The richest person in Chinese entertainment

Chapter 345: Comprehensive counterattack, extreme reversal, the last blow
August 8th is definitely a historic moment for Baidu.

Because today is the moment for them to cross classes and ascend to capital.

When the founding team led by Li Yanhong rang the bell at Nasdaq, representing the company's listing, Baidu's stock was officially sold to the public.

The share price of $27 slowly rose from the moment of issuance under the eager gaze of Li Yanhong and others, and their hearts also settled.

They were originally worried that things happening in the country would affect the stock price when it was listed today.

But when Zhang Chen accidentally fell into a coma, they made a last-ditch effort and achieved this moment today.

Fortunately, Zhang Chen, the leader, has not woken up yet.

Fortunately, the people behind him restrained the people behind Zhang Chen.

Especially after the "Anti-Zhang Chen Manifesto" appeared on Tieba, the number of users of Baidu Tieba increased to 1000 million in a short period of time.

This ratio is not enough considering the nearly 100 million Internet users in the country, but it has shown a trend of being able to compete with China's current largest social platform - Weibo.

It is for this reason that many investors on the other side of the ocean have seen the potential of Baidu.

Without interference from other forces, Baidu's stock price has been rising steadily amid the expectations of many investors.

The first transaction price reached $65, an increase of 140%
Finally, at the close of the market, Baidu's stock price was fixed at $109.5, an increase of 305%.
In the history of the United States, Baidu's IPO performance can be ranked 20th, setting a new record for the increase in trading on the first day of listing since FirePond in February 2000, and also making Baidu the stock of a non-U.S. domestic company that achieved the strongest increase in trading on the first day of listing.

At the same time, for this listing, drawing on Shanda's experience in its surprise attack on Sina, Baidu set up four checkpoints, including the Niu Card Plan, to guard against malicious competitors, institutional investors and other potential risks, and firmly grasp the controlling rights of the core management.

Meanwhile, in an emerging area of Wall Street.

Under the remote control of Zhang Chen and the supervision of William, Light is steadily selling the Baidu shares he holds and those borrowed from institutions.

Zhang Chen holds about 1000 million shares, while William, together with Hollywood film and television companies such as Disney, has borrowed about 2000 million shares. Although William is the manager of Light on the surface, the actual controller is Zhang Chen, so Zhang Chen has an additional 1000 million shares of Baidu.

Of the remaining 1000 million shares, only about 300 million are in the hands of ordinary shareholders, and 700 million shares are held by other people.

You should know that there were less than 4000 million shares of Baidu in circulation when it went public this time. Because of Zhang Chen's battle with Baidu in China, the IPO of Baidu's stock was not very ideal. In fact, a large number of shares flowed into the hands of Zhang Chen and Hollywood film and television companies through various accounts.

"Keep an eye on it, we have to sell out before the 12th."

William gave instructions to his large number of operators. He had received news that after the 12th, there would be a huge plan against Baidu.

Not only Zhang Chen, Wall Street, and Hollywood, but also another large group has joined the hunt.

If Zhang Chen simply wanted to crash the market, it would be best for him to keep buying and selling, using huge amounts of funds to forcefully bring down Baidu's stock price.

However, this behavior that harms others and does not benefit oneself is not in the interests of the partners, nor is it in line with Zhang Chen's original intention of asking for interest, so Zhang Chen still chose to short.

On August 8, Chenguang Entertainment suddenly released an announcement, which caused a sensation around the world:
[After nearly a month of treatment, the chairman of our group has recovered recently and will attend the world premiere of "Love" at the Yanjing Chenguang Cinema flagship store on the 12th. ]

This short announcement directly made headlines in the entire world entertainment industry and even mainstream media.

You should know that ever since the news of Zhang Chen's coma came out, Chenguang Group has been caught up in a public opinion storm.

Although Weibo has consciously deleted some extreme remarks, Zhang Chen's reputation in the entire China has plummeted to the lowest point on Baidu Tieba.

Although it has not yet reached the point where everyone despises it, it is already difficult to achieve the same level of universal support as before.

The media and the public also want to know what Zhang Chen thinks of those remarks. Is it really as stated in the post? Has Zhang Chen really been reaping the benefits of the domestic people all along? Is he a domineering person who likes to suppress his peers?

It doesn’t matter whether Zhang Chen answers or not. What’s important is that the media must meet him and ask these questions face to face. If Zhang Chen’s answer is flawed, these media will make a big report on a certain point.

