The establishment of the Beaver Charity Foundation was honestly just a spur-of-the-moment decision by Isabella.
After learning that a fan who liked her had waited in the cold wind all night just to see her, Isabella felt both excited and helpless. The excitement came from the joy of having fans. Being liked makes people happy. No one dislikes being liked, right? The helplessness, however, came from looking at things rationally. Many people's affection for her had already exceeded what they themselves could afford.
Admittedly, every industry that relies on fans, or rather all product marketing in the world, ultimately wants to turn living people into idiots who can't think for themselves, into believers who blindly follow.
All excessive marketing is essentially religious brainwashing.
But when all of this actually happened—
Isabella still felt a bit emotional.
And so the idea of "giving back to fans" appeared.
Of course, she didn't consider herself a good person, nor did she think her heart was particularly kind.
In fact, in her eyes, establishing a "Beaver Charity Foundation" specifically serving fans was still a way of strengthening fan loyalty. If she had to describe it, it was somewhat similar to how MrBeast motivates people in his videos in the future.
Once money appears in a work, even if it's just entertainment—
That work, and even the people making it, will no longer be pure.
This isn't hypocrisy.
It's simply stating a fact.
However, Isabella might think her own actions were nothing special, but others—
"Oh, Isa, in the past three days, the official website of your Beaver Charity Foundation has already been visited a hundred million times by internet users. The number of formal applications has exceeded twenty thousand."
"After removing the obviously unqualified applicants, nearly three hundred cases have entered the offline review stage. If nothing unexpected happens, we should be able to deliver the first round of assistance this month."
"I believe the world will be shocked by your kindness."
"Because your efficiency in charity work is simply astonishing!"
As soon as she returned to the hotel—the one the Prada production team had booked—Nathan Bailey's flattery immediately appeared.
Inside the conference room.
Isabella flipped through the briefing with a smile on her face.
Over a hundred million visits meant that more than ten million people had already logged onto the charity foundation's official website. Of course, repeat visits were inevitable. More than three hundred offline reviews meant she would soon be able to help people. And it also meant that, at least in the eyes of the public—especially her fans—her image was extremely positive. That was a good thing.
Naturally, none of this was her achievement alone.
Closing the document, Isabella smiled and said, "Nathan, if it weren't for the help from Time Warner and Disney, this wouldn't have progressed so quickly. So after the first aid package is delivered, you'll also be praised by the public."
The girl's words made Nathan Bailey laugh.
Charitable organizations across Britain and the United States aren't things you can establish just by talking.
The reason the Beaver Charity Foundation managed to launch a website, complete its offline network, and build a full feedback mechanism within half a month was purely because Isabella had brought Barry Meyer and Robert Iger into the project.
Take Time Warner, for example. They took charge of the foundation's online work.
Website maintenance, information collection, preliminary screening of applications—
All of that was handled by their network department.
Disney, meanwhile, handled the offline work.
Because their grassroots promotional network in both the UK and the US was incredibly powerful.
If someone in Little Rock, Arkansas, submitted a request for help one second—
The next second, across the entire United States, only two companies could locate that person immediately.
One was Walmart, because its headquarters were in Arkansas.
The other was Disney, because its fan clubs were truly spread everywhere.
Only by embracing mature channels could one achieve real speed.
Of course, those channels weren't free to use. They cost money.
Although Barry Meyer and Robert Iger had no intention of charging Isabella for access to those channels. For large conglomerates, charity is also brand promotion and image maintenance. Especially when Isabella already had a strong reputation and was genuinely giving money away. As long as they covered the operating costs of the charitable organization, they could share in the positive publicity.
But just because the two men didn't send Isabella a bill didn't mean she didn't understand the expenses.
For every five million dollars in aid distributed, the corresponding operational cost exceeded fifteen million.
That was no joke.
Anyone who has done relief work knows that ensuring aid actually reaches people who truly need it is extremely expensive.
Human nature can be very ugly.
When many people see relief funds, they immediately try to find ways to cheat the system.
Some people are even worse—
You give them a calf in the morning, and by the afternoon they're greedily patting their bellies.
Helping people who genuinely want to improve their lives is incredibly difficult.
Since charity was a long-term undertaking, and Isabella currently had plenty of "tools" helping her run things, all she needed to do was arrange third-party audits each year to ensure the system kept helping those in need. So after confirming that her real charity project was steadily progressing in a positive direction, she set aside the spontaneous idea that had started it all.
Then Nathan Bailey brought up the second topic of the day: bandwidth.
