Gong Haiyan: The First Chinese Online Entrepreneur

The birth of "chance"

In October 2003, Fudan University was also studying two.

But the motive is temporary, and it is also to solve his own life events.

Gong Haiyan, who is already 28 years old, is anxious to find the right person in the rush of his family. The newly rising dating website has become an important part of her life.

But after paying several fees on several dating sites, the information received varied from pen pal to one night stand.

And her impulse to make a "better website" is another dating website with a number of "Diamond old five" information. "She sent 12 e-mails without a reply"; the so-called "Diamond old five" information is not true, even if there is no need for marriage.

And in front of this website customer service, Gong Haiyan has become "because others refuse her" and making trouble.

"At that time, I put down a harsh word and said that I could make a website better than them."

However, Gong Haiyan, who studied media management at Fudan University, didn't even know that the registered website needed to have a domain name and need to purchase a server. The earliest version of the Jiayuan page was the result of her temporary assault on how to make Frontpage after more than 20 days of learning.

She also did not know that with the expansion of the website, it would be such a matter of burning money.

1 months after the operation of the website, some members said it was too slow.

And the money to buy an independent server, Gong Haiyan still clearly remember that "17600 yuan", but she has no money to invest in this website.

Where is the demand? Gong Haiyan is also ignorant about it. "I hung up the information of a junior high school girl who was studying at Tongji University, even if the website was opened."

The first 1000 members of Jiayuan were found by word of mouth, and even Gong Haiyan himself was among them.

Even after the website has already had a lot of influence, Gong Haiyan has no definite intention, but "make it a social practice" so that he can give himself extra points when he is looking for a job.

Escape temptation

However, the idea of "bonus point" is just the opposite.

In 2005, Gong Haiyan was faced with employment, but almost all the interviewing agencies offered to turn off the website.

Some people say, "why don't you do it yourself instead of letting others do it?"

But even today, the website still does not make money, not to mention in 2005. At this time, Gong Haiyan received an e-mail from across the ocean. An American couple wanted to buy Jiayuan by 5 million yuan.

In retrospect, this is still a very big temptation, although 5 million yuan, even in the then Shanghai, was only a good place with a 100 square meter house.

Gong Haiyan even dared not agree to the interview. "I dragged the mail directly to the blacklist.

"If you can't resist temptation, stay away from it, and don't let yourself have the chance to make mistakes."

Soon after he refused to buy, Gong Haiyan met Qian Yongqiang.

Qian Yongqiang was concerned that the company founded less than 3 years was found to have surprised him by the discovery of Jiayuan in Shanghai. "Before queuing up to see Gong Haiyan in Shanghai, he registered a user name on Jiayuan, and tested its traffic and effectiveness.

"We talked for 1.5 hours." soon, a 2 million yuan investment hit Gong Haiyan's account, when there was not even an agreement between them.

"Qian Yongqiang is a teacher of New Oriental School. I always feel that such people are more reliable."

Since then, Qian Yongqiang has brought two other colleagues from the New Oriental era to the investment of Jiayuan.

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This state of "no profit pressure" is out of balance with the entry of Qiming venture capital.

"After all, VC is not a philanthropist, but also accountable to their investors."

Gong Haiyan said, "paid services" has been put on the agenda.

Born businessman?

The business model of Jiayuan century seems to be driven slowly by user needs.

In the initial mode, Jiayuan even had a requirement for users' academic qualifications. Later, it was considered to be "discriminated" and it was slowly abolished.

Today, more than 1000 times a year's offline activities are also required by members. When the number of online users reaches more than 7000 people, someone proposes to meet.

But at that time, Gong Haiyan still had a retreat in his mind. "The venue is not impossible to talk about, but the price is too high to accept". Finally, the activity had to be rescheduled.

But even so, "if no one comes, we will have to pay nearly 20 thousand yuan for that activity."

Because the activities at that time were online registration and on-site charging.