When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was twenty, he was just an ordinary college student.
When Buffett was twenty, he didn’t even have ten thousand US dollars to his name.
When Microsoft’s Bill Gates was twenty, he had just sold the timetable system he wrote, with a net worth of tens of thousands of US dollars at most.
Even Zuckerberg, considered a North American business genius, only managed to take Facebook public at the age of twenty-eight. With his 28.4% stake, he instantly became a mega-billionaire with a net worth of nearly 30 billion US dollars.
But now, someone at the age of twenty actually owned three super unicorn companies (valued at over 10 billion US dollars) and three unicorn companies (valued at over 1 billion US dollars), with a personal paper wealth as high as 50 billion US dollars.
At first, netizens in the Lighthouse Country just assumed it was fake news, but after doing some research, they fell silent.
After all, the Alexa Smart Speaker they used was from Orange Technology. The gadget was a huge bestseller in the European and American Markets, and that couldn’t be faked.
After *Time* magazine noticed this trending news story, they gave it a moment’s thought and immediately assigned staff from their Hu City Branch to travel to Xucheng and interview Chen Yansen.
Furthermore, the related report would be published in the American edition of *Time*, directly targeting North American readers.
You have to understand, previously, entrepreneurs, sports celebrities, or international movie stars from Hua Country had mostly appeared on the Asian edition of *Time*, which didn’t have a strong international impact.
Just then, some wise guy ripped all of Chen Yansen’s photos from Weibo, squatted on his name for a Facebook account, and started posting updates in his name.
"Hello, friends in the Lighthouse Country! I’m Chen Yansen, the founder of Senlian Capital. It’s great to meet all of you. On October 31st, I will pick 1,000 winners from my followers, and each will receive a free Alexa Smart Speaker."
In addition to the greeting, the post included several of Chen Yansen’s high-definition personal photos.
In an instant, it was like a huge boulder had been thrown into a calm lake!
The follower count for the ’Chen Yansen’ Facebook account skyrocketed at a rate of 1,000 to 2,000 per minute. After a single day, it had reached a staggering 1.9 million.
In reality, Zhou Shouzhi had set up an office in San Francisco to coordinate the North American sales channels for the Alexa Smart Speaker. After the local staff there verified the account with headquarters, they quickly received a denial.
When the news reached Zhou Shouzhi, he didn’t give it much thought and simply had his colleagues in the Lighthouse Country send a notice to Facebook’s customer service.
The next morning, when North American netizens woke up, they discovered that the ’Chen Yansen’ account had been banned.
The official reason given was that the user had improperly used another person’s information.
The implication was that this ’Chen Yansen’ was an imposter.
But a whole bunch of netizens were still waiting for the Halloween giveaway. Now that the free Smart Speakers were gone, they immediately turned their anger on Facebook’s founder.
"Zuckerberg was only worth over 20 billion US dollars at twenty-eight, a far cry from Chen Yansen. He must have been jealous, and that’s why he banned his account, right?"
Such a ridiculous reason shouldn’t have held any water, but people in the Lighthouse Country think differently. They filled in the blanks themselves and ’confirmed’ the speculation.
Although some netizens argued that Zuckerberg had no reason to ban Chen Yansen’s account, they were ignored.
When Zuckerberg attended an event, some reporters even rushed up to ask, "Mr. Zuckerberg, did you personally order the ban on the Senlian Capital founder’s Facebook account?"
Zuckerberg looked completely baffled, having no idea what was going on. After his assistant explained the situation, he understood and said with a smile, "That account was impersonating another individual. Facebook has always prioritized protecting our users’ privacy, so when we discovered it, we banned the account immediately."
He didn’t mention that Senlian Capital had sent a notice; he just casually used the opportunity to promote his own product.
Although this was the truth, netizens in the Lighthouse Country still weren’t buying it and were determined to pin the blame on Zuckerberg.
「Meanwhile.」
When Ye Qiuping received the call from *Time* magazine, she was stunned for a moment, then a look of delight appeared on her face.
In her view, the more hype Chen Yansen generated, the more it would help the Orange Mobile Phone break into the Eastern European, Western European, and North American markets.
With this in mind, she immediately took the elevator to Chen Yansen’s office and knocked on the door.
The vast majority of ordinary people are drawn to the powerful. This was true for the people in the Lighthouse Country fawning over the fake ’Chen Yansen’ account, and Ye Qiuping was no exception.
The more capable Chen Yansen proved to be, the more infatuated she became.
"Come in!"
A familiar, deep voice came from inside the room.
Only then did Ye Qiuping turn the doorknob, push the door open, and walk inside. "Boss," she said as she entered, "*Time* magazine wants to do an in-depth interview with you."
"The Asian edition?" Chen Yansen looked up, leaned back in his chair, and asked noncommittally.
"The American edition." Ye Qiuping smiled faintly, her gaze fixed intently on Chen Yansen, a flash of admiration in her eyes.
"Zhou Shouzhi just called me. He said someone in the Lighthouse Country used my information to register a Facebook account. Judging by the engagement, the effect isn’t bad. We really should build a social media promotional matrix on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram before we enter the North American mobile phone market. You’ll be in charge of it."
