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福布斯:人人网与开心网创始人及其项目成长历程

发布时间:2011-05-14 15:39:44 Tags:,

作者:REBECCA FANNIN

如果说在一个新兴公司的成败背后,企业家比资金或者模式更重要,那么我们将在华尔街股市上看到有趣的一幕,两家互相竞争的中国版Facebook——人人网和开心网两家创始人之间的竞赛。预计开心网很快就会追赶上人人网。

人人网

人人网

人人网CEO及创始人陈一舟安静谦逊,同时也有趣而富有活力。程炳皓是他的主要竞争对手,他是一个土生土长的中国创业者和怪异网站的开发者,而陈一舟是一个首次公开募股的亿万富翁,一个精明海归,一家新兴公司的领头人。

华尔街上每一张股票都预示着中国新兴企业的未来。事实证明,海归创业模式是成功的,受过西方教育和培训的中文搜索引擎百度CEO李彦宏就是一个最好的例子。现在,开心网准备采取下一步行动,程炳皓此时位于一个全新而特别的企业家队列的最前方,他们接受的是中国而非西方文化教育的启蒙。

开心网

开心网

对比鲜明的资源组成了这两家互相竞争的中国版Facebook,这展示了从第一波中国归国企业家到今天更具局限性的土生土长的一代之间的区别。试想一下,在2008年创业之初,开心网已经从中国新兴企业投资者启明创投和北极光风险投资吸引了2300万美元的资金。而人人网在过去的7年中已经获得了Pacific Rim tech支持者美国顶级风险投资机构DCM和日本软银集团创始人孙正义的5亿美元投资。

这两位创始人的管理风格也是非常不同的。如今,这两个网站将在竞争激烈的网络竞技场上与活跃的新竞争者短兵相接,例如与Twitter、Facebook相似功能的新浪微薄。

根据市场调研机构RedTech Advisors数据显示,在2010年人人网以1.17亿注册用户和7650万美元的收益领先。相比之下,2010年开心网只有9000万注册用户,3000万美元的收益。

RedTech Advisors指出,开心网在用户规模上占有优势,它在白领用户中有较高的渗透率,而人人网主要以大学生为基础。首次挂牌上市之后,人人网在第一次公开募股中有了大量的资金,其行销能力迅速提升。我曾经在北京采访过陈一舟和程炳皓,知道他们是如何在中国成长起来的,我想这是他们的相似之处。

陈一舟在武汉长大,他的父母是一个土木工程师,在文革时期被分配农村。当他还是武汉大学物理系大三学生时,他们全家都移民到美国特拉华州的乡下。陈一舟很快把他的生存技能用于工作,学习英语和在温迪快餐连锁店卖汉堡。很快,他完成了在特拉华大学的学业,然后进入了麻省理工,在那里他获得了机械工程硕士学位,后来又获得了斯坦福大学工商管理硕士学位,这是他作为一个企业家成功的一步。2000年在网络泡沫之前,还在校的陈一舟将自己的学生社交网络ChinaRen以3300万美元的价格卖给了搜狐。这种硅谷经历对他在中国新兴企业的逐步成长有很大的帮助。

在首次公开募股成功之前,陈一舟应用他的斯坦福大学和麻省理工大学的学位,再加上他的商业智慧,用收购、内部研发和商业模式,用八年时间打造出了人人网。

现在,让我们来看看程炳皓。程炳皓在北京长大,父母是农民和工厂的工人,程炳皓就读于中国原子能科学研究院直属的北京核工业学校,但是在学校他花了较多的时间在计算机实验室里学习基本的软件编码。他凭借自己的天赋找到了一份工作,后来升职为中文门户网站新浪的首席技术官。他在那里工作了10年,并幸运地成了新浪联合创始人、DCM基金合伙人林欣禾(Hurst Lin)的一员猛将和得意门生。最终,在连续10个小时在电脑面前开发搜索引擎的工作中,他的视力变得模糊以至于他再也无法在屏幕上阅读小字体的内容了。

后来他休息了2个月,充裕的时间让他有机会可以思考人生的价值,思考后他认为朋友之间的快乐比金钱和事业更重要。在2008年,在程炳皓36岁的时候,他决定开始他自己的事业——开心网(游戏邦注:也就是“Be Happy”)这个社交网络游戏平台。 去年我与程炳皓的访谈使我知道了开心网的起源和使命。

该网站上最流行的游戏之一就是与Facebook游戏《Farmville》类似的《开心农场》,该游戏支持用户们种植水果和蔬菜,还可以调皮的从别人的菜园中偷水果和蔬菜,然后对这一行为进行有趣的讨论。“在这个世界上,中国比较保守和内向,不是很开放。两个靠得非常近的人对视的话,他们即不拥抱也不亲吻,只是用眼睛向对方示好。在这个网站上,如果我偷了别人的蔬菜,我就是在像对方抒发我的情感,就像是拥抱一样。”程炳皓通过译者告诉我,并解释在游戏广受欢迎背后的心理因素。

如今程炳皓的投资银行家和风险资本家希望开心网在美国拥有更大的舞台,我们将看到市场是如何对这两种截然不同的实力派企业家争夺领先地位作出反应的。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

China Facebook Race Pits Renren CEO Against Gen #2 Founder

By REBECCA FANNIN

If it’s the entrepreneur who really matters more than the money or the model behind a startup’s success or failure, then the match between the two founders of competing Facebook sites in China ?

