Tens of billions of boss "Crazy Brother Yang": I don't want to be an Internet celebrity under too much pressure, and I often think about when I had no money before

Jimu News reporter Zhan Yu

Poster production by Zhu Ruiyi

On December 18, it snowed heavily in Hefei. At a gas station at an intersection on Xi You Road in Shushan District, refueler Master Chen (pseudonym) is refueling a Mercedes-Benz with a foreign license plate. Master Chen clearly felt that since December, there have been more cars going to the gas station to refuel, and sometimes there will be long queues, among which there are many vehicles with foreign license plates.

200 meters west of the gas station, is the headquarters building of the Three Sheep Group of Douyin's top "Crazy Brother Yang" Zhang Qingyang. On December 10, Three Sheep Group held an opening ceremony here to celebrate the company's official entry into the new building. Recently, Hefei officially released data: It is expected that the output value of the three sheep network in 2023 will exceed 30 billion yuan, and the tax payment is expected to exceed 450 million yuan.

From the photographer of funny video clips to the chairman of the group company, after nine years, Brother Xiao Yang has realized the transformation from an amateur to the person in charge of a 10 billion enterprise.

In a recent live broadcast, Brother Xiao Yang denied that he was an Internet celebrity, and also said that he would not do what Internet celebrities do, and only wanted to do a good job in his company. Recently, Jimu News reporters came to Hefei and Lu'an, Anhui Province to explore the growth path of Xiaoyang's brother Zhang Qingyang.

The big and small Yang brothers, on the left are Zhang Qingyang, the little Yang brother (the picture comes from the Internet)

A place to grow

An hour's drive from Lu'an city will take you to Fengying Village, Guzhen Town. The village is close to the local S244 provincial road, and when you drive through it, you can see many rows of beige villas in the village at a glance beside the brand-new asphalt road. This is Brother Yang's hometown.

On the morning of December 20th, an old lady was drying clothes next to the village committee, mentioning Brother Xiao Yang, the lady was a little puzzled, I don't know who it was, and when it came to the "twins", she suddenly realized: "It turned out that it was the Zhang family's brothers who made a lot of money." ”

Fengying Village Committee

The eldest lady put down the clothes in her hand and pointed to the front right, "Their house is in the front row." Following the direction of her finger, she walked through the square in front of the village committee, and the house of Xiao Yang's hometown was in this row of small villas.

Mr. Qin (not his real name), a neighbor, said that the rows of villas were built 10 years ago, "and their family was originally in the next village, but because of the demolition, the two villages were merged into Fengying Village, and they moved here." Mr. Qin said that Xiao Yang's grandmother lived in the village before, and then moved to the town with her daughter, and his family has not returned to the village for a long time.

In Mr. Qin's memory, the Yang brothers lived with their grandparents when they were children, later went to other places with their parents, and then returned to Lu'an to live in high school, and slowly moved away from everyone's vision.

The square in front of the village council

"Their families are relatively low-key and not very public. "The old people in the village don't like to play with their mobile phones, and a few old ladies only heard from the juniors of the family in the first two years that the two brothers made money by bringing goods online and became celebrities, but when they returned to the village, they didn't see much fanfare.

According to information posted by the Fengying Village Committee, the village covers an area of 8.2 square kilometers and has a total of 958 households and 3,268 people. The village has a variety of industries such as gardenia cultivation and animal husbandry.

An elderly man in the village told reporters that around the Spring Festival in January 2023, the two brothers sent "red envelopes" to some people in the village, and "I heard that some subsidies were also given to the village." ”

Brother Xiao Yang

In a car modification shop in the center of Hefei, a number of modified vehicles are parked.

In the office behind the glass door, the boss, Ah Guo (not his real name), is wiping and sorting out his last ten lure fishing rods one by one. He especially likes fishing, and it was "Brother Yang" who brought him into the pit a few years ago. At the beginning of December this year, he also went to Hainan with "Brother Yang" and enjoyed a handful of sea fishing.

"As a brother, Brother Xiao Yang has nothing to say. Ah Guo recalled that he came into contact with the two brothers in 2018. At that time, a friend who played with cars introduced him to the store and met Brother Xiao Yang.

Big Yang and his parents (picture from the Internet)

At that time, Brother Xiao Yang liked to play with cars and drove a "Bumblebee", which was later replaced by a Ferrari and Corvette. "He was young and had time to play with cars, not as busy as he is now. Because of topics such as car modification, Brother Xiao Yang will consult Ah Guo when buying and repairing cars, and they have gradually become friends and brothers.

As a friend, Brother Xiao Yang is righteous enough, and Ah Guo was invited to participate in the opening ceremony of the Three Sheep Group, the "Brother Xiao Yang Concert", and also participated in the company's team building activities. Ah Guo said that Xiao Yang's brother Zhang Qingyang does not attach much importance to money, and he has no shelf, so he gets along like ordinary people.

In Ah Guo's eyes, Brother Da Yang is more introverted, while Brother Xiao Yang is outgoing and has many ideas, and he is a very active person.

According to Douyin Encyclopedia, Xiao Yang's brother Zhang Qingyang was born in February 1995.

In a public speech, Brother Xiao Yang once said that he was very naughty when he was a child. When he was 2 years old, his parents went to Jiashan, Zhejiang to work, but because his grandparents couldn't control them in their hometown, the brothers were finally taken to Zhejiang by their father.

