While studying, Zhang Xiaolong had a wide range of hobbies. No matter what he plays, he can always reach the level of an amateur master with a little practice. Go, table tennis, tennis, bowling and computer games have always been the best players around him. In addition to playing ball, his professional achievements are also excellent. "He is the first among us to learn C language, which was just born." Zhang Tiyuan, a classmate of Zhang Xiaolong, recalled that Zhang Xiaolong was good at hardware besides software. The graduate tutor commented on Zhang Xiaolong to Xun Xian: "Young people who like to play computer games and sleep late."
Founder of Foxmail
1In the autumn of 994, Zhang Xiaolong, who just turned 24, graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Fortunately, he soon got a good opportunity to work in a telecommunications agency. This iron rice bowl job is envied by many friends around, but Zhang Xiaolong doesn't think so. Every time he saw the government office building, he felt "a sense of suffocation hanging over his head", so he gave up the iron rice bowl in the telecommunications sector and resolutely devoted himself to the vibrant Internet industry.
Most of the early Internet entrepreneurs chose a certain field to make a product, such as Ma's social software QQ, search engine Baidu, and the opening of Zhang Xiaolong. However, it is hard to imagine that a person can make such excellent software as Foxmail.
1997, Li Xueling, then a reporter of Computer News and later the founder of Duowan.com, once described: "As long as you stand at the intersection of Huang Zhuang and shout, I am Foxmail Zhang Xiaolong, there will be a large group of people around asking for your autograph." Four years later, Foxmail users have reached 2 million, while Tencent has only 65,438+10,000 users. Foxmail is called the only email software that can compete with Microsoft Outlook.
The first bucket of gold in life
1September 1998, Lei Jun, who just became the general manager of Jinshan, contacted Zhang Xiaolong, hoping to acquire Foxmail. Zhang Xiaolong gave an offer of 6.5438+0.5 million yuan at will, and Lei Jun directly agreed. But what I didn't expect was that Lei Jun, who just served as the general manager of Jinshan for one month, ignored this matter because the contact person in charge didn't understand the value of Foxmail.
Until the arrival of the internet bubble in 2000, the cold wind was bleak. At this time, Zhang Xiaolong, who has completed the adjustment of Foxmail technology, seldom carries out optimization and update, which can not stimulate his career enthusiasm. He intends to return to the right track of internet entrepreneurship and sell Foxmail. Good luck comes to you like this. Boda Internet Company offered120,000 yuan to acquire Foxmail, which soared from150,000 yuan to120,000 yuan in just two years. This is the magic, absurdity and charm of the Internet, and Zhang Xiaolong won the first pot of gold.
Entering Tencent, a perfect counterattack
In 2005, Zhang Xiaolong, who had been silent for five years, reappeared in people's field of vision and entered Tencent as the general manager of Guangzhou R&D Department. Boda Internet Company, which has gone downhill, packaged and transferred Foxmail team and Zhang Xiaolong to Tencent. Zhang Xiaolong almost disappeared in the Jianghu during his five years in Boda, and many programmers and product managers of his time became Internet tycoons.
The emergence of Tencent is another turning point in Zhang Xiaolong's Internet career. In the face of strong competition from MSN, Ma hopes to find a way to make his QQ mailbox beat Hotmail, and Zhang Xiaolong will rise to the challenge. In just three years, QQ mailbox has undergone tremendous changes and has become a product with excellent reputation under Tencent.
Wechat was born and the king returned.
At the end of 20 10, Zhang Xiaolong, who has always been taciturn, sent an email to Ma, suggesting Tencent to do mobile social software. Zhang Xiaolong believes that there will be a new communication tool on the mobile Internet in the future, which is likely to pose a great threat to QQ. Ma Hua Teng quickly replied to the email, agreed with Zhang Xiaolong's idea, and asked him to lead the R&D department of Tencent Guangzhou to start the project as the person in charge.
20 1 1 At the beginning of the year, the ios version of WeChat was launched, but the user growth was not ideal. Zhang Xiaolong suddenly realized that he was too rational on WeChat. Would it be better to add some literary or humanistic elements? Perhaps the current WeChat is too utilitarian and realistic. From then on, Zhang Xiaolong gave up rational thinking and began to arm himself into a literary youth. At the same time, WeChat began to add some functions closer to human nature, find people and friends nearby and shake them. ...
20 12 Zhang Xiaolong put forward a new viewpoint: Wechat is a way of life. Many people think that Zhang Xiaolong is less and less like a strict programmer, but a "master of deception" who peddles concepts. Since then, wechat has been out of control. In the field of mobile Internet, WeChat has no close competitors at present, and Zhang Xiaolong has enough trial and error opportunities to get involved in e-commerce, advertising and games. Obviously, Ma Hua Teng has handed over the full responsibility for the commercialization of WeChat to Zhang Xiaolong.
Jobs's Eastern Followers
20 13 In May, the engineer nicknamed "Bite the Cake" worked day and night to complete the task given to him by Zhang Xiaolong and developed the "masturbation" game. In less than a week, the engineer who claimed to masturbate constantly every day developed four masturbation games in one breath, including a color version, a black-and-white version with nostalgic style, and even a funny version with small animals such as chickens and ducks popping up on the interface from time to time for players to shoot for Zhang Xiaolong to choose from.
In the end, the black-and-white sketch style of "masturbation" was selected by Zhang Xiaolong as the welcome interface of WeChat 5.0, which is in line with the "minimalist" style that Zhang Xiaolong has always believed in. This is not the most complicated and modified software developed by Zhang Xiaolong. Most of his products were modified hundreds of times by his engineers before they were allowed to go online. Jobs' followers in the East would not allow any defects in his products.
Tennis once a week, blue lotus music every night, and smoking addiction that has been maintained since the days of programmers. Some people say that Zhang Xiaolong is a silent man, and he is one of the few businessmen with literary temperament in China.
If there is any new APP application in the world, you may meet a person named Allen within 48 hours after its release, if you download it and try it out in advance. If this person is silent, then he doesn't even have a picture. Then you may have met Zhang Xiaolong.