"IT madman" Mao Kankan: started a business at the age of 21 and had a net worth of over 100 million; at the age of 35, he was in debt of tens of millions and chose to commit suicide-

Do you have any impressions of the four talents above?

They were the once famous "Four Young Masters of IT in Beijing", from left to right, Dai Zhikang, Li Xiang, Mao Kankan, and Gao Ran.

They are all "post-80s" and were praised by the media as "post-80s entrepreneurial representatives" in 2006. They became famous across the country and became career idols for many aspiring young people.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten years later, Dai Zhikang, Li Xiang, and Gao Ran are still industry benchmarks, but Mao Kankan committed suicide a few years ago.

"IT Madman" Mao Kankan's life experience is legendary, and his ending makes people sigh!

Let’s take a look at his life story below.

In the industry, Mao Kankan is known as the "devil incarnate".

In May 1983, Mao Kankan was born in Beijing from an ordinary family. His father was an engineer and his mother was an ordinary employee of the company.

Mao Kankan is the only son in the family, so he is naturally loved by his parents, so he inevitably has a willful side in his character.

The biggest difference between Mao Kankan and other schoolchildren of the same age is that he especially likes to play with computers. This is because his father is an engineer and there is a computer at home.

Moreover, Mao Kankan is obsessed with computers, and his parents also approve and support him.

Usually, Mao Kankan comes home from school at 5:30 every afternoon. After dinner, he works on the computer alone in the hut, often not stopping until 12 o'clock.

With such obsession and hard work, Mao Kankan is naturally a computer master.

Not only was he good at online games, but by the age of 12, he had mastered the gameplay of various software, and could also develop some small programs by himself. At the age of 14, he started working in "Popular Software" and other Articles were published regularly in computer magazines, a level that many adults at the time were unable to achieve.

On September 30, 1995, "Yinghaiwei Time and Space", the leader of my country's social platform, was put into operation. Mao Kankan, who was still in the first grade of junior high school, applied to become one of its first forum moderators and was also the youngest. BBS moderator.

In Yinghaiwei time and space, Mao Kankan is like a fish in water. He is passionate about his program forum and always comes up with various tricks to maintain the development of the forum.

On weekends, he also organizes social activities and invites people from the forum to chat together and discuss industry development.

In school (Beijing Yuying Middle School), Mao Kankan was also a computer "big guy". At that time, the school team with him as the main force often participated in various computer competitions in Beijing and rarely encountered opponents.

There is no doubt that the main task of students is cultural learning. Mao Kankan spends too much time on his side job (computer), which will inevitably affect his academic performance.

When he was in the first year of high school, Mao Kankan's "trouble" came unexpectedly: he failed the geography exam and took the make-up exam, but still failed. Therefore, according to relevant policies, his qualification for the college entrance examination was no longer available.

This was the first time in the history of Beijing Yuying Middle School that this happened. Everyone was shocked, and his family also found it difficult to accept it.

Mao Kankan was secretly happy because he had long wanted to stop studying and focus on the computer.

Through his connections, his father arranged for his son to return to his hometown (Chengdu, Sichuan) to change his academic status and retake courses from other places, in order to regain his college entrance examination qualifications through a "curve".

Reluctantly, Mao Kankan decided to leave and returned to Beijing after not staying long at his hometown school. As a dropout, he officially entered the IT world.

Mao Kankan "suicided" the opportunity to go to college. His mother was inevitably sad and disappointed. However, her mother still gave her son comfort and encouragement: "You choose what you do, but as long as you choose to do it, You must do it well!"

Mao Kankan once said that these words from his mother have been echoing in his ears since then, inspiring him to move forward step by step.

After dropping out of school, Mao Kankan focused more on computers!

In the second half of 2000, 17-year-old Mao Kankan successively obtained computer certifications from Microsoft and Cisco. These two certificates were very valuable at the time and could only be possessed by very few people.

In particular, Microsoft's certification exam is known as "the most difficult in Asia."

For Mao Kankan, the key to the extremely difficult certification qualifications and the high school geography exam is the mentality.

With the Awesome certification, Mao Kankan successfully found a job at a website and got along with a large group of top students day and night. His monthly salary was 3,600 yuan, which was a mid-range price in the IT industry at that time.

In the next three years or so, when his classmates were concentrating on studying in class, Mao Kankan changed jobs six times, and his work was unstable.

