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
Not masses. Tech giants have a huge market, but sell lots of less expensive things. Their profits balloon due to sales volume.
Exclusive fashion has a much smaller market, and much higher production cost (mostly labour), but the markup is absurd because of exclusivity. And lets be realistic, once you have enough money to buy top quality versions of the things the masses buy, the next step is buying things no one (or very few others) will have. Luxury brands do production items, but also limited editions and single editions. Add a few zeroes to the price with every level of exclusivity.
Short answer, yes. Long answer, yes and it has been that way for a very long time.
There are only so many tech products a person will buy in their lifetimes. Peak income for the typical middle-high income earner is going to be in their late 40s to mid 50s. At those ages, discretionary spending is not likely to be tech-biased.
These brands are *affordable* luxury.
https://www.tiffany.com/gifts/shop/gifts-for-dad/price-0-500/
The price of the highball glasses is lower than the price of AirPods.
Correlation does not mean causation. Arnault has more money and Arnault owns an empire of luxury does not mean luxury is worth more than tech.
For starters, Bezos, Musk and Gates don’t own 100% of Amazon, Tesla and Microsoft.
Everyone is missing the vary obvious answer here. Tech giants are worth more than luxury fashion companies. Louis Vuitton, which is the largest company Bernard Arnault owns, is only worth [$47.2 Billion](https://www.forbes.com/companies/louis-vuitton/?sh=298727d36dbe). Where as for example Amazon is worth over [$1 Trillion](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-is-officially-worth-1-trillion-joining-other-tech-titans-2020-02-04).
The reason Bernard Arnault is worth so much money is not because fashion is more valuable than tech. It’s because the super wealthy tech giant owners mostly only own one company. 80% of Jeff Bezos net worth is from his ownership in Amazon. Where as Bernard Arnault owns over 70 companies.
That is why he is the wealthiest man in the world.
Amazon and tesla(among many other companies) are worth a good bit more than his. But he owns a larger share. Did not need as many investors to get where he is.
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.
The tech companies are worth more, but a founder’s ownership stake matters most in terms of determine personal wealth. Apple and Amazon are worth way more than LVMH, but it’s founder could and does own a much larger percentage of the company.
They’re not. Arnault was *born* rich, the son of a manufacturer. Jeff Bezos was born the son of a teen mother who was still attending high school. Not hard to win the race when you’re born first place.
The top comment is the best answer but I feel I have to address
>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.
Yes
Yes there are
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