Zhang Chaoyang

Zhang Chaoyang resume Zhang Chaoyang-Sohu Blog), from a single portal to a portal matrix. In early August 2004, Sohu launched a professional search website ‘Sogou (sogou.com)’ with its own independent domain name, aiming to get a share of the search engine market. Sohu's sales last year were 660 million yuan (2002: 240 million yuan) and it had 1,100 employees. "

Hurun simply evaluated Sohu. Perhaps he believed that Sohu's performance was Zhang Chaoyang's performance and the best parameter for Zhang's personal wealth. We can look at the introduction to the rankings, "Zhang Chaoyang's personal profile: Age: 40, Birthplace: Xi'an, Shaanxi, Education: PhD from MIT, Main Company: Sohu Company (www.sohu.com), 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. He was admitted to the Li Zhengdao Scholarship and went to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. Zhang Chaoyang has been restless since he was a child, loves fantasy, and is unwilling to lag behind. He is interested in many things. Interested. He has studied painting, made an airplane model, and played the erhu. He especially likes to read "Water Margin" and read "Goldbach's Conjecture", and he secretly aspires to study hard. , and stand out 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 into 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, the hometown is getting farther and farther, and the ideals are getting closer. The turning points and changes in life have become a symbol, and today's Zhang Chaoyang is the result of the changes in ideals. In 1993, after studying for a few months as a postdoctoral student 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. People, who pay special attention to results, cannot tolerate a theory that cannot be verified until 100 years later. "At the same time, Zhang Chaoyang was interested in business activities related to China. He was lucky enough to get the role of China Liaison Officer in the Asia-Pacific Region 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 clearly understood the amazing commercial and social value of the Internet economy. He made up his mind to start a business. When he saw the opportunities of the Internet, he felt that it was time to start a business. Zhang Chaoyang contacted ISI and wanted to do ChinaOnline, which would use the Internet to collect and publish Chinese economic information for the United States. The president of ISI and Zhang Chaoyang had similar ideas at the time, and they hit it off immediately, so they 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 information and information in China. Publish economic information to serve Wall Street.

After his experience at ISI, Zhang Chaoyang felt that the market potential of China’s Internet was huge. In early January 1997, the ITC website was officially launched, but by the end of the year, the first financing was obtained. There was not much left of the US$185,000, and he was almost unable to pay his salary. As a last resort, Zhang Chaoyang sent an emergency request 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 Intel and other two companies, and his career began to flourish. In September 2009, Sohu's Shanghai branch was established, and in June 1999, Sohu's Guangzhou branch was successfully listed on NASDAQ. In 2000, Sohu acquired Chinaren, the largest youth community website in China. The large-scale development of online communities added new features to the portal. The connotation makes it the largest portal website in China, laying the foundation for the business to rapidly scale up.

Zhang Chaoyang made a series of big moves 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...

"Basically, NetEase has lost its share in the advertising market in the past two years. In terms of advertising, one is competing with Sina in media content processing, and the other is 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 the one-dollar Sohu 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 reached its climax, the old brand Sohu was actually standing still. In Zhang Chaoyang's own words, it was a long march. Without a team, Zhang Chaoyang is responsible for the management alone. There was something wrong with the board of directors, too. Zhang Chaoyang described his situation at that time as 30% of his energy was dealing with the board of directors, 40% of his energy was dealing with the media, and only the other 30% was spent on products. In an extremely difficult situation, Zhang Chaoyang vigorously engaged in brand management, maintaining Sohu's superficial glory 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 precisely 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 cross the grass, practicing and analyzing.

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.

Other social positions currently held include:

Member of the 9th Executive Committee of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce

Executive Committee of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce

< p>Advisory Director of the "Albright Global Development Trends Investigation Committee" (founded by former US Secretary of State Ms. Albright)

Executive Director of China Guangcai Enterprise Promotion Association

China Internet Vice Chairman of the Association

Vice President of the European and American Alumni Association Chamber of Commerce

Executive Judge of the Ford Environmental Protection Award

Zhang Chaoyang

(1945.6—) A native of Wuchang, Hubei.

Good at printmaking. He graduated from the High School Affiliated to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1964. In 1981, he participated in the art creation class of the Beidahuang Construction Corps and engaged in printmaking. He once served as the trade union officer of the first branch of Heilongjiang 853 Farm. Now he is a professional creator of Heilongjiang Artists Association. His works include "Songs and Dreams", "Boundless", "Zhepan", etc.