Behind Jie Liya's 'Towel Prince' short drama lies a shrewd layout for third-generation power transition and capital structure consolidation.
As the drama ends, capital takes the stage: Looking at the power transition of the third-generation enterprise heir through the micro-drama myth of the "Towel Prince"
When Shi ZhanCheng, born in 1999, went viral online in 2024 with the micro-drama "Towel Empire," the public largely viewed it as a playful, self-deprecating marketing experiment by a traditional manufacturing company in the age of traffic. In front of the camera, the somewhat hapless "third-generation heir" nephew and his shrewd, capable "Second Uncle" Shi Jing bantered back and forth, turning the daily life inside an old towel factory into online audiences' "digital comfort food."
But by 2026, as the torrent of traffic generated by the micro-drama has gradually settled into routine business context, peeling back that layer of entertainment reveals the cold, hard business logic: this two-year internet frenzy was never an accidental marketing success. It was an extremely sophisticated maneuver—a family power transition and capital structure consolidation disguised as an entertainment IP.
To understand the underlying logic of this story, one must look away from the jokes on screen and confront the dry but absolutely real equity structure. In the industrial and commercial landscape revealed through Tianyancha, the real "Towel Empire" presents a highly concentrated family capital network.
Shi ZhanCheng's name appears sparse on paper—he is directly linked to just one active enterprise—but that single company, Zhejiang Dande Investment Management Co., Ltd., is the hidden nerve center of the entire Grace Towel business empire. This investment holding platform, with a registered capital of 50 million yuan, not only effectively controls Grace Home Furnishings Co., Ltd., but also serves as the distribution node for the family's core assets. Most telling of all, Dande Investment's shareholder roster is composed of Second Uncle Shi Jing, "Towel Prince" Shi ZhanCheng, and family members including Shi ZhanYan, Shi ZhanShuo, and Shi Dan. This equity structure is almost a pixel-perfect replica of the character lineup in that hit micro-drama.
This approach of deeply binding real equity relationships with an internet IP is precisely where the brilliance of this business lies. In the succession of traditional manufacturing enterprises, third-generation heirs often face a classic dilemma: if they parachute directly into factory management, they often lack the track record to command respect, while the traditional ordering conventions and supply chain models are facing severe diminishing returns. Through the low-cost, high-reward inflection point of micro-dramas, Shi ZhanCheng did not directly touch the heavy factory production lines. Instead, he first secured the "traffic sovereignty" of Grace Towel on the internet.
The attribution of this power shift is brutally straightforward. Traditional consumer brands pay tens of millions to even hundreds of millions of yuan annually to celebrities and spokespersons, while also bearing the risk of sudden public backlash. Through this experiment, Grace Towel packaged its direct heir as the brand's most recognizable symbol. When the boss himself becomes a top influencer, the enterprise completes the ultimate closed loop of owner, operator, and spokesperson in one.
From the controlled enterprise information on Tianyancha, it is also evident that Dande Investment has long since established digital commerce entities such as Zhejiang Mingzhong Network Technology Co., Ltd. This means that the seemingly absurd "young master's startup" in the micro-drama script had long been laid out in the real business map. Every joke online served as credit endorsement for the family's assets transitioning into high-margin tracks such as digital e-commerce and IP licensing.
By 2026, the short-video dividend has moved past its era of unbridled growth. Relying solely on a handsome, wealthy persona is no longer enough to deliver a crushing blow to consumers. But for Grace Towel, Shi ZhanCheng's strategic mission has been accomplished beyond expectations. The micro-drama was never their ultimate goal—it was a highly efficient catalyst used to complete the brand's youth-oriented refresh in the shortest possible time and to cement an irreplaceable position for this young heir within the family's power structure.
When the phone screen goes dark, the nephew and second uncle step out of the comedic frames and take their seats at the boardroom table of Dande Investment, continuing to calmly direct the operations of this sprawling textile empire, backed by the solid equity stakes visible on Tianyancha. This was never a casual entertainment farce—it was a meticulously calculated inheritance playbook of capital.
