557 The richest man, Brother Ma and the Harem of Class 96
In the past two years, China's Internet has developed faster and faster.
In 2006, only a handful of Internet companies had a market value exceeding US$5 billion. Just one year later, several Internet companies exceeded US$10 billion.
Especially when Alibaba went public in 2007, its market value took off immediately. At the beginning of 2007, there was no sign of Alibaba in the top ten. After its listing, the market value soared by more than 28 billion US dollars.
At that time, apart from Penguin, Baidu, Hebox, and Shanda, the market value of Alibaba alone was comparable to that of other Internet companies combined.
From the second half of 2007 to the first half of 2008, Alibaba dominated the market.
Whether it is Sohu Zhang Fox, or NetEase director Ding, or Shanda Chen Tianqiao, who almost became the richest man in the mainland, or Shi Juli, who relied on melatonin to turn around.
The C position of the entire Chinese Internet is the eloquent Jack Ma from Hangzhou who looks like an alien.
Even though the "little brat" who played swordsmanship in West Lake back then could not fight, he finally formed his own power and unit, and all the Wang brothers in Huayi had to follow him.
Jack Ma once became the new big man in the entertainment industry, and even Boss Cao, who wanted to keep a low profile, was overshadowed by him.
However, Alibaba's market value basically comes from the stock market, and it is extremely watery. When it was first listed, it was regarded as a bubble by the American media.
Although there was no crash later, after entering the second half of 2008, the turmoil in the stock market passed, and Alibaba's market value continued to decline.
From its peak market value of over US$28 billion, by the summer of 2009, its market value was less than US$14 billion.
When Alibaba fell from its miracle, Penguin began to rise in an all-round way.
In fact, Penguin has already started to rise. Since the blog was launched in January 2004, Penguin has firmly ranked among the top three in the Internet market value.
Occasionally, it was surpassed by NetEase, Shanda, Baidu and other companies, but it quickly regained its position.
When blogs became the most popular social platform, and Box Games began to jointly operate games with Penguin, coupled with its own business, Penguin basically ranked first in terms of market value.
From the second half of 2005 until Alibaba went public, most of Penguin’s companies during this period were firmly ranked as the number one in terms of market capitalization on the Internet.
After the second half of 2008, penguins completely exploded.
Its own user base exceeds 100 million, and its influence spreads all over the Internet; its blog was upgraded to Weibo, supplemented by QQ personal space, and Penguin completely monopolized the social platform; and Box Games launched "World of Warcraft", "Dungeon Fighter", "Cross Fire" and many other games
Popular games, becoming the most outstanding game company; deploying in music, news, video websites, browsers and other fields...
If Alibaba's success comes from the stock market, then the outbreak of Penguin is a visible success project.
This also caused Penguin's market value to go crazy. In the second half of 2008, it overtook Alibaba, which was still at its peak. Since 2009, it has even surpassed Alibaba.
By June 2009, Penguin's market value had exceeded US$42 billion.
Almost the same as the total of the second-ranked Baidu [14.5 billion], the third-ranked Alibaba [14 billion], the fourth-ranked NetEase [4.5 billion], and the fifth-ranked Ctrip [4.2 billion].
Xiao Ma personally holds about 14% of the shares and is the second largest shareholder of Penguin.
Calculated according to Penguin's market value, his personal net worth is almost 40 billion + RMB.
If nothing goes wrong, by the end of the year he will surpass BYD's boss Wang, Wahaha Zong's boss, and Oriental Hope's boss Liu to become the richest man in the mainland.
You know, in the original time and space, Brother Ma had been fighting with Xu Ping, Jack Ma, and Lao Wang for many years. He only enjoyed the real-time update in 2017, and it was not until 2019 that he officially topped the annual list of the richest people.
Now, Xiao Ma has fulfilled his dream of being the richest man ten years ahead of schedule.
Of course, the premise is that he doesn't get entangled with another second-rate singer who owns 35% of Penguin's shares...
However, although he has become the richest man, Xiao Ma is still relatively low-key.
On the one hand, it is due to his own personality, and on the other hand, he takes Cao Xuan as his role model.
Others don't know, but Xiao Ma is very close to Cao Xuanfan Galaxy, whether it's a personal relationship or corporate cooperation, so he can naturally understand some of the real situation.
The outside world regards him as a wealth legend, but Boss Cao’s Penguin shares are twice as much as those of Brother Ma.
