Author: Chi Universe
At the beginning of BABA's start-up, Jack Ma held a meeting in the lakeside garden.
BABA believes that the lakeside garden is a "treasure land of feng shui", and it is not only an honor but also a good luck to be able to close Ma Yun's "small dark house" in the lakeside garden.
In the summer of 1999, Zhu Hong and Chen Hang almost met. The final choice made them pass by and missed the opportunity to become the founder of BABA.
They finally met 14 years later, when he was no longer called Zhu Hong, but "Yimiu", and he was no longer called Chen Hang, but "no tricks" or "recruiting mulberry".
They shake hands, and the past, reality and future will appear in front of them. The stories they once experienced and missed are now repeating themselves.
This time, they decided to hold on to the future like a lifesaver.
1
In the summer of 1999, Zhu Hong, a graduate student from Zhejiang University, was sent to graduate school before he graduated, so he had nothing to do all summer. By chance, he met a girl named Dysan. Dysan works for a small Internet company. Zhu Hong is very interested in the Internet.
Dai Shan asked Zhu Hong if he could program, and Zhu Hong said, "I'm sure I will." After a week of acquaintance, Dashan asked him to visit the company, have an interview, take a part-time job, and pass the boring summer.
Zhu Hong came to the lakeside garden. That is the earliest commercial housing community in Hangzhou, the surrounding area has not yet been developed, either bungalow or wasteland. He found Room 202, Unit 1, Building 16, Fenghe Garden, and knocked on the door. The door opened and he was welcomed in.
A man named Wu Yongming chatted with him for a while and talked about programming. After a while, a strange-looking man came over. When he came up, he asked Zhu Hong what he had done. Zhu Hong said that he had made a website for the student union and a website that could send messages to teachers and students to find tutoring work.
As soon as the man heard about the students' Union, his interest came. He asked Zhu Hong to tell him a little more about the website and what they were doing. Finally, the man said, "you can come to work the next day."
The strange man named Jack Ma, who used to be the president of the student union at the university, is now starting his fourth business. The first three times I started a business, the first time I worked as a Haibo translation agency, the second time I did "China Yellow pages", and the third time I did Guo Fortis. All three ventures are defined by him as "failures", although Haibo Translation Agency and Guofitong still exist today.
This time, the company founded by Jack Ma is called BABA.
At the beginning of his business, all the staff of BABA took a group photo.
2
Jack Ma looks a little strange, like an "alien". He was born in 1964 in a medium-sized family in Hangzhou. As an adult, he took the college entrance examination three times in a row and was not admitted to the coveted Peking University. Finally, because of his good English grades and fate, he went to study in the English Department of Hangzhou normal University.
In 1988, Jack Ma graduated from University and was assigned to Hangzhou Institute of Electronic Technology as a lecturer in English and international trade. He soon became an excellent young teacher in Hangzhou and launched the first English corner on the edge of the West Lake, which won a lot of fame in Hangzhou translation circles.
Jack Ma founded Haibo Translation Agency in 1992.
In 1995, Jack Ma, "probably the best English in Hangzhou", was commissioned by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Communications to ask for a debt in the United States. I didn't get the money back, and I almost left it there. But he got something else-in Seattle, Jack Ma was exposed to the Internet for the first time.
After returning to China, Jack Ma decided to resign to become Internet. He found 24 friends to chat about the Internet and start a business. 23 people opposed it, and only one encouraged him to "give it a try."
Ma Yun pooled 20,000 yuan to set up Haibo Network Company, a product called "China Yellow pages", which makes Internet homepages for Chinese enterprises.
In 1996, Li Qi joined Haibo Network and became the de facto CTO. Jack Ma is in high spirits and is ready to do a big job. They have their own websites and servers and begin to become industry leaders. And then.
The story of "China Yellow pages", full of humiliated failures, is now familiar. Ma Yun's stories of "China Yellow pages" being treated as "liars" and videos humiliated by all kinds of videos have swept all over the Internet.
When BABA joined the list of the world's largest Internet companies, they were something to chew on, but in 1995 and 1996, it was a huge torture for a young man who was determined to enter the future ahead of time.
After the failure of "China Yellow pages", Jack Ma was not dormant for long before he got an unprecedented opportunity. In the winter of 1997, he was invited to go north to set up Guofutong Information Technology Development Co., Ltd., which is under the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. Zhang Ying, Sun Tongyu, Wu Yongming, Sheng Yifei, Ma Changwei, Lou Wensheng, Xie Shihuang, Peng Lei, Han Min, Jiang Fang, Dai Shan and Zhou Yuehong followed him in the Northern Expedition. Li Qi chose to stay in Hangzhou.
Guo Fortis eventually became a not-so-good story, once again ending its separate ways because of differences in ideas. It constitutes the failed book of Jack Ma's second Internet venture.
The biggest disagreement is that MOFTEC wants Fortis to serve large state-owned enterprises, while Jack Ma hopes to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises through e-commerce. He wants Fortis to be open.
