Justin Bieber isn’t No. 1 on the Forbes Celebrity 100list — that honor goes to Jennifer Lopez – but he is on the cover of the issue.

It’s another major magazine profile that bridges the gap from boy to man for the singer. While most Beliebers don’t care about the financials that are detailed in this story, it reveals that the Biebs is a very savvy (and wealthy) businessman.

Here’s the quick math. Since debuting three years ago, the ‘Boyfriend’ singer has sold 15 million albums and grossed $150 million over 157 tour dates in two dozen countries. His film ‘Never Say Never’ nabbed $30 million in opening weekend box office receipts. His ‘Someday’ fragrance raked in $60 million during its first six months. Add that up, and he’s earned about $108 million in the past two years.

In the social media sphere, he shakes out like this: 21 million Twitter followers, 43 million Facebook fans and 740 million ‘Baby’ YouTube video views, the most ever for one clip. Interestingly, a Twitter employee said that in 2010, three percent of the company’s infrastructure was dedicated to dealing with tweets related to the singer!

All that activity translates to plenty of money for him and his business managers to play with in the investment world. The Biebs is a venture capitalist who drops money into upstarts and products he likes. His manager Scooter Braun also stated firmly that he won’t let his client get involved in something unless he is into it. Smart strategy.

Bieber has been dumping millions into private tech start up companies and holds stakes in a dozen or so companies. The sleuths at FORBES verified four: messaging platform Tinychat, social curation app Stamped, gaming outfit Sojo Studios and Spotify.

The Biebs isn’t paid to endorse these products. He invests his own capital into them and most haven’t even promoted his involvement. So it’s not like he tweets about the products and uses his image to sell them a la Kim Kardashian – he directly funds them.

For his part, Bieber understands the financial and long-term value of being connected in the digital age, even if privacy and mystique are casualties.  ”It used to be there was a mystery to the artist,” says Bieber. “Now there’s, like, no mystery — the fans want the connection, they want to see you Instagramming at a coffee shop in the morning.”

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Watch the Justin Bieber ‘Boyfriend’ Video

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