Chen Yansen frowned slightly and gave the order directly.
"Okay, Boss. Also, the people from *Time* magazine are on their way. They’re expected to arrive at the company around three this afternoon."
Ye Qiuping reminded him softly.
"I know. The photo studio on the first floor hasn’t been dismantled yet, has it? We can put it to good use."
Chen Yansen nodded slightly.
The reason he agreed to the *Time* interview wasn’t to show off; it was purely to pave the way for the Alexa Smart Speaker and the Orange Mobile Phone.
’Why turn down free publicity?!’
"Yes, I understand." Ye Qiuping smiled softly and excused herself from the office.
She then returned to the brand department and registered accounts in Chen Yansen’s name on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. With a mischievous streak, she announced that in partnership with the Amazon, eBay, and Walmart online stores, they would be giving away five thousand Alexa Smart Speakers to followers on each of the three platforms as a thank you for following.
The drawing was set for 8 p.m. on Halloween, October 31st—the same time as the imposter’s planned giveaway.
Netizens in the Lighthouse Country at first thought it was another imposter, but when they saw that Chen Yansen had registered accounts on all three platforms, they followed him, albeit with some skepticism.
Their doubts were completely dispelled after someone contacted Twitter customer service and received a confirmation.
Logically speaking, Orange Technology only had one product in Europe and America—the Smart Speaker—with total sales of just 4 million units. As the company’s boss, even with some popularity, Chen Yansen shouldn’t have been able to attract that many followers.
But the imposter ’Chen Yansen’ had managed to gain 1.9 million followers in a single day by offering just 1,000 Alexa Smart Speakers, let alone a giveaway of 5,000 units.
In less than 24 hours, Chen Yansen’s cumulative follower count across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram reached 7.4 million.
Unexpectedly, not many of the new followers were there for the prizes. Over seventy percent of them were curious about his entrepreneurial journey.
This was because a YouTuber, when introducing his background, had made it very clear to viewers that this multi-billionaire from Asia was born in a small, remote city in Hua Country, his father was a bookstore owner, and the school he attended was only a step above a community college in the Lighthouse Country.
In summary: no money, no prestigious education, no connections. In just two years, he had completely turned his life around.
’It gave people the illusion that ’If he can do it, so can I!’’
The people of the Lighthouse Country admire the strong, but they admire self-made heroes even more.
The next day, Chen Yansen’s overseas follower count broke the 10 million mark. Thanks to the giveaway, his follower count was increasing by two to three million every day.
「October 29th, Monday.」
On the cover of the American edition of *Time* magazine was a portrait of Chen Yansen. It was a frontal shot of him seated on a chair, perfectly showcasing his sharply defined features.
He had sharp brows and piercing eyes, his expression bright yet profound, and the look on his face was intensely aggressive.
The headline read: *The New King of Hua’s Internet Industry*—the new king of Hua Country’s internet industry.
Boosted by the exposure from *Time* magazine, by October 30th, his follower counts were 10.7 million on Facebook, 7.4 million on Twitter, and 3.1 million on Instagram. Without accounting for duplicate followers across platforms, his cumulative overseas follower count exceeded 20 million.
But even before the giveaway, sales of the Alexa Smart Speaker in the European and American Markets were soaring. They peaked on October 30th, with a staggering 300,000 units sold in a single day.
The inventory on the Amazon, eBay, and Walmart online stores sold out. Immediately after, Chen Yansen’s ’fans’ rushed to physical retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and other department stores to continue their buying spree.
Not only was Chen Yansen stunned, but the local media in the Lighthouse Country was also baffled. They never would have imagined that an Asian entrepreneur they had never even seen in person could have such astonishing influence in Europe and America.
Some speculated that perhaps Chen Yansen’s "dirt-poor" family background led foreigners across the ocean to see him as a model entrepreneur, a miracle of the internet age.
At this point, the domestic media belatedly caught on and began flooding Orange Technology’s brand department with interview requests. Everyone from print to television to online news portals seized on Chen Yansen’s 50 billion US dollar net worth as a sensational hot topic.
Suddenly, the way the Xuyuan students looked at Chen Yansen changed. Before, they just thought of Senior Brother Chen as an approachable ten-billionaire. But now that they knew his net worth had, without them realizing, reached a terrifying 50 billion US dollars, they were instantly struck by the immense gap between people and the sheer inequality of the world.
When Chen Yansen walked around campus, he was stopped more and more often by his junior schoolmates. So, he simply had Old Gao find him a detached villa in Xucheng. For the past few days, he had been either staying at Ye Qiuping’s place or in a guest room at the Sky Garden.
In the latter half of October, a total of 2 million Alexa Smart Speakers were sold in Europe and America, bringing the cumulative total to 6 million units and generating revenue as high as 1.2 billion US dollars.
Seeing this, Ye Qiuping immediately released the promotional materials for the Orange C-series and Qingcheng D-series mobile phones. A photo of Chen Yansen holding one of the phones quickly went viral across the internet.
「At the same time.」
Cheng Wei was in Yanjing’s Digital Valley, hosting representatives from Redwood Capital, Siwei Capital, and IDG Capital to negotiate the Series A funding round for DiDi Bike.