What kind of person is Chen Yizhou?

Chen Yizhou, 1969 was born in Wuhan, Hubei province. He is the chairman and CEO of Thousand Oaks Interactive Group. 1987 is a computer major in the Physics Department of Wuhan University. He is a classmate with Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi Technology. 1993 master of department of mechanical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997 MBA Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Stanford Business School,1999 Chairman and CEO of ChinaRen, Sohu acquired ChinaRen in 2000? In 2002, he founded Thousand Oaks Interactive Group as the chairman and CEO.

Many years ago, this "old turtle" who missed ChinaRen in the first wave of network craze, earnestly learned the lessons of that year, cautiously and quickly established a multi-brand network enterprise "Thousand Oaks Interactive" through equity replacement and self-construction, and became one of the most beautiful network rookies in the domestic network industry at present. Chen Yizhou himself has naturally become one of the people closest to the "super rich".

1969, from Wuhan, Hubei;

1987 was admitted to the Physics Department of Wuhan University; 1993 entered department of mechanical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and obtained a master's degree in MIT.

After 1995, he joined Altec in the United States to take charge of North Asia affairs.

65438-0997 entered Stanford University to study MBA and electrical engineering.

1999 co-founded ChinaRen company with Zhou Yunfan, an alumnus of Stanford University, and Yang Ning, Chairman and CEO of Chen Ren.

After Chinaren was acquired by Sohu, Chen Yizhou became the vice president of Sohu.

In June 2002, 165438+ 10, Thousand Oaks Interactive Group was established, with its own chairman and CEO, and its websites include DuDu.com, Doodle Accelerator, Maopu.com, uume, China of Warcraft, and 5Q campus area.

20 1 1 On May 4th, US time, Renren Company, a well-known social networking site operator in China, was officially listed on the NYSE, and Chen Yizhou's worth was about181700 million US dollars.

He is a celebrity in the field of internet, and both campus network and cat flutter are closely related to him.

65438-0997, went to stanford graduate school of business to study for MBA and double master's degree in electrical engineering. We know that Stanford and Silicon Valley are closely related, and this stage is the time when "Chief" Jerry Yang and Yahoo attract global attention, which undoubtedly inspired Chen Yizhou. But more importantly, he got to know his later partners, Zhou Yunfan and Yang Ning.

Zhou Yunfan graduated from Tsinghua University, and then entered the Department of Electrical Engineering of Stanford University to study for a master's degree. Yang Ning immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was a primary school student in Xi 'an. After that, he obtained a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, and then entered the Department of Electrical Engineering of Stanford University for a master's degree.

Chen Yizhou's evaluation is, "They were the best students at Stanford Engineering College at that time."

At that time, Chen Yizhou initiated an Internet seminar in China. In the process of communication, the three hit it off, and soon reached an agreement and decided to join the Internet craze. The specific direction is virtual community. Of course, this business is implemented in China, and it is developing rapidly.

Chen Yizhou has his own understanding of the virtual community: the Internet is a new type of media, and the virtual community is more in line with the characteristics of the Internet. The way of internet income is nothing more than advertising and direct charging. "Community is the easiest to charge", and community is also a good carrier for future in-depth marketing. At the beginning of 1999, the three men improved their business plan, then visited venture capitalists in Dune Street, and returned to China in May to set up ChinaRen with the slogan "Building the world's largest Chinese virtual community". Chen Yizhou is the chairman and CEO, Zhou Yunfan is the COO and CFO, and Yang Ning is the CTO. The website name is ChinaRen, but the company name is Shaling Information Technology Co., Ltd. Undoubtedly, Shaling corresponds to sand dunes. The website is aimed at 18 to 24-year-old college students for a simple reason. On the one hand, it was the most concentrated group of network users at that time. On the other hand, although this group still lacks spending power for the time being, it will become the main consumer in the future. Around the virtual community, ChinaRen, which emphasizes technology, subsequently launched: home page, games, email, logs, users only need to register once, that is, they can use a variety of functions. More prominent is the alumni record, which is also the initial application of social networks today.

This period coincided with the internet bubble, and ChinaRen also did the homework of burning money. In June 1999, 165438+ 10, he packed the band, held "Cyclone Action in Colleges and Universities" in February 65438+February, and sponsored the Shanghai premiere of Tokyo Raiders in June 2000. From March to March 28, the number of registered users has exceeded 654.

The good times didn't last long, and the internet bubble soon burst. Yang Ning later lamented: I think sometimes the power of the market is very, very huge, just like the power of nature, which is beyond the control of one or two companies or one or two people. Just like the last tsunami in Indonesia, the power of the market, like the power of nature, is terrible.

Of course, ChinaRen has begun to take shape at this time, and there is still room for mediation. On September 14, 2000, Sohu announced in Hong Kong that it would acquire ChinaRen for 4 million shares, which was worth about 30 million dollars at that time. Shirley Lin, executive director of Goldman Sachs Asia, the largest institutional investor in ChinaRen, said: "We invested in ChinaRen because we are full of confidence in the potential of the Internet market in China and the management of this company, and we are also surprised to become a shareholder of the new Sohu company." Previously, ChinaRen had spent more than US$ 6.5438+million, and the funds could be maintained for one month when it was acquired.

After joining Sohu, Chen Yizhou was appointed as Senior Vice President, but he chose to leave in March 2006. Later, in an interview with China Entrepreneur, he said: "It's not a big shareholder. It's boring to be there all day."

The more important reason is that he has a new opportunity. At that time, online content was not profitable, but cash flow was connected. At the same time, Wuhan is working hard to build an "optical valley". By chance, he met other partners at an optical communication conference in Dallas, USA. Of course, Chen Yizhou is considered to have entrepreneurial experience, so he has the idea of starting a business. At this point, his mood is still "the value of starting a company10 billion".

The service envisaged by Chen Yizhou can increase the speed of dial-up Internet users by 50%- 100% at a cost of $5 per month. During this period, there were 50 million dial-up Internet users in the United States. Chen Yizhou said, "This is a big business." After half a year, the team took out the photoelectric chip, but to put it into use, it still needs to modify the network communication protocol and make improvements on the server side. After that, "9. 1 1" occurred, the capital market became colder, and large companies were no longer interested in equipment improvement.

After that, Chen Yizhou tried to find opportunities on the IP phone, but it was still not smooth. "People always have to go through such ridiculous things to change." After that, Chen Yizhou was dormant for a period of time, during which he read many books.

Chen Yizhou later concluded: "The sooner you make mistakes, the better. When you get old, it will be too late. I am lucky to have failed early in my life, which is good. "