amount of shares they have in their respective companies may differ.
Tech companies worth is inflated by the hype of investors (example : Tesla vs General Motors despite massive differences in sales, assets and everything really).
There are two industries which are basically hype machines : Entertainment and Luxury. Bernard Arnault is big in both.
Besides he is quite the predator, aggressively trying to take over companies only to resell them later. As far as I am aware Musk and Gates aren’t known as such predators.
He is also very very close from the French executive which probably helps him get quite a lot of information and nudge policies his way (out of the last 3 president, he was the best man at President Sarkozy’s wedding during his term, he had President Holland to inaugurate stuff for him, the current first lady was his kids literature teacher in high school).
PS : the bread and butter of the fashion industry isn’t the expensive designer dress, it’s all the cunts who bought a 360€ Louis Vuitton face mask. If you think that’s stupid, remember how much you pay for an Apple logo or a few LEDs on a Razor or Alienware product. Welcome to branding.
Latest Answers