Chapter 790 - 297: Securing Weibo and Douyin, Seizing Control of Online Discourse (Part 2)

Chapter 790: Chapter 297: Securing Weibo and Douyin, Seizing Control of Online Discourse (Part 2)

The bride’s brother, furious, raised his hand to hit Yang Chen.

At this moment, a bodyguard rushed up, grabbed the bride’s brother, and threw him aside.

Five strong men stood in front of Yang Chen, so there was no need to fear the bride’s numerous family members.

"Holy crap, does this rideshare driver carry bodyguards with him?"

"Is he really a rideshare driver?"

"No wonder he’s meddling; turns out he has bodyguards to protect him."

"Damn, have rideshare drivers become this arrogant now? And they have bodyguards too? Bibi is indeed thorough. I’ll join Bibi too; the sense of security is overwhelming."

...

The groom quickly said, "Alright, everyone move aside, let him leave. He did nothing wrong, why are you stopping him?"

The bride immediately said, "How did he do nothing wrong? If he had any social sense, he shouldn’t have been driving!"

Groom: "If your family had any social sense, would they increase the dowry at the last minute? Move aside! Let him go!"

Bride: "What are you going crazy about? Who are you showing that face to? If you don’t want to get married, just leave, why come back?"

Damn, Yang Chen couldn’t stand watching anymore. If he watched any longer, he’d die of anger. Being a man is truly frustrating.

Under the protection of the bodyguards, Yang Chen drove away from that unlucky place.

Encountering such things, it was impossible to have a good mood for the whole day.

However, something even more annoying happened to Yang Chen.

Damn it, the account just now actually gave him a bad review. Although it’s unclear if it was the groom or if the bride forced him, the review was given.

"Trash driver, has no social sense at all. To earn just a few bucks, has no morals, completely shameless."

This was obviously the bride using the groom’s phone to give the review.

If shameless people truly were invincible, that’s exactly how it would look.

Yang Chen didn’t care to bicker with such people, but what did he do wrong as a rideshare driver?

The bride’s family was so shameless, yet they called him immoral. If he didn’t show them a piece of his mind, they wouldn’t know how disgusting their behavior was.

At this moment, the system issued a reminder.

"Congratulations to the owner for receiving a negative review, the system rewards the owner with 30% of Weibo’s equity, making you the largest shareholder of the company. Relevant materials will be delivered to your doorstep tomorrow morning, please pay attention to receive them."

Currently, Dragon Country’s main online public opinion platforms are two: Weibo and Douyin.

Yang Chen becoming the largest shareholder of Weibo equates to controlling half of Dragon Country’s public opinion battlefield.

So, although Weibo’s market value is only a few billion US dollars, this 35% equity value is not lower than the equity of companies like Yida Group.

However, even though Yang Chen is now the largest shareholder, the controlling shares are not in his hands.

Sina holds 28% equity, Aligaba holds 20%, and the voting rights of Aligaba are granted to Sina. Combined with related personal holdings, Sina holds about 52% of the voting rights, so Sina is the controlling shareholder.

After a while, the system issued another reminder.

"A complaint was detected against the owner, triggering a critical reward. The system rewards the owner with 30% equity of Alphabet Dance Group. To help the owner avoid unnecessary publicity, the system has already disguised the ownership through multiple registered companies. The relevant materials will be delivered tomorrow morning, please pay attention to receive them."

Alphabet Dance Group is Douyin’s parent company. After many rounds of financing, the CEO Zhang Xiaoming’s holding ratio still remains as high as 98.8%.

Why is this?

This is because Internet companies often adopt a dual-class stock structure, which means investors get equity but only have dividend rights, not voting rights.

Thus, legally speaking, Zhang Xiaoming still holds 98% of the equity.

But!

The system awarded Yang Chen with a 30% equity, which is not part of the dual-class shares but comes with both dividend and voting rights.

So why did Zhang Xiaoming agree to give so many voting rights to Yang Chen?

Of course, because the system offered too much, he simply couldn’t refuse.

In the year-end wealth rankings, Zhang Xiaoming will become the richest person in Dragon Country’s history, with at least 700 billion in total assets.

But don’t think he got such a great deal with this much money.

Everyone should understand one thing.

When a kid has 10 bucks, parents don’t care, he can spend as he wishes.

But when a kid has 100 bucks, parents tell him not to waste money.

When a kid has 10,000 bucks, parents take it from him under the pretext of safekeeping.

So, whether Zhang Xiaoming got a windfall or a loss with so much money, it’s hard to say.

But for Yang Chen, he clearly won big.

Controlling the two major public opinion frontlines of Weibo and Douyin, as long as he doesn’t revolt, he decides who gets to speak. If he doesn’t want someone to speak, that person can forget about voicing online.

This is something even the likes of Brother Ma, and even Zhang Xiaoming himself, couldn’t achieve.

Though Aligaba holds Weibo equity, it can’t control Weibo or Douyin.

Zhang Xiaoming can control Douyin but not Weibo.

Only Yang Chen can control both Weibo and Douyin at the same time, which is what makes him more formidable than other tycoons.

It’s vital to note that in today’s digital age, if you can’t speak online, no matter how wronged you are, you have to endure it.

Many times, it even requires public opinion to push for legal progress.

For example, the case of Brother Long being counter-killed back in the day, where it was with the vast efforts of netizens that the victim was recognized as acting in self-defense. Otherwise, merely by wielding a knife to attack, it wouldn’t meet the legal definition of self-defense at that time, and it was because of that case that the self-defense regulations in the law became more lenient, no longer requiring being close to death before fighting back.