At the end of 1998, the differences were irreconcilable. Jack Ma is going back to Hangzhou, and he has a showdown with the team.
Leave Beijing and go back to Hangzhou to start a business
"if you come home with me and start a business for a second time, your salary is only 500 yuan, and you are not allowed to take a taxi. The office is in my home of 150 square meters. What you do is not clear. All I know is that I want to be the largest businessman website in the world. I'll give you three days to think about how to choose. "
Without even thinking about it for three days, everyone unanimously decided to go back to Hangzhou to start a business with Jack Ma. They believe Jack Ma and realize that doing e-commerce is the future.
Before leaving Beijing, they climbed the Great Wall together, drank Erguotou in a pub and sang "True Heroes". They know that when they go back this time, they will drink a toast to the past and gamble with the future.
Jack Ma and other BABA founders took an oath at the Great Wall to build an enterprise that the Chinese are proud of.
3
Zhang Ying and Jiang Fang first returned to Hangzhou and arrived in Hangzhou on the morning of Christmas Eve on December 24, 1998.
They were afraid of paralyzing Guo Fortis, so they went back to Hangzhou in batches. Next is Jack Ma and them. Wu Yongming came back just before New Year's Eve. It's the Spring Festival travel season, so it's hard to buy tickets.
They arrived in Hangzhou at dawn by train for 16 hours. By the time they went to Room 202, Unit 1, Building 16, Fenghe Garden, Lakeside Garden, five or six people were already working there.
At the beginning of the business, I was in the Lakeside Garden.
Room 202, Unit 1, Building 16, Wind Lotus Garden, Lakeside Garden, is a house bought by Ma Yun earlier. At that time, he made some money in the stock market, so he bought it. The house has four bedrooms and two living rooms, 150 square meters. The project manager of Lakeside Garden is Song Weiping, who later founded Greentown Group and is also a legend in Hangzhou.
At this time, Ma Yun already had 15 people, plus Rao Tongtong, Jin Yuanying, and Tsai Chongxin, who joined shortly afterwards, a total of 18 people, which were later defined as BABA's "eighteen Luohan" (sorted by work number).
Jack Ma, Zhang Ying, Sun Tongyu, Wu Yongming, Sheng Yifei, Lou Wensheng, Peng Lei, Ma Changwei, Han Min, Xie Shihuang, Dai Shan, Jin Jianhang, Jiang Fang, Zhou Yuehong, Shi Yufeng, Rao Tongtong, Jin Yuanying, Cai Chongxin.
Wu Yongming is known as "Wu Ma". When they were doing state Fortis in Beijing, they were divided into several dormitories, each with a "mother". Sheng Yifei's dormitory is called Sheng Yifei's "Sheng Ma".
Wu Ma said that after they had a little get-together in the lakeside garden, they each went home for the Spring Festival. After the New year, they had a meeting, and now the Internet is full of videos of that meeting. Jack Ma told everyone at the meeting what they were going to do and what kind of company they were going to be.
In the early days of his business, Jack Ma held a meeting in the lakeside garden.
It was February 20, 1999, the fifth day of the Lunar New year. Most of the people sat on the ground, and Jack Ma stood in the middle and spoke for two whole hours. Peng Lei later recalled: "it was almost always he who said that we wanted to be the greatest Internet company in the world founded by a Chinese, with teeth and claws, and we just sat by and rolled our eyes secretly." She is "at a loss and not very interested in Ma Yun's big words."
Peng Lei is now in charge of Ant Financial Services Group, and Ant is currently the world's largest unlisted company, valued at more than $75 billion.
When Zhu Hong walked into the lakeside garden that summer, there was a graduate student of Zhejiang University of Technology in the company. He has been working for a week. After another week, he left. When he left, Xie Shihuang said to him, "you have missed a very good opportunity." You could have been the Bill Gates of China, but you missed a good opportunity. "
At that time, BABA's technical team were all undergraduates and masters from Zhejiang University of Technology, and their technical level was much higher than that of everyone else. If all goes well, he is likely to become BABA's CTO. According to BABA's market capitalization today, although he cannot become Bill Gates, he may also achieve a technology myth with a wealth of 10 billion US dollars. "at that stage, his ability will be a little stronger, he may not think that the company will become so big in the future." Zhu Hong said.
Rao Tongtong persevered. He was a Hong Kong young man whose English name was Tony. He was only 20 years old at that time and was a Hong Kong IT master. Tony's father was friends with Jack Ma and introduced him to BABA.
A book once wrote: as soon as Jack Ma opened his mouth, he said, "the monthly salary is 500yuan." Tony was surprised: "this money is not enough for me to call my Canadian girlfriend." Jack Ma turned around and left. After Tony talked to several of BABA's colleagues, he found Jack Ma: "I'd better work here."
Tony now owns No. 17 of BABA.
Cai Chongxin's job number in BABA is 19.
Zhu Hong remembers that not long after he arrived at the lakeside garden, he gathered together to welcome a newcomer. This newcomer is Tsai Chongxin.