He has worked in websites, game companies, R&D institutions, TV stations, etc. Among them, the last and most important place is the Software Center of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

In 2003, "computer expert" Mao Kankan was recruited into the Software Center of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

He participated in the project establishment of the Beijing Digital Entertainment Industry Base located in Shijingshan District, Beijing.

At that time, it was the time when the concepts of digital entertainment, animation, and games were booming.

Mao Kankan, who was founded on creativity and has great IT talent, keenly thought of the concept of "real-life digital games".

The so-called "real-life digital game" is to move online games offline and imitate their background data operation, but use real scenes and are actually played by players.

The right time, the right location, the right people!

Mao Kankan’s entrepreneurial idea was appreciated by Lin Qi (vice president of China Times Yuanwang Technology Company) because it was in line with the development direction of their company.

In the second half of 2004, China Times MJ Digital Technology Company (MaJoy, named "MaJoy", which means "Magic + Joy") was registered and established in Beijing. Wang Technology Company (a state-owned enterprise) holds 75% of the shares and is an absolute controlling shareholder. Lin Qi serves as the chairman. Mao Kankan contributes technology and intelligence, holding 25% of the shares, and serves as chief architect and chief operating officer.

At this time, Mao Kankan was 21 years old and the youngest CEO in our country at the time.

The future is bright!

The MaJoy concept is advanced, novel and unique, and is very popular among young people. The project has been a great success, and has been profitable from trial operation to 5 years later, bringing in revenue of 1.5 billion yuan.

In 2006, Majoy Happy City, with an investment of over 100 million, was put into operation in Shijingshan District, Beijing, causing a sensation in the industry.

Mao Kankan’s life has reached its peak!

MaJoy is a company built by Mao Kankan, and the company’s success also means his success.

In terms of wealth, people estimate that Mao Kankan, who holds 25% of the shares, has a net worth of over 100 million yuan. He has once again interpreted the wealth myth of "ideas are gold".

In terms of honors, Mao Kankan has become a leading figure in entrepreneurship born in the 1980s due to his appearance on CCTV's financial columns "Dialogue" and "Economic Half Hour" and the cover report of "Chinese Entrepreneur" magazine. The most popular idol on the Internet, with unlimited fame for a while.

No flower lasts forever!

The IT industry has always been prosperous, but it also means fierce market competition.

At first, Mao Kankan’s Majoy was unique in its skills, but soon a large number of homogeneous real-person CS games entered, and the market share was rapidly diluted, and Majoy’s performance suffered a heavy setback.

On the other hand, as Mao Kankan said later: "My personality is not suitable for entrepreneurship. I am not a person who can manage." After he was shaped into a representative of post-80s entrepreneurship, he became successful at a young age. It is inevitable that they will become arrogant, independent, and arrogant, and these behaviors will offend colleagues and even customers, which will affect the company's operations.

Also, although Myjoy was founded by Mao Kankan, it is a company controlled by a state-owned enterprise. Mao Kankan, who has an unbridled personality, is increasingly unfit for the atmosphere. He has fallen out with the board of directors and has disagreements with other executives. Especially in 2009, Majoy chairman Lin Qi, who was close to him, turned 60 and was about to retire.

Due to various unfavorable reasons, at the end of 2009, 26-year-old Mao Kankan resigned from all positions at Majoy and exited the company he founded.

After Mao Kankan left, Myjoy also declined. Perhaps, if Mao Kankan persists, it will survive for a few more years.

Mao Kankan’s entrepreneurial venture was a success in terms of wealth. After all, he did not leave with a big loss. However, he failed in terms of ambition. After all, his entrepreneurial venture could not be continued.

Mao Kankan, who left Myjoy, was only 26 years old, but he was already a well-known figure in the IT industry. Therefore, many industry leaders opened their arms to welcome him, including the famous Tencent.

Mao Kankan didn’t want to work, especially he didn’t want to leave Beijing.

As a result, he became the co-founder and COO of China-Australia Kyle Health Service Consulting.

There is not much to say about this experience. In short, it can be said in one sentence: unsuccessful.

However, due to business relationships, Mao Kankan, who rarely calmed down, found time to write two works that became best-sellers: "On the Journey to the West" and "Working Like Love: An 80s" How to "Make Wealth" by the New Rich".

Mao Kankan's writing style and ideas are quite good. For example, in "On the Road to Learn from the Western Heavens", he shared with readers various insights on the entrepreneurial journey based on his own personal experience. The book integrates various entrepreneurial strategies and life principles into things that are most familiar to young people. The ideas are soaring and the language is humorous, giving readers a hearty reading experience and vivid revelations about entrepreneurship and growth.

