Covid polarizes.
On the one hand, there are pragmatic and science-oriented people who recognize the risks of the coronavirus.
On the other hand, there are skeptics who refuse vaccination.
The television channel Servus TV of the Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz has been working on a reputation as a corona trivialist and conspiracy theorist since the beginning of the pandemic.
This is strange because Mateschitz believes in education.
Together with Prince Michael von und zu Liechtenstein, he launched a new media project a few months ago.
The founders want to enable professionals to publish their content extensively, unadulterated and apart from current political debates in order to provide new perspectives on current issues.
Michaela Seiser
Business correspondent for Austria and Hungary based in Vienna.
Follow I follow
The task is defined as "to provide fact-based information and orientation in a time that is characterized by excitement journalism, shortening and exaggeration".
It is still unclear whether the concept will work - although Mateschitz knows a lot about marketing.
He is downright a legend in it.
The second richest Austrian owes his prosperity to this competence.
His fortune was last estimated by the business magazine "Forbes" at more than 16 billion euros.
Mateschitz is a pioneer in content marketing.
He built a conglomerate around the stimulant drink Red Bull, which he sells all over the world, in order to strengthen the brand.
A skilled marketer
In addition to numerous media participations, he runs the Formula 1 racing team of the same name, Bundesliga club RB Leipzig and finances extreme athletes such as Felix Baumgartner. He jumped out of space in front of the cameras almost ten years ago to set a world record. In free fall, the parachutist raced towards the earth, broke the sound barrier and landed unharmed. The action went too far for many. Red Bull justified the leap with the scientific benefit that results from evaluating the data. In addition, it is an attempt to inspire people to dare great things. The 50 million euros that the group has invested here were well invested: the brand has never had so much attention.
Their rise began more than a quarter of a century ago. At that time, after a career as a marketing manager, Mateschitz founded Red Bull GmbH with his Thai business partner Chaleo Yoovidhya and his son Chalerm, whose headquarters are in Fuschl in the Salzkammergut. He still holds 49 percent of the shares there. The Thais brought in their recipe for the energy drink, the Austrians his marketing instinct. It still pays off: Despite the loss of income for many people associated with the Corona epidemic, Red Bull, with almost 13,000 employees, sold around 7.9 billion beverage cans last year. Gross revenues rose by 4.6 percent to 7.6 billion euros, while net revenues rose by 3.9 percent to 6.3 million euros. A high double-digit return on sales brought Mateschitz a whopping dividend.