The entrepreneurial story behind rising star Zhang Chaoyang

On such an important occasion, Zhang Chaoyang’s speech is of symbolic significance. At least in the eyes of Zhang Chaoyang, who knows the company's operating conditions best, he has already sat on the throne of success and is qualified to summarize history, look forward to the future, and calmly talk about a few macro topics in the industry.

Has Zhang Chaoyang really set an example for the younger generation who are eager to create miracles? Is Zhang Chaoyang really a hero? Our reporter recently conducted an exclusive interview with Zhang Chaoyang, hoping to judge his current situation from his words. Interpret this new representative of wealth who often puts on a show.

The foraging fox grew into a giant

Success is the goal pursued by thousands of elites, but success is a process, at what point in the process? It's hard to tell what marks true completion. Judging from Zhang Chaoyang's entrepreneurial experience, the current state is indeed a relatively high development peak. During the interview, Zhang Chaoyang also clearly told reporters that this is the best period for Sohu.

On October 12, 2004, Hurun launched his 100 Rich List, with Zhang Chaoyang ranked 66th. Wealth is calculated, but the future cannot be calculated.

As a result, Hurun evaluated Sohu’s performance over the past year: “Sohu’s business has made a lot of progress over the past year, but its stock price has been declining. At the end of October last year, Sohu’s content and Cooperating with Disney, in November, it successfully acquired the online game website and real estate website Focus Real Estate Network, moving from a single portal to a portal matrix. In early August 2004, Sohu launched a professional search website 'Sogou' with its own independent domain name, aiming to expand in the search engine market. Get a share of the pie. Sohu's sales last year were 660 million yuan (2002: 240 million yuan), and it had 1,100 employees." Hurun simply evaluated Sohu. Maybe he thought Sohu's performance was. Zhang Chaoyang's performance is also the best parameter for Zhang's personal wealth.

We can look at the introduction of the ranking, "Zhang Chaoyang's personal introduction: Age: 40, birthplace: Xi'an, Shaanxi, education: PhD from MIT, main company: Sohu Company, company headquarters: Beijing, Listing status: Nasdaq-S0HU sohu Inc (june 2000), main industries: text messaging, online games and portals, wealth: 1.5 billion yuan. ”

In Zhang Chaoyang’s growth experience, 1986 was. A watershed moment when he was admitted to the Lee Tsung-Dao Scholarship to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. Zhang Chaoyang has been restless since he was a child, loves fantasy, is unwilling to lag behind, and is interested in many things. He studied painting, worked as an airplane model, played the erhu, and especially liked watching "Water Margin". He likes to read stories about self-taught students, read "Goldbach's Conjecture", and secretly aspires to study hard and become successful in the future. In middle school, Zhang's ideal was to be a physicist, and he believed that only by winning the Nobel Prize could he achieve a great career. This was the direct motivation for him to get admitted to Tsinghua University, and also the direct motivation for him to get the Li Zhengdao Scholarship.

From Xi'an, Shaanxi to Beijing, and from Beijing to the United States, my hometown is getting farther and farther away, and my ideals are getting closer and closer. Life transitions and changes become a hallmark. Today's Zhang Chaoyang is the result of ideal changes.

In 1993, after studying for a few months as a postdoctoral fellow in physics at MIT, Zhang Chaoyang suddenly felt that physics, which he had studied for many years, was not suitable for him. "In physical experiments, I found that I am an operational person who pays special attention to results and cannot tolerate a set of theories that will not be verified until 100 years later." At the same time, Zhang Chaoyang took a fancy to He Regarding China-related business activities, he was lucky enough to find the role of Asia-Pacific China Liaison Officer at MIT. This role gave Zhang Chaoyang the opportunity to return to China frequently.

In July 1995, Zhang Chaoyang suddenly had a strong idea to return to China to start a business. The "Silicon Valley" style entrepreneurship that can be seen everywhere in the United States aroused his enthusiasm. He clearly realized the amazing commercial and social value of the Internet economy, so he made up his mind to start a business.

When he saw the opportunities of the Internet, he felt it was time to start a business.

Zhang Chaoyang contacted ISI Company and wanted to create ChinaOnline (China Online), which uses the Internet to collect and publish Chinese economic information to serve Chinese people in the United States or those who are interested in China. The president of ISI and Zhang Chaoyang had similar ideas at the time. The two hit it off and raised US$1 million. At the end of 1995, Zhang, as the chief representative of ISI in China, began to use the Internet to collect and publish economic information in China to serve Wall Street.

