1964, 1969, 1972: the cream of China’s entrepreneurial crop

1964, 1969, 1972: the cream of China’s entrepreneurial crop

Staff Reporter

2013-11-19

The years 1964, 1969 and 1972 were golden for the birth of Chinese entrepreneurs who now populate the upper echelons of China’s tech industries, according to the Chinese-language book Outliers, published in 2009. Take the top four icons in the industry, all born in 1964: founder of Kingsoft Computer Qiu Bojun, CEO of Legend Group Yang Yuanqing, CEO of Sohu Zhang Chaoyang and founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group Jack Ma.Each of them enjoyed at least a decade of outrageous company success, according to the Guangzhou-based Southern People Weekly. Qiu led the 1990s while Yang rose to success in the late 1990s, continuing in the first five years of this century.

Zhang has been under the spotlight since the internet bubble burst around 2000 while Ma has been undoubtedly the commercial leader for the past decade.

These men inevitably lived in the ripples of the Cultural Revolution. They inherited their moral values from the social-political movement and have a stronger sense of self-awareness.

The internet bubble burst in the 1999 led the entire internet industry into a downward spiral during 2001 to 2003, but they were still able to stand firm in the industry when they were approaching their 40s.

Those born in 1972 now enjoy similar success, including CEO of NetEase Ding Lei, founder of Tencent Ma Huateng and board president of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Chen Tianqiao.

Ding and Chen topped the list of Chinese richest men for a long period and Ma Huateng recently became the wealthiest Chinese.

These business magnates were the first-generation of internet users and soon established their own companies as part of the internet wave. But they were all choked as the internet became more and more commercial.

The one major difference between these two generations is that those from 1964 were visionaries, while those from 1972 led by sensitivity to the needs of consumers.

Chinese businessmen born in 1969 created revolutionary services, but have not been so individually fortunate. Among them are Lei Jun, Wang Feng, Chen Yizhou, Zhang Xiaolong and Zhou Hongyi.

Their creations include leading social media platforms like Renren, YY, Weibo and WeChat.

Some of them were forced to sell the companies they founded under the prevailing dominant environment, such as Lei Jun’s Joyo and Zhou’s 3721.

Between 2004 and 2008, their products suddenly became obsolete in the wave of young users taking on the internet. They were forced to reboot their operations and study the new consumer group. Fortunately, they grew into a new cycle of growth between 2008 and 2012. Lei Jun left Kingsoft, Zhou co-founded Qihoo 360 Technology and Wang began research and development in the games industry.

After letting go of their original businesses, they are now back in the fray. Lei returned to Kingsoft, Zhou is back into the battlefield of search engines, Wang has become the helmsman of the games industry and Chen has led his firm to an IPO.