Air Network Founder Zhou Yunfan: The First Chinese MMS

Air network

"26 and 1" is a story that Zhou Yunfan often tells to his friends.

More than 30 students from the same class went abroad to study 27, and only one of them returned.

He always had a hope: "what we do is bigger than an enterprise."

Since reform and opening up, China has exported hundreds of thousands of overseas students, and many have not returned.

"25% of engineers in Silicon Valley in the United States are Chinese.

They work there to buy houses, get married and have children, and make great contributions to the economy of the United States. If they do not return home, they will make great contributions to China's development.

As a returned overseas Chinese entrepreneur, we have a heavier burden. We have responsibilities and obligations to play our role. "

Zhou Yunfan said.

In 1999 Zhou Yunfan received his master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and returned to business.

He worked with two friends to launch the ChinaRen website, and pioneered the campus virtual community based on alumni.

In 2002, Zhou Yunfan and old partner Yang Ning jointly built the air network. After two years, the air network was successfully listed on Nasdaq, and Zhou Yunfan became the youngest chairman of the US listed Chinese company.

Zhou Yunfan, the chairman and founder of air network, is a legendary figure, not only because he has resigned two times, but also has made two business ventures.

Whether ChinaRen or air network, he is guiding a generation of young people's consumption concept and way of life.

Classmates only shortened the distance between people, but MMS really succeeded in commercializing the distance.

And Zhou Yunfan is such a person, who is good at catching the pulse of the times, and then wins business opportunities by himself.

Directed at Standford

Zhou Yunfan's experience is plain sailing.

From Beijing No.8 Middle School to Tsinghua University, and then to Standford, after graduating, he has not been an employee. He has become a boss by himself, and has stepped on the "broad road" built by a series of famous brands.

Once entering Tsinghua Yuan, Zhou Yunfan's goal is very clear -- go to Standford!

Speaking of the perseverance at that time, Zhou Yunfan said that there were three reasons for choosing Standford at the time: first, because he studied electronic engineering, and Standford ranked the top in the ranking of electronic engineering discipline in the United States.

Second, the last reason why Standford was born with so many great companies, HP, CISCO, YAHOO! And SUN, is that his mother once visited the United States in 80s, which allowed him to have a little indirect perception of Standford.

Recognizing Standford, Zhou Yunfan's mission in Tsinghua Yuan is very clear: learning and exercising.

Entering Standford's eyes in Tsinghua students is also considered very difficult.

Like many TOEFL students, Zhou Yunfan also began the hardest part of his studies.

Now that we have chosen the target, we are doomed to do our best to achieve this goal.

In 1997, just got the diploma of Tsinghua University, Zhou Yunfan embarked on the road of Standford.

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When Standford arrived in a completely unfamiliar environment, Zhou Yunfan hardly had time to experience the floating clouds, the wandering sun and the old people, like a fully loaded motor.

Learning, working and exercising has become a way of life for him.

It is this positive state that becomes his Amulet of good luck.

Recalling those days, Zhou Yunfan thought that there were hardships and achievements.

Standford has nearly 500 student associations. In order to quickly integrate into the new environment, Zhou Yunfan took part in the election of Standford China Student Union. The idea of public welfare mentioned in his campaign attracted the attention of all the participants. At the same time, he was impressed by the students' enthusiasm and enthusiasm.

Thanks to the University's first official website for project hope.

Enthusiasm and hard work, Zhou Yunfan's work has achieved unexpected results.

Li Zhaoxing, an important Chinese ambassador to the US, wrote an inscription for them: "let hope come true."

Nobel prize winner Zhu Diwen has also become the first donor of the event.

From bokridge, Harvard, MIT and University of Toronto in Canada, the Standford Chinese Student Association later expanded this activity to nearly 40 colleges and universities in North America.

Internet connection

Zhou Yunfan was lucky that he met Internet when he was studying at Tsinghua University in 1996.

Although China's Internet had just started and few people asked about it, Zhou Yunfan was fascinated by it.

Perhaps it is Tsinghua's pursuit of a new style of science and technology. Perhaps it is Zhou Yunfan's restlessness. He feels he wants to do something through the Internet.

At that time, the whole society was offering love for the hope project. Zhou Yunfan thought that he could build a website of hope project on the Internet.

This very innovative idea at that time was strongly supported by all sides.

"At that time, the China Education and Research Network Center set up a server, and I took the lead in organizing a project team.

The home page access was pretty good at that time.

Zhou Yunfan recalls the situation at that time and is still somewhat proud of it.

It's more than he founded ChinaRen.

Com may be very small, but from that moment on, he felt the importance of "ideas" in the Internet for the first time. This experience has become the introduction of Zhou Yunfan's overseas hope website at the Stanford University in the future, which is a more extensive and exercised Internet practice.

In February 1997, Zhou Yunfan graduated from Tsinghua University with excellent results and went to the Stanford University to pursue his master's degree in electrical engineering.

Stanford University is located in the Silicon Valley center of the United States, Yahoo President Yang Zhiyuan graduated here.

In such an atmosphere, Zhou Yunfan is still fond of the Internet while pursuing his master's degree.

Here he became acquainted with two friends, Chen Yizhou and Yang Ning, who may have great influence on his life.

When he entered Standford, Zhou Yunfan was determined to achieve a Chinese miracle.

Yahoo, Ebay, Zhou Yunfan watched his brothers constantly create careers that other people would not dare to think about, so his vision for the future became a bit clearer.

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At the end of 1999, the IT industry in China showed signs of rising. From the thaw of the Haiwei era to the spring and warm water of sina, Sohu and NetEase, the Internet entered the era of "recovery".