As early as mid-last month, Time Warner had formally embraced Verizon and sold AOL to them.
On the surface, that had nothing to do with Isabella.
Ted Turner and Steve Case were already gone.
But in reality—
The final transaction price related to AOL dropped from the peak of 21.5 billion to 20.5 billion.
And this wasn't because Verizon deliberately forced the price down knowing Time Warner had to sell AOL before 2006. Instead, before the deal with Verizon, Time Warner had already stripped out Verizon's unwanted redundant bandwidth business from AOL. This included the dark fiber network spread across the United States, connecting America and Europe, which had been laid but never activated.
They then sold that company—American Bandwidth—to Isabella for 900 million dollars, even though its asset value was one billion.
Time Warner's reasoning was simple.
Isabella had previously said she couldn't afford the bandwidth costs required to grow a video website.
Renting bandwidth from telecom operators was extremely expensive.
So when Isabella had cash and Time Warner had unused dark fiber, the deal naturally came together.
That was precisely why YouTube could boldly accept massive traffic. Without that dedicated line, their lousy network simply wouldn't have been able to handle the flood of users pouring in.
Since Isabella didn't understand technology, and knew even less about telecommunications, even after acquiring American Bandwidth and activating several fiber lines, the company's management still remained the original team.
Of course, the chairman had changed.
The new chairman was Nathan Bailey.
Even though American Bandwidth controlled assets worth a billion dollars, Isabella simply didn't have time to manage all those small details.
Nathan Bailey was effectively overseeing the company for her, while still keeping his job at Time Warner.
Because—
"Isa, maintaining fiber networks is expensive."
"Even though we've only activated part of them, the annual maintenance cost is already close to ten million."
"So about YouTube's service fees?"
"Charge them normally," Isabella replied, understanding his meaning. "At most, give them a small discount compared to market price. Don't worry about YouTube not having money. If they run out, they'll come to me for financing."
"And if they can't raise money anymore, they'll sell the company themselves."
"When that happens, you'll be free too."
"Because I'll sell all of this."
Yes.
Isabella had no intention of holding American Bandwidth long-term.
She held it now only because she wanted to absorb YouTube's shares at the lowest possible cost.
The logic was simple:
If YouTube wanted to grow, it needed massive bandwidth. Bandwidth cost money. They didn't have money, so they would come to Isabella for financing, since both sides had already signed a priority financing agreement.
After getting the money, if YouTube wanted the cheapest bandwidth on the market, they would have to buy it from American Bandwidth.
In other words, Isabella invested in them with her left hand and charged them money with her right.
After the funds circulated once, Isabella only needed to pay the maintenance cost of the fiber network to obtain YouTube equity.
Then, once she had absorbed enough of YouTube, the founders would inevitably want to cash out and leave. At that point, no matter who bought YouTube, she would require them to purchase her American Bandwidth together with it.
And if the buyer used a dual-class share structure, she would only accept the class with the highest voting rights.
For example, if Google bought YouTube?
Then she would only take Google Class B shares.
Well—
She didn't think that was an outrageous demand.
Nor did she think the deal would fail.
Because bandwidth was hard currency.
Anyone with even a little understanding of technology knew that companies without bandwidth had no future.
Since Isabella had already planned everything, Nathan Bailey stopped worrying about American Bandwidth's operations.
He didn't understand the telecom industry either.
Putting aside the documents related to American Bandwidth, he picked up a new file.
Actually, the real reason he came today was to take advantage of the pause in Prada's production and settle the yearly accounts with Isabella.
After all, 2005 had passed.
He missed it very much.
The third topic they discussed was movies.
First was Goblet of Fire (Part 1).
After Christmas ended, the box-office curve of Goblet of Fire (Part 1) fell like a waterfall.
About ten million per day in North America, around twenty million globally.
On the surface, that looked like weak staying power or a classic case of a strong opening followed by a steep drop.
But in reality—
This trend was completely normal.
When a film occupies 60 percent of theater screenings during the New Year period, people who want to watch it and those who don't will both see it immediately. Because if you don't watch Goblet of Fire (Part 1), there's simply nothing else to watch.
Moreover, after ten days of release, Goblet of Fire (Part 1) had already climbed to a terrifying 297 million in North America.
Globally, it had reached 695 million.
At that point, you could even say that unless Earth exploded, Goblet of Fire (Part 1) would definitely become the global box-office champion of 2005 and the third film in history to surpass one billion worldwide.
