Chapter 306: At Twenty-Seven, Net Worth 2 Billion

January 20, 2007, the Forbes China Rich List for 2007 was released.

Yang, the new head of Country Garden, topped the list with 121. billion RMB, becoming mainland China's first female billionaire.

Notably, she is an 80s-born, one year younger than Yan Li.

However, her status as a successor diluted her halo, and everyone knew who the true master of Country Garden was.

She pales in comparison to Li, the boss in Shanxi Province—after his father's passing, he became the actual power holder, with all assets under his control.

As last year, the real estate industry still held strong advantages: four of the top ten were real estate tycoons, and two others had real estate as one of their main businesses.

Another dominant sector was home appliance retail, with the bosses of Gome and Suning both making the top ten.

The internet giant was Baidu's Li, ranked twenty-first with an estimated net worth of 1. 5 billion RMB.

Yan Li remained on the list; his wealth from film and internet ventures nearly doubled from last year's 1. 85 billion to 2. 4 billion RMB.

Perhaps due to his fame, Yan Li even saw a dedicated profile about his net worth in the Forbes report.

Yan Li's wealth surge primarily came from internet investments like Tudou and his film ventures, Yi'an Pictures and Yi'an Cinema Chain.

Take Yi'an Cinema Chain: his direct investment exceeded 500 million RMB; even with conservative valuation, it was worth 600–700 million RMB.

With 40% ownership, that alone amounted to nearly 300 million RMB.

As for Tudou, its B-round funding target was 200–300 million USD, likely to be reached, making Yan Li's stake worth roughly 400–500 million RMB.

Yi'an, as an industry leader, even if the film sector is light-asset and overvalued, should still be worth 800 million to 1 billion RMB, compared to Huayi's last round valuation of 1. –1. billion RMB.

Combined, these pushed his net worth close to 2 billion RMB, not counting his stock market gains.

Add in other assets, and Yan Li could confidently say again: Forbes underestimated him.

But unlike before, when he needed to hype himself to build fame, he no longer needed to fight over this.

High or low, it's close enough!

Yet despite his wealth surge, his ranking dropped: last year he was 258th, this year 272nd, falling by over ten places.

Not surprising—economic growth accelerated everyone's wealth; this year's entry threshold rose to 1. billion RMB, up from 800 million last year, nearly doubling in a year.

Yan Li's wealth growth outpaced Forbes' list; Huayi's brothers fell off entirely, making Yan Li the sole film industry representative left.

Compared to last year, when Yan Li had to buy articles and hype himself, this year was much easier.

A simple tap from Weibo's content team generated countless reports and posts, which then exploded on Weibo and spread across the entire web.

This is the advantage of owning a super information platform: control over your own publicity channels.

Beyond Yan Li's daily self-promotion to reinforce his financial and business aura, Fan Xiaopang and others also benefited greatly from Weibo.

Released right after the rich list, the celebrity ranking saw Fan Xiaopang and other Yi'an artists shine brightly.

Fan Xiaopang ranked seventh in income last year, slipped to eighth this year with 32 million RMB annual earnings.

But excluding the three sports stars Yao, Liu, and Yi, plus pianists Lang Lang and Li Yundi,

Only three artists—Li Lianjie, Zhang Ziyi, and Gong Li—earned more than Fan.

It's not that Fan Xiaopang is weak; it's that those three earned huge sums in USD, suffering from domestic market limitations.

Even in income rankings, Fan Xiaopang ranked third in exposure and first among artists, surpassed only by Yao and Liu, who rode the Olympic wave to frenzy.

Whether she's the business queen is debatable, but as the queen of exposure, Fan Xiaopang is unquestionable.

Frankly, reaching this level, Fan Xiaopang may lag in one area, but in fame, influence, and earning power combined, no other actress could claim a clear edge over her.

Fan Xiaopang's team planned to leverage this momentum for a major promotional push, reinforcing the "Beauty" brand while highlighting "Strength."

Don't care if I win awards or if my acting's good—just look at how much money I make!!!

Besides Fan and Zhang, all four Dan and two Bing performed well; even Xu Cai'nv, though still at the bottom, held her ground, maintaining the Four Dan and Two Bing status.

That's the power of being tied together—even if you're weak, you still benefit from the others' strength; just the name alone is valuable.

Not to mention Xu Cai'nv's "Cai'nv" aura, which still appealed to literary and bourgeois brands.

Among Yi'an artists, Fan Xiaopang stood alone at the top; second was Deng Chao.

This guy lived up to Yi'an's designation of him as top male lead, earning 8. million RMB from dramas like "Sweet Sweet" and "Assembly," landing in the top fifty.

Among mainland male actors, this income was very strong—slightly behind Liu Huohua, yet ahead of Tong Dawei.

Liu Huohua had real achievements; Tong Dawei delivered the hit "Struggle" this year, and both had company backing; without Yi'an's strong support, Deng Chao's shallow roots couldn't have matched them.

Of course, Deng Chao wasn't helped only by Yi'an—his girlfriend Sun Li helped too.

This woman earned far more than Deng Chao—over 15 million RMB, nearly double his income.

