Hunan people account for two-thirds of the world on the Internet (1).

Source | Master Liang (ID:liang_da_shi)

Personal micro signal: liangshu0009 (no chat)

In China's Internet circle, there is an army of traffic that cannot be ignored:

Hunan people.

Zhang Xiaolong, the father of WeChat, Ceng Liqing, Yao Jinbo, Mo Mo Tang Yan, Su Hua, Aauto Quicker and Xin Wang, one of the five tigers of Tencent.

This should be the largest group on the Internet.

It is estimated that in China's internet circle, Hunan people can account for one third.

Although this has not been strictly counted, it is enough to prove the influence of Xiang Jun in the internet circle.

100 years ago, there was a saying that "he who gets Hunan gets the world". /kloc-after 0/00 years, it will be "the flow of Hunan".

Allen Zhu of Jinshajiang Venture Capital also said a word:

Ceng Liqing, a native of Hengyang, Hunan Province, is definitely a veteran of the Internet industry in China.

He, Ma, Zhang Zhidong, Chen Yidan and Xu are also called "Tencent Five Tigers", which played an important role in the early development of Tencent.

Moreover, Tencent's "Five Tigers" and Alibaba's "Eighteen Arhats" are not very similar.

"Eighteen Arhats" is actually "centered on Ma Yun", while "Five Tigers" are complementary and indispensable.

1998, when Mark and his college classmate Zhang Zhidong started a business together. In Ceng Liqing, where Shenzhen Telecom is thriving, it already has a very awesome identity:

One of the pioneers of Shenzhen Internet.

Because the first broadband community in Shenzhen and even the whole country was built under his impetus.

However, in 1998, the Telecommunications Bureau reorganized the "three industries", and Ceng Liqing's project company was facing the fate of being abolished. He also had the idea of resigning and going to sea.

Finally, he decided to go to his leader, Xu Wenyan, director of Shenzhen Telecommunications Bureau, and ask her to help him make up his mind.

Xu Wenyan said:

Well, it's quite level. That's what I told my employees at that time.

Just send Buddha to the west, director xu, also recommended a person:

Ma Hua Teng.

In fact, Ceng Liqing had some dealings with horses before. At that time, Mark was still running Xun because he had some contact with Ceng Liqing at work.

Ceng Liqing, who is tall and eloquent, left a deep impression on Mark, who is introverted and cowardly.

At that time, Ma, Zhang Zhidong, Chen Yidan and Xu joined hands to start a business, ready to do a big job.

When we met for the first time, we suddenly found that the scene was terrible and calm, because all four of them were technical otaku, and none of them were inarticulate.

Therefore, the main decision of this meeting is that we must find people who know how to sell.

Ceng Liqing appeared at the right time and finally slapped him.

Ma and Zhang Zhidong came to the office, which is on the17th floor of the Olympic Building on Shangbao Road, a cubicle with only 10 square meter.

Haven't finished two cups of tea, three people's division of labor has been clear:

Ma is in charge of strategy and products, while Zhang Zhidong is in charge of technology and market.

It was autumn in 1998. Outside Ceng Liqing's office window is Lianhuashan Park, where pink azaleas are everywhere. All three of them are in a good mood and look forward to doing something big in the future. .......

However, they will never realize that this is actually the beginning of a huge business empire. ......

After Ceng Liqing joined Tencent, he was ranked third in terms of shares. But he is very talkative and flamboyant, and every time he goes out to talk about business, he is mistaken for a big boss.

Mark is an airplane pilot. He is regarded as an operation assistant or secretary.

But Mark doesn't mind, because there is something more important than this, and that is: "There is no money in the account ..."

At that time, QQ had millions of users, but at that time, the world was different and the traffic was worthless.

There is a company interested in buying. They counted the desks, stools and computers at home and came up with a number:

Mark thought it was too low, and the other party asked him how much he wanted.

He gritted his teeth and said, "At least it's worth 1 10,000." The other party smiled and flashed.

Later, Ceng Liqing put forward a bold idea: Since it can't be sold, look for VC (Venture Capital)!

Mark has never heard of VC, because the venture capital model has just entered China.

It was also a Hunan native who introduced VC to China: Xiong Xiaoge.

Although venture capitalists such as Xu Xiaoping and Shen Nanpeng later became famous, the originator of China VC was Xiong Xiaoge from Xiangtan, Hunan Province, so he was also called "the first VC in China".

In China in the 1990s, no one knew what venture capital was.