Which meant—
"Isa, Mr. Meyer has officially decided to split Order of the Phoenix into two films."
Nathan Bailey said, "Steve Kloves has actually already finished the script. But since you, Chris, and Joanne were very busy before, we didn't show it to you. So about this matter—"
He stopped there.
The probing gaze of the "unlucky kid" made Isabella purse her lips and laugh softly.
"I don't have time right now."
"So let's talk about it after Prada finishes filming."
"Besides, there's no rush, right?"
"Order of the Phoenix won't start filming until July or August at the earliest."
"Okay." Nathan Bailey nodded and gestured that it was fine, then changed the topic. "Then let's skip that for now and talk about Goblet of Fire (Part 2) first—"
In Warner's original plan, Goblet of Fire (Part 2) was supposed to meet the public this summer. But Disney's right-hand king, Robert Iger, hoped Warner would move the release date of Goblet of Fire (Part 2) to Christmas this year.
The reason he made this request was because he had already yielded a release slot in exchange for pursuing his own ambitions.
The situation was like this—
"Isa, this year's Christmas season really shouldn't have been this quiet."
"Disney has a blockbuster called The Chronicles of Narnia. They originally planned to release it during Christmas, but out of respect for you, Robert Iger had it moved to Halloween instead."
"The film's box office performance is actually very strong. Based on the current trend, it could surpass 280 million in North America and 740 million worldwide."
"So if it had appeared during the Christmas season, even if we still won, the numbers wouldn't look as good as they do now."
"Mr. Iger did this because next summer they plan to release the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean."
"He believes the Pirates sequel has the potential to become the fourth film in history to surpass one billion at the global box office."
"So—"
Nathan Bailey deliberately stretched out the last word.
"Oh, then just give them the summer slot."
Isabella said with a smile, "Has Goblet of Fire (Part 2) been officially scheduled yet?"
"No." Nathan Bailey shook his head.
"Then just say the special effects aren't finished." Isabella spread her hands and offered her solution.
If an ally had a request, everything was negotiable.
Besides, whether Goblet of Fire (Part 2) released in summer or winter didn't really matter.
And Isabella also believed that Barry Meyer probably wanted to move the release date too.
As for the reason?
Very simple.
Barry Meyer had previously said that, if nothing unexpected happened, she would acquire DC in the summer.
If even Barry Meyer believed DC films were guaranteed to flop, then what if HP appeared in the summer blockbuster season?
If the DC executives refused to hand over power, they could simply claim that HP had hurt the performance of Superman Returns.
So.
Why not move the release date, watch them perform, and then peacefully take over afterward?
Right?
To be honest, when it came to discussing films, Isabella instinctively thought that the only thing she and Warner could talk about was HP.
But when Nathan Bailey pulled out the complete proposal for Iron Man from his "four-dimensional pocket"—
She suddenly remembered that Iron Man was actually financed by New Line Cinema.
Because Warner needed to compensate her for the income she received less of from HP.
And this—
"When did Kevin Feige give this to you?"
"Before Christmas. He originally wanted to hand the plan directly to you, but you were extremely busy at the time. You were filming Prada and dealing with premiere events, so he gave it to us and asked us to pass the proposal to you at the right time."
"So you've already read his plan?"
"Yes."
"What do you think?"
"The Iron Man script he wrote is a very strong commercial film."
"Okay. When does he want to shoot it?"
"He thinks the film should be released by 2008 at the latest."
"Oh—then there's still plenty of time. Leave it with me. I'll read it when I have time."
"Alright."
Maybe she really was extremely busy.
At this moment, Isabella had almost completely forgotten about the preparations for Iron Man.
Yes.
Even though she had mentioned Spider-Man's famous quote in her vlog, "With great power comes great responsibility," she still didn't remember that Iron Man was being prepared. Or rather, before Nathan Bailey pulled out the proposal, she had subconsciously assumed the project no longer needed her involvement and would somehow finish itself automatically.
"Sigh…"
"This career is really getting bigger and bigger…"
She muttered silently to herself.
After accepting the Iron Man project proposal, Isabella asked again, "Anything else?"
"…Yes."
Although Nathan Bailey could see the girl's exhaustion, he still nodded firmly.
Then he continued, "Mr. Iger asked us to tell you that the theme park project for The Voice is nearing completion."
"He wants to launch the park together with the premiere of Season 4 of The Voice."
"So he hopes you can attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony."
"If you have time."
"Because The Voice ratings have dropped."