In addition, Cao Xuan holds two companies, Fanxing and Hebox Games, with a market value of at least tens of billions of dollars, plus a large number of other miscellaneous high-quality assets.
Brother Ma once asked Cao Xuan if his net worth was ten times more than his own. Cao Xuan pondered for a moment.
“It’s hard to say whether it’s 10 times, but 7 to 8 times should be fine.”
With Cao Xuan's wealth, he still lives a low-key life, while Xiao Ma, whose assets are far inferior to his, is even more unable to rise. He also learns from Cao Xuan and is cautious and steady.
However, Cao Xuan himself has more attributes as an artist, and he also consciously markets these identities over his attributes as a businessman.
And Ma Ma and Penguin are inseparable. Penguin has such a great reputation, and Ma Ma is good at "learning from others". It is inevitable that he is besieged by various companies, and sometimes he cannot keep a low profile even if he wants to.
In the past, the heads of Sina and NetEase complained that the richest man in the game was copied. Ma did not hesitate to criticize Sina for plagiarizing Penguin Weibo. NetEase also has related games that draw lessons from Box Games and Penguin.
How should I put it, the Internet is a mess, Penguin has a bad reputation, and everyone else’s butts are also dirty.
Of course, Brother Xiaoma is quite ruthless and copies a lot. Others are original and mixed with reference. He is a mixed reference with some originality. Penguin is very popular, and the huge traffic pool can easily kill the previous company, so it will naturally be boycotted.
Siege......
However, Xiao Ma has long been accustomed to it, and only occasionally engages in verbal quarrels. Most of the time, he just looks like he's doing whatever he wants.
And Cao Xuan is not a good person, he is no better than Brother Xiao Ma.
However, Lao Cao is hypocritical and still cares about his reputation.
Fortunately, Penguin is managed by Brother Ma. Whether it is plagiarism or not has nothing to do with him as a young actor. If you want to scold him, just criticize him.
In June, Penguin Star Video had just been launched, and Youku and Sohu came out to accuse Penguin of plagiarism. Cao Xuan couldn't bear these words.
The concept of video websites has long appeared abroad, and there has been a similar statement in China for a long time. However, due to technology and hardware, development has been slow.
Websites such as Youku can be said to be the forerunners of Chinese video websites, but this does not mean that they have the patent rights of video websites, nor can subsequent video websites be defined as plagiarism.
If you want to say that Penguin Star plagiarized, the plaintiff is not Youku, but Station A.
As mentioned earlier, the three major advantages of Penguin New Video, apart from hardware and software, are the introduction of the barrage mechanism, which allows users to interact.
However, for this barrage mechanism, Station A is not actually the plaintiff. The real originator is a Japanese website, and Station A is also a "borrower".
Now in 2009, Station A has not yet emerged from the entertainment industry, and barrage is still a new thing for many netizens.
Some people are happy to try it and find it interesting, while some people find it unnecessary and distracting from watching videos.
Cao Xuan is not in a hurry. Even if there are still people who don't like barrage in 2022, he will slowly try to change everyone's habits. Anyway, if you don't like it, you can choose to turn it off.
And if everyone gets used to the appearance of barrages and likes the feeling of watching dramas with troll netizens, then it will be a big blow to the TV station.
In later generations, the main force for watching dramas has shifted from television to the Internet. Although this is the general trend of the mobile Internet, the contribution of barrage is also worth mentioning.
The extremely strong interactivity brought by barrage sometimes plays a stronger role than the work itself.
Even online novels, online comics, and even some games and other fields have followed the example of barrage to enhance interactivity.
For example, this chapter of an online article said that it has saved many genuine readers. Some pirated readers even came to the genuine chapter to say dirty things, and a large number of authors learned the writing skills of deceiving this chapter.
In this industry, someone must leave a message...
At present, the emergence of barrages is more about enhancing user experience and stickiness. Whether one of these three major advantages is sufficient depends on subsequent development.
Putting barrage aside, the first two advantages are already very sharp compared to other video websites. Except for Youku, Tudou and several large websites can still compete, while small and medium-sized video websites are directly left behind.
However, Penguin Star Video has two super advantages that other websites cannot do.
Penguin’s traffic + Stars’ publicity.
You must know that in 2009, the combined user data of Penguin and Weibo accounted for almost over 100 million daily active users. With such a large user traffic pool, the success of attracting traffic is terrifying.