1993, when Xiong Xiaoge returned from the United States and told his classmates about his venture capital plan, everyone thought he was a big fool:

Of course, although Ceng Liqing and Xiong Xiaoge are fellow villagers in Hunan, Ceng Liqing did not go to Xiong Xiaoge at first, but found two other friends. As a result, two friends matched the bridge and recommended two investment institutions respectively:

IDG from Xiong Xiaoge and Li Zekai, the second son of Li Ka-shing.

Finally, IDG and PCG each contributed 165438+ million USD, accounting for 20% of the shares respectively.

Investing in Tencent not only helped Ceng Liqing, but also helped Xiong Xiaoge.

Because in the seven years before that, Xiong Xiaoge did not harvest IDG granules.

Later, Xiong Xiaoge invested in Baidu, Ctrip, Sohu and Didi ... So he not only became a top investor in China, but also had a mantra:

Anyway, no matter what company you talk to him about, he may end up saying, "We voted ..."

Through these two financing, Tencent not only survived the Internet bubble in 2000, but also successfully went public in Hong Kong in 2004.

The listing of Tencent enabled Ceng Liqing to achieve financial freedom, and also brought him a strong rival: Liu Chiping.

At that time, the listed underwriter of Tencent was Goldman Sachs, and the person in charge of connecting with Tencent at Goldman Sachs was Liu Chiping. Liu Chiping Bimark is two years younger and they hit it off.

Soon, Mark dug Liu Chiping into Tencent. A year later, Liu Chiping was promoted from chief strategy officer to president of Tencent, and he was the second person in Penguin Empire after Mark.

In 2005, when Liu Chiping first joined Tencent, he also made the most important acquisition in the history of Tencent's development: buying a product called Foxmail.

The founder of Foxmail is another Hunan native: Zhang Xiaolong.

The appointment during the negotiation is quite interesting:

On the matter of introducing Zhang Xiaolong, Tencent's credit book has been recorded in Liu Chi's flat head.

However, according to Ceng Liqing himself, he was very attentive in assisting the work.

When he flew from Shenzhen to Guangzhou in his Porsche sports car to talk about the acquisition with Zhang Xiaolong, the identity of Hunan fellow villagers also played a certain role. ......

In short, in any case, Liu Chi Ping and Zhang Xiaolong successively entered Tencent, and the power pattern of Penguin Empire also changed:

In 2007, Ceng Liqing left Tencent and was replaced by Liu Chiping.

In 20 14, Zhang Zhidong, a great technical cow who started QQ, also abdicated in his prime, and his position was replaced by Zhang Xiaolong, the "father of WeChat", and Ren Yuxin, who was mainly engaged in game business.

After Ceng Liqing left Tencent, he embarked on the same road of venture capital as his hometown of Xiong Xiaoge, so there was a rumor in the Jianghu:

Xu Xiaoping in the north and Ceng Liqing in the south.

Later, Ceng Liqing invested in Xin Wang, Binzhou, Hunan, one of his hometown, which was the founder of the once sensational fast broadcast.

Of course, due to well-known reasons, this investment ultimately failed to meet expectations. In fact, it's just one step away, one step away. .....

In 2005, when Ceng Liqing first met Zhang Xiaolong, Ceng Liqing probably didn't think that this taciturn fellow villager would become a fairy in the Internet circle in the future.

1969, Zhang Xiaolong was born in a poor family in Weijiaqiao Town, Shaodong, Hunan Province, and his grandfather worked as a coppersmith.

There are two brothers at home, one is Xiaolong and the other is Xiaohu.

The small tribal tiger is strong, but the little dragon brother Bimark is quiet.

1987, Zhang Xiaolong, 18 years old, admitted to the Department of Telecommunications, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and lived in the dormitory of a Soviet-style building. There is a pond outside the dormitory. When he is free, he and his roommate go fishing for shrimp in the pond.

During the postgraduate period, Zhang Xiaolong began to develop computer software at the suggestion of his teacher.

Because I always like to sleep late, I will wake up naturally at noon every day, then go to the laboratory by bike, and then go back to the dormitory by bike in the afternoon 12.

1994 When she graduated, Zhang Xiaolong was originally assigned to a national telecommunications agency. But when he stood in front of the dead building of the unit, he asked himself a question:

After asking this question, he gave up his iron rice bowl and went to a software development company in Guangzhou to become a code farmer.

1994, the code farmer didn't use "996", so he secretly wrote the code when he was idle and bored, and prepared to develop the mailbox.

From 65438 to 0997, Zhang Xiaolong's Foxmail became popular all over the country as soon as it was launched.

At that time, there were about 6 million computers in China, of which 2 million were using Foxmail.