There are many legends about Tsai Chongxin's joining. Whether it is rendered or not, Tsai Chongxin's choice in 1999 is enough to constitute a legend.
4
In the summer of 1999, an investor came to Unit 202, Building 1, Building 16, Wind Lotus Garden, Lakeside Garden. Jiang Fang didn't think there was anything special about that person. Like everyone else, she wore a shirt, "unlike our T-shirts and slippers."
That day was Thursday, and there was a power outage in the community, so people couldn't use the computer. The man said, let me tell you about equity design. He told them about equity design and dilution on the small blackboard, and they couldn't understand it.
Jiang Fang only saw a lot of wet on the back of the man's shirt. "at that time, I felt very deeply that he was so pitiful. In fact, we were the most pitiful ones who didn't feel sorry for ourselves and felt sorry for others who were rich."
This man's name is Tsai Chongxin.
Jack Ma and Cai Chongxin announced the establishment of BABA at a press conference in Hong Kong.
In early 1999, BABA founded and held up the "if you are the one" sign to many investors. Legend has it that Jack Ma rejected 38 investors, but the fact is that he was rejected 38 times.
Sweden's Investor AB Group became interested in BABA. They sent Tsai Chongxin. Cai Shi is the Asia president of Investor AB Group. He was introduced to meet Jack Ma. He later recalled:
As soon as I communicated with Jack Ma, I felt that I hit it off, and my appreciation for BABA was completely beyond the identity of an investor. So I recommended myself to Jack Ma: "I quit there. I must come to BABA."
Although BABA is quietly putting the establishment of a company on the agenda and is in urgent need of legal and financial professionals, Ma Yun was shocked: "I can only earn 500 yuan a month here. It's still RMB. Think about it." In less than a month, I came to work in BABA.
BABA at that time particularly attracted me, the first is Jack Ma's personal charm, the second is that BABA has a very strong team. When we first met in the lakeside garden, there were only sixteen people in BABA. The first feeling is that Jack Ma has strong leadership and the team is quite cohesive, which is a unique aura.
In July 1999, I officially became BABA CFO.
The extensive management in the early stage of starting a business is no longer suitable for BABA, who is on the right track. I began to prepare for the registration and approval of the company, and prepared an English contract for each of the 18 founders, detailing the equity and obligations. Everyone is dumbfounded with the contract, even if they can understand the English in the contract, they can't understand the legal and financial terms in the contract. But when he saw Jack Ma without saying a word, he signed it without hesitation, and everyone signed it without hesitation.
From the day the company was founded, my idea was that BABA must become a company that is financially transparent and can be put in the sun. So although the company is still in its infancy, we ask PWC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) to audit us every year. ("the Story of BABA")
Jiang Fang, they all thought that Tsai Chongxin was too impulsive at that time, and they all advised him to leave for fear of harming him. He won't leave. "he thought he was very optimistic." They later thought that Tsai Chongxin would leave by himself. "he's so good," said Jiang Fang. "how can he hang out with us?"
"you said that you finally got a foreigner, and in the end, you put in all the time, money, and energy, so as not to make him feel at a loss. Because we don't care, we don't know him, and we don't know him well. So at that time, we advised him to take it easy. But he finally insisted on it. Our idea at that time was that if we didn't let him try, he would give up. So I quite admire Tsai Chong-hsin. I don't understand what he sees in us. "
Tsai Chongxin has been trying for 18 years. He was later called "the man behind Jack Ma". With his joining, BABA has the genes of the world's top Internet companies from the very beginning.
BABA is listed in Hong Kong
5
When Jack Ma was working with a group of people in Beijing, Li Qi was not idle in Hangzhou. He founded Weiye (Hangzhou) Network Information Technology Co., Ltd.
Reread said in an article: "the main business of Weiye is network fax." At that time, it cost about 27 yuan to send a fax overseas. If you send an "Internet fax" through Weiye's server, it only costs 7 yuan. "
Li graduated from the computer Department of Sun Yat-sen University and is good at technology. Li Qi's team includes Yu Chaoling, Lei Yanqun, Fang Yongxin and Lu Zhaoxi. They later became names that left deep marks in the history of BABA. Lu once served as the second CEO of BABA Group after Jack Ma, while Fang Yongxin is currently BABA's "lowest-level partner."
Jack Ma has worked with Li Qi and knows Li Qi's technical strength. He and Sun Tongyu kept visiting Li Qi, trying to persuade Li Qi to join. Li Qi won't let go. Jack Ma thought of the acquisition. This is the first merger and acquisition in BABA's history. Ma Yun got Li Qi and a team called "China supply". "it was BABA's first acquisition and perhaps our most successful acquisition," Tsai told the media in 2014. "
Chen Hang left before BABA acquired Weiye.
He chose to go to Japan.
It was ten years later when he approached BABA again.
6
The years of the lakeside garden were unforgettable to Wu Ma. There is the memory of his youth, some kind of witness, a clue to life.
