The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Late July, Shanghai.

Chang Fu and Yang Qian continued to visit Yang Kang every day as always.

They have moved to a small two-bedroom apartment on the Bund.

The house is only 90 square meters, but the price is over ten million.

When someone asks you what happiness is, the greatest happiness for someone without a house is definitely buying one.

Living in this international metropolis, having such a small home is undoubtedly a source of happiness and peace.

Zhang Cuicui had almost fully recovered, and she still cooked a few home-style dishes to entertain Changfu's family.

"My older brother didn't come?"

"You can't expect him to have time."

Chang Fu said, "He took the senior management team of Tengying Group to Hangzhou to discuss cooperation with Teacher Ma."

Teacher Ma from Hangzhou, that can only be that one.

He is the most famous business figure of this era, and also the richest man in China on the surface.

Yang Kang was quite surprised, as was Yao Anni, who was standing next to him.

If you're not in Hangzhou, you have no idea about the boundless influence of Hangzhou Marathon or Alibaba.

Back when Alibaba successfully went public via IPO, the whole of Hangzhou was buzzing with Alibaba stories.

All the roadside billboards were replaced with large ones overnight.

One person represents an entire city; that's probably what Teacher Ma is all about.

"Big Brother's influence is really getting more and more outrageous!"

"That's right, his news is practically a daily occurrence in the financial world."

Chang Fu said, "He sold another 12 billion US dollars worth of fresh produce this time. It seems like a lot, but it's still not enough to cover his expenses. His Tengfei New Energy is an absolute money magnet. You have no idea how much more money he's going to invest."

That's really quite exaggerated.

Yang Kang himself had started two businesses and knew all too well how difficult it was to do so.

It can only be said that the current success of Tengying Group is inseparable from Chen Pingsheng's long-standing and thoughtful approach.

……

Chen Pingsheng and his team of senior executives from Tencent Pictures did indeed visit and learn from Alibaba.

When discussing entrepreneurial miracles in modern history, Alibaba is undoubtedly a top contender.

Many people say it has monopolized half of the internet world.

But Chen Pingsheng knew that this was undoubtedly an extremely outstanding internet group.

Taking advantage of this collaboration, he also brought his senior management team to learn a thing or two.

When I returned to Shanghai, it was already late July.

In August, he will be going to Hong Kong to attend a CEO training program there, and there will be quite a few things to do.

Now that he has suddenly received such a large sum of money, he naturally wants to find a way to spend it reasonably.

To make money, you must first learn how to spend it.
His wife also received a sum of over 8 billion yuan in cash, which was used to pay the 10% fee for Tengsheng Fruit.

The couple discussed it at home all night.

The destination of the funds was finally determined.

Currently, in both Shanghai and Shenzhen, only sixteen large clubs do not own their own storefronts.

We'll negotiate everything; we expect to be able to secure 2 billion yuan.

In addition, Shuiyunjian plans to recruit 10,000 new employees during its recruitment and training program in September.

The training academies in Beijing simply cannot absorb such a large number of students.

Song Yanxi has her eye on a university in Shanghai that is currently for sale.

The location is naturally not in the city center, but in the more remote JS district.

This university has not enrolled students for two years and covers an area of ​​about 1,200 acres.

Song Yanxi plans to use 2.8 billion yuan to acquire the entire university.

Buying a university is essentially a business asset; there's no question of whether it's a loss or a gain. If she thinks it's worth it, then it is.

The 2.8 billion yuan was just a price negotiated with the local government; the subsequent repairs and renovations are expected to require an additional investment of over 200 million yuan.

In total, their family will have to pay 3 billion yuan for this university.

This also further solidifies Shuiyunjian's position as the leading high-end health and wellness brand in China.

In addition, another 1 billion yuan will be allocated to establish a Shuiyunjian learning subsidy fund.

This also covers the salaries and activity funds that these 10,000 interns will receive from them over the next two years.

Such a large investment is naturally intended to further develop and expand Shuiyunjian.

All things considered, it cost around six billion.

The remaining money was used to buy a storefront in Guangzhou in advance.

Regardless, let's open four flagship stores there first.

Two in Guangzhou and two in Shenzhen.

Of course, the storefront also had to be purchased entirely by ourselves.

