Reborn since 1993

Chapter 1226 It’s rude to come and not return.

Before leaving Hong Kong, Li Dongling signed a yacht agreement with Paul. With the addition of the yacht security system and security weapons requested by Li Dongling, the total cost soared to 230 million US dollars, officially making it the most expensive yacht in the world!
Payment for the Cyberport yacht will be made according to the progress of the project. Li Dongling has paid a deposit, and in the future, he will make another payment for each new stage of the yacht's development.

It's impossible to transfer all the money at once. Although Benetti Yachts, as one of the world's largest yacht manufacturers, is unlikely to ruin its reputation and alienate itself from the world's richest people for this amount of money.

However, to avoid any unforeseen problems, it's best to be cautious and make payments according to the yacht's progress; it's better for everyone!

"Asia's richest man builds the world's most expensive yacht in history!"

"The Cyberport yacht sets a new price record in the history of yachts in the port city!"

"The story of Li Sheng playing with the feudal lords by lighting beacon fires and riding a lone horse to win the favor of his concubine Ning Wen, who gave birth to his eldest princess, has been revealed by insiders.

The appearance of Cyberport caused a media frenzy throughout the port city, with various media outlets reporting on it. Even tabloids and gossip columns reported that the yacht was built for Ning Wenke and her daughter.

According to the tabloids' wild imaginations, the philanthropist Li built this yacht to make up for Ning Wenke's situation.

Believe it or not, with the detailed and seemingly plausible reports from tabloids, quite a few people in Hong Kong actually accepted this narrative.

What audience doesn't enjoy watching a drama of a hero's anger for a beautiful woman? In ancient times, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang sent lychees over an urgent 2,000-mile journey to please Yang Guifei. Today, Asia's richest man spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build a yacht for his woman and the princess. It's all quite plausible.

According to the latest media reports from Hong Kong, Li Dongling, whose net worth has skyrocketed by over 10 billion RMB due to his involvement with companies such as China.com, 3721, Kingsoft, Jiangmin Technology, and Tianya Sports, will be building a superyacht with a total cost of 230 million USD!

Is the news true?

"It's all over the city's media, and media outlets in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and other countries have also started reporting on it."

The news about the Cyberport yacht was first reported on Sina.com in mainland China. Compared with traditional media, internet media have a much wider range of content and are now almost unregulated.

Mainland television stations and traditional newspapers and magazines are still hesitant about whether to report on the Cyberport yacht, waiting for approval and decisions from the Information Services Department and other departments before they know whether they can report on the news of Li Dashan.

But internet media don't care about these things, especially Sina and the Dongke faction, who are not from the same boat. When they report on these things, they naturally don't care about the impact and immediately spread the news on their websites.

In contrast, mainland websites such as China.com and Tianya Forum appeared relatively calm and did not begin reporting on it.

After Sina published the article, the entire website instantly experienced a massive surge in traffic, with over 30,000 internet users flooding into Sina.com, giving Sina its first massive wave of traffic since its launch.

Hundreds of comments instantly appeared in the comments section of this report.

This is huge news even in the port city, let alone the mainland; it's truly astonishing.

"That's over two hundred million US dollars! Are they really going to use it to build a yacht?"

"This amount of money doesn't seem like much to Li Dongling. China.com alone has increased his net worth by several billion dollars!"

Posts kept popping up in Sina's comment section, with mixed opinions on the appearance of the Cyberport yacht.

There were many envious comments, but there were also some sarcastic remarks, as well as posts questioning and criticizing Li Dongling.

"This money could have built so many schools, and it's just being wasted like this!"

Following this comment, which initially questioned Li Dongling, a rebuttal comment suddenly appeared.

"Here's a little-known fact for you upstairs: for the past six years, the Zhixing Foundation has been the foundation in Taiwan that has donated the most to schools, provided the most scholarships, built the most schools, and donated the most teaching buildings."

Hundreds of thousands of students have already received the Qilin Scholarship from the Zhixing Foundation, which was founded by Li Dongling!

“I received the Qilin Scholarship every semester during my two years of university. The Qilin Scholarship allowed me to not have to ask my family for money!”

"My mentor most wants to win the Ho Zun Award!"

Following these comments from the Zhi Xing Foundation, the Qilin Scholarship, and the He Zun Award, another comment appeared.

“I have a relative who is the breadwinner of his family. He contracted lung disease last year and was about to be transferred back from the hospital due to the cost of treatment. However, he was included in the list of patients receiving treatment by the Wuji Foundation and is now in the recovery period.”

The Disease-Free Foundation was also established by Li Dongling!

Various comments flooded Sina Weibo's comment section, but while there was envy and discussion surrounding the Cyberport yacht, there wasn't much criticism or resentment towards Li Dongling for purchasing it. Public opinion and attitudes towards Li Dongling in China are overwhelmingly supportive. Regardless of whether Li Dongling exploits people abroad, he has never done so in mainland China; on the contrary, countless people have benefited from the Zhixing Foundation!