For half a year, they were confused. People do not feel the competition of ebay, nor do they feel the direction. They just come to the office in the morning and return to the rental house late in the evening, fooling around there every day. At that time, he was in charge of the technology with Lion (Shi Yufeng) and Bao Bao (Zhou Yuehong), and several girls were in charge of the website editor.
The whole room 202 is like an Internet cafe, with huge computers lined up and everyone sitting there. The computer desk was bought by Zhang Ying and Jiang Fang at the second-hand market, and the computer was saved by Zhou Yuehong in the computer market. The machine saved by people who know how to do it is well configured and cheap.
Jiang Fang said: "in this way, a little bit of computers were put on the desk, and we also applied for dial-up Internet access in Telecom, and then we started working."
The room was filled with smoke, sweat and feet.
BABA smells.
Han Min once recalled: "when you open the door every morning, you can see that the ground is full of people. You have to be careful to go around it."
Xie Shihuang said: "there is a small conference room in the lakeside garden, which can be bunked on the floor. at that time, I spent no less time sleeping in an office than sleeping in a rented house."
Shi Yufeng also said: "the work was really hard at that time." The girls were so noisy that in order to avoid conflict with the girls, we engineers were locked up in a cabin and changed our working hours to 10:00 to 4am, when the office was quiet. Often work too late, fall asleep and never go home. "
One morning, Mother Wu, Lion and Baby worked overtime to catch up on a project, which was released online at 3: 00 or 4: 00 in the morning. Wu Ma said, at this time, everyone is quite awake anyway, after bedtime, why not go to the West Lake for breakfast? The three of them ran out and had breakfast at dawn. At that time, advertisements with good back were popular to correct sitting posture. They think, we usually sit for a long time, or buy a back to go back? They waited at the door of Xinhua Bookstore to open the door, and each of them hugged one back and walked back.
When he went back, Ma Yun and they were all there. BUG went out of the online project, and all three engineers disappeared. At that time, they had no cell phones and could not get in touch with each other, so they panicked. Wu Ma did not know that Ma Yun was in a hurry, and they did not know that someone had proposed to call the police.
Jack Ma and their gamble in the future have paid off. On March 10, 1999, the BABA website was officially launched before the company was registered. From zero information and zero members, to May 1, 1999, the registered members of BABA's Chinese and English websites exceeded 10, 000 respectively, with a total of more than 20, 000 members.
When BABA China Holdings Co., Ltd. was registered in Hong Kong on 9 July, the number of members had reached 38000, with a page view rate of 125000 per day. On September 9, BABA (Hangzhou) Research and Development Center was officially registered and established. BABA has more than 80, 000 members and 200000 new information every day.
At the staff meeting on February 20th, the B2B model designed by Jack Ma for BABA is showing its exuberant vitality. The strong endogenous demand of small and medium-sized enterprises in Jiangsu and Zhejiang began to burst out, slowly radiating to the whole of China, and then began to extend to every corner of the world.
The Asian Wall Street Journal began to pay attention to BABA: "working day and night, there is a sleeping bag on the floor of the house. Anyone who is tired will go in and get some sleep." "Forbes" also wrote: "20 customer service staff crowded into the living room, Jack Ma and financial and marketing staff in one bedroom, 25 website maintenance and others in the other bedroom."... Like all good entrepreneurs, Jack Ma knows how to last longer with limited seed money. "
There is also big money that pays more attention to BABA. In October 1999, BABA received an investment of 5 million US dollars from Goldman Sachs Group. In January 2000, Softbank Corp. 's son bought a 36.7% stake in BABA for US $20 million.
BABA is rich.
"after I had the money, I began to recruit some people one after another." Mother Wu said. First they rented a house in the lakeside garden, but then the lakeside garden couldn't bear it, so they moved to the ninth floor of Huaxing Science and Technology Building, 477 Wensan Road.
BABA also got other attention at that time. On January 29, 2001, Zhang Dejiang, then secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial CPC Committee, and Wang Guoping, then secretary of the Hangzhou Municipal CPC Committee, came to the small house in the lakeside garden.
After the visit, Zhang Dejiang asked Jack Ma, "how big do you want this company to be in the future?"
"I hope it will be a company with a market capitalization of 500 to 5 billion US dollars," Ma said. "
Wang Guoping hurriedly came out and said, "Secretary Zhang, the pony may be saying that he wants to turn the company into a company of 500 to 5 billion yuan."
Jack Ma paused and said firmly, "No, I'm talking about a company worth $500 million to $5 billion."
Jack Ma later recalled that he saw Wang Guoping nodding his head. Many of the attendants of the two secretaries showed a look of wanting to laugh and restraining themselves.