"Zhang Chen has actually recovered. I thought this evil capitalist was dead."

"The above person, go back to your forum and stop showing off your IQ on Weibo."

"I seriously suspect that a large proportion of the people online are trolls hired by certain organizations."

"Yes, there have been too many negative reports about Zhang Chen in the past month. This is very abnormal."

"It's mainly because the forum people are exaggerating and not caring at all."

"What do they care about? Baidu and Chenguang Group have already started fighting openly."

"Didn't Tieba expose some celebrities' privacy at the end of July? This time it was even more outrageous, with photos of their ID cards, including Xu Jinglei, Yuan Quan, Zhang Ziyi, and Chen Peisi, a total of 7 celebrities."

"Tieba really doesn't dare to get involved in this kind of thing. Although we really want to know some of the celebrities' secrets, this kind of invasion of privacy is still too much."

"They also keep saying that it wasn't them and that the user's behavior has nothing to do with the platform. Bah! If it really wasn't them, they should have deleted the post immediately. They even made a requirement to register to view the post. They really don't care about the users' reputation at all."

"Weibo is still better. All kinds of extreme speech will be restricted, and there are national regulatory departments. There is no need to worry about any bad speech spreading freely here."

"Then I still prefer the forums, where you can say anything."

"You can say whatever you want, brother, you are not worth half a million, are you?"

The comments on Weibo are relatively peaceful. After all, this is Zhang Chen's position.

And as Zhang Chen's plan progressed, there was no need to deliberately suppress the voices of counterattack.

At the same time, Weibo released a large number of press releases that were beneficial to Zhang Chen, including but not limited to things that Zhang Chen had not deliberately publicized in the past few years:

1. Donated more than 100 Hope Primary Schools across the country, with a total investment of 4 million yuan.

This is much higher than the average price of 100-200 million yuan, mainly because the earthquake resistance level of these primary schools reaches 9.

2. Since its establishment, Chenguang Group has sponsored more than 1689 students from poor mountainous areas to enter universities, including 12 from Tsinghua University and Peking University, 985 from 211 and 156 universities, 476 from other undergraduate colleges, and the rest from junior colleges.

3. We donated a total of 69 "Morning Light Buildings" to various art schools across the country, and donated varying numbers of musical instruments depending on the situation of the schools.

4. The total number of employees of Chenguang Group has exceeded 4, including 5 employees with more than five years of service. These employees have all lived free of charge in the "Chenguang Community" invested by Chenguang Group in Yanjing, Shanghai, Lin'an, Shenzhen and other places.

5. In 04, Chenguang Group was awarded the title of “Advanced Tax Payment Enterprise” by Yanjing.

At the same time, Facebook also released a lot of donations from the "Morning Light Charity Foundation" around the world, with a total of more than 10 people funded and a total expenditure of nearly 3000 million US dollars.

This is also to prevent people with ulterior motives abroad from making a fuss about what Zhang Chen has done in the country.

Although there is still a gap between the two, it is enough to shut up most people. This move of Chenguang Group directly shocked the domestic people.

A month ago, the dazzling post about Zhang Chen reaping the domestic people like a glutton disappeared directly under the news, and no one dared to mention whether Zhang Chen's identity was in doubt.

Because the college students who received the donations finally knew who had funded their studies for so many years. They were originally curious about who did "good deeds" without leaving their names, and the money was directly transferred to their parents anonymously.

Now that they knew the money came from the Chenguang Group, they began to unite and go to Weibo, Tieba, Zhihu and other public opinion platforms to speak for Zhang Chen day and night.

"You people who slander Zhang Chen are just talking nonsense. If Zhang Chen is really like what you said, would he do so many good things in the country without asking for anything in return?"

"My parents died early, and I only have a grandfather who is over 70 years old. It was Zhang Chen who helped me finish college and successfully got a job in the government. You people who slander him should show me some proof of the good things you have done!"

"Zhang Chen's company is not profitable, is it just to lose money? He has more than 4 people waiting for Zhang Chen to pay them. Do you know how many families and populations these are? You just wiped out Zhang Chen's contributions over the years. I think you are the ones who deserve to be investigated!"

With these college students who have already entered society as the pioneers and Zhang Chen's old fans as the backing, major public opinion fronts launched a massive public opinion counterattack.

At the same time, on the other side of the ocean.

Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures and other Hollywood film and television companies issued a joint statement that they will file a lawsuit against Baidu for providing a channel for film and television pirates to distribute pirated resources in China.