They spend money like water, and the reason they dare to do this is mainly because there will be a grand event called "Water and Clouds" in Shanghai at the end of the month.

They can cash out another 700 to 800 million yuan then; it's a classic case of the more they spend, the more they have.

As for Chen Pingsheng himself, he first announced a formal investment of 5 billion yuan to enter the field of artificial intelligence.

It's mainly about self-driving cars.

Then take out another 10 billion to subsidize the research and development of teams working on batteries, motors, and electronic controls.

Having achieved this, he now possesses almost the most powerful R&D team in the field of new energy vehicle manufacturing.

The main reason is that a lot of money is being spent.

If you pay enough, you can recruit any kind of talent.

He has invested 450 billion yuan independently in this project, and Tengfei New Energy has become a key technology startup project supported by Shanghai.

With this investment, he won't need to spend any more money on new energy projects for the next year and a half.

This can be considered as creating a period of abundant funds.

During this period, everyone just needs to focus on advancing the projects they are currently working on.

Examples include super factories, eco-parks, and newly established research labs.

Only when there is sufficient funding can everyone devote themselves to research and development work with peace of mind.

To date, Tengying Group has become the company with the largest investment in the new energy field.

This is consistent with its long-standing commitment to entrepreneurship.

In the early stages, by making the largest investment, they left the competitors in this field far behind. Later, they relied on their own business philosophy and traffic.

Get to number one quickly.

Then it was a runaway success.

If you look closely at any project, you'll find that this is true.

As long as it's a project invested in by Tencent.

Even if he quickly spends 15 billion, he will still have more than 3 billion in hand.

With the money, Chen Pingsheng went to Guangzhou without ever setting foot on the ground to buy a university and build his own Tengying Entertainment Academy.

Like Shuiyunjian, building everything from scratch would take at least two years.

Buy an existing university, spend a few hundred million to renovate and adjust it, and you'll have a brand new one.

He spent 2.6 billion yuan to buy a university covering thousands of acres in Huadu, Guangzhou.

They plan to spend another 300 million yuan on renovations and adjustments, and the school is not expected to officially open until mid-September.

It was originally designed as a high-level art school for rural people, so it doesn't matter if the start of the semester is a little late.

The entertainment industry is such a murky place, it's gotten to the point where the poor can't even get in.

That's like football, it gets worse and worse the more you play it.

After processing this massive sum of money, Tengying Group has visibly taken a giant leap forward.

First was Tengfei New Energy, which received the most investment.

It has become the largest new energy science and technology innovation project in China in terms of investment, and it also has the most research laboratories.

They also independently contracted research institutes covering all aspects of batteries, motors, electronic controls, and artificial intelligence.

Shuiyunjian has become an insurmountable obstacle for the high-end beauty and wellness industry.

Not only does it own a 12-story headquarters building in Shanghai, but it also has a private training headquarters academy covering 1,200 acres.

With this configuration, who can surpass it?
Not to mention Tencent Entertainment, which directly spent 2.6 billion yuan to buy a university in Guangdong and establish its own advanced arts school.

The key point is that this university wasn't even funded by Tengying Entertainment itself; rather, its big boss bought the land and then rented it to them at a low price.

The stock price soared immediately after the news broke.

In just one day, Chen Pingsheng achieved this through the rise in stock price.

They made back the money they spent on the land purchase.

Tell me, isn't that an exaggeration?

Tencent Entertainment has officially become a giant entertainment group with a market value of over 60 billion yuan.

In addition, Teng Chao Commercial Management, headquartered in Hong Kong, has commercial assets of approximately 340 billion.

They generate a net output of five to six hundred million yuan every year just from collecting rent from their own properties.

Once a company reaches this stage, going bankrupt is no longer an option.

When Chen An'an grows up, she will have the means to squander two million every day.

This is what happened to his family after they finished digesting this asset.

It can be said that this applies to any project.

With continuous funding, significant progress can be made.

……

The last few days of July.

At the insistence of the big kid, Chen Pingsheng took a day off.

Then they took their family's Liwa yacht out to sea for a trip, and also invited Yang Kang and Chang Fu's family along.

And his old classmate Yao Anni. Yang Kang's daughter is only eight years old this year, about the same age as Da Pi Wa. One is a natural-born academic star, the kind of child everyone admires.

One is a born academic failure, but excels at everything from eating and drinking to having fun.