In September 2009, BABA has become a big company. Wang Guoping attended the sixth Internet Merchants Conference. In his speech, he said:
"at that time, Jack Ma had a dream that BABA would become a large enterprise with a market capitalization of 5 billion yuan within 10 years. Few people believed him at that time, but Zhejiang and Hangzhou believed him. Ten years later, BABA became a world-class enterprise with a market capitalization of tens of billions of dollars, and Jack Ma's dream came true. "
Zhu Hong followed Wu Ma to Huaxing Science and Technology Building. While he was a graduate student, he wrote code for BABA. He did a column called "Business Friends", which took more than a month from design, revision, to the transformation of the entire structure, and then put it back on the line. Until 2002, when he left BABA to study in the United States, Zhu Hong was in charge of the maintenance of the project.
Tutor Zhu Hong's company is on the third floor of Huaxing, which is called Zhejiang University Central Control. "I am on the third floor during the day and on the ninth floor at night, because BABA is on the ninth floor. Eat at the tutor's company during the day and eat at BABA at night. " Zhu Hong said. He has been in this state for more than two years, and until today, his mentor did not know that Zhu Hong went up and down Huaxing's elevator every day.
After Zhu Hong arrived in the United States, he was still working on some projects for BABA, one of which was a project of the Inland Revenue Bureau. After the completion of the project, he also maintained some functional development for a period of time. Then the contact between them slowly faded.
At this time, BABA and Jack Ma are planning to make a big move.
7
On April 9, 2003, Jack Ma called Cai Jingxian to his office. He asked Cai, "is there a secret project you want to take part in?"
Cai said, "are you still writing code?"
Ma Yun said: "is to write code."
"No problem," Cai said. "
The next day, Cai Jingxian reported to the lakeside garden.
They are a small group, including Ma Yun, Ma Yun's secretary, Sun Tongyu, Shi Yufeng, Ma Changwei, Ye Feng and others.
This project is called Taobao, which is the name of Ye Fengqi. With Taobao, BABA people have a flower name, Ma Yun is the wind Qingyang, Sun Tongyu is the god of wealth, Shi Yufeng is the virtual bamboo, Ma Changwei is the second master, and Ye Feng is Ake.
Group photo of Taobao founder team
Cai Jingxian's Taobao work number is No. 10. He also has his own flower name, "Duolong". In BABA, Duolong is a divine being and is described as BABA's "floor-sweeping monk". His stories are everywhere on Internet forums, and BABA's intranet is full of comments such as "God", "Great God" and "floor-sweeping monk". "I am just a code writer, very ordinary." Doron said.
Before Dolong joined the secret society, the group had held many discussions. Because their project will have a personal battle with ebay, they have implemented the highest level of secrecy, and the whole team is in a completely closed state.
"No one can tell, not his wife or children," Dolong said. "We rented a house in the lakeside garden, worked in 202 during the day, and slept in another house at night."
This kind of day, Duolong spent three months, went to Unit 1 of the 16 building at 90 o'clock in the morning, went back at 11:00 in the evening, and washed up and went to bed at 12:00.
May 10, Taobao online. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) appeared in Hangzhou. A BABA employee returned to Hangzhou from Guangzhou with a fever and became a "suspected case". At that time, the whole of Hangzhou talked about BABA's color change, "fire prevention, burglar prevention and BABA". Miao Renfeng, who joined BABA a few months later, said that BABA was in the west of the city at that time, and he usually dared not go to the west of the city. The good news is that the whole of Hangzhou knows about BABA.
After the launch, the main job of the Taobao team is to find users. "our market will rise only when there are users."
At first they went to find sellers on eBay and set up shop on Taobao. They tried to go to several major portals to advertise and found that "this road is blocked". EBay is rich and powerful, and through exclusive agreements, Taobao can not appear on Sina and Sohu.com Ltd. Dolong, they take some small websites to advertise and send spam everywhere. At that time, he wrote a lot of spam and pop-up code. "I was often scolded during that time."
Duolong is a code nerd and has no hobbies except writing code. He writes code in the company during the day and at home at night. A few days ago, his mother said, "this TV is too troublesome. Can you turn on the TV and watch the movie directly without having to choose?" He wrote a new code for Tmall's magic box at home.
He also doesn't like to lead a team or do management. He told me that over the years, the only thing he liked was dealing with computers. "it's easier to deal with a computer than with people. No matter how you deal with it, it won't lose its temper."
Duolong is now a partner of BABA. He was joined as a partner by Cannon (Fang Yongxin) and Miao Renfeng (Ni Marching).
8
Doron left Room 202, Building 1, Building 18, Wind Lotus Garden, Lakeside Garden, and moved to a villa. This relocation can be regarded as a "decryption", and they can move freely. The villa houses the technical department of Taobao, where Duolong will meet Miao Renfeng.
Miao Renfeng later wrote some of the scolded codes that Duolong wrote. Miao Renfeng used those codes to hijack the web page. As long as you click on it, more than a dozen ads on Taobao will pop up. One day a friend of Miao Renfeng said, "I know you are on Taobao." Miao Renfeng is happy, the other side said: "just commented, the top ten rogue software."
The rogue plug-ins at that time all did this, Baidu, Inc., 3721, Yahoo …... If you can name it, none of them can get away.
