"What's the gimmick?" A middle-aged man with European and American looks asked his subordinate.
The subordinate reminded: "Zhang Yida, look at how high he is ranked in the Forbes list this time. The fifth richest man in China, with a net worth of US$16.8 billion!"
"Is there anything wrong with this?" Hu Run frowned.
"It's definitely not right! There's a huge quarrel on the Internet, saying that Forbes' statistics are not accurate enough and only count Zhang Yida's shareholdings in three companies."
The subordinate looked excited and said, "If we dig out all Zhang Yida's assets, we can definitely slap Forbes in the face.
Because this shows that our Hurun rankings are more authoritative and accurate than their Forbes rankings!"
“Good idea!”
Hurun praised first and then spread his hands, "But we can't get Zhang Yida's specific shareholdings in other companies?"
"There's a way to do this!"
Hurun didn't believe it and asked: "Then tell me, what can you do?"
"Mystery!"
Hu Run was also stunned for a moment and asked in confusion: "Inference? What kind of method is this?"
The subordinate explained: "I was inspired by watching netizens infer Zhang Yida's shareholdings in various companies online."
"Netizen?"
Hurun smiled and shook his head, "This is not advisable! We are different now from when we started our business.
At that time, conditions were rudimentary and information channels were limited, so the list produced was very rough.”
As he spoke, Hurun couldn't help laughing. He remembered the first edition of Mainland China's Rich List that he made at the end of the last century.
That version of the rich list was the first rich list in the history of mainland China, with a total of 50 people.
It is undoubtedly a vast project to find the 50 richest people from a vast sea of more than 1 billion people.
How did he, who was an accountant at Arthur Andersen at the time, complete this list?
This is what he told the media in recent years: He worked hard for this list and used more than 20 statistical methods alone.
Including A-share companies, charitable donation directory, university donors, business magazine cover stories, meetings with high-end politicians, military businessmen, character yearbooks, red capitalists, entertainment industry stars, tax amounts, the top ten largest companies in each industry, etc.
wait.
It took several months to do this.
Of course, that's not what he said in the early years.
In 2001, when he was interviewed by the media, he said: He started ranking the list on July 19th and completed it on August 11th.
There were only two people in the team at that time. Apart from him, the other one was a college student.
In 22 days, two people completed the project.
Although the ranking of the list was very rough, it still caused a very sensational effect in China at the time.
The group that "gets rich first" was exposed, and the wealth figures in billions hit the fragile nerves of ordinary people like lightning: Even if the "ten thousand yuan household" promised to be developed, why do you think there are billions?
"Where do the rich people's money come from?" became the most intense question among all walks of life in China throughout 2000.
The rich are also very dissatisfied!
Some entrepreneurs on the list want to go to court with Hurun, claiming that their net worth has been "exaggerated dozens of times";
Rich people who are not on the list also want to ask him for an explanation: I am so rich, why don’t I exist?
The financial media questioned that Forbes was "just for fun." The information on the list was inaccurate, the scope of focus was narrow, and the calculation method was wrong. In short, the entire list was full of loopholes.
But no matter how controversial it is, Forbes is completely popular in China.
And he played a huge role in it. Even the Chinese name "Forbes" was given by him. The word "福" conforms to Chinese culture and brings good luck.
Later, many people who had been on the list fell down, leaving him somewhat disgraced.
The list produced by 2 people in 22 days does not sound very reliable.
In order to emphasize his authority and accuracy, he later changed his story when interviewed by the media.
After publishing the first edition of Forbes China rankings, Hurun himself did not expect that it would have such a big sensation in China.
Although his reputation became more and more famous, his life was not smooth.
As a Forbes staff writer, he can only receive a one-time remuneration from Forbes every year, with a maximum of US$30,000, which is his annual income.
Later, he and Forbes parted ways.
Leveraging on the reputation built in China in the past few years, Hurun established its own company in Hong Kong in 2002 and launched its personal brand "Hurun Rankings".
There is no room for two tigers in one mountain. Since then, Hurun has made one list every year, and Forbes has made another list.
The two lists often differ greatly in terms of ranking of rich people and amount of assets, which triggered a feud that continues to this day.
"Boss, Zhang Yida is definitely an invisible rich man, with more than a dozen unicorn companies under his banner.
Even if we add some value to him, the public will understand and recognize him.
And if we do this, we can start a war with Forbes again.
The greater the controversy, the greater the popularity, and the more it will help increase our reputation. This will show the difference between us and Forbes."
After hearing what his subordinates said, Hurun was also thinking, should he do this?
"Tell me about your reasoning. How did you reason about Zhang Yida's assets?"
The subordinate smiled and said: "This is very simple! None of the three companies in which Zhang Yida exposed his shareholdings held less than 30% of the shares.
I judge that except for Huimin Travel, which has a large number of financing rounds, his shareholding in other companies will not be less than 30%."
Hurun nodded, "It makes some sense!"
The subordinate continued: "We can know through the shareholding structures of the three companies: Yimin Fortune, Yimin Internet Finance, and Ruixiang Group.
Zhang Yida usually gives the co-founders 10% of the equity, plus a 10% option pool, while his pre-financing shareholding was 80%.
This is a habit of his, and it is the same for all three companies. The situation of other companies should be similar.
We calculate based on the dilution of 20% of the equity in each round of financing, and can calculate Zhang Yida’s approximate shareholding ratio in each company!”