The data for Season 3 of The Voice had clearly declined compared to the first two seasons.
Although the average viewership still remained above 35 million, the peak was only slightly above 41 million.
This fact disappointed Disney, but—
No one can stay wild forever.
For a show to dominate ratings for two years was already very impressive.
Not to mention that even The Voice's worst ratings were still the best ratings of other programs.
However, anyone with even a little ambition wouldn't accept decline so easily.
After noticing that the influence of The Voice was gradually weakening, Disney's right-hand king Robert Iger wanted to try to revive it. Coincidentally, the Voice theme park project was almost finished. The idea of creating a publicity highlight naturally came to his mind. And since The Voice was Isabella's IP—
"Mom, has our income related to The Voice dropped yet?"
After completing his visit, Nathan Bailey took his leave.
Once Isabella and her mother returned to their hotel room together, she asked the question that had been on her mind.
And the answer—
"Not yet, but it probably will soon."
"Because declining ratings mean lower advertising fees. If ad fees fall, our income will definitely be affected."
"And that's only in North America. In other countries around the world—"
"Countries with smaller populations can't sustain large variety shows for very long."
"So after running for a few seasons, smaller markets will inevitably announce the end of the program."
"It's like fireworks. After the brilliance fades, everything returns to calm."
The poetic explanation made Isabella laugh helplessly.
"Mom, I just wanted the conclusion."
Vivian rolled her eyes.
"I was just worried you'd feel sad."
"Alright." Isabella accepted her mother's kindness.
Leaning back on the sofa, she stretched lazily.
"Then just add another ribbon-cutting ceremony to my schedule this year…"
Yawning as she spoke—long flights were exhausting—
She then looked at her older sister.
"Keisha, after adding that ceremony, what does my schedule look like this year?"
Since Catherine had temporarily decided not to attend university, Isabella had kept her as her assistant.
Her younger sister's curiosity prompted Catherine to open her notebook.
"Your schedule this year is actually very simple. In January you film Prada. After that, you can handle the preparations for Order of the Phoenix and Iron Man."
"Since neither project requires you to personally handle everything, you'll have time to study."
"Your exam is in June."
"During that time, Transformers will start filming. You said you wanted to visit the set."
"Then comes the premiere of The Da Vinci Code."
"You accepted Sony's invitation a week ago and agreed to be a credited producer."
"After that comes the release of Prada, the Voice ribbon-cutting ceremony, and the start of filming for Order of the Phoenix—"
"And finally, at the end of the year, Goblet of Fire (Part 2) will be released."
"…."
The schedule sounded like someone reciting a long restaurant menu.
Isabella's mouth twitched.
"Oh—my dear sister—"
"You call that simple?"
"Of course!"
Catherine closed her notebook.
And said very seriously, "Compared to your income, this schedule is ridiculously simple!"
"Even without counting Prada's advertising fees, your income this year exceeded 800 million!"
"…Dollars."
"Cash."
Isabella's money-making ability was extremely strong at the moment.
Even without acting like an Anglo aristocrat or going out to rob people, in 2005 alone she earned close to one billion dollars.
Most of that naturally came from The Voice. Licensing fees, North American revenue shares, and music copyrights brought her nearly 500 million.
Of the remaining 300 million, only a small portion came from acting salaries. The rest came from the continuing revenue of The Voice movie, Isabella's personal mini-album, and the operating income of Hannah Montana and Nashville.
And the last two alone accounted for 50 percent of that 300 million.
Hannah Montana had already been turned into a full IP franchise by Disney.
Nashville, although it only started airing before Christmas, still averaged 18 million viewers.
When Isabella could earn 800 million a year—and her real tax rate was—
Ahem.
Those who understand, understand.
Under those circumstances, appearing at just ten events a year would already count as laziness.
So?
Isabella pursed her lips.
And glanced at her sister with a pitiful expression.
Honestly, if possible, she'd rather not work and still have money.
But—
Well. Life isn't easy. Even the cat sighs.
Just as Isabella felt her own life was a bit "hard," Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Fox felt their lives were even harder. As for the reason—
All four of those companies were currently working in the internet industry.
The first three names on the list probably raised no questions.
But the last one—
The fourth company on the list, Fox, was the Fox under News Corporation, one of Hollywood's Big Six.
That's right.
It was also an internet company.
Their internet product was called MySpace.
Yeah.
At that moment, the largest social networking site in the world, MySpace, belonged to Fox.
And to Isabella's old friend, Rupert Murdoch.