Current Press Releases
CHINESE TV PERSONALITY VIVI LIN JOINS HANDS WITH HOLLYWOOD-BASED FOTV ON TECH INNOVATION COVERAGE
LOS ANGELES, CA (October 19, 2016) – Hollywood-based FOTV Media Networks has partnered with Vivi Lin, award-winning Chinese TV personality and founder of Hong Kong-based VIVI Media Group, to develop a video series Vivi in the Valley, featuring technological innovation, profiling inventors, visionaries and entrepreneurs—from hologram, augmented reality, artificial intelligence to driverless cars, and more.
The new series in development Vivi in the Valley is set to bring the startup and investor communities from China and the United States in sync with their passion for innovation. Their premier China pilot featuring billionaire innovator Alki David drew over four million China internet viewers which helped the team nail deals with China’s top media distributors and platforms, including Caixin Media, the equivalent of New York Times for the Chinese market; Iqiyi, the likes of Netflix for China; and CCTV’s digital channels and local networks such as Hunan TV International Channel.
The show groups some of the industry’s most starry members, including sponsor FOTV Media Networks’ billionaire founder David; VIVI Media Group founder and former Reuter’s China journalist/TV host Vivi Lin; consultant, Emmy award-winning marketing executive and director Robert Acosta; and former UN journalist and Huffington Post writer Anna Shen. The show in progress is scheduled to distribute in the United States and China.
The series creator and host Lin sees the synergies in technology innovation and cooperation between China and the United States as a step in the right direction of unifying two major world powers to make the world a better place. “Making life easier, more meaningful, and giving validation to people with brilliant ideas with a chance of sharing their genius with millions in China and America—this truly is the core of working as a team with respect for the better good of all mankind”, says Lin.
Ms. Lin will be traveling throughout the Silicon Valley and the rest of the world as each show is to be profiling the most creative minds in frontier technologies, such as robotic design both in the B2B and B2C space; hologram technologies from exhibition to live stage performances; VR gaming designers who have fueled the multi-billion-dollar business with the most innovative 3D real time creations for entertainment; driverless cars that changes the way people commute.
David also believes this show will open doors for global startups who plan to enter the Chinese market, and it is for Chinese investors who are looking to capture investment opportunities.
“It is a show to inspire millions and to connect the two startup and investment worlds between China and the United States”, says Lin, the creator of the show.
TV PERSONALITY AIMS TO CONNECT SILICON VALLEY WITH CHINA VIA SHOW
By Andy Hsiao, writer
(Vivi Lin is an award-winning Chinese TV personality, producer and entrepreneur. She is the creator and host of Vivi in the Valley, a video series featuring global innovators who aim to connect startup and investor communities of China with the rest of the world.)
The making of Vivi Lin
Shanghai, China (Oct. 24, 2016) Vivi Lin, phone in her hand, peeped her head forward, looking over the shoulders of her marketing director Dennis Yu, and into what was on a screen. He was explaining to her how the upcoming episode of their show, Vivi In the Valley, would benefit greatly from a change of pace in segment transitioning; a miniscule change, it would seem to most, but to Lin, the executive producer and host of the show, a tweak that could very well alter and further refine the clockwork of this vast media machinery she aspired to build. She listened attentively, and one could always tell she did because her brows would lower — a habit she too had noticed from seeing herself on screen from her time as a TV reporter. Lin had been a reporter with Reuters — where she had won multiple awards including Best Exclusives — and, later, CCTV, the state-owned television network in China as a financial anchor.
For a long time, Lin was content with her success; being a journalist, after all, had been a dream she frequented in her mind since she was a little girl and, when the opportunity arose, she was galvanized at all the possibilities it would lead to and seized it with a clasp of her hands. Delving tentatively first into this world of unknown waters and the reward was just as promising and exciting as she had expected. She had been reporting on the Chinese financial markets non-stop from Monday to Saturday live on national television, which made her a household name in China.
But years later, pacing around her high-rise apartment in Shanghai, she had found new challenges and a new horizon to explore. About a year ago, Lin was invited to host the annual Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum in China. Several prominent women, including former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and leading female business figures, spoke at the forum of their pasts and aspirations with such fervor and vitality that led Lin to ponder in thoughts for several days to come. She was most inspired by Lenovo Senior Vice President Gina Qiao, who was rated one of the most powerful executives in a male- dominated industry. She did not learn English until she was 40. At the summit, she spoke in fluent English about the challenging moments she faced, representing Lenovo in the negotiations with IBM — she had to carry an English dictionary with her the entire time during the process. Qiao spoke of comfort zones and the importance of challenging oneself to stepping out of it.
“Her words on comfort zones hit me like a light bolt,” said Lin.
A Show to Connect East with West, and much more
Lin left her anchoring job not long after that and founded VIVI Media Group, a company that aims to bridge China’s startup and investor communities with their counterparts from the rest of the world, with the power of multimedia and connection. Its flagship program, Vivi in the Valley, is a weekly show featuring entrepreneurs equipped with frontier technologies that could change the world – most of them based in Silicon Valley. The show is narrated in both English and Mandarin Chinese, targeting both the Chinese and international audiences. The first pilot episode, featuring innovator Alki David, who’s made his name in hologram technology, became an instant hit in China, with over four million views online.
Vivi in the Valley is so much more than just a show,” Lin said. “It is a platform to connect the startup and entrepreneur communities between China and the U.S.”. While the innovators and startups featured in the show may inspire their Chinese counterparts, they are expected to receive intensive media exposure in the Chinese markets with millions of views per episode, and ultimately attract interests from the Chi“Apart from producing shows like Vivi in the Valley, VIVI Media Group is there to help international startups entering the Chinese market with a soft landing”, says Dennis Yu, the Marketing Director.
“Apart from producing shows like Vivi in the Valley, VIVI Media Group is there to help international startups entering the Chinese market with a soft landing”, says Yu, the Marketing Director.
Lin has secured deals with Caixin Media, one of China’s most respected financial media, known to many as the equivalent of Wall Street Journal or New York Times of China; and Iqiyi, one of China’s most popular video websites, or the Chinese Netflix, as some market observers put it. The show will be aired on the top two platforms in China.
“It will be a win-win for all,” says Lin, referring to the media distributors, guests featured in the show and also the viewers.
“We are all meant to shine”
Behind the mahogany desk in Lin’s study room hung a small red frame that held the poem “Our Deepest Fear” by Marianne Williamson. It was one of the few things everyone who came to her house would notice. She credited the poem, which was introduced to her by her former colleague, to be the source of her daring and venturesome attitude toward life. Every now and then, but most notably during high noon, the sun would seep through the window blinds, illuminating the glass of the frame into a brilliant crimson, making the top half of the frame illegible from the glare.
“We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” wrote the poem. “Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world…We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.”
Somewhere outside one of her showrunners cried out for her. Then her phone rang. They were by a van that was parked out on the driveway, waiting for her. Lin yelled back, and started for the door. The van drove away toward the Huangpu River, leaving behind it the big blue Shanghai sky that overlooked the place where many who were just as daring had found a place for people like them.