Warner Music, Sony Music and other seven major record companies in the world issued a joint statement that they will file a lawsuit against Baidu for providing a channel for the distribution of pirated music in China.

The United States, led by stars such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Will Smith, publicly condemned Baidu for allowing pirates to spread their pirated music on their platform.

The Maple Leaf Country is headed by Avril Lavigne, and the Ying Country is headed by Celine Dion.
In China, Jay Chou, Sun Yanzi and other Frog-born singers also released statements.

For a time, China's international reputation was greatly reduced because of Baidu.

On the 11th, the Morning Light Group filed a lawsuit against Baidu over the newly released "Administrative Measures for the Protection of Internet Copyrights" and submitted a total of 256 million pieces of evidence of pirated links to relevant agencies.

Based on these evidences and the clockwork, he claimed 7.68 million yuan from Baidu.

Because the time is still short, Baidu's stock has only fallen slightly by 5%.
Just when the senior executives of Baidu were so busy with all these pieces of news that they had no time to catch their breath.

On the 12th, the day of the global premiere of "Love" arrived.

At 2 p.m. sharp, under the spotlight of more than 3000 media outlets around the world, Zhang Chen, who had been missing for nearly a month due to "coma", slowly got out of the car and stepped onto the red carpet.

For a moment, all cameras were aimed at this world superstar.

ABC, BBC and Spoon Lamp International Media also recorded this moment for audiences around the world.

You should know that this movie has attracted much attention from movie fans and the public all over the world since it won the award at the Cannes Film Festival.

They were very curious about what kind of film it was that allowed Zhang Chen, a young man of only 21 years old, to win the "Palme d'Or", which other directors would struggle to get in their entire lives.

They were also curious about why those viewers who had the pleasure of watching the film would blame a Chinese company, and who the Bai Zeming and Li Sisi they were talking about were.

In addition to these, they also wanted to know why Zhang Chen was unconscious and what happened that day.

They also want to know whether Zhang Chen is the manipulator behind the anti-piracy movement that suddenly swept the world in the past two days.

"Everyone, I know you have a lot of questions to ask, but can you please ask them after the movie is over?"

Zhang Chen's face looked rosy, not at all like he was just recovering from a serious illness as the outside world had speculated.

This also disappointed some conspiracy theorists for a moment.

However, with so many media outlets here today and it being the premiere of a movie, there really isn't much time on the red carpet for them to ask questions.

After Zhang Chen saw that the media understood the situation, he helped Liu Yifei, who was wearing a long silver fishtail dress, into the theater.

Inside, the stars, directors, and producers invited by Chenguang Entertainment had already arrived at the scene. Zhang Chen and Liu Yifei were the last to arrive.

"Brother Chen, how do you feel?"

Jay Chou and Zhang Chen are one of the few younger generations in the Chinese music circle.

He originally wanted to visit Zhang Chen, but Xue Yining told him that Zhang Chen was not available to see anyone.

Since then, Jay Chou has been worried about Zhang Chen's health.

Jay Chou has always regarded Zhang Chen as a "guiding light" on his musical journey, and much of Zhang Chen's music resonates strongly with him.

So he didn't want this leader in his creative path to disappear just like that.

He breathed a sigh of relief only when he saw Zhang Chen standing in front of him in one piece.

"I feel healthy and everything I eat tastes delicious." Zhang Chen smiled and patted his chest, then said, "Thank you."

"No, it's what you should do. This is not only for you, but also for all the musicians, of which I am a part."

The two were talking about the online condemnation of Baidu for condoning piracy, with Jay Chou being one of the pioneers.

"Okay everyone, I'm in good health, let's just watch a movie."

After receiving care from many big names such as Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Gong Li, and Cheng Long, Zhang Chen no longer wanted to waste time on this matter.

In fact, when everyone sees him standing here, they know that he is in good health. Those who come over to talk to him all want to take this opportunity to build a relationship with him.

It was okay for those who were already close to him, but Zhang Chen didn't want to deal with those who were obviously trying to please him.

"Other people's movie premieres are all very grand, so we have to build relationships with them anyway."

Liu Yifei leaned on Zhang Chen's shoulder and complained quietly as the lights in the theater dimmed.

"Today's position is not here."

"Where is that?"

"The Internet, the stock market, and Baidu headquarters."

　Not long after Baidu went public, seven major record companies in the world filed a lawsuit against Baidu. This is not something I made up; it is a true story.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)