……

While media outlets in inland areas and port cities were reporting on the Cyberport yacht and stirring up public opinion, news broke that Paul Allen, a wealthy American tech mogul and one of the founders of Microsoft, announced plans to build the $2.5 million "Octopus" yacht!
News of the construction of the Cyberport yacht also reached America and was reported by many American television stations and media outlets.

If news from websites like China.com only attracts attention and reports from Silicon Valley's tech circle and Wall Street's financial circle...

The news about the world's most expensive yacht successfully topped the American news charts. Coupled with the buzz from the internet, technology, and finance sectors, the Cyberport yacht became the front page of American news and was reported by numerous American media outlets, both large and small.

The title of the world's most expensive yacht was snatched away by an overseas tech tycoon, which naturally caused an uproar in the American tech community.

America prides itself on being a beacon, and its tech companies claim to be among the best in the world. American tech billionaires, led by Bill Gates, consistently rank among the world's richest people.
In this era, yachts, to a certain extent, represent a symbol of status, wealth, and power!

The world's most expensive yacht, however, does not belong to an American tech tycoon. This is somewhat intolerable to the American tech community. How can the bigwigs in the American tech world be willing to be trampled underfoot?
Paul Allen was the first to make a move, announcing plans to build the Octopus yacht, which would cost more than $2.3 million, surpassing the Cyberport yacht!
Subsequently, Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, Microsoft's arch-rival, also stepped forward and announced the construction of "Rising Sun," raising the budget to $4.5 million!
Whether the news about the Rising Sun yacht is true or false is hard to say, but Larry Ellison's intention to build a yacht is clearly to prioritize price over suitability.

The entry of Paul Allen and Larry Ellison seemed to have kicked off an arms race in the yachting industry.

Subsequently, Dell's founder, along with a group of wealthy American tech entrepreneurs, also announced plans to build their own yachts.

If things only went this far, then this is the global tech world's competition for power and status sparked by yachts. It's called a yacht arms race, but in reality, it's a battle for power in the tech industry!
However, the subsequent entry of Russian oligarchs such as Abramovich and Boris Johnson, as well as Middle Eastern oil royal families, completely escalated this yacht arms race.

Yacht companies such as Benetti Yachts, Le Shun, and Fedi Star were suddenly overwhelmed with yacht orders, with some even delaying the construction time of new orders by up to five years...

Compared to the private yacht orders from Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern tycoons, Li Dashan's Digital Port yacht is surprisingly cost-effective.

It wasn't until Li Dashanren arrived at Pingyang Airport and got off the plane that he heard about the yachting industry's arms race over the Cyberport. Li Dongling was also surprised when he heard this.

Then, he shook his head. In fact, the purpose of building the Cyberport yacht was mostly to promote the Silicon Harbor project and companies like China.com.

However, even the philanthropist Li didn't expect that those bastards would actually be able to come up with so much money to smash the yacht!

However, Li Dongling had no interest in continuing to raise the price to build the yacht.

The Cyberport yacht has achieved its purpose; through this yacht, countless media outlets around the world have reported on Cyberport.

The appearance of this yacht not only reported on Li Dashan's wealth, but also brought countless people's attention to the Silicon Harbor Project, China.com, and other companies, which is equivalent to a wave of advertising around the world. This advertising was worthwhile.

……

"Wealthy individuals around the world are joining the yacht arms race, and major yacht manufacturers have already raised yacht prices by more than 16%!"

"Fortune magazines such as Asiaweek and Time magazine predict that Li Dongling's net worth may increase significantly this year compared to last year, and his ranking on the global rich list may also rise!"

In Chengdu, Sichuan, at the Top Group headquarters, Mr. Song, watching the media reports on the yacht arms race, couldn't help but mutter, "Fools, these guys are willing to spend so many US dollars on a single yacht!"

Although Mr. Song was an expert at fleecing people, he wasn't so extravagant as to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build a yacht; this was beyond his imagination.

Mr. Song suddenly realized that Top's slogan of being "the Walmart of the software industry" didn't seem as effective as the internet industry at ripping people off.

Li Dashan's net worth soared to billions of dollars thanks to China.com and other platforms. Isn't that much faster than his hard work running a software park and all sorts of shady operations to make money?

Just as Boss Song was calculating whether Top Technology, which was preparing to list in Hong Kong, could make a fortune by associating with the name of the philanthropist Li, a manager rushed in.

"President Song, quickly look at the report on China.com!"

At this moment, Boss Song looked somewhat bewildered, but seeing the manager's flustered expression, he sensed that something had happened.

"Peregrine Securities' financial audit of Top Technology Company failed to pass!"

"Unveiling the true face of Top Technology's 27 industrial parks!"

Is it the Walmart of the software industry or just a bubble?

(End of this chapter)