Zhong Meimei has been admitted to Boston University, with annual tuition and fees nearing $70,000, supported by the capitalized operations of her cultural media company, enabling monetization of her online fame and upgrading her personal brand.
Six years ago, a boy from Heilongjiang nicknamed "Zhong Meimei" (real name Zhong Yusheng) became an overnight sensation for his remarkably lifelike impressions of his teachers on camera. Now, he has once again set the internet ablaze—this time with an acceptance letter from a top-tier university. He recently announced that he has been officially admitted to Boston University in the United States and plans to begin his studies there in 2027. According to rough estimates by the media, his annual tuition and living expenses alone will amount to nearly 700,000 yuan (approximately $97,000) per year during his time studying abroad.
Amid the chorus of praise hailing the "first-generation internet celebrity who broke the traffic curse and succeeded through knowledge," this cross-border educational investment of nearly 700,000 yuan per year also lays bare the most realistic—and most successful—closed-loop ledger in the economics of monetizing internet fame.
Casual observers tend to frame this overseas education as a purely inspirational story, crediting it simply to his family's all-out sacrifice and support. But that simplistic logic underestimates the deeper strategic thinking behind how this 19-year-old and his behind-the-scenes team have managed long-term capital appreciation of his personal IP within the frenetic cycle of internet fame. In an environment where the average lifespan of an internet celebrity is less than six months, Zhong Meimei's ability to convert the explosive traffic he earned six years ago into high-quality assets capable of funding years of expensive overseas study is rooted precisely in the meticulous operation of commercial entities.
To dissect the capital-generating pipeline behind this "teenage internet celebrity," one must look through Tianyancha to examine the business landscape registered under his name.
Tianyancha data clearly shows that Zhong Yusheng (Zhong Meimei) is associated with two companies, of which the only one currently in healthy active status is Harbin Meimeng Chengzhen Culture Media Co., Ltd., which was newly established in May 2025. This culture and media entity, founded a year ago with a registered capital of 500,000 yuan, is co-held by shareholders including Wu Qiong and Zhong Yusheng. Per the business scope registered on Tianyancha, core entertainment labels such as online cultural operations, internet news information services, and commercial performances are prominently listed.
This asset-light company—personally held by Zhong himself and named "Meimeng Chengzhen" (meaning "dreams come true")—is essentially the compliant cash-flow hub for Zhong Meimei's commercial advertising, short-video monetization, and performance contracts.
This is precisely the inevitable path for a top-tier IP to reach maturity: moving beyond the early stage of relying solely on platform revenue sharing and uncivilized harvesting of tips, and instead establishing a professional media company to internalize the "Zhong Meimei" brand into a compliant B2B commercial entity. Whether participating in film and TV productions, attending major ceremonies, or conducting branded promotional campaigns on social platforms, the 500,000-yuan-capital "Meimeng Chengzhen" serves as both an excellent firewall and a capital lever, helping him extract higher-granularity commercial premiums.
The nearly 700,000-yuan annual budget for studying abroad is merely one of the long-term dividends generated by this culture media company's efficient operations over the years.
As the internet's traffic cycle shifts gears, many of Zhong's peers—child stars and teenage influencers—have been drained of their value by shadowy commercial operations before they reached emotional maturity, ultimately crashing in the red ocean of competition. In contrast, Zhong Meimei, while solidifying the commercial foundation of "Meimeng Chengzhen," decisively chose to step away to study overseas—using substantial capital investment to purchase top-tier global educational resources. At its core, this is an exceedingly shrewd restructuring of personal assets: "using traffic to grow compound interest."
The 500,000-yuan registered entity may be modest in scale, but it firmly supports a 19-year-old's dream of attending a prestigious university. During the upcoming period of studying in the U.S., this active media company based in Harbin will continue to serve as the reliable engine generating financial support from home. And Zhong Meimei's transformation from "the boy who imitated his teachers" to "Boston University student" will, in turn, inject a higher-dimensional elite aura into his personal IP—securing greater long-term leverage in future commercial negotiations.