June 1st is an interesting day, with some celebrating Children’s Day and others holding weddings. That evening, Ding Jiamin, the “little princess” of Xtep Group, announced her joyous news on social media and posted a video. In the video, she is seen in a wedding dress and wearing a crown, standing on the wedding stage. Next to her is the groom, Zhou Liyuan, the second son of the founder of Septwolves. The caption reads, “School uniform was you, wedding dress is also you.”
The video shared by Ding Jiamin (Source: Ding Jiamin’s Douyin) attracted widespread attention and discussion from netizens. Besides their “talented and beautiful” pairing, this event was notable as a typical “marriage of wealthy families.” Some netizens commented that it was like “a novel coming to life.”
“School uniform was you, wedding dress is also you.”
The Prince of Septwolves marries the Princess of Xtep
From school uniforms to wedding dresses, these second-generation heirs of Jinjiang enterprises in Fujian province have brought a classic wealthy family romance novel to life.
In the comments under Ding Jiamin’s video, netizens wished the couple a happy marriage and expressed sentiments like “love stories from novels coming true.” Some observant netizens also noted that their wedding was held at the Xiamen International Conference Center Hotel’s “Xiamen Hall,” which can accommodate 135 banquet tables, with prices ranging from a minimum of 5,999 yuan to a maximum of 9,999 yuan per table, fitting the “wealthy” theme.
A previous photo of Ding Jiamin with her father (Source: Ding Jiamin’s Xiaohongshu) also drew attention, as Stanley Ho’s son, Mario Ho, attended the grand wedding in Xiamen with his wife Ming Xi and sister Alice Ho.
According to public information, Ding Jiamin, born in 1997, is the second daughter of Xtep founder Ding Shuibo. Zhou Liyuan, born in 1996, is the second son of Septwolves founder Zhou Shaoxiong. In 2001, Ding Shuibo founded the “Xtep” brand, which was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2008. In 2022, Ding Shuibo ranked 2076th on the Forbes Global Billionaires List with a fortune of 1.4 billion USD.
The groom’s family has an equally impressive resume. Septwolves was once a dominant player in the domestic menswear industry and became the first listed menswear brand in China in 2004. In 2020, Zhou Shaoxiong appeared on the Hurun Rich List with a net worth of 2.3 billion yuan. In 2023, Septwolves achieved a revenue of 3.45 billion yuan, an increase of 6.7%, and a net profit of 270 million yuan, an increase of 79.3%. In comparison, Xtep’s scale is larger, with total revenue of 14.35 billion yuan last year, an increase of 10.9%, and a net profit of 1.03 billion yuan, an increase of 11.8%.
Both have started “taking over” their family businesses
With the rise of short videos, compared to the past when successors were more discreet, today’s second and third-generation heirs are more likely to publicly embrace their identities on internet platforms, closely linking themselves with their family businesses and brands. On one hand, family businesses help the successors build their personal brand, gaining popularity; on the other hand, popular successors can leverage their influence to enhance the family’s brand promotion. In other words, becoming popular themselves and converting their traffic into brand influence or sales has become a new path for these successors.
Xtep’s princess Ding Jiamin is one such individual, embodying the “envy-inducing life of a rich girl” script in reality. She has over 700,000 followers on Douyin, with nearly 5.8 million likes, and nearly 200,000 followers on Xiaohongshu, with over 1 million likes and saves.
In her personal accounts, Ding Jiamin mainly shares daily vlogs of working at her family company, sweet moments with her husband, and unboxing recommendations. From her accounts, one can piece together the “smooth life” of a rich girl: growing up loved by her CEO father, studying abroad and returning to inherit the family business, signing traffic star Wang Hedi as the company’s spokesperson, and marrying her childhood sweetheart from Septwolves… Netizens have exclaimed, “The only hardship this rich girl might have endured is drinking iced Americano!”
Currently, Ding Jiamin is the head of Xtep’s new women’s line “Half Sugar Series” launched in 2021. She actively participates in various Xtep events and is involved in market research and planning for the women’s line, personally shooting product posters and endorsing the products.
Public information shows that the series launched 17 products with 41 SKUs both online and offline in 2021, with top star Dilraba Dilmurat as the main spokesperson. This product line’s launch was seen as a sign of the traditional sports brand Xtep embracing youthfulness and moving towards fashion and openness.
According to a report by 21st Century Business Herald, renowned economist Pan Helin stated that the main reason for this shift is the large user traffic on internet media platforms. Consumer goods need to attract customers on self-media platforms to expand sales. In other words, brands without traffic will eventually decline, so companies maintain a strong presence on social media. The heirs becoming internet celebrities is essentially a marketing strategy for the company.
