People watch: "Two startups" in Chinese online

Online | Chinese

Digital publishing dream to get people watch to redeem an acquired start-up company 5 years later

He became a pioneering star during his school years, get 10 million yuan venture capital, 24 years old to become the company president; then suffered the dotcom bubble of the winter, the money burned out by working abroad to support their own company, until the encounter "Bole", even with the company to collect the account; After a few years as a Hong Kong listed company president, He raised his own money to the original start-up company from the owner of the "Redemption", back on the road to entrepreneurship.

This is the true story of people watch, president of the Chinese online company.

Speaking of this tortuous experience, people watch said, "Our entrepreneurial motivation is to do a career, to the community and even the world has a certain impact and promotion." ”

People watch want to create a career that is very big--with digital heritage civilization. "The invention of printing and paper was a great impetus to the process of human civilization, and when digital publishing came into being, both civilizations were actually revolutionized," he said. "Digital publishing is a career that can change human life, which is the philosophy of our business and my dream," he said. ”

Any grand ideal and career will not be smooth. People watch Digital Publishing complex, it is the experience of the creation, was bought and redeemed this twists "Chinese online."

The tortuous pioneering road

Chinese online predecessor is one of the first companies to start a business in China--fanso (Ark). 1999, with people watch as the leader of a student team in the first Tsinghua University Health Enterprise Design Competition won the first prize, investors ensued. Knowledge and capital of the marriage, so that children as young as 24 years old and entrepreneurial partners by the media known as "know the youth" and renowned. 1999, Fanso Information Technology Co., Ltd., which was established in nearly 10 million yuan seed funds, people watch as the executive vice president of the company.

The Chinese online first originated in a literature channel under Fanso. People watch, who loves internet fiction at college, believes the Internet should support copyrighted content, and is determined to be the first Chinese Web publishing site to be based on copyright protection. May 31, 2000, Chinese online officially released, several famous writers and Yi Ark jointly launched the establishment of Beijing Chinese online Information Technology Co., Ltd., children as president.

At that time the Internet operation cost is very high, the annual custody fee needs millions of yuan, the same period of the site are very dependent on venture capital. In that "gets going" irrational age, 10 million yuan venture capital will not last much longer. In fact, the day when the Chinese online was launched was the Nasdaq crash. People watch was not aware of the immediate relationship between the city crash and the market, but it felt that investors had been pouring in before May 2000, and that the venture capitalists were never going to mention the investment. In the short term it is hard to make a profit, and some shareholders have lost confidence in the prospect of electronic publishing, and the Fanso has stopped pumping money into the Chinese language, which is already independent.

The Chinese online, which lost follow-up investment, soon plunged into serious financial distress at the end of 2000, and even threatened to shut down the site. In the most difficult period, people watch had to rely on work, such as to the big IT companies to do strategic consulting, every month to earn tens of thousands of yuan to pay employees.

At the end of 2000, Chen Ping, chairman of the Hong Kong Ted Era Group, saw a report on the people watch and Chinese online, where the boy met to talk about business. The two hit, Chen Ping invited children to be the President of Ted Times Group, to help Ted transition into the new industry. The child said: "No, I have my own company." Chen Ping then said: "Then you bring the Chinese online also come." ”

October 2001, the Chinese online was acquired by the Hong Kong Ted Era Group, people watch as Ted Era president and chief operating officer.

In the years of his career as a professional manager, people watch's passion for online publishing has not diminished, and he also wanted to use Ted's resources to continue the cause, but eventually found that it was still biased against Ted's core business and strategic direction.

"Chinese online is my dream, I hope to take it out of the house, let it develop independently, grow into towering trees." "People watch said.

At the beginning of 2004, people watch, a thriving business, made an unexpected decision to refinance the Chinese online from Ted in the form of a repo manager, and resigned from Ted to focus on the revival of Chinese online.

When people watch the request to Chen Ping, he asked: "What size do you think your company can do?" We already have a listed company, and you are a group executive, and the career ambitions you need are here to come true. "But people watch explained:" I think digital publishing this great career will be able to achieve a great company, I firmly believe that the business of doing Chinese online will be more than I do in the cause of Ted. "In his view, being able to play a role in the torrent of digital publishing, perhaps even an important role," will be proud to look back in old age.

The business model of "landing"

The rebirth of the Chinese online is much different from the previous one. After the low tide of the Internet and Ted business operation, People watch has a clearer idea of the company's operations, and in the past only focus on clicks, no business model. Second, the Chinese online team from Ted was greatly strengthened and the number has grown to 200. Most importantly, after a few years of work in the digital publishing industry, Chinese online has accumulated good word-of-mouth and resources in publishing.

Professional manager Career Let people watch understand "can landing business model" how important, he no longer the Chinese online business opportunities based on "training users pay reading habits", but according to the market to find two "clear and healthy" business model-primary and secondary school digital library and mobile reading.

As early as 2001, people watch, in his communication with the Ministry of Education, had been told that officials in the Department of Basic education often had a headache for about half of the country's primary and secondary schools because of the limited financial capacity to build libraries. On the other hand, the Ministry of Education has been pushing the educational informationization of primary and secondary schools, allowing schools to open electronic classrooms, so that students have access to computers from childhood, but because there is not enough content, many school computer idle rate is actually very high. We call these two contradictions called "there is no car, there are cars and no goods."

At that time, the child thought that in the university can engage in digital library, primary and secondary schools can also. Digital library has the advantages of convenient retrieval, easy management, low cost and so on, most of the hardware conditions of digital library are already possessed, so long as the resources of Digital library are installed on the computer, it can solve both the shortage of library and the idle computer.

This proposal has been approved by the Ministry of Education, the digital Library project in primary and secondary schools soon as the Ministry of Education "XV" key project. Logically, Chinese online becomes the product and service provider for the project. According to people watch estimates, there are 3000 public libraries and 1000 university libraries nationwide, while primary and secondary schools have 500,000, which is a huge market. Over the past few years, Chinese online has been the largest digital library provider in primary and secondary schools, with over 3000 users and maintaining an annual growth rate of 100% per cent. By 2008, Chinese online users will reach 10000, and 5 years to 50,000-100,000 schools.

If this business opportunity stems from a keen insight into the market, another profit-making model is "import". "Mobile reading" in Japan is called "mobile novel", that is, the use of WAP technology to send novel content to mobile phones, this is a successful business model. In the second half of last year, mobile operators found Chinese online, to discuss the project's cooperation, early this year, the Chinese online "mobile reading" business officially on-line, there are already 500,000 users, this is the Chinese online is pushing the business.