Yang Bo: The pioneering course of Douban

The intermediary transaction SEO diagnoses Taobao guest stationmaster buys the Cloud host technology Hall

After Yang Bo became famous, Starbucks ' sofa seat became more and more difficult to occupy.

Three teenage young people, a cup of coffee, a notebook, brush brushes to write a good program, good Web page, hanging on the line, soon fire, investment funds have smashed to ...

It's an anecdote about Yang Bo and Douban, a story that has inspired many young people who want to start a business on the internet, and Starbucks is hard to think about.

"Exaggerated," Yang Bo smiled to correct his entrepreneurial fairy tale, "in Starbucks wrote the program is true, but to a cup of coffee for half a day can be, in the people there to mix the days too much, a lot of work is done at home." ”

Home in Beijing Chaoyang Door Watercress Alley, the name is plain and interesting, "grassroots casual cordial", Yang Bo used it to do their own website name.

March 6, 2005, Yang Bo Douban officially online, he is a veritable "it self-employed", a person arranged product design and network maintenance.

This is not his first venture, "I worked in Silicon Valley before 2000, a researcher in the research and development team", quitting work and returning to Beijing, joining the entrepreneurial team of old Tsinghua students and being chief technology officer in a logistics company.

In the summer of 2004, Yang Bo withdrew from the company and failed to declare his first venture. He has two valuable experiences, one of which is "not to be tempted by a seemingly great opportunity, or to do something you like"; second, "It often takes a long time to start a business, and you have to be prepared enough to be mentally anxious." ”

When he returned to the United States in July, he found that he had been completely unable to accept the life of a large company that clocked in. So he returned home and began his second venture.

This time, he wants to make a website for himself, a website that allows users to comment and share information completely.

Website official online, Yang Bo in a technical forum post, said there is a douban, please see.

The first group of users in this way through the post link, and began to leave messages, write comments, "You write an article, I write an article, the site began to use up." ”

Yang Bo in front of the computer, "always look, always look, often very excited to see the dawn."

March 2006, has been the lone Yang Bo recruited Watercress's first employee--brant. He is also the No. 212 user of the watercress. Now there are a dozen watercress, the vast majority of the old watercress users.

In the wave of Web2.0, watercress appeared on the industry's attention, it appears to be a comment (book reviews, reviews, comments) website, but in fact it offers a bibliography of recommendations and friends with common interests and other services, it is more like a blog, friends, groups, collections in one of the new Community network.

Through the "Price comparison" menu will have the intention to purchase the user link to when, excellence and other sites, users through the link after consumption, watercress will get 10% of the return. This is the current main source of income for Douban.

It was suggested that a large number of popular watercress would gradually turn into a dating site, Yang Bo firmly opposed, said that they only want to do a "useful website", "We just want to help you find good things, do not encourage irrigation, do not encourage the reprint, and even discourage users to bubble on the above time too long, just want users to use it normally." I think this also makes active users more high-end, comments more efficient. ”

The first venture Yang Bo the years of savings, and this time he was very cautious about cost control.

"I think 200,000 yuan is almost ready to make a prototype." There's no need to set up the shelves that big in the first place. ”

He first found himself in the Tsinghua University of Physics with the dormitory brother Liangwenshu, when Liang in the United States, Silicon Valley work, very happy to give him 15,000 dollars, a colleague of Liang also followed the vote of 10,000 dollars.

At the end of 2005, Liangwenshu and his colleagues ' borrowings ' were converted into watercress shares as promised. The market for watercress was valued at about 670,000 dollars.

At this time, the risk investors began to pay attention to Yang Bo and his douban, but Yang Bo initially did not want to take up early with venture capital, he worried that the venture capitalists will change the direction of the site, causing users to suffer.

However, the increasing competition in the venture capital market forced Yang Bo to hold hands with venture capitalists as soon as possible, he saw 15 venture capital institutions, and finally chose the fund-a fund that specializes in early it investment. In late June, the fund invested 2 million dollars into the account.

"The source bid is not the highest." "One reason Yang Bo chose the fund was that it was a new fund. "Allow it to look farther from the time frame. ”

After the injection of venture capital, some people worry that the commercial color of watercress will gradually increase, Yang Bo made "Forever free" guarantee.

Perhaps after many years, the appearance of watercress is completely different from the present. But it must evolve and evolve with the needs of the user. ”