When Ni was not called Miao Renfeng, she went to Taobao for an interview in August and got an offer in September. She didn't apply for a job until November. Instead of entering room 202 in the lakeside garden, he went to another cottage. He majored in accounting at university and didn't want to leave Hangzhou after graduation. He once sent BABA a resume and finally gave up because he went to start a business with his colleagues.
Ni sent BABA for his resume. As a result, BABA's HR called the next day to strongly recommend him to Taobao. He asked, "what is Taobao?" The other party replied that it was a department of BABA. He said that's fine, so I'll go.
One day in mid-August, when it was very hot, Ni marched to the lakeside garden for an interview. He was fooled at the gate of the lakeside garden: "Why is BABA in a community?" The security guard won't let me in yet. " He had to run back to Huaxing Science and Technology Building to get a phone, then ran to the lakeside garden, called inside and asked them to come out to answer.
The phone got through. it's a hell of a day. The sky shouted, "Hey, who are you?" Ni marched and said, I'm here for an interview. The broken sky said, "wait." Then he heard a loud voice shouting, "Milk-Milk -, someone is here for an interview."... " Listening to the long sound in the broken sky, Ni always felt that something was wrong.
After a while, Grandma came out. A man. Ni marched and felt that he might have been deceived.
Grandma led him through the door and to the balcony. There is a piece of paper and a pen on the balcony. There will be a written test. Ni marched for more than ten minutes. No one paid any attention to him, so he smoked a cigarette on the balcony.
When he smoked, he felt as if everyone were looking at him. Later, he figured it out, and people thought he was very strange. On a hot day, he carried a bag, wore a suit, and looked like he was selling insurance. By the time he comes back to Lakeside Garden in November, he won't need a suit. In the blink of an eye, he succeeded in Taobao.
He also got the nickname Miao Renfeng. He is not familiar with martial arts novels because he wants to call himself "Song Bing A" or "Song Bing B" because he has seen the TV series "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". The boss disagrees. His colleague brought him a piece of A4 paper, which drew the relationship map of Jin Yong's novels, and advised him to look for the names of those heads, or those with independent genealogy, never pick those with lower pedigree, or he would have to call people his parents in the future.
Ni marched for a long time, saw Miao Renfeng, or "invincible all over the world" warrior, fell in love with it. At that time, the popular words Miao Renfeng and Miao Renfeng were popular. No matter which two they chose, the boss finally said, "forget it. Just call it Miao Renfeng."
Miao Renfeng wrote some web hijacking code for Taobao, but his main identity is "one of the founders of Alipay". At that time, Alipay was a project on Taobao, called "secured transaction". Later, Ake gave it the name "Alipay". In October 2003, the people in Lakeside Garden had already made a version, and Miao Renfeng was sharpening and upgrading on that version.
When Miao Renfeng arrived at the lakeside garden, the technical department of Taobao had no more than 9 people in total, and only four development engineers formed a development team. the supervisor was Jiang Peng, named Sanfeng. Above Sanfeng, the technical leader is Xuzhu (Shi Yufeng).
Everyone is a technician and smokes heavily. Qi Gong, Ah Guda and he all smoke. Sanfeng also smoked and was preparing to have children. He only took out the cigarette and smelled it on his nose every time.
"next to the balcony is Duolong's position. I pass by him every time I go to the balcony to smoke. I am very impressed. I have to pass by every time." Miao Renfeng said. It was on this balcony that Miao Renfeng passed the three hurdles of the interview. The first hurdle was Sanfeng, the second hurdle was Xuzhu, and the last hurdle was "Uncle Wealth", Sun Tongyu, god of wealth.
When Miao Renfeng joined Ding Dian and Bao Bao, everyone ate at the lakeside house and gave them a welcome ceremony. The newlyweds want to perform, the baby recited a poem, Ding Dian acted as a bear, Qigong performed a handstand for them, and fell heavily. "handstand" is the tradition of Taobao, saying that on the one hand, exercise, and second, handstand to see the time, everyone should learn.
Jack Ma always came to see them at that time, and after talking about their views on C2C and Taobao, he frightened them: "the first is that BABA only does things first, not second. If we want to be second, we will turn this off." The second one is all of you here. BABA didn't have a place for you. "
Miao Renfeng is a newcomer and has not yet become a regular employee. Jack Ma kept saying that it gave him great pressure. Miao Renfeng had no feeling for e-commerce at that time. Ma Yun told them every day that he didn't believe it either. He went back to check eBay's market share. More than 90%, and his mind was about to collapse-- "ants play games with elephants." he said to himself, "teacher Ma has opened his mouth a little bit. How can he be number one?" "I finally got in. I'm going to look for a job again. I'm going to lose my job again."
Taobao rose so fast that it completely defeated eBay. An important reason is undoubtedly the success of Alipay. Alipay solved the problem of "integrity" in Chinese market transactions, and BABA carried out an intermediate guarantee, which is a kind of protection for both buyers and sellers.
In early 2004, Alipay set up an independent company. Miao Renfeng moved out of the lakeside garden. He and his products have now become a legend and are being talked about by countless people.