However, in China at that time, there were two bottlenecks to promote e-commerce: electronic accounting and logistics.

At that time, the national conditions were not to have the network hardware foundation and the netizens' psychological foundation to achieve credit card accounts. The express delivery system that had the right price and convenient service was not available. E-commerce was not mature enough, so he and Yang Ning identified a target for the current stage of national conditions, cultivating the sense of affinity for the Internet and the habits of the Chinese people's network life habits and establishing the largest virtual community of Chinese in the world.

First repair the canal and then divert water.

Established the direction of the virtual community, they will register the company, while carrying out the overall planning of the virtual community, so as to complete Standford's studies.

How to use an English noun to reflect the unity of Oriental culture and Western technology, to express the sense of cutting-edge fashion and the connotation of virtual community, "ChinaRen" suddenly appeared, and China plus Pinyin people simply and fully embodies all their ideas at that time.

In Standford's last two semesters, Zhou Yunfan and Yang Ning started flying trapeze.

It is also because of ChinaRen that Zhou Yunfan gave up the master of economic systems engineering management, who had been studying at the same time. Although the whole A got his master's degree in electrical engineering, Zhou Yunfan still reluctantly gave up.

After returning home, through the efforts of Zhou Yunfan and partner Yang Ning and Chen Yizhou (then ChinaRen's CEO), ChinaRen ranked the top 10 in the domestic market.

Especially alumni records, ChinaRen Alumni's popularity is very strong, the total membership number exceeds 25 million, class 5 million, school 1 million 500 thousand, become China's largest, the most complete data, the most stable service alumni.

"Everyone is on ChinaRen" became the most fashionable slogan at that time.

Mobile entertainment first portal

For a while, Zhou Yunfan's personal entrepreneurial experience became a model for college students in the late 90s.

Its limelight even overshadowed Ding Lei, Zhang Zhaoyang and other old network stars.

But behind the scenery, there are hidden crises.

If new technology is the engine of the Internet industry, the capital market will undoubtedly provide fuel.

However, the real problem in the development of this industry is: when an industry has not fully formed its cash flow, it can only rely on capital to supplement cash flow in a short period of time, but the market is merciless. Capital can not always subsidize cash flow, how to manage money, win enough time, and win market opportunities until the final success. For Internet Co, it is very important that no Internet Co can ignore it.

In October 30, 2000, Sohu announced that it would buy ChinaRen for $30 million.

For a company like ChinaRen, the choice of takeover is helpless.

With the sudden change of the Nasdaq market in the US in 2000, a large number of Internet Co's listing plans have become remote. It is impossible to continue to use the "capital market subsidy cash flow" approach. Coupled with the compression of Wall Street capital on Internet Co's profit period, it has indirectly forced a large number of domestic companies to "change the lines" ahead of schedule to restructure and integrate them.

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Zhou Yunfan did not comment too much after being bought, and his "child" raised by himself was "adopted" and his taste was unspeakable.

In 2001, Zhou Yunfan and Yang Ning entered the management of Sohu with the merger of ChinaRen and Sohu. Zhou served as executive vice president and general manager, and Yang served as chief technology officer.

Speaking of the days in the Sohu, Zhou Yunfan always believed that Sohu was a very rare learning process, not only accumulated more experience in network operation, but also learned how to manage enterprises.

During that time, Zhou Yunfan grew up quickly.

A year later, he and Yang Ning left the Sohu at the same time for the two venture. In March 2002, they founded the later air network.

In 2002, China had more than 200 million fixed telephone and mobile phone users, surpassing the United States and Japan, ranking first in the world.

This figure is a great psychological comfort for venture capitalists: China's market is so huge.

They began to reflect: was it a bit anxious to succeed?

At the same time, China's WAP network has made new progress.

Mobile MMS was launched in October 2002, and Japan did not carry out this business until 2003.

China's network is actually coming from behind.

Zhou Yunfan and old partner Yang Ning smelled the smell of mobile communication industry in the air.

After careful planning, Beijing air messenger Information Technology Co., Ltd. came into being. It mainly engaged in software product development and system integration in the fields of telecommunications, mobile and data communications, and was committed to developing a series of rich wireless data content and application services for mobile users.

The biggest difference between the mobile data industry and the Internet of the year is that it has a molding industry chain, which is mainly led by China Mobile, which integrates equipment manufacturers, terminal manufacturers and SP like air network. This business model is not mature and perfect from the beginning.

After China Mobile officially opened the sky of MMS, the air network became the fastest response among all 10 content providers. At the same time, it launched over 50 superior products and special services such as "MMS dream factory" and "MMS news".

"MMS dream factory" was created by Zhou Yunfan.

He combines a large number of partners, such as CCTV public information, China Film Group, Peking University Hua Yi, New Oriental School, China talent network, overseas PHOTOCOM, Japan and South Korea mobile content providers and game providers.

Mobile phone has become the best distribution channel for DreamWorks products because of the income sharing.

Every day, new mobile entertainment products come out on the production line. Young people put their favorite things into mobile phones from here.

The movie "green tea", "left to the right," and so on, and many other movie short messages are the only copyright in the air network income, and the first to launch the "MMS to see blockbuster" this mobile phone movie watching service.

The huge advantage of MMS business has made the air network quickly become the black horse of the industry, the specimen of China Mobile, and the powerful competitors that SP can not despise.

The number of MMS registered users in the air network has always topped the list, with MMS and WAP revenues ranking the top of the industry.

Now under the leadership of Zhou Yunfan, the air network has become China's largest MMS service provider, the largest mobile game service provider and mobile Internet service provider, and is the first portals of mobile entertainment.