Because he is good at using his brain, when he was in high school, Brother Xiao Yang worked with his brother to sell some small commodities on weekends to earn living expenses. When he arrived at college, Xiao Yang, who likes to dance, began to shoot dancing and funny videos, trying to attract the attention of netizens and gain fans. Brother Xiao Yang's personality also determines that after the two brothers established the company, he basically handled the speeches, speeches, and speeches on stage to the outside world.

The road to e-commerce

"Crazy Brother Yang" is the first individual blogger on the Douyin platform to have more than 100 million fans.

However, the number of fans on its homepage has been displayed as "99.99 million +", and Zhang Qingyang said in an interview that he didn't want to be hyped because of the aura of hundreds of millions of fans, so he agreed with the platform to display it as "99.99 million +". At present, the number of its real fans has exceeded 120 million.

The first time Xiao Yang's social media account increased his followers on a large scale was during the winter vacation of his freshman year. He and Brother Da Yang filmed several videos of "giant firecrackers" at home, and gained tens of thousands of fans. After returning to school, the video of "firecrackers blowing up ink" shot by Brother Xiao Yang and his roommates became his famous work. After the video was released, the account increased by 300,000 followers.

By 2017, the account operated by the two brothers had 3 million followers.

Douyin fans 99.999 million + (Douyin screenshot)

In February 2018, the Douyin account "Crazy Brother Yang" released the first video. In November 2019, the Douyin fans of "Crazy Brother Yang" exceeded 10 million, and the fans reached 40 million in 2020. The biggest weapon to increase fans is the "Desperate Weekend" series of funny videos shot by Brother Xiao Yang and his family.

During college, the brothers, who had already made money through short videos, rented a house in Hefei and brought their parents back from Zhejiang to live.

In March 2021, Brother Xiao Yang founded Hefei Three Sheep Network Technology Co., Ltd. In September 2021, "Crazy Brother Yang" started the Douyin e-commerce live broadcast.

Brother Xiao Yang clearly remembers that the sales of the first live broadcast reached 300,000 yuan. At that time, the account was broadcast every other day, and the second show sold 500,000 and the third sold 700,000...... Sales continue to rise, and the popularity of the live broadcast room is also rising.

In March 2022, Three Sheep (Hefei) Holding Group Co., Ltd. was established, with Zhang Qingyang, the younger brother of Xiaoyang, as the chairman.

Through the classic reverse delivery in the live broadcast room, the video dissemination of live broadcast content slices has made the number of fans of "Crazy Brother Yang" continue to rise until it exceeds 100 million, and the number of goods has also increased. According to statistics, in 2022, the output value of Three Sheep online live broadcast will exceed 10 billion yuan, and the tax will be 250 million yuan.

Denying that he is an influencer

On December 20, just after the heavy snow in Hefei, the citizens saw the long-lost sunshine.

Outside the Three Sheep Group, from Tiantianzhai Road to Xi You Road, all kinds of vehicles were parked, squeezing the original four-lane road to only one lane of traffic. There are Internet celebrities who broadcast live at the door of the company, some outsiders who drive to check in, and some people who continue to send product categories to the company to provide product selection.

Previously, when Zhang Qingyang spent 100 million yuan to photograph the office building of a technology company, netizens laughed that an Internet celebrity with goods collapsed the technology company. Brother Xiao Yang explained that this company has been out of business for many years, and after going bankrupt, the building was auctioned. In July this year, Zhang Qingyang said in the live broadcast room that the building was "more scary than buying". Zhang Qingyang promised at the time that their live broadcast building would become a landmark building in the area and an Internet celebrity check-in point.

Three Sheep Group office building

On December 10, Three Sheep Group had a grand opening in the new office building, and the company officially settled in the new building. Outside the building, there is a lot of traffic during the day and neon flashes at night, and it has indeed become a local Internet celebrity check-in point.

At 7 p.m. on December 23, film and television star Zhang Jiahui came to the live broadcast room of "Crazy Little Brother Yang" to promote the movie "Angry Tide", 100,000 movie tickets were sold out in 30 seconds, and the strong ability of the big and small Yang brothers to bring goods made Zhang Jiahui feel incredible.

From shooting videos to increase fans to bringing big coffee, "Internet celebrity" is everyone's most basic perception of Brother Xiao Yang. However, as the chairman of the Three Sheep Group, Xiao Yang's brother Zhang Qingyang denied that he was an Internet celebrity.

"Many people wrote books and asked me to be named, as well as endorsements, teaching video courses, walking holes, and live games, most of which were tens of millions of rewards, and I refused. Brother Xiaoyang Zhang Qingyang said that he was indeed an Internet celebrity before, but now he doesn't do what Internet celebrities do, and just wants to run the company well and feed tens of thousands of employees.

Xiao Yang Zhenxuan

Standing in this position, Zhang Qingyang hopes that fans will spend money to buy because of their company's good products and services, and he doesn't want fans to buy products just because they like him.

"I often think that when I didn't have money before, compared to the current days, the pressure is too great now, and I can go to the kindergarten to hold a parent-teacher meeting on the hot search. In a live broadcast, Brother Xiao Yang lamented that he no longer had personal space and could not eat food stalls, but now he can only eliminate distractions and go on firmly.

My friend A Guo said that Zhang Qingyang is not as happy as before. "He is not a money-hungry person, the money he makes has long been enough, but he can't stop, the company and the group are pushing him forward, and he can't stop. ”

(Except for the signature, the pictures in the article were taken by Jimu News reporter Zhan Yu)

(Source: Jimu News)