Group photo of employees at the initial stage of the establishment of Alipay
The success of Taobao and Alipay makes the lakeside garden bid farewell to symbolism and has a special magic. BABA began to believe that the lakeside garden is a "treasure land of feng shui", and it is not only an honor but also a good luck to be able to close Ma Yun's "small dark house" in the lakeside garden.
This Ma Yun's "small dark room", since then, is doomed not to be idle.
9
In 2005, BABA acquired Yahoo China, while Yahoo took a 40 per cent stake in BABA. This is a win-win deal both in the short term and in the long run. BABA received 1 billion US dollars and a group of excellent engineers, as well as technical support from Yahoo. According to the Wall Street Journal, this is the first time that a Chinese Internet company has shown its power to the world, and it is a symbolic event.
Zhu Hong already works at Yahoo. When Jack Ma went to the United States, he met with Zhu Hong. They had dinner at Mayflower Restaurant in California. Jack Ma hopes to attract Yahoo talents to China.
"the transfer of this technology, whether it is the technology given to you by others or your own research and development, is still different. one is fast, but you do not have core personnel, and the other is to train your own core personnel, so both ways are going at the same time." Zhu Hong said later.
Outsiders have always thought that Baidu, Inc. is a technology company, Tencent is a product company, and BABA is an operating company. Jack Ma wants BABA to become a technology-driven company. He said to Zhu Hong several times earnestly, "We need to have top-notch technology."
Zhu Hong provided some help to BABA at Yahoo, and in 2009 he returned to China and joined BABA. Waiting for him is an old acquaintance, Ma Wu.
In the summer of 2006, Mother Wu came up with an idea. Since BABA's slogan is "there is no difficult business in the world", then there should be an advertising platform, "so that there are no difficult advertisements in the world." At that time, he integrated Yahoo China's P2P (peer-to-peer) advertising system in Beijing, and the idea came naturally.
Mother Wu has witnessed the energy of the "little dark room". He knew that in order to succeed, he had to start with a start-up company and a new project. "so we transferred some people from Yahoo China and other companies in Hangzhou to form a team," he said. "We also started doing this in Lakeside Garden."
At this time, Wu Ma felt very different from that in 1999, but still in this house, or in this "small dark room", a similar process still made him feel cordial. Start a business, work overtime, write on the wall, the feeling of black Internet cafes. There are more and more people looking for a house in the lakeside garden, much like the days when they were in 1999.
"people are different, and the people involved are different, but I feel that the mode of work is similar to that at that time, that is, people come in the morning and leave very late at night, basically working and living together." "when you start a business in a lakeside garden, I think there is a feeling that it is rare elsewhere, that you feel in a trance that what the team is doing is the only thing you do," he said. "
Wu Ma said "very unique", in fact, it is the feeling of "closing a small dark room." Without BABA's matrix and sealing themselves in the lakeside garden, their thinking will not have the boundary of BABA and will not be influenced by the outside world. No one will talk to you about the terms, and no one will come to you to cooperate. You are independent, environmentally independent, and independent of thinking.
"you will naturally think that this thing is an independent business in the future, what kind of living space or core competitiveness this independent business should have. These things are imperceptible and do not have a very clear logic. I think this (closing the "small dark house", a closed and independent environment) is helpful to a certain extent. "
Wu Ma's BABA mother has done a good job. It is a successful entrepreneurial project that reinforces the myth of Room 202, Unit 1, Building 16, Wind Lotus Garden, Lakeside Garden.
In 2007, Shanda CFO Zhang Yong joined Taobao, nicknamed Xiaoyaozi, and soon he was involved in a major event, "putting BABA's mother back into Taobao's womb." When lecturing at Lakeside University, Zhang Yong talked about the case of "cooperation" between BABA's mother and Taobao. He said:
At that time, Taobao was developing rapidly, and suddenly one day, in our original office of the West Lake International Building in Hangzhou, I was the CFO of Taobao. Jack Ma called several of us to his office. He took a long sword, that is, the earliest picture you saw. He was holding a sword. He first approached several of us. He wanted to find help and work together to "fix" a person, that is, Wu Ma (Wu Yongming). The founder of BABA's mother.
What to do, in his exact words, to put BABA's mother back into Taobao's womb, because he noticed a problem, both ends are out, this business can not be done, but what happened to Taobao? Taobao in the development, Taobao in 2007, 2008, when I went, we began to vigorously develop P4P business.
……
Finally, we did it. BABA's mother returned to Taobao, and Wu Ma was still in charge of BABA's mother's business system. This is a major event that I experienced not long after I joined BABA in the whole process of our development.
At the time of "harmony", Wu Ma had not struggled. He always wanted to turn BABA's mother into an independent business, but after discussion, he believed that combining BABA's mother with Taobao would be in BABA's strategic interests and good for both Taobao and BABA's mother. He voted in favour of "he".
When Zhu Hong returned to BABA again, BABA's mother had already got together with Taobao. He became a member of Taobao, and BABA's job number is 24083.