Among young actresses, her performance ranked just below the Four Dan and Two Bing, effectively replacing last year's Orange Sky top star, Chen Hao.

Another key point: among the Four Top Male Leads, Deng Chao belongs to the looks category.

Liu Huohua and Tong Dawei aren't ugly—they each have their own charm—but they don't fit the traditional standard of handsome; Huang Xiaoming and Deng Chao, however, are widely recognized as handsome men.

Don't underestimate this—men who match public ideals of handsomeness hold greater advantages in popularity, commercial appeal, and career growth.

Of the Four Top Male Leads, only Huang and Deng truly compete for the title of mainland's top male lead—due to both their company backing and personal qualities.

Actors like Chen Kun and Nie Yuan, though good-looking and potentially threatening, were excluded from the start.

Huang Xiaoming lived up to his title as the top of the Four Top Male Leads, earning 12 million RMB, demonstrating the market value of mainland male actors in an era dominated by Hong Kong and Taiwan stars.

Besides Fan and Deng, Qiao Zhenyu and Wang Ou also performed well—the former rose to fame with "The Legend of Chu Liuxiang," the latter, Yi'an's second female lead, steadily climbed, both surpassing 5 million RMB in income.

Zhang Zhilin also performed well, even better, but he was excluded because this year's list didn't include Hong Kong and Taiwan artists.

Overall, though still behind Huayi and Orange Sky in artist numbers, Yi'an ranked among the top.

Of course, many earned more than those on the list, and the rankings aren't always accurate—the list is useful for reference, but not definitive.

For example, Dong Xuan and Qin Lan didn't make the list, but their earnings certainly exceeded the 3 million RMB entry threshold.

Yan Li no longer directly gives Qin and Dong money; instead, he entrusts them with small businesses he can't manage himself.

It gives them something to do and some income.

For instance, Yi'an Internet Cafes—collecting payments and managing operations are handled by Qin Lan.

Twelve internet cafes spread across Beijing's districts generate substantial cash flow after deducting utilities, salaries, dividends, taxes, and miscellaneous public relations expenses.

Most of this money goes to Yan Li, with a small portion kept by Qin Lan for savings and household use.

Dong Xuan manages real estate; Yan Li has accumulated considerable property holdings.

Annual rent and occasional low-buy-high-sell speculation bring in millions, minus expenses and interest, all managed by her.

Of course, a few properties are known only to Yan Li—these are his secret bases; what he gives Dong Xuan is mostly for investment.

Much of the money used to buy property came from internet cafe income; Yan Li plans to eventually let Dong and Qin handle transactions directly, eliminating his middleman role.

So despite not appearing on the list, both Qin and Dong can rightly be called wealthy women.

Other women like Hu Siyan, Jiang Xin, and Yang Rong didn't make the list.

Their official incomes still fell short, and Hu and Yang were lazy, not actively pursuing earnings.

Huang Shengyi, however, this junior sister, skyrocketed thanks to "The Legend of the White Snake," and leveraged her labels as a Star Girl and Yan Li's ex-girlfriend to fuel endless gossip and ad deals, earning big.

But how much she actually kept? Only she and her partners know.

Yan Li paid extra attention to Huang—not because he wanted anything, but because without any prompting, she registered on Weibo, posting more actively than on her blog, and even the Weibo Goddess herself posted to vote for her.

Whatever her motives, it benefited Weibo, so Yan Li noted it as a plus and ignored her occasional free rides on his popularity.

In truth, for Yan Li, Huang was already in the past, and he'd never paid her much mind.

If this bothered anyone, it wasn't him—it was Huang's current boyfriend…

…

Yan Li didn't spend much thought on Forbes, even pushing the Weibo Goddess ranking down.

Since entering the twelfth lunar month, cold rain and snow hit many regions, disrupting transportation and creating the most difficult Spring Festival travel rush.

Under these conditions, Weibo's efficient information aggregation and dissemination instantly revealed its absolute advantage over other internet platforms and traditional media.

As the crisis expanded, Yan Li directly established a Weibo command center, coordinating multiple agencies and regions to aggregate information.

He then published maps on Weibo to warn returning travelers, helping them avoid trouble, while marking rescue locations and material needs to assist workers and volunteers.

Rough estimates showed that Weibo's real-time connectivity reduced critical rescue response times by 30–50% and cut redundant donations caused by information gaps.

This was still with desktop and mobile access, and relatively few Weibo users—if it were mobile-only, efficiency would be even higher.

This was only technical rescue; in publicity, Weibo also contributed greatly.

For example, real-time updates on trapped individuals helped the public understand the situation, easing panic among victims and families.

Simultaneously, positive promotion of workers, volunteers, and related personnel united public morale in a collective fight against the snowstorm.

Weibo delivered major help and gained a major opportunity.

During this nationwide focus on snowstorms, Weibo's frontline role drove countless netizens to join, causing its user base to skyrocket.

The original goal of 1 million users before the Spring Festival was shattered long ago; now, 3 million might not even be enough.

Especially as the Spring Festival neared, public concern over travel issues intensified; Weibo proved far more efficient and precise than traditional media, spreading rapidly—word of mouth multiplied, and user growth became unstoppable.