Zhou Liyuan, on the other hand, is relatively low-key. He is now the assistant general manager of Fujian Septwolves Industrial Co., Ltd., mainly responsible for the operation and management of the French luxury brand Karl Lagerfeld invested in by Septwolves, as well as the formulation and implementation of the brand’s overall strategy. This brand is well-known for being the namesake of the famous German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. Septwolves acquired its Greater China business in 2017.
Notably, Karl Lagerfeld brand had been a drag on the listed company’s performance due to years of continuous losses, facing much external criticism. Zhou Liyuan’s involvement seems to have put the brand on the right track. In his third year in charge, Karl Lagerfeld achieved its first profit—in 2021, the brand’s sales revenue was 279 million yuan, an increase of 107.32%, turning a net loss of 22.1799 million yuan in 2020 into a profit of 11.2036 million yuan in 2021.
Marriages between business families are becoming mainstream
Experts: There are more burdens and pressures
The “marriage” between Ding Jiamin and Zhou Liyuan is just the tip of the iceberg of Fujian merchants’ “marriage” army.
In 2020, the “century wedding” between Xtep’s eldest princess Ding Lizhi and Jomoo Group’s senior vice president Lin Xiaowei also attracted attention. It is rumored that the planning team for their wedding had previously participated in the weddings of Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy, and Mario Ho and Ming Xi were also present at the wedding.
In the first half of 2022, as Ba Ma Tea Co., Ltd. submitted its IPO application, the marriage ties between the major shareholder Wang Wenbin and the three listed companies Anta, Septwolves, and Goliath Holdings also surfaced.
However, from publicly available information, including this marriage between Xtep and Septwolves, these listed companies with marital ties do not seem to have deep business intersections. Previously, Ba Ma Tea’s IPO prospectus showed that from 2018 to 2020, Ba Ma Tea sold tea and related products to Septwolves and its affiliates, as well as Anta Sports and its affiliates, but the total amounted to only tens of thousands of yuan.
In the public’s perception, business marriages are seen as a way to achieve strong alliances and expand the family business empire, but this purpose seems to be changing. As early as 2015, Professor Fan Bohong from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who is dedicated to research on corporate governance and family inheritance, showed in a study that in the minds of family business managers, now or in the future, marriage with other families does not necessarily provide new opportunities for the company.
According to City Express, in Hong Kong and Macau, marriages between families of equal social standing might be more common. For instance, Stanley Ho’s eldest daughter Pansy Ho was married to the son of funeral tycoon Siu Ming, and later when Stanley Ho invested in horse racing in Iran, this son-in-law also invested. Stanley Ho’s second daughter Daisy Ho married into the Xu family, known for shipping and oil businesses, becoming one of Hong Kong’s prominent families from the early 20th century.
Professor Fan Bohong from the Finance Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong once published data showing that he studied the marriages of 150 Chinese families in Thailand, and found that 80% chose to marry politicians or businessmen.
In South Korea, data from the research institution “Leaders Network” shows that the commercial marriage rate among chaebols like Hanjin Group, Hanwha Group, LG Group, and Samsung Group exceeds 30%. For example, the recently deceased Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee married Hong Ra-hee, the precious daughter of the then-largest newspaper Central Daily’s chairman, Hong Jin-ki, who studied art at Seoul National University.
Even in Europe and America, marriages between prominent families are common. For instance, Paris Hilton’s sister Nicky Hilton married James Rothschild, a scion of the British Rothschild family.
In fact, for those who find reliable in-laws from wealthy families, these marriages can be very effective. For example, the Toyota family in Japan has close ties with the Mitsui family, once the largest of Japan’s four major conglomerates. Marrying into the Mitsui family has become a tradition and a means to consolidate the family.
Yang Yiqing, executive president of the Zhejiang Merchants Research Association, believes that marriages between entrepreneurs’ children have positive significance, as they are generally beneficial for enhancing the security of the marriage; similar family backgrounds make it easier for the couple to understand and support each other. At the same time, through marriage, two families become linked, objectively establishing a community of shared destiny, which is more profound and tighter than general business guarantees. This enhances the company’s risk resistance and objectively improves the company’s financing and resource acquisition.
However, Yang Yiqing also pointed out that similar family backgrounds also pose potential risks in terms of mutual tolerance. Compromise is a crucial aspect of marriage, and similar backgrounds may increase the difficulty of compromising with each other. Additionally, even if the initial marriage or relationship is purely based on feelings, marrying into wealthy families inevitably brings commercial purposes or other benefits, adding more burdens and pressures from the beginning. Thus, they need to pay extra attention to the way they interact daily to achieve lasting marriages and careers.