At the same time, Fanxing also has a huge star lineup and media matrix.
After Penguin Star was launched, stars from major galaxies began to promote it online and offline, and various related media also conducted a large number of exposures based on the celebrities' promotion.
In terms of quantity, it is definitely not comparable to Penguin's traffic. However, most of the fans and melon-eaters targeted by celebrities are film and television and entertainment enthusiasts, which happen to be Penguin's main user group. Accurate publicity is more efficient than Penguin's wide net.
Much higher.
The two parties have been crazy about attracting traffic and building momentum, which made Penguin Star just go online and break out of the circle.
In just one day, the number of registered users of Penguin Star Video reached 4 million, of which about 120,000 users chose to activate VIP.
Penguin Star has a lot of benefits when you activate VIP. The first is no ads, the second is resolution permissions, the third is an extra badge for your QQ account, and the fourth is you can watch VIP dramas.
Needless to say more about the first two, the third VIP of QQ Star Music and Weibo also has this treatment. It may seem a bit tasteless, but in fact many people buy VIP specifically for the QQ account, and all they want is a
Noodles.
Just like on live broadcast websites, the big brother on the list has special effects when he appears, and the IDs of rich Internet readers have titles such as "Silver League" and "League Leader", in order to satisfy the vanity of some users.
The many VIP badges on your QQ account light up, which means you spend at least dozens of dollars every month. In 2009, you were definitely a representative of the rich.
The fourth function is also very simple to watch VIP dramas. In order to attract new users, more than 80% of Penguin Star's resources are free. Only a few high-quality and exclusive copyrighted contents require VIP membership to watch.
Penguin Star's VIP is not expensive, with newcomer discounts and continuous monthly discounts, etc., it can be activated for up to 5 yuan, and at least 2.5 yuan, and can be used for online banking, SMS, Tenpay (Penguin), and Alipay.
Of course, at the beginning, the website was not obsessed with making money from VIPs.
As long as users share or complete tasks, they can actually get free short-term VIP. Weibo, QQ, Penguin Games and other products of Penguin, Fanxing and some partners have VIP time-limited gifts.
The reason why there are so many tricks is to increase user activity, and to cultivate users to consolidate the habit of using VIP.
In addition to the above functions, VIP also has various other benefits, and they are also being continuously optimized and developed in the future.
Those 120,000 VIP accounts just couldn't stand the trouble, so they paid to save trouble and let Penguin Star make a small profit.
Youku and other other websites don’t care about making this little money, but the potential and momentum of Penguin Star shocked and frightened them. When they came out to criticize plagiarism, they probably didn’t have other small ideas.
However, neither Cao Xuan nor Penguin is a vegetarian. If they really play tricks, it is definitely not Penguin who will suffer.
………
Cao Xuan himself tried out the website for one night and was quite satisfied with the hardware and software. What he was most interested in personally was the barrage.
He chose "When Men Are in Love" starring himself and clicked on it. Not too densely packed, but not too small, the barrage slowly floated across the screen.
【What is this? It’s so fun】
[How to turn it off? It affects watching movies too much]
[You can adjust the transparency and speed, tutorial...]
[Making nonsense, making a mess]
[It’s quite interesting, like watching a movie together, the feeling is definitely different from watching it alone]
[Watching "When Men Are in Love" countless times, my favorite movie]
[Me too, I really want to see Cao Xuan and Hu Jing star in another romantic movie]
[Although Cao Xuan is a scumbag, I can never hate him because of this movie]
[This version has very high definition, I have collected it]
【How can I get a VIP for free? 】
【……】
There was a lot of commotion in the first few minutes, but after about ten minutes, everything that had to go was gone, and the movie officially entered the plot. The barrage was relatively refreshing, mainly focusing on the movie itself, and discussing each other.
As far as Cao Xuan's personal movie-watching habits are concerned, he tends to watch movies with barrage, especially comedies, variety shows and other themes. Opening barrage makes it more exciting and lively.
However, for suspenseful and plot-based movies and TV shows, to avoid spoilers, it is best not to open the barrage for the first time. After watching it for the second time, when you are recalling the plot and exploring the details for the second time, you might as well confirm it with the netizens who posted the barrage.
Cao Xuan also watched the replay of the Chinese Super League. Luneng played very fiercely against Guoan. There were five yellows and one red in the whole game, and the game ended in a 2:2 draw.