After quitting China-Australia Kyle Health, Mao Kankan and Guo Jieqing launched the APP "Where is the traffic jam" that provides real-time traffic information, but it also failed to succeed, and of course it was not a big failure.

By 2014, Mao Kankan was over 30 years old and no longer in his prime. He got involved in the e-sports industry and joined GTV (Game Competition Channel) as vice president, responsible for video and other businesses.

As a senior wage earner, Mao Kankan achieved impressive results, quadrupling GTV’s net profit and becoming the most profitable e-sports company on the market at that time.

At the same time, Mao Kankan is very excited about the development potential of the e-sports industry, and he is ready to start his own business again.

On September 30, 2015, Beijing Wanhao Wanjia Esports Media Co., Ltd. (Wanjia Esports) was registered and established.

This was founded by 32-year-old Mao Kankan together with Kong Deyong, the actual controller of the listed company "Wanjia Culture". Wanjia Culture invested 4.6 million, accounting for 46% of the shares. Kong Deyong served as the legal representative and Mao Kankan contributed capital. 3.4 million yuan, accounting for 34% of the shares, as CEO, and the other three shareholders contributed 500,000 yuan each (the 1.5 million yuan was also contributed by Mao Kankan).

The major shareholder "Wanjia Culture" only fulfilled its investment obligation (3.4 million yuan), and all business of Wanjia Esports is handled by Mao Kankan and his management team.

From the establishment of Wanjia E-sports to the change of ownership of the listed company "Wanjia Culture", in more than two years, Kong Deyong, the legal representative and chairman, only came to Wanjia E-sports twice, and each time it was different. By half an hour, although this can be understood as mutual trust, such a cooperative relationship also destined Mao Kankan's future to be difficult.

Mao Kankan is full of passion and confidence to start his own business again!

At the beginning of the establishment of Wanjia Esports, Mao Kankan set the company’s development strategy: two businesses: game distribution and online variety show media

On November 18, Wanjia Esports was established. In less than 2 months, it signed a cooperation agreement with Youku in Beijing. The two parties plan to jointly create e-sports and game culture IP, and carry out brokerage business, e-commerce and other businesses around the created IP.

At the same time, Wanjia Esports also sold the copyright of a game "Ember War" to Youku, earning approximately 7 million yuan in revenue (this became the largest revenue in the history of Wanjia Esports).

Victory in the first battle, exciting!

However, setbacks continued to occur!

Later, Wanjia E-Sports and Tencent Video collaborated to produce the variety show "213 Constellation Editorial Room", but it ended after only five episodes. Another program "Iron House Game" also only reached the point where samples were released. stage, and was ultimately not broadcast online.

Two new game products, "Toki Doki" and "Kyushu Warriors" released by Wanjia Esports in early 2016, were also discontinued less than a year after starting internal testing.

With the emergence of financing opportunities for domestic girl groups such as SNH48 and 1931, many funds are rushing to follow suit.

Under the purview of the parent company "Wanjia Culture", at the end of 2015, Wanjia Esports also began to create Astro12, which is known as China's first zodiac female idol group.

The girl group project is expensive. Just the three-month training and living expenses of the team (12 girl group members and 3 staff) in Japan, as well as the production of music and MV, etc. More than 7 million yuan.

The company's operating costs are high. In less than a year, the 10 million on the book was quickly used up. On the other hand, Wanjia Esports has been in the red since its establishment.

The financial support of the major shareholder "Wanjia Culture" is extremely limited, and the capital market is so realistic, selfish and profit-seeking.

For the sake of his entrepreneurial ideal (no one wants to give up halfway) and for a better tomorrow (I hope there will be a rainbow after the storm), Mao Kankan gritted his teeth and moved forward arduously, even at the expense of raising his own funds.

Since November 2015, Mao Kankan has raised about 20 million yuan in funds through mortgage real estate and other methods to support the company's operations.

As a result, Mao Kankan fell deeper and deeper into trouble, and it became increasingly difficult to extricate himself.

Whether the company can raise funds therefore becomes crucial.

Financing has also been the development strategy of Wanjia E-Sports since its establishment. However, after a year of hard work, it has not raised any funds.

At the end of 2016, Longwei Media, owned by film and television star Zhao Wei, announced the acquisition of Wanjia Culture. Moreover, Zhao Wei’s team also showed great enthusiasm for the e-sports industry, which undoubtedly gave Mao Kankan great expectations. Hope.

