Cao Guowei's Sina For 10 Years

　　 Sina CEO Cao Guowei was elected the 100 most influential person in the world in 2011. Also included were Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Larry page. At this moment, Sina and the world Internet The two giants stood together.

　　 Choice

In 1999, Cao Guowei, 33, a certified public accountant from PWC, has been in Silicon Valley for 6 years, looking for new job opportunities. That year, Wang Zhidong, then Sina CEO, was looking for a CFO (chief financial officer), and two Silicon Valley companies were inviting him. Cao Guowei hesitated, then asked his old friend and then Sina COO, director of operations.

Mao felt that every choice was good, but suggested Cao Guowei to try Sina. Cao Guowei thought about it for two days and chose Sina. At that time, Sina's headquarters was located in a warehouse in the United States, and there was no comparison with the Silicon Valley in rows of buildings.

With the help of Cao Guowei, Sina was successfully listed on NASDAQ six months later, becoming the first Chinese portals to be listed in the US. It has become the universal mode of overseas listing of domestic Internet Co through Off Shore Company's holding of domestic companies, and is known as the "Sina model".

　　 unsung hero

"I have done more than 3 CFO, and every CEO believes that I can do this job well. This is rare in general companies. " Cao Guowei reviewed his early years in Sina.

Under the guidance of Cao Guowei, Sina has completed the important mergers and acquisitions of Guangzhou's Crillion and Shenzhen's two largest wireless value-added services companies, making Sina one of the forefront of the field of wireless value-added, and gradually making profits from losses.

In 2004, the natural growth rate of sina's online advertising lags far behind its competitors, and there is a trend of further deterioration. In 2005, Cao Guowei was assigned to be responsible for advertising business. In the second quarter of that year, Sina opened up the gap with its competitors. It was a particularly difficult period for Cao Guowei: "there are conflicts between the two roles of CFO and COO, such as managing marketing and performance, and controlling risks and costs."

At that stage, Cao Guowei successfully resolved the grand attempt to control Sina from the stock market: "that is the new year's Eve, the volume of sina's trading volume is soaring, and there are about forty million shares of trading volume. When I was on vacation in Sydney, I received a call from Chen Tianqiao. Shanda Chen Tianqiao said that Shanda bought about 19.5% of sina's shares in the two tier market and became the largest shareholder. Cao Guowei left his wife and children, and returned to China to attend the board of directors to discuss countermeasures.

Cao Guowei formulated the "shareholder equity purchase plan" (the "poison pill plan"), successfully boycotting Chen Tianqiao's sneak attack.

　 Go to the front desk.

In May 2006, Cao Guowei took over Sina CEO.

For Cao Guowei, the meaning of power change does not seem obvious: "it is not who will choose me to do CEO, but whether I want to do it. If I want to do it, I must do it." In fact, you are more responsible for CEO. You can't say that if you try it today, if you don't do it well, I'll leave. So you have to think clearly if you are willing to carry the future of the company.

As Sina CEO is risky, formerly CEO, Sha Zhengzhi, Wang Zhidong, Mao Daolin, Wang Yan, when the performance is not good, it is difficult to escape "two years" fate. The industry generally believes that this is related to the decentralized ownership structure of sina. {page_break}
 

　 Sina 10 years

In May 2009, Sina micro-blog launched. But the most popular industry at that time was Sina's MBO. In April 2008, Duan Yongji, the chairman of the board of directors, Wang Yan, acting chairman of the board, "deep in the sea and rich in technology". In some IT observers, this means that Cao Guowei has taken full control of sina's overall situation and cleared the obstacles for the management's MBO ahead of schedule.

The opportunity for Sina MBO began in the merger of sina and sub public in 2008, because the regulatory authorities denied that mergers and acquisitions did not come true. Jiang Nan Chun told Cao Guowei that, as a founder, if the company is still operating independently, he wants to increase more shares in the sub sectors. "This touched me." 3 years after Jiangnan Chun announced that it would increase its holdings of shares, Cao Guowei announced Sina's MBO plan. Sina issued its Invest-holding Company 5 million 600 thousand shares of the common stock with a total price of about $180 million. He said in an email to his staff: "from today on, we will realize the transformation of our role and face our future with the mentality of an entrepreneur."

Since then, Sina management, led by Cao Guowei, has become Sina's largest shareholder and has the right to speak in the board of directors. This is also the first case of MBO in China's Internet. "In the past, the decentralization of shares or the lack of sufficient control over stock ownership is very unfavorable to the formulation and deployment of sina's long-term strategy. CEO is more just looking at recent profits and unable to make long-term layout."

Cao Guowei, a native of Shanghai, is extremely competitive. When he was in junior high school, he chose to read the best middle school in Shanghai, Shanghai middle school. When he was in college, he chose the most difficult subject in liberal arts, Fudan journalism. After graduation, I went abroad with my girlfriend and chose the accounting major of Dezhou University in the US.

Of course, Cao Guowei is not a mythical figure. When he is very tired, he also has a step back. He thought about leaving and investing. But leaving is a difficult task. "I think I am responsible for this company. In fact, I hardly ever go away in the office almost every day."

With the success of sina MBO, some critics say that as the most successful professional manager in China's Internet industry, Cao Guowei is one of the biggest winners of the Internet in 2009.

In October 16th of that year, China real estate information group, a joint venture between Sina and Yi Ju, was officially listed on NASDAQ. Its market value is close to Sina, which is equivalent to rebuilding a Sina. Industry evaluation, MBO solved Sina's historical problems, and IPO's listing provided Sina with the future.

　　 Start again

Two years after micro-blog launched, it finally exploded the trend of China's Internet, and Sina's share price rose to more than 100 dollars. "Times" said that in 2009, sina CEO Cao Guowei seized the opportunity under the circumstances that the situation was not very favorable, and launched Sina's own micro-blog. Today, Sina micro-blog has become an extremely influential service, which Cao Guowei calls "Twitter and Facebook hybrid". At the end of February this year, the number of sina micro-blog users reached 100 million, including users, celebrities, athletes, scholars, artists and ordinary netizens.

Cao Guowei is China's first successful CFO transformed into CEO, and now it has become a real entrepreneur. What is the supporting force behind the three turn?

In 2009, thirty p.m., 3 p.m., Cao Guowei was still at the office. His assistant Liu Yunli wanted to say hello to the boss and go home. Cao Guowei was a little drunk and talked with Liu Yunli for a long time. To this day, Liu Yunli's impression of Cao Guowei's words is still profound. "In fact, many things must be optimistic. There are many things that you are anxious to pursue in a crazy way. More often, be serious. You just have to face it seriously. As for the outcome or failure, you can't control it. In the process, you are actually learning and learning to enjoy the process. "