Background
Wang Zhidong was born in 1967, China.
志东 王
Wang Zhidong was born in 1967, China.
Wang graduated from Peking University with a degree in radio electronics in 1988. At Peking, he was such an outstanding student that his professors would not let him switch to his real interest, computers, so Wang taught himself. Even before graduating he worked for a host of computer firms in Beijing’s Haidian district.
In 1991 he shut himself away in a tiny apartment to write the first Chinese-language software for PCs, earning him enough money to set up his own firm. Two years later he founded Stone Rich Sight, a high-tech start-up devoted to Chinese software development. Under his leadership, the RichWin Chinese platform was successfully launched. Because of its full compatibility with multiple operation systems and support of internet protocols, the program became very popular among Chinese computer users across the globe. Installed on more than five million machines, it became the highest-used Chinese software up to that time.
Besides being a capable technical leader, Wang also demonstrated his talents and skills as an entrepreneur. He is one of the early advocates of the internationalization of Chinese enterprises, actively promoting new concepts and managerial practices learned from Western companies. As a vote of confidence in his vision and capabilities, Wang and SRS received international venture capital investments of US$6.5 million in 1997, the first among IT companies in China. At that time Wang began writing software for the internet.
Realizing the huge market potential, he made a strategic decision at the end of 1998 to merge his own firm with a Silicon Valley-based Chinese portal set up by three Taiwanese students from Stanford University. Wang renamed the site Sina, shifted its main operations to Beijing and concentrated on web-based news. Sina exploded onto the larger Chinese scene a year later. When NATO planes bombed China’s embassy in Belgrade, Sina.com was the quickest, most reliable source of news for an outraged nation. Its coverage of the bombing and its mix of mainland Chinese talent with US technology boosted the portal past its biggest rival, SOHU. Today Sina has become the world’s largest Chinese language portal, with comprehensive web operations not only in Beijing, but also in North America, Hong Kong, and Taipei.