However, Foxmail can't bring Zhang Xiaolong a penny of income. He resigned only to better protect Foxmail.

At that time, Zhou went to Guangzhou to find Zhang Xiaolong, and they soon became friends. They often ate out together and scoured DVDs.

On one occasion, remind him:

Results Zhang Xiaolong said:

But soon, Zhang Xiaolong realized that feelings can't be eaten, because he is really poor and has no food.

Until the day of 1998, Zhang Xiaolong received an email. The other party said that Foxmail had a loophole and wanted to discuss it with him.

The person who sent the email was Lei Jun, who just became the CEO of Jinshan Company.

Later, the two men called, and Lei Jun asked, "Would you like to sell Foxmail to Jinshan?"

Zhang Xiaolong excitedly offered the price: "Well, 1.5 million, not less ..."

After that, Lei Jun sent two code farmers to talk to Zhang Xiaolong. As a result, when they returned, they said to Lei Jun:

Everyone says that "scholars despise each other." In fact, the farmers are almost the same. Code farmers feel that their language is the best and the code they write is the best. Nobody will obey anyone.

In this way, the acquisition failed, and Lei Jun, who was careless for a while, missed an era.

So in 2000, Boda Internet Company bought Foxmail for 1.2 million yuan. Later, Zhang Xiaolong made WeChat, which beat the rice chat launched by Lei Jun to no avail.

Lei Jun's life is too dark. Every morning when he wakes up, his mind is "Are you okay?" Sound.

But after selling Foxmail, Zhang Xiaolong became very OK.

I bought myself a luxury car with120,000 yuan, went to Tibet, and then started to work for Boda and continued to be responsible for Foxmail.

Five years later, Boda sold Foxmail to Tencent because of poor management.

After Zhang Xiaolong joined Tencent with Foxmail, he did not move to Shenzhen, but stayed in Guangzhou.

At that time, the national chief designer drew a circle in Shenzhen. At this time, Mark also drew a circle in Guangzhou (the legendary Yan Guang) and said to Zhang Xiaolong:

In 2007, the new version of QQ mailbox was launched, and the "super-large attachment function" and "drift bottle" were launched.

In 20 10, QQ mailbox ranked first in China and became "China hotmail".

After the success of QQ mailbox, Zhang Xiaolong fell into a semi-retirement state with nothing to do. Until June of that year, Kik, a mobile phone application for free SMS, went online and gained 65,438+0,000 users in half a month.

Zhang Xiaolong's back sank and he quickly wrote an email to Mark: We should also adapt to the era of mobile Internet and develop mobile social software.

Mark replied, "do it, you will do it at once!" "

It was also at this time that Lei Jun also planned to fully enter the mobile social field. He decided to develop Mi Chat before Tencent at all costs.

20 10 12 10, Mi Chat is online.

A month later, that is, 20 1 1 year 1 month 2 1, wechat was launched.

At that time, although Mark asked Zhang Xiaolong to develop WeChat immediately, he also arranged two teams of Tencent Wireless Division (mobile QQ team and Q letter team) to conduct research and development at the same time.

However, the historical burdens of these two teams are too heavy. But the Zhang Xiaolong team, which is alone in Guangzhou, has no historical burden and is not affected by interests and power, finally wins.

From this point of view, it was a stroke of genius for Mark to let Zhang Xiaolong stay in Guangzhou and form a team, far away from Tencent's base camp.

Six months after the launch of WeChat, Lei Jun's rice chat completely lost its momentum.

However, at that time, Zhang Xiaolong's strong enemy in the mobile social field was not only Lei Jun, but also his hometown of Tang Yan, Hunan.

Many people say that Zhang Xiaolong is a clean stream in the Internet circle.

But when it comes to Tang Yan, many people will say:

Momo, founded by him, is recognized as a wonderful flower in the field of mobile social interaction.

Some people can't extricate themselves, some people criticize with articles, and some people can't extricate themselves while criticizing with articles. ......

Tang Yan is from Loudi, Hunan, younger than Zhang Xiaolong 10 years old.

While young Zhang Xiaolong was addicted to shrimp fishing and writing code in college, young Tang Yan was still wandering in the street with iron bars and axes in Loudi mining area.

1996 After being admitted to the university, Tang Yan, who still has a fight scar on his head, has taken to reading computer newspapers.

Later, he fell in love with the chat room and spent every day in a chat room called "prodigy bay" in Loudi, where a group of literary lovers gathered, while Tang Yan in the wild had a very domineering signature:

"I'll kill anyone who doesn't worship me."

Tang Yan in the chat room is not only sharp-tongued, but also argues when he disagrees with others. He also likes writing novels. He once wrote a love story between a gangster in a mining area and a girl, and his writing was very awkward.

