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

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

Ms. Yang, the new head of Country Garden, topped the list with 121.1 billion RMB, becoming mainland China's first female richest person.

Notably, she is a post-80s, one year younger than Seeing Yan Li.

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

She was even less impressive than Mr. Li from Shanxi Province, who, after his father's passing, became the actual power holder of the group, with all assets under his control.

As in the previous year, the real estate industry maintained a strong advantage: four of the top ten were real estate tycoons, and two others had real estate as one of their main businesses.

Another dominant industry 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 about 1.75 billion RMB.

Seeing Yan Li remained on the list; his wealth from film and internet ventures doubled from last year's 1.185 billion to 2.04 billion RMB, crossing the 2-billion mark.

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

Seeing Yan Li's "explosive" wealth growth mainly came from internet investments like Tudou. com, as well as Yi'an Film and Yi'an Cinema Chain.

Taking Yi'an Cinema Chain as an example, his actual investment exceeded 500 million RMB; even with limited valuation, it was worth at least 600 to 700 million RMB.

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

As for Tudou. com, his Series B equity stake was valued at 200 to 300 million U. S. dollars and likely to be realized, making his shares worth roughly 400 to 500 million RMB.

Yi'an, as an industry giant, even if film is a light-asset business with inflated valuations, compared to Huayi Brothers' last round valuation of 1.2 to 1.5 billion, it should be worth at least 800 million to 1 billion RMB.

Combined, these added up to nearly 2 billion RMB, not counting the massive gains Seeing Yan Li made in the stock market.

Adding other assets, Seeing Yan Li could confidently say again that Forbes had underestimated him.

But unlike before, when he needed to make bold claims to boost his fame, he no longer needed to fight over this.

High or low, it's close enough!

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

This isn't surprising: with economic growth, everyone's wealth rose quickly; this year's entry threshold became 1.5 billion RMB, up from 800 million last year—an almost twofold increase.

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

Compared to last year, when Seeing 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 internet.

This was the advantage of owning a super information platform: control over publicity channels.

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

Alongside the rich list, the celebrity list was released, and Fan Xiaopang and other Yi'an artists shone brightly.

Fan Xiaopang ranked seventh in income last year, dropped to eighth this year with an annual income of 32 million RMB.

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 Xiaopang.

It wasn't that Fan Xiaopang was weak; it was that those three earned massive U. S. dollars and suffered from being confined to the domestic market.

Even in exposure rankings, Fan Xiaopang broke into the top three, ranking first among artists, surpassed only by Yao and Liu Feiren, 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 might lack in one area, but in fame, influence, and earning power combined, no other female artist could claim a clear edge over her.

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

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

Besides Fan and Zhang, all four Dan and two Bing performed well; even Xu Cai'nu, though still at the bottom, wasn't far behind, maintaining the status of the Four Dan and Two Bing.

That's why being tied together matters: even if you're not strong, you still benefit from the others' success—just the name alone is valuable.

Not to mention Xu Cai'nu's "talented woman" 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 the top male lead, earning 8.2 million RMB through films like "Sweet Sweet" and "Assembly," breaking into 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 foundation could never have matched them.

Of course, helping Deng Chao wasn't just Yi'an—his girlfriend Sun Li also played a role.

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

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

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

Liu Huohua and Tong Dawei weren't ugly and had their own charm, but they weren't considered traditional handsome men; Huang Xiaoming and Deng Chao, however, were widely recognized as handsome.

Don't underestimate this: men who fit the public's ideal of handsomeness held greater advantages in popularity, business, and career.

Of the so-called Four Top Male Leads, only Huang and Deng could 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, who had good looks and potential threats, 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 and 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 through Chu Liuxiang, the latter, Yi'an's second female lead, steadily advanced, both surpassing 5 million RMB in income.

Zhang Zhilin's performance was also solid, even stronger, but he was excluded this year because Hong Kong and Taiwan artists weren't included.

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

Of course, many who didn't make the list earned more, and the list figures weren't always accurate—it had reference value but didn't represent everything.

