Yang Ning: The Internet Veteran Who Dares To Challenge The Communications Giant

Air network CEO Yang Ning

At the age of 24, he made a profit of 25 dollars at the age of 25, and then again at the age of 27.

Yang Ning, who is only 36 years old, though still looks

It is reported that he founded two enterprises, one sold to Sohu, one on Nasdaq, was sold ChinaRen, is the most successful alumni directory website.

Since then, Yang Ning, who was unwilling to stay behind, has sold all Sohu shares and set up an air network. He only used the air network in two years and two months to appear on the NASDAQ in the US, becoming the company that spent the shortest time on the NASDAQ listing of Chinese companies, and the largest mobile portals in China.

Looking for business opportunities in text messages

In his childhood, Yang Ning emigrated from Xi'an to the United States with his parents. During middle school, he compiled many game programs and circulated widely on campus.

In 1997, Yang Ning met with his close friend Zhou Yunfan who changed his destiny at Stanford University.

By then, when Zhou Yunfan had just entered Stanford University, Yang Ning was the first Chinese person he met. Because he could speak Chinese, two people met at the same time.

After that, the two men met Chen Yizhou, who was four years older than them.

So in early 1999, three people began to write business plans and went to invest separately.

So they got into the first capital of 200 thousand US dollars and returned to China to establish the initial ChinaRen.

A year later, ChinaRen rapidly grew into the largest virtual community in China and ranked the top ten in the domestic website.

Unfortunately, at that time, ChinaRen did not have any clear profit model. Eventually, Yang Ning had to sell the company to Sohu.

In September 2000, Zhou Yunfan, Yang Ning and Chen Yizhou entered the management of Sohu with the merger of ChinaRen and Sohu. Zhou Yunfan served as executive vice president and general manager; Yang Ning served as chief technology officer; Chen Yizhou served as chief operating officer.

Now it seems that Yang Ning and Zhou Yunfan were able to start the air network, which was also related to the experience of Sohu.

By 2001, the situation of China's Internet industry began to turn a corner. China's telecom operators began to launch SMS business. In a short span of 18 billion 900 million years, the amount of SMS sent to the country was as high as Zhou Yunfan, and Yang Ning saw the opportunity.

The Internet industry seems to have ushered in a new profit opportunity, which makes Yang Ning feel the new business opportunities of mobile entertainment and wireless Internet content service.

In 2002, Yang Ning and Zhou Yunfan chose to leave after two years of dormancy in Sohu.

Thus, in a bungalow in Beijing Houhai, the air network was born - the implication of the air, that is, the content supply and value-added services of wireless Internet, and the content of electronic information forms dancing in the air.

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Value added services for communication giant

However, capital has become the biggest problem before Yang Ning. Few companies are willing to raise money for the new Internet Co. Even the old friend Goldman Sachs investment bank has refused to invest again because of its lack of confidence.

However, the fate of the God is always more interested in this passionate young man, after the encounter, Yang Ning met his Standford's alumni Zhang Fan, with his help, finally melted the first fund of the air network.

Although the process of the period was not smooth sailing, even the late investors' offer was much lower than Yang Ning's bottom line, but he accepted it.

What everyone did not expect was that the performance of the air network exceeded expectations.

The air network has become one of China Mobile's first (16) GPRS WAP content providers.

The first WAP game "winning China" won the first place in China Mobile GPRS WAP main station game class.

In 2.5G, MMS, graphic download, mobile Internet, mobile phone games and mobile media, the air network is still in the first place.

Meanwhile, Yang Ning is working with Motorola, NOKIA, Sony Ericsson, Lenovo and other famous mobile phone manufacturers to build Java applications in new phones.

And the Java downloads of the air network jumped to China Mobile's treasure chest for the first time, becoming the highest earning company.

And in July 9, 2004, the air network successfully listed on Nasdaq, and this day was only in two years and two months when the company was founded. Yang Ning became the youngest listed company president in the country.

Look for directions in the wind

But for Yang Ning who is so restless, it is a bit too hasty to define the brilliance of the air network as the most successful one in his life.

Because he is now targeting the wireless Internet search area.

Some people may ask, is search not the world of Google and Baidu? Yang Ning does not think so.

Yang Ning said that the business environment is always changing. If we do not "see the wind", we will not be able to adjust the direction of the company.

Now that Google is withdrawing from the country and Baidu is powerful, its foundation in the wireless field is still not solid. Therefore, Yang Ning is still confident in wireless search for mobile wireless Internet. In December 2009, Yang Ning officially launched the "Hun search".

How to make it late, "Hun search" won the recognition of the market in a short time, Yang Ning also had a great deal of thought.

So finally, Yang Ning focused on the post-90s market, so a mobile search platform named "Mars language" was named, and the style and content were striving to highlight the non mainstream style.

In addition to the "Mars search" search itself, Yang Ning came up with many ideas to attract "post-90s" - "entertainment search" is a breakthrough point in search.

"Users can also choose songs according to their mood categories, and have made many improvements in terms of music and video functions according to users' needs.

At present, Hun search is the only mobile search engine with MP3 cutting function. It can re cut the songs by setting the start and end time, or by lyrics and paragraphs, so that users can make phone ringtones directly.