In my impression, Luneng didn't seem to be playing particularly well this season, but Guoan competed with Changchun Yatai for the championship this season, and finally won the first league championship in team history.
Although Cao Xuan watches football, he is too busy. Watching 15 live broadcasts of Manchester United games in a season is considered a luxury, let alone domestic leagues.
However, Luneng is his hometown team after all, and Cao Xuan will also pay attention to the Chinese Super League rankings from time to time. If Luneng plays against Guoan, he will watch the game if conditions permit.
The battle between Jinglu and Lu was so beautiful!
However, to watch games is to watch games. Cao Xuan almost never goes to domestic leagues. It’s not that he doesn’t want to go, but whenever he goes, someone asks him if he wants to invest in football.
Talking about investment, Cao Xuan really doesn’t want to throw money down the drain. It would be more meaningful for him to donate a few football fields to Hope Primary School than to build a club in the Chinese Super League.
But after saying that they would not invest, a group of people started to make various arrangements. After all, Cao Xuan prides himself on being a football fan, but he does not know how to contribute to Chinese football. He is simply rich and unkind.
This is really not an exaggeration. From time to time, Cao Xuan’s Weibo comments have similar remarks.
However, Cao Xuan was determined not to wade into the muddy waters of domestic professional football. After all, the tragic past of Lao Zhao in Liaoning Football Club was right in front of him. Lao Wang and Jack Ma, the two richest generations, entered the field with great glory and then left in despair. .
If it doesn't work, Cao Xuan can donate to build some football fields and even spend money to invest in some youth training institutions and schools. As for the rest, there is no need.
The situation in domestic football is too muddy, and foreign football is afraid of being sanctioned one day.
Of course, if the Glazer family is willing to sell Manchester United, Cao Xuan will take the risk of becoming Abramovich and buy it, but it is definitely impossible for Glazer to give up the cornucopia, so he should just remain a fan...
Penguin Star has just been launched. Cao Xuan attaches great importance to it, but still patiently gives it enough room for development.
At least this year is still in the initial stage. It is mainly debugging based on various feedbacks and constantly filling the film and television resource library. Next year, when popular film and television webcasts, web dramas, web variety shows, and competitions will be launched, it will be the time for Penguin Star to truly rise.
Of course, it would be better if we could win the web broadcast rights of some popular dramas in the second half of the year. No matter what the website is, we will never dislike the low traffic.
………
On June 3rd, little Cao Li, who had just celebrated his birthday, became a "left-behind child". Cao Xuan and Zeng Li came to Fanxing Film and Television City to film "Sword Rain".
At this time, "Taken 2" has not yet been completed, and the global box office is approaching US$300 million, making Boss Cao very popular now.
The American media publicly hailed Cao Xuan as a new generation of Chinese Kung Fu superstars, and there was a collective upsurge in the country. They stepped down on Cheng Long, demoted Lian Jie, and promoted Cao Xuan to the sky.
However, Cao Xuan was very modest and felt that the outside world had praised him too much, and he went out of his way to correct the media's wording.
He himself is not a martial arts practitioner, he became a monk halfway through his acting career, and his action style is not traditional Chinese kung fu, but rather a fighting style suitable for film and television shooting.
He thinks he can't be a Kung Fu star. Although he knows some tricks, kicks, and weapons, and is quite proficient in them, he is ultimately not as good as other kids' Kungfu.
So Cao Xuan felt that he could be considered an action star, not a kung fu star/superstar, lest those martial arts practitioners would be dissatisfied and come to fight with him again.
Although Cao Xuan is not afraid, he is an actor and is not interested in the feuds and disputes in the martial arts world. If there is an opportunity, it would be best to promote Chinese Kung Fu, but he does not think that he can represent Chinese Kung Fu.
But no matter what, Cao Xuan's appearance also brought huge popularity to the new movie "Sword Rain".
On the day of filming, a large number of media came to the set. The intensity of the show surprised many actors who were working with Cao Xuan for the first time.
Besides Cao Xuan himself, the main output point of the media is undoubtedly the heroine Zeng Li.
As a second-tier star who is not particularly popular, she is paired with Cao Xuan as the male and female lead, and Xiaopang, a popular flower girl, acts as a green leaf for her. It is strange that the media is not curious.
The crew's official statement is that Zeng Li is suitable for the role. He is good in literary drama and even better in martial arts.