After his experience at ISI, Zhang Chaoyang feels that China’s Internet market has huge potential. In early January 1997, the ITC website was officially launched. However, by the end of the year, the US$185,000 from the first financing was running out, and it was almost to the point where it could not even pay wages. As a last resort, Zhang Chaoyang sent an emergency call for help to his investors, and the three investors once again provided Zhang Chaoyang with a "bridge" loan of US$100,000.

In February 1998, Zhang Chaoyang officially launched the first all-Chinese online search engine-Sohu (S0HU). In March 1998, Zhang Chaoyang received an investment of US$2.1 million from two companies, including Intel, and his career began to flourish. In September 1998, Sohu Shanghai Branch was established, and in June 1999, Sohu Guangzhou Branch was established.

In 2000, Sohu was successfully listed on NASDAQ and acquired Chinaren, China's largest youth community website. The large-scale development of online communities added new connotations to the portal, making it China's largest portal website and laying the foundation for This laid the foundation for the business to quickly scale up.

Zhang Chaoyang made a series of large-scale actions at the wrong time, allowing Sohu to appear in more places. He promptly judged the huge benefits of text messaging to the Internet, and tried to operate it as an industry that can be closely integrated with the Internet. In 2001, millions of dollars were spent to launch the "Sohu Mobile Fashion Journey". Zhang Chaoyang personally appeared as the chief image spokesperson. In the ups and downs of the Internet world, this indeed achieved unprecedented results and established the confidence of Sohu people. At the turn of the spring and summer of 2003, sohu once again brought a surprise to the Internet world: the sohu mountaineering team climbed Everest. At a time when the Internet was fully recovering and when Sars was ravaging mankind, he wanted to prove Sohu's courage and declare Sohu's ideals.

On July 17, 2002, Sohu took the lead in breaking the deadlock on China’s Internet and achieving profitability. When facing competition from Sina and NetEase and choosing Sohu's profit model, Zhang Chaoyang worked eight or nine hours a day and took weekends off. Sometimes there are various activities on weekends, which are also related to the company. In 2003, Sohu received good news frequently. On February 25, Sohu launched the Korean game "Knight" to enter online games; Zhang Chaoyang ranked second only to Ding Lei in the 2003 list of wealth rankings of Chinese technology figures in listed companies; in the 2003 China Made by Hurun Among the top 50 IT billionaires, Zhang Chaoyang also ranks among the top three...

"NetEase has basically lost its share in the advertising market in the past two years. In terms of advertising, one is competition with Sina in media content processing, and the other is competition in media content processing. It’s a competition for the capabilities of the advertising sales force. There is basically no competition with Sina in non-advertising areas, because Sina is no longer a competitor in these areas.” Subconsciously, Zhang’s strategy is to eliminate NetEase first, and then launch a war of annihilation against Sina. .

Behind the rising star Zhang Chaoyang

In March and April 2001, Sohu’s stock price fell below one dollar for the first time. At that time, no one was optimistic about Sohu anymore. The media and individual websites questioned Sohu and Zhang Chaoyang like bullets in Sohu's face, because Sohu, which owned one dollar, was in danger of being delisted by Nasdaq. Zhang Chaoyang said: "I can also use the company's cash to repurchase stocks, or merge two shares into one, or merge three shares into one."

No matter what clever ideas Zhang Chaoyang had to solve the problem, the predicament at that time was indeed very serious. Zhang Chaoyang himself tempered himself under this kind of dilemma. Zhang Chaoyang now frankly admits that for a period of time, Sohu's products were actually disappointing to the public.

From 1999 to 2001, when China's Internet market entered its climax, the old brand Sohu was actually standing still. In Zhang Chaoyang's own words, it was a long march. Without a team, management is solely supported by Zhang Chaoyang. There was something wrong with the board of directors, too. Zhang Chaoyang described his situation at the time as having 30 energy to deal with the board of directors, 40 energy to deal with the media, and only the other 30 energy to spend on the product.

In an extremely difficult situation, Zhang Chaoyang vigorously engaged in brand management, maintaining Sohu's superficial reputation and allowing Sohu to make a sustained voice. From 2001 to 2004, Zhang Chaoyang claimed to have used "TCM methods" to adjust Sohu's serious problems and develop it to its current best state.

Zhang Chaoyang attributed the reason why he got out of the predicament and continued to develop rapidly to the strong reflective ability of himself and Sohu. It was this ability to reflect that, during the initial failure, we quickly discovered that our team, from the board of directors to the management, had the problem of being "too foreign". In the case where brand marketing has some problems, they reflect on the shortcomings that they are good at marketing and the products are not good enough. This kind of painful reflection, in Zhang Chaoyang’s words, is to “jump out of your own growth experience and become an all-rounder.” Everyone has their own special growth experience, which will inevitably lead to biased understanding. Only by constantly adjusting oneself, constantly looking at oneself with the third eye, and being in awe and fear of everything can one overcome one's own personality barriers and achieve the goal of being unfazed by favors and humiliations. , thus lifting the weight with ease.