Renren and Kaixin001 ? is going to be an interesting one to watch on Wall Street. Kaixin001 is expected to follow the lead of Renren soon.

Quiet and unassuming where Renren CEO and founder Joe Chen can be dynamic and colorful, the bio of Cheng Binghao is a study in contrasts with that of his key rival.  Cheng is a homegrown, first-time Chinese entrepreneur and geeky website developer while Chen, now a billionaire from the IPO, is a savvy returnee and startup master.

How each fare could point to the future of China tech startups on Wall Street. The model of CEO returnee has proven to be a successful one, with western-educated and trained Robin Li of Chinese search engine Baidu as its best representative. Now as Kaixin001 prepares to take the next step,  Cheng is at the start of a new and different parade of entrepreneurs who take their cues from Chinese culture and upbringing rather than from the West.

The contrasting resources in building these two competing Chinese Facebook sites showcases a shift from the first wave of China’s returnee entrepreneurs to today’s more localized homegrown generation. Consider: Kaixin001 has drawn $23 million in venture capital from China startup investors Qiming Ventures and Northern Light Venture Capital since its 2008 start while Renren has counted nearly $500 million over the past seven years from such financial anchors as Pacific Rim tech backer DCM and empire builder Masayoshi Son of Japan’s Softbank.

The founders’ managerial styles are degrees apart too. Today, the two sites are going head-to-head in the highly competitive social networking arena with energized entrants such as Sina’s microblog Weibo and its addition of Twitter and Facebook like functions.

Renren is in the lead with 117 million registered users and 2010 revenues of $76.5 million. That compares with Kaixin001 at 90 million registered users and 2010 revenues of $30 million, according to market research firm RedTech Advisors.

Kaixin001 has the upper hand with user demographics, RedTech point outs, with a higher penetration rate among white collar workers contrasted with Renren’s base among college students. First out of the gate to the public listing, Renren is flush with cash from the IPO to fire up its marketing power.

But let’s go back to the founders of each of these social networks.  I’ve interviewed both in Beijing and know that while both Chen and Cheng grew up in China, I think the similarities stop there.

Chen grew up in Wuhan, the son of civil engineers who were sent to work in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. When his family migrated to rural Delaware when he was a junior studying physics at Wuhan University, Chen quickly put his survival skills to work, learning English and flipping burgers at Wendys. Soon  finishing up his degree at the University of Delaware,  he got into the Massachutsetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. From there it was to a Stanford University MBA and his first success as an entrepreneur.

While still a student, he sold his social network site for students, ChinaRen, to Sohu for $33 million in 2000, right before the dotcom crash. That Silicon Valley DNA (See Silicon Dragon Video of Joe Chen) has served him well in ramping up his China startup.

Chen leveraged his Stanford and MIT degrees and connections plus his business smarts to build out Renren for eight years with acquisitions, in-house developed sites, and business model pivots before gaining the IPO trophy and going back to Beijing a billionaire.  Along the way, he purchased the Kaixin url in late 2008 and cloned the Kaixin001 site, prompting a lawsuit in 2009 that was won a year later by Cheng and his original Kaixin001 site. Before the judgment was made, Chen had folded the Kaixin interface into the Renren website.

Now, let’s look at Cheng. Growing up in Beijing as the son of a farmer and a factory worker, Cheng studied nuclear chemistry at the China Institute of Atomic Energy but spent more time at a school computer lab, learning basic software coding.  His talent landed him a job and later promotion to chief technology officer at leading Chinese portal SINA. He worked there for 10 years and was fortunate enough to have SINA co-founder and now DCM venture capitalist Hurst Lin as his mentor and boss. Eventually, the continual 10-hour work days in front of a computer developing a search engine caused his vision to blur so much he could no longer read the small characters on the screen.

That’s when he took a break for a couple of months, time that allowed him to reflect on life values and to conclude that happiness with friends is more important than money or career.  In 2008, at the age of 36, he decided to start his own business, Kaixin001 – or “Be Happy” – a social games and networking website. See my Silicon Dragon Video from an interview with Cheng last year telling me about the origins and mission of Kaixin001.

One of the site’s most popular games modeled after Facebook’s Farmville has users growing fruits and vegetables and playfully stealing from one another’s gardens, then exchanging funny comments about the moves. “Chinese are more conservative, more inward, not very open in this world. If two very close people see each other they don’t hug or kiss but say hello with eyes only. On this site, if I steal some vegetables, I am showing my affection, like a hug,” Cheng told me through a translator (see my photo above), explaining the psychology behind the game that led it to become wildly popular.

Now as Cheng’s investment bankers and venture capitalists look to take Kaixinoo1 to a bigger stage in the U.S., we’ll see how the market reacts to these two very different and capable Chinese entrepreneurs as they vie for leadership. I am going for a front-row seat to take it all in.(source:forbes


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