From 1991 Van der Chijs studied business economics in Maastricht, and then took a traineeship at Daimler-Benz. After working at their headquarters in Stuttgart as well as in Indonesia, he moved to Beijing in 1999 to take up a position as senior controller for Daimler-Benz" China operations.
Raised mostly in the Netherlands, he lived in many different places, including Wehl, Laag-Keppel, Saliña Abou on Curaçao, Brummen, Ommen and Valdosta, Georgia in the United States. Soon after, he resigned from that position and began working as an independent consultant while also studying Chinese on the side. The two men established Tudou in Shanghai in 2005.
Van der Chijs was the one to suggest the name.
As of 2008, van der Chijs has left more of the operation of Tudou to Gary Wang, who has taken up the chief executive officer position. Instead, van der Chijs concentraded on his responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer of Spil Games Asia, a Dutch internet games company.
Since July 2013 he is also on the board of Chinese P2P lending company Dianrong.com (Sinolending) and in 2014 Van der Chijs co-founded the world"s first P2P insurance company Uvamo.com.