Anyway, Nishinomiya Empress is a star-making star advocated by many fans and moviegoers. It is not unusual to star in a martial arts movie.
As for Cao Xuan, Boss Cao is willful and likes this movie script. Do you need any other reasons?
There are still media who want to make a fuss about the scandal, but fortunately, it was under Cao Xuan's deliberate control before.
The outside world has begun to spread rumors that the producers of "Sword Rain" are interested in hiring Cao Zeng to promote the scandal.
This is the case for many people who eat melons. The more you hide it, the more they want to dig out shocking information. If you release some materials and invite everyone to come and eat melons, they will lose interest.
In fact, Zeng Li started from playing the heroine of Cao Xuan's MV for many years, and then he was rumored to have an affair with Cao Xuan for the first time in "The Swordsman". He also collaborated many times in "Xiu Chun Dao 2" and "The Legend of Heaven and Sword of the Dragon", and he also has various
Rumors.
Tianya Tieba Weibo related revelations are endless. Although Cao Xuan has muddied the waters in various ways, the scandal between the two has long been an old melon.
Had it not been that we were rarely photographed traveling to a foreign country together last time, we wouldn't have caused any trouble.
In fact, Cao Daguan has four-digit scandals, and everyone is basically immune to the news about his scandals.
Now everyone is more interested in who is Cao Xuan's real girlfriend.
After all, Cao Xuan has admitted that he has a girlfriend. Of course, other than the fact that he is not single, no other information has been disclosed. However, there are various speculations in the market, and everyone is waiting for an official confirmation.
Compared with the gossip targets that we are tired of seeing, the real Queen's wife is the real big deal.
There are also many people who speculate that there is more than one Tianwang sister-in-law. After all, there are many people who have fun. With Cao Xuan's condition and character, it is only normal to have more than one boat.
The East and West Palaces are outrageous enough, but in the speculations of netizens, they are definitely conservative.
An analysis of Boss Cao's harem group shows that there are rarely less than four, and the most are more than twenty.
If these were real girlfriends, Cao Xuan would have nothing to do all year round. He would work hard in the first half of the year, and then concentrate on maintaining his health in the second half of the year...
In these combinations, the East and West Palaces have actually appeared together many times, and some people said that all the girls from Class 96 of China National Theater were captured by Cao Daguan.
At this point, Boss Cao will definitely call out Qu.
Let’s just talk about the matter and there is no personal attack. Among the golden flowers in class 96, except for Zhang Tong, a strong contender for class beauty, they are okay, but the others do not conform to Cao Xuan’s aesthetics.
For example, although Mei Ting is also beautiful, he just doesn't feel it. Li Xinyu and Qin Hailu are even more talented, and even the latter was a bit of a clown when he was young.
Yuan Quan is the wife of his good friend Xia Yu. Aside from the question of whether she violates her ancestors or not, the key is that Yuan Quan is too thin.
Although the international seal is a little flat, putting aside the prejudice, the appearance is actually not bad. However, unfortunately Cao Xuan cannot put aside the prejudice, so forget it.
Cao Xuan, from the 96th Class of Chinese Opera, specially picked the two palaces of East and West to attack. He didn’t just get to know them first, he knew it well.
The analysis of scandals and gossips is true and false, false and true, but these people are so confident and confident when they break the news.
Sometimes Cao Xuan himself was a little confused, wondering how they knew these so-called "details" and described them vividly. Could it be that they hid them under the bed at that time...
Another popular figure in the "Sword Rain" crew, Fan Xiaopang, has not joined the cast yet, and many media have focused their attention on director Su Zhaobin.
This Taiwanese director with almost no resume is almost the least famous director since Cao Xuan starred in movies.
Even Lin Chaoxian was considered a second-tier director in Hong Kong before, with some masterpieces on his hands.
The only two things worth mentioning about Su Zhaobin are that he once had a film nominated for the Golden Horse Awards, and he was half a student of Wu Baige.
You must know that except for a few top directors who may be a little reserved, other first-line directors are eager to cooperate with Cao Xuan.
After all, many directors who have collaborated with Cao Xuan have advanced their careers to a higher level. The most noteworthy one is Lin Chaoxian, who has gone from a second-tier director to an internationally famous director. If he hadn't made a series of movies, his reputation would have been even higher.
Su Zhaobin was an unknown person, and he was so lucky to direct Cao Xuan. I don’t know how many directors and behind-the-scenes staff were envious and jealous of him...