Surprisingly, the two got along well, mainly because Chen An'an taught Yang Xiaole the games she knew how to play.

For example, deep-sea shark fishing, or how to toss and eat giant shrimp.

There are also instructions on how to play the erhu, and how to mix a million-dollar bottle of red wine with Sprite, etc.

With Yang Kang's family income standing out, Yang Xiaole was still completely fooled by Chen An'an.

July is still quite sunny, and even with the air conditioning on, the feeling of the sweltering summer heat is still overwhelming when driving on the sea.

The yacht docked in Shanghai costs around 60 million.

It's already something that ordinary families can only look up to and envy.

Chen Pingsheng, wearing large black sunglasses, stared seriously at Chen An'an, who was fooling around outside.

She's already gone shrimp fishing. Before she came, she even checked Baidu for the three essential tips for deep-sea shark fishing.

I'm only a half-baked amateur myself, yet I'm teaching Yang Xiaole how to hold the rod.

"Old Chen, you're spending money like crazy!"

"What's so great about it? You can only make money if you spend money."

Chen Pingsheng said, "I'm going to Hong Kong next month to attend a CEO training program. Some of my classmates are much richer than me, including the founder of that short video platform you're now involved with."

"Who is it, Du Hua?"

"Who else could it be but him?"

Chen Pingsheng casually said, "Kuaishou's valuation this year is 25 billion US dollars, and it will definitely have further development in the future. The influencer live-streaming e-commerce company I established in Guangdong will officially launch in September. It will officially go live on Douyin on September 20th. Let's see if we can take the lead in Douyin influencer live-streaming e-commerce market, just like Xin Teng's live-streaming."

Chang Fu laughed at him, "You're really something else. Douyin hasn't even been launched yet, and we don't even know how it will perform, but you're already preparing for it. What if it doesn't work out and gets crushed by Kuaishou?"

"If it doesn't work out, we'll just waste a hundred or two hundred million, what else can we do!"

Chen Pingsheng said, "If I didn't feel that short videos could capture a lot of young users' time, do you think I would need to make money through internet celebrities?"

"It's just about laying a seed in advance and occupying the short video traffic channel."

"When Douyin officially launches in September, in addition to sending a group of people to compete for the influencer spot in advance, I will also spend 200 million yuan to sign whoever becomes popular the fastest."

"At my level, I already have quite a few industries, and I will definitely compete for the top two spots in any super traffic portal."

The development in Changfu's area has given him a profound understanding of the future potential of short videos.

No matter how much he thinks it through, it's not excessive at all.

In just six months, Xinteng Live achieved the second-highest profit within the group, after Tencent Entertainment.

It achieved a net profit of 13 billion yuan.

If we wait until the end of the year, we estimate that we can have a net profit of 28 billion yuan.

This number was something he hadn't expected.

No one in the group expected it, not even Tong Zhelan, who had invested 900 million yuan in it, was stunned.

She bought 30% of the company based on a valuation of 3 billion, and now Xin Teng Live's annual net profit is 3 billion.

That's incredibly exaggerated.

Whether it goes public or not seems to matter.

It's important to know that among the many companies listed on the A-share market, fewer than two hundred can achieve annual profits exceeding one billion yuan.

Xinteng Live, which was established less than a year ago, has approximately 3 billion yuan in revenue.

It has more than 3,000 female anchors under its management.

Among them, there are hundreds of people with over a million followers, and twenty with over ten million followers.

It's no exaggeration to say that short videos have half the world's influence.

The main reason is that they started developing early. When the short video industry was still dominated by a group of young people, they had already invested 200 million yuan in it.

They were even equipped with luxury cars worth 200 million yuan, and quickly rose to become a large number of internet celebrities with tens of millions of followers.

There's also the trainee competition, a super platform for producing internet celebrities, which speaks volumes about its rise.

To outsiders it may seem like luck, but to insiders it was inevitable.

While a bunch of young people working in a factory were showing off their wealth in a ridiculous, fake way, Chen Pingsheng, the real super-rich man, went in.

The result is what Xin Teng Live is today.

If someone of his status were to go up there and flaunt his wealth, it would be absolutely shameful.

They are not worthy of his current level at all.

There's absolutely no need for that. Do you have to become an internet celebrity to get traffic?
Why not just throw money at cultivating dozens or even hundreds of top internet celebrities?