"This is a good idea. Each round of financing is calculated based on the 20% equity dilution ratio. The resulting data should be lower than the real data, which is relatively conservative."
Hurun turned to look at his subordinates and said: "Follow your method, first calculate a rough figure and show it to me!"
When the subordinates saw that their method was adopted by their boss, they immediately went to work.
The next day, the subordinate came to see Hurun again.
“Boss, I spent a day calculating Zhang Yida’s “real” worth based on various news reports on his corporate financing history and valuation.
That’s a full $11.18 billion higher than the $16.8 billion calculated by Forbes.”
Hurun was delighted when he heard this and said: "That's almost 28 billion US dollars?"
The subordinate looked excited, "Yes, based on today's RMB to US dollar exchange rate of 6.73:1, that's a net worth of 188.4 billion RMB.
And this does not include Zhang Yida’s personal savings, real estate and other assets.
According to my research, he also has a mansion worth hundreds of millions of yuan.
Otherwise, let’s add 400 million to him and make up an auspicious number, 188.8 billion!”
"Okay!" Hurun, who knows Chinese culture well, said with a smile: "1888 is a good number, just use it! Mr. Zhang will probably be very happy after seeing this number!"
…
Zhang Yida was not happy at all. A few days after the release of the Forbes 2016 rankings, the Hurun 2016 rankings were also released.
The top spot is still the richest man Wang, with a net worth of 220 billion.
Zhang Yida ranked second on the list, with a net worth of 188.8 billion. Behind him are Jack Ma with 145 billion, Wahaha with 135 billion, and Bonima with 120 billion.
The last digit of other people's net worth is either 0 or 5, which is an integer.
And Zhang Yida’s “1888” is very eye-catching!
Zhang Yida couldn't laugh or cry. Hurun also had good intentions. I don't know how he came up with this number.
There has been a lot of discussion on the Internet again. Zhang Yida actually surpassed the top two in the Hurun rankings and became the number one technology tycoon in mainland China. There are too many things to discuss.
Netizens also gave Zhang Yida many nicknames, such as "Qianyi Fa Ge", "Yao Fa Fa Fa"...
Some people think that this value is a bit exaggerated. The total market value of Zhang Yida's two listed companies does not reach 188.8 billion yuan.
Some people think this number is reliable. After all, Zhang Yida's ten unicorn companies have a combined market value of more than 60 billion US dollars, and he can reach this worth by holding 40%-50% of the shares.
Huang Xin and other entrepreneur friends all called or sent WeChat messages to congratulate Zhang Yida and ask him to treat him to dinner.
Bonima also sent a WeChat message, "Congratulations! The number one technology rich man in mainland China!"
"Boss, Hurun is a typical businessman! He is deliberately creating gimmicks. Look, except for me, everyone else's worth is zero or even."
Bonima asked again, "I heard that Zhonghe Group is integrating Pinduoduo, DouShi, and Huimin Travel?"
As a shareholder, it is normal for Penguin to know the news. Zhang Yida replied, "Yes, there are many difficulties and progress is slow!"
"DouShi is such a good software that Penguin didn't even have time to invest in it! After the integration of Zhonghe Group is completed, are you interested in opening a round of financing?"
Zhang Yida couldn't guess what Bonima was thinking. Could it be that he was afraid that after the integration of Zhonghe Group, Penguin's shares would be diluted?
Or is it because the Hurun rankings made him wary of himself?
"Financing may have to be delayed for a while. Pinduoduo's last round of financing was 900 million U.S. dollars, and Doushi was 1 billion U.S. dollars. There is no shortage of funds for the time being."
Bonima typed again, "I hope Penguin will lead the next round of financing of Zhonghe Group!"
Zhang Yida frowned, what does Bonima want to do by being so strong?
Do the short videos, e-commerce, and ride-sharing businesses you run on your own pose no threat to Penguin?
"I feel reassured by the big boss's words! I'm going to start burning money hard!"
Zhang Yida would not challenge Bonima either, and he answered very skillfully.
"Ahem, let's start some profitable business! I heard that Huimin Travel has burned US$3 billion, and profits are imminent!
Otherwise, the road ahead will be difficult!”
Bonima began to persuade Zhang Yida as a person who had come before.
"There is no way, it is a pain that must be experienced in the development stage! I am also making adjustments and striving to make profits as soon as possible..."
Zhang Yida began to draw cakes for Bonima, describing a bright blueprint for the future.
The more Bonima listened, the more outrageous he felt. Zhang Yida even said that he would "defeat Taobao", break out of the country, go global, and compete with Amazon.
Bonima chuckled. He was a young man after all. It was probably the Hurun rankings that made him inflated.
He felt a little relieved. When he saw the Hurun rankings, he was also surprised that Zhang Yida's net worth was actually ranked ahead of him.
He was originally ranked fifth by Forbes, with a net worth of US$16.8 billion, which surprised him. Unexpectedly, the Hurun ranking was even more exaggerated.
However, Bonima was only a little wary. He knew very well how much Zhang Yida was worth.
The valuation of a large number of companies adds up to more than 60 billion US dollars, and only two of them are listed. 80% of the assets are "valued".
Even if they were all listed, the combined market value would only be over HK$400 billion.
At this time, Penguin's market value has exceeded 2 trillion Hong Kong dollars, which is not in the same order of magnitude at all.
As for net worth, he doesn't pay much attention to it.
When they reach their status, what matters more is influence and the resources and assets they can control.