Therefore, his novels attracted the attention of Huang, then deputy director of Netease News.

Not only did they become netizens, but Huang also brought them into Netease.

Later, Tang Yan changed from editor to editor.

Back in 2003, a young man from a small town in Tang Yan just arrived in Beijing. Looking at the traffic and tall buildings in the Imperial City, he restrained his arrogance in Loudi.

One night, he took the wrong bus, but he was afraid to ask the conductor for directions. After getting off the bus, I was penniless, so I had to walk back along the North Third Ring Road and rented the basement of 330 yuan.

Later, he truthfully admitted that he was afraid to ask the conductor for directions because his Beijing dialect was so good that he was afraid that his big Fran accent would be despised by the other side.

Although poor at that time, Tang Yan always believed that he would fight back sooner or later. So in 2007, as soon as he moved out of the basement, he bought a Focus.

20 1 1 When his hometown Zhang Xiaolong just launched WeChat, Tang Yan had already saved more than one million yuan. So he ran to ask his wife that he was going to start a business. What if it doesn't work?

The wife said, then go to work.

He asked again: What if you don't want to go to work?

The wife replied: then continue to start a business.

He then asked: If it fails again, can you sell the house?

The wife said, OK.

As a result, Tang Yan asked again: What if it fails again?

The wife replied grumpily: then divorce!

Tang Yan in the mind have a bottom:

20 1 1 In March, Tang Yan and two other product managers and programmers who came out of the portal began to develop a mobile phone software.

At that time, they had never been exposed to mobile phone software, so they bought a copy of "iOS30 Days Crash" and wrote code while watching it.

Before starting a business, Tang Yan didn't have a clear goal. For example, when Mark started his business, he set a small goal: Tencent employees should reach 18 in three years, and the office of 100 square meters must be filled!

But at that time, Tang Yan did not consider these specific things. What he thought was:

Do it if you want! For example, make a plate as big as Tencent!

At that time, Tang Yan paid close attention to Zhang Xiaolong's WeChat. On August 4, 20 1 1 year, Momo went online. The day before, WeChat launched a new function: people nearby.

Although Tang Yan is full of confidence, he is still a little depressed. He knows very well that Zhang Xiaolong, Hunan's hometown, is a terrible enemy.

Later, someone asked him: What if Tencent is a stranger?

Tang Yan replied: What should I do? Didn't I just quit?

Someone asked him again: What do you think will subvert WeChat?

Tang Yan in distress situation: I wonder if I don't go to work early?

Although Tang Yan looks confident, he is also self-aware. He often said:

As a "mascot", every time I go to see an investor, the other party will ask him, "What have you done before?"

He replied, "In charge of news."

The other party asked again, "What can you do with the news?"

Tang Yan replied: "It's about which article to publish and how to make the title."

The other party is puzzled: "What does this have to do with your business?"

Tang Yan confidently replied: "It doesn't matter!"

20 1 1 year, at the annual meeting of the first year of Mo Mo, Tang Yan was drunk, and he confided to everyone:

Some people say that if Chen Haonan comes out to start a business, he will probably be like him.

20 13 February, one dark night, Tang Yan managed to get a car near the company. As a result, someone robbed him, and the two men quickly got into a fight.

Someone asked him why he wanted to fight with others, and he replied:

Of course, Tang Yan's personality does not attract public opinion.

Results In 20 14, Momo was listed in the United States, and everyone criticized Momo as an artifact while saying that Tang Yan was arrogant.

However, I think Tang Yan is a real person. There are too few such people who don't pretend. ......

And those who curse Mo Mo while cursing Tang Yan are also ignorant and don't understand the truth of "temperament approaching". ......

To say that Tang Yan is really a man of temperament, his hometown Xin Wang provided a lot of help when he was imprisoned for "fast broadcasting involving pornography".

A year later, Xin Wang's wife sent an article entitled "How are you, husband? Xin Wang has been in prison for a year. After reading it, Tang Yan excitedly awarded the article 10,000 yuan.

In this article, there is also a fellow villager in Xin Wang and a "good friend"-Yao Jinbo in 58 cities.

———— To be continued ————

-End-

References: Biography of Tencent, Wu Xiaobo's Fifteen Years of Boiling-China Internet 1995-2009, Lin Jun's Xiong Xiaoge: The Ups and Downs of Rivers and Lakes, Revealing the Father of WeChat in Financial World, Zhang Xiaolong's Lonely Hero from Huake, Changjiang Daily's The Third Life of Tencent, He De.