Who would have known that three months later, when the acquisition was about to succeed, the acquisition, which was leveraged up to 50 times, was investigated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the acquisition plan was rejected.

This is a blow to Mao Kankan!

Despite this, hope has not been dashed. Not long after Zhao Wei’s team left, Xiangyuan Group arrived again as promised.

In August 2017, the two parties reached a deal, and Wanjia Culture sold itself to Xiangyuan Group and changed its name to "Xiangyuan Culture".

However, Xiangyuan Group is unwilling to take over Wanjia Esports and the liabilities behind it.

Wanjia E-Sports, which was already struggling to survive, suffered another fatal blow.

At that time, Mao Kankan was negotiating a financing of 50 million yuan. The investor, Xiangyuan Culture, as the major shareholder, would first invest 20 million yuan in this financing, and the investor would invest another 30 million yuan. .

This plan was flatly rejected by Xiangyuan Culture.

On October 8, Xiangyuan Culture’s new team informed Mao Kankan that Wanjia Esports was not in line with Xiangyuan Culture’s development strategy and continued to suffer losses, which was not conducive to the realization of the listed company’s annual profit targets. Around the middle of the month, Wanjia Esports completed its divestiture from the listed company.

This is the cruelty of the capital market!

This means that Wanjia Esports is completely hopeless. Mao Kankan, who was extremely disappointed, decided to liquidate the company on October 9.

Although Xiangyuan Culture, as the major shareholder, has decided to abandon Wanjia Esports, it has its own "small calculation" on bankruptcy and liquidation. It is hoped that Xiangyuan Culture will be allowed to go bankrupt before Wanjia Esports goes bankrupt and liquidates. Exit from the company.

This move by the major shareholder caused Wanjia Esports to fail to enter bankruptcy liquidation procedures in time.

Failure in starting a business will bring a heavy blow to the founder, especially this time, the blow to Mao Kankan is even greater!

First of all, it was a mental setback. His enthusiasm and expectations were gone in the blink of an eye. Moreover, he was 34 years old at this time and could not compare with when he was in his 20s;

Secondly, there was the loss of wealth. His previous entrepreneurial ventures only scratched the surface, but this time it hurt his bones and muscles. He was burdened with a debt of over 10 million yuan.

For Mao Kankan, the company's delay in bankruptcy and liquidation was like rubbing salt into a wound, because at this time, Wanjia E-sports was already in mourning, and such a "tragic situation" undoubtedly shocked his inner world from time to time.

The sooner this situation ends, the better, but it backfires.

Entering November, because Wanjia Esports was unable to pay related rent, electricity bills and other expenses, the office premises was cut off by the property management, and Wanjia Esports entered a "suspension of operations" state.

On the other hand, more than 60 employees of Wanjia Esports have been owed wages for more than two months, and they filed for arbitration (Chaoyang District Labor Bureau). It is estimated that, excluding severance compensation, Wanjia Esports owes 2.2 million yuan in wages. If severance compensation is included, it will be more than this amount.

Mao Kankan is very concerned about employees' unpaid wages. He has said many times: "After attracting investment, you must first pay back the money owed to employees." He is helpless and powerless.

In the early morning of January 24, 2018, without any warning, 35-year-old Mao Kankan committed suicide by turning on the gas at home.

This day was also the day when the court was supposed to hear the Wanjia Esports wage arrears case (the hearing was later postponed).

On the evening of the 23rd, Mao Kankan posted his last message on WeChat Moments: "Well, I love you without regrets, and I respect the ending of the story."

Mao Kankan is gone!

He had not yet married, and his father passed away in 2006.

The inheritance he left to his mother was a house, but more of a debt, and the debt far exceeded the inheritance.

More than 20 of Mao Kankan’s former friends (including Gao Ran, Li Xiang, and Dai Zhikang among the “Four Little IT Young Masters in Beijing”) raised 5.83 million yuan to set up a company for Mao’s mother (they gathered in Beijing because of Kankan Technology Co., Ltd.) to protect the future life of the elderly. However, 4.57 million yuan of the raised funds was enforced as debt by the court, which caused another legal dispute.

Later, when Mao’s mother moved, she discovered the suicide note left by Mao Kankan before committing suicide.

In his suicide note, Mao Kankan recorded the difficulties and process of starting a business, and his feelings of having no one to support his entrepreneurial enthusiasm.

The suicide note showed that his suicide was related to the breakdown of Wanjia Esports’ capital chain.

Alas, only a deep sigh!