Therefore, he attaches great importance to Douyin short videos, which officially launched in September.

If necessary, he even wants to pour all of Tencent's traffic resources into it.

Yao Anni sat to the side, secretly taking notes, and even wished she had a computer or typewriter.

Write it down word for word.

Go home and review it thoroughly for another week; there's so much business information in it.

According to this old classmate, before the platform goes live in September, he wants to formally prepare a group of professional online influencers.

Organized and disciplined individuals have taken over this popular online spot early on.

Let's not even talk about half the country, we should at least take one-third.

Who can blame them when they truly have the ability?

Before anyone could react, he had already prepared both the people and the money.

All Yao Anni can say is, no wonder he's so good at making money.

That's some serious taste.

If Douyin really rises to prominence, then another live streaming platform like Xinteng will rise to prominence on his side.

The dual-wing traffic engine is more than just a way to make money from internet celebrities.

It can also help all the projects within the group to take off.

Is this the real reason why Tengying Group wins from afar?

"correct…"

Chen Pingsheng asked Yao Anni curiously, "I haven't asked you yet, what exactly do you want?"

To be honest, when he developed Tengying Group to this extent...

There's no shortage of smart people around me anymore.

One of these old classmates was a top female student from junior high school.

Don't be fooled by the fact that she hasn't mentioned any of her own needs yet; isn't that precisely where her intelligence lies?

After doing so much, you should expect some reward.

Yao Anni perked up. "Brother Chen, I currently run four or five traditional clothing stores in Hangzhou, and also an online store on Taobao. I've been making a little money all these years, but I'm stuck in the middle, not really good enough for anything. I don't know what to do next."

"It's already quite impressive that you can open five clothing stores in Hangzhou on your own."

Chen Pingsheng said, "In this era, there are many different opinions on the future of traditional clothing stores. If I had to give you my advice, you might as well use your knowledge of the traditional clothing industry to sell those offline stores, find a large warehouse, renovate it to look like a large clothing factory, abandon the traditional offline industry, and focus on competing in the current online live streaming e-commerce."

"For small businesses, you have to follow trends and keep up with the pace to get going."

Undoubtedly, live-streaming e-commerce will become a major trend in the future.

This is especially true for traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

If all else fails, trying your luck on Pinduoduo is better than foolishly sticking to those few clothing stores.

Yao Anni instantly perked up, thinking about the little money she had earned.

In the eyes of most students, he was naturally a successful person that everyone admired.

In this person's eyes, it really is just about making a living and supporting a family.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the word "success".

Chen Pingsheng pondered for a moment, then said, "Clothing has always been the number one category of online consumption. Whether in the early or later stages of the internet era, this category will never be eliminated; it will only become more and more specialized."

“I own Tenghui Department Store, which is doing quite well in the casual wear sector. If you’re willing, I suggest you focus on the women’s wear sector. If you need money, I can also invest 100 million yuan in you.”

My old classmate, who was a top student, was undoubtedly very smart.

He will definitely be involved in the apparel sector.

It would be best if it could be further subdivided.

It's only 100 million; what if it works out?

If it doesn't work out, it's just a small goal, it really doesn't matter.

He also tries to invest only in people he knows.

The key point is that he believes the segmented women's clothing market has a bright future.

If short videos really develop to a certain extent...

All the streamers under his management are targeting niche markets.

To maximize profits, you need to capture a precise fan base through various channels.

Does he rely on his older brother's tips to make a living?

Does he need someone else's meager salary?

Don't be ridiculous, he's aiming for a niche market worth hundreds of billions.

It's not those few large rockets costing a thousand or two thousand.

The truly super-rich would certainly not flaunt their wealth online.

It's even less likely that they would make money through tips or by selling products themselves.

Only a fool would believe that his family uses toothpaste and soap that cost 9.9 yuan.

Chen Pingsheng's focus on the future extends beyond just this one or two things.

He has also made plans for short dramas. Once Tencent Video Entertainment School officially opens, he will use the students there to create and film them.

We are currently in the period of recruiting a large number of short drama editors.

Filming is not expected to officially begin until October.

Those kinds of scripts can basically be made with just a few days' worth of boxed lunches.

That's incredibly stupid.

(End of this chapter)