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

Seeing Yan Li no longer directly gave money to Qin and Dong; instead, he handed them some small businesses he couldn't manage himself.

It gave them something to do and some income.

For instance, the Yi'an internet cafe business—collecting payments and all that—was handed over to Qin Lan to manage.

Twelve internet cafes spread across Beijing's various districts generated substantial cash flow each year after deducting utilities, labor, dividends, taxes, and other miscellaneous expenses.

Most of this money went to Seeing Yan Li, with a small portion set aside by Qin Lan for savings and household use.

Dong Xuan handled property management, and Seeing Yan Li had already accumulated a considerable amount of real estate.

Annual rent and occasional low-buy-high-sell speculation brought in several million yuan—even if not quite ten million—and after subtracting expenses and interest, the remainder was under her control.

Of course, a few properties were known only to Seeing Yan Li; these were his operational bases, while the bulk entrusted to Dong Xuan were investment assets.

Much of the money used to buy property came from the internet cafe revenues; Seeing Yan Li considered that once Dong and Qin's relationship improved, he could directly connect them, eliminating his middleman hassle.

So despite not appearing on any lists, both Qin and Dong could certainly be called wealthy women.

Other women, such as Huo Siyan, Jiang Xin, and Yang Rong, failed to make any lists.

These women's official incomes were still somewhat lacking, and Huo and Yang were rather lazy, showing little initiative in earning money.

Huang Shengyi, however, this junior sister, became wildly popular thanks to "The Legend of the Heavenly Match," and leveraged the labels of "Star Girl" and "Seeing Yan Li's Ex-Girlfriend" to fuel intense public discussion and advertising deals, driven by opportunistic promoters, earning herself a fortune.

But how much of that money she actually kept was known only to her and her partners.

Seeing Yan Li paid extra attention to Huang—not because he intended anything, but because this junior sister, without any prior notice, registered on Weibo and became even more active than on her blog; the Weibo Goddess herself even posted a tweet urging votes for her.

Regardless of her motives, since it benefited Weibo, Seeing Yan Li noted it as a plus and turned a blind eye to her occasional attempts to piggyback on his popularity.

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

If anyone was truly bothered by this matter, it wasn't him—it was Huang's current partner…

…

Seeing Yan Li didn't spend much effort on Forbes, and even pushed the Weibo Goddess's ranking further down.

Since entering the twelfth lunar month, cold rain and snowstorms had struck multiple regions across the country, disrupting transportation and creating the most difficult Spring Festival travel season yet.

Under these conditions, Weibo, with its efficient information aggregation and dissemination, immediately demonstrated an absolute advantage over other internet platforms and traditional media.

As the situation escalated, Seeing Yan Li directly established a command center on Weibo, coordinating with multiple agencies and regions to consolidate information.

He then published relevant maps on Weibo to warn returning travelers and help them avoid trouble, while also marking locations needing assistance and listing material demands to aid staff and volunteers.

According to rough estimates, Weibo's real-time connectivity reduced critical rescue response times by 30–50% and decreased redundant donations and aid caused by information gaps.

This was still under the constraints of desktop and mobile access, plus relatively few Weibo users; if Weibo had been mobile-only, efficiency could have been even greater.

This was merely technical rescue; Weibo also made significant contributions in public relations.

For instance, real-time updates on trapped individuals allowed the public to clearly understand the situation, easing panic among those stranded and their families.

Simultaneously, positive promotion of staff, volunteers, and related personnel united public morale and rallied the entire nation to combat the snowstorm together.

It could be said that Weibo played a major role in this crisis—and gained a major opportunity in return.

During this period of nationwide focus on the snowstorm, Weibo's frontline efforts prompted countless netizens to join the platform, causing its user base to skyrocket.

The original goal of one million users before the Spring Festival had been shattered long ago; now, three million might not even be enough.

Especially as the Spring Festival approached, public attention to travel issues intensified; Weibo proved far more efficient and precise than traditional media, spreading rapidly—word of mouth multiplied tenfold, then a hundredfold, making user growth impossible to contain.