Zhang Chaoyang told reporters that under the surface publicity, he is actually very cautious and pragmatic. He does not believe in any mainstream opinions on the market. He only stares at his own feet, trying to walk across the grass and practice. Those who analyze.

Once upon a time, the media also exaggerated the grand occasion of the gathering of five famous domestic website CEOs in West Lake. They ate hairy crabs and talked about Jin Yong's martial arts, and they were in high spirits. Today, among these five CEOs, Wang Juntao has changed his mind, Wang Zhidong has said goodbye to Sina, Ding Lei has lost his glory, and Jack Ma is wandering around the world, which makes people feel regretful and sad throughout their lives. During the first "West Lake Discussion", probably no one would have thought that two years later, one of the five CEOs still alive would be Zhang Chaoyang, the president of Sohu who was bombarded by the media. Now it seems that there is some inevitability.

Completely opposite to the energetic and publicized image in business behavior, the real Zhang Chaoyang is silent in nature. Zhang himself explained: "The reason why I talk less is because I pursue truth. Saying useless words, I think it is a kind of affectation. I am a relatively taciturn person and very introverted. If I have to speak for entertainment, I often tell myself : This is just for socializing. The biggest characteristic of my character is that I pursue truth to a cruel extent. I cannot tolerate any untruth, whether to myself or others. Lies. When some people say certain things, they may not be telling lies, but there is a certain psychology hidden behind their words. When their certain psychological state is causing trouble, I can't stand it and will give it to them. He peels it out. The pursuit of truth comes from paying attention to people and their inner world, and it is also related to studying physics. You must explore the root causes of things and find out what is happening in the world. ”

No matter how Zhang Chaoyang himself explains his character and the reasons for his success, an objective analysis of his experience can be seen that the traditional culture of Xi’an, his birthplace, the campus culture of Tsinghua University and the modern culture of the United States Western culture basically created Zhang Chaoyang’s spiritual core. His silence, pragmatism, slowness and persistence, and his profound accumulation are derived from the traditional culture of Xi'an; his cutting-edge, avant-garde, and fashion are derived from Tsinghua University and the United States. There are actually many people who have had similar experiences, but Zhang Chaoyang does have extraordinary skills in being able to combine two contradictory cultures well, use them freely, and control his rationality like instinct. By fully utilizing these cultural advantages for Sohu's business, Zhang Chaoyang created a miracle, at least for the generation he represents.

The biggest contribution to the Internet: spreading new concepts

The Internet is a high-risk industry. Even when Sohu was in good condition, the media also said that Zhang Chaoyang stood on the "wind" "The wheel of fire" was spinning up and down, making it difficult to calm down. What is rare is that Zhang Chaoyang has extremely firm confidence in his career. Even in the most critical moments, Zhang Chaoyang never lost confidence. He firmly believed that the network he was working on was not a bubble.

Zhang Chaoyang’s confidence comes from his deep understanding of the Internet. In the long run, as an outstanding young returnee, what Zhang Chaoyang brings to the country is not the wealth itself, but ideas and culture. At a time when most people in China did not understand the Internet, Zhang Chaoyang introduced a large number of Internet culture and advanced Internet operation methods to Chinese people in his extremely cutting-edge way.

When it comes to contribution, Zhang Chaoyang thought for a while and carefully listed several aspects that he thought were valuable. First tell people that the Internet cannot be charged. There was no website at that time, and every database had to be charged. All websites are now free. The second is to promote the concept of venture capital and illustrate it with the actual successful example of Sohu. There had been some introduction of venture capital in the country before, but Sohu's approach was more formal and very successful, making the concept of venture capital deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In addition, in terms of the way of building websites, Sohu treated the website as a brand from the beginning; and theoretically and philosophically it brought the concept of "attention economy" to China's Internet development. At the same time, it also provides valuable experience to China's Internet in terms of how to build the culture of an emerging enterprise and the management methods of establishing an emerging company. Moreover, successful entrepreneurs represented by Zhang Chaoyang have established an image for China's young people as a new type of human being who can start a business and get rich, which will have a great impact in a certain period of time. In this sense, Zhang Chaoyang is a role model for a generation of young people and a hero.

Frog, calf, duck, parrot, fox, gray wolf, postgraduate entrance examination, fugitive, ancient Xuanwu Gate