He remembers that when he was still in Huaxing, he once asked, "Why don't I have a job number?" The manpower side said, "I'll give you a number 100. do you want it?" He was still studying at that time, so he didn't ask for BABA's job number. He checked number 100, and no one seems to be using it.
From the day he returned to BABA, he began to be called "a drop in the bucket", a drop in the ocean. The end came back to the beginning, and he began to walk into another stranger.
10
Wu Ziming is named Fan Yu and his work number is 2162. He joined Taobao on April 16, 2004 and is now a senior researcher in Tmall's product technology department. At the end of last year, Fan Yu and Hu Xi (A Xi) became BABA's partner, the only two post-80s generation among BABA's partners.
BABA's official evaluation of him is that Fan Yu is the technology leader of BABA's post-80s generation, the general technical person in charge of double 11 in 2016, and is currently in charge of the product technology work of Tmall's division. Joined Taobao in April 2004, for more than a decade, through the upgrading of the supply chain platform, shopping guide marketing platform and merchant-operation platform, Tmall has become the main position of business Internet. Wu Ziming, who is "simple, honest, open-minded and low-key", puts the interests of customers and the company first, which deeply affects BABA as a technical colleague.
In November 2007, Fan Yu walked into the lakeside garden. Sanfeng and Xing Madness (Zhang Jianfeng) took more than a dozen of their engineers to develop a project called Taobao Mall. Sanfeng is the head of research and development, and Xing Madness is in charge of the whole structure. The two of them are the "resident bosses" of Lakeside Garden.
When Fan Yu and his parents entered, Wu Ma had just left the lakeside garden with BABA's mother. Now it's Taobao Mall's turn. For Fan Yu, it is exciting to come to the start-up mecca. "maybe there was a tradition in the company at that time that some of the more important projects had to go there."
During their days in Lakeside Garden, they practiced the "996" working day, from 9: 00 a.m. to 9: 00 p.m., six days a week. They always work overtime there, and Sanfeng is always driving them back for fear that they may not have a good rest. Fan Yu said it didn't feel good to go home in the middle of the program. Sanfeng doesn't care so much: "go back quickly!"
They stayed in Lakeside Garden for more than three months and moved back to West Lake International in February and March 2008. At that time, the person in charge of Taobao Mall was pharmacist Huang Ruo, who was the COO of Taobao Mall and joined BABA at about the same time as Zhang Yong.
On April 10, 2008, Taobao Mall officially announced its launch. In fact, more than a month ago, "the whole system was compared to Ready", and it took them more than a month to optimize. When BABA launched on April 10, he held an launch ceremony at West Lake International. Ma said that the transaction volume of Taobao Mall will exceed that of Taobao. He also said that he saw a good piece of land in Xixi Wetland, and he said he saw a lot of fish jumping on it.
The piece of land that Ma Yun saw is today's BABA Xixi Park, but on April 10, 2008, many people's hearts were cold. They thought they would move to the BABA Riverside Park and bought a house near there in advance. After many years they will find that they have bought the right house.
When Fan Yu did the development, he didn't have much expectation for Taobao Mall. He was just a grass-roots developer and just went to the lakeside garden to complete a project. He only remembers a slogan shouted at that time, "mainstream consumption of mainstream people". He was impressed by the remark. He believes that the mainstream consumption of mainstream people in the future should be in a place similar to the mall, and its quality and service can be better guaranteed.
For Fan Yu, "closing a small dark room" in a lakeside garden is more of a sense of ritual. In addition, "A group of people have intensive discussions together all day in a concentrated place, and a lot of functional and strategic discussions are going to be realized soon, but they still have to have a very compact form."
"although we didn't quite understand what it meant at that time, we had to make something different from before. When a group of us do such a thing, this kind of feeling is different from that of us doing ordinary projects. "
Fan Yu is the second phase of "Feng Qing Yang Class" and the first phase of "Xiaoyaozi Class". "Feng Qingyang class" focuses on strategy and leadership, while "carefree class" focuses on practice and management. People who have studied in two classes are rare in BABA.
Taobao Mall is now Tmall.
The main force of the development of Taobao Mall, Zhe Bei, Afi, has become the backbone of BABA's business. Some of them left BABA to start a business, including a designer named Chengzhi who founded Mogu Inc, whose real name is Chen Qi.
Chen Qi's story is a replica of another story.
"Cannon" Fang Yongxin told me that when he was doing B2B business, one of his supervisors later went to start a business. He did a project called DiDi Global Inc., and he did a good job. "
"is his name Cheng Wei?" I asked.
"Yes."
11
After Taobao Mall, Room 202 of Unit 1, Building 16, Wind Lotus Garden, Lakeside Garden, has not hatched any successful large-scale projects for several years. Like BABA, it fell into stability and serenity.
People's eyes are on Tmall and Alipay, on the annual "double 11" carnival. That huge numerical change excites people, and dopamine reaches its peak in an instant.
There is a BABA software project once closed in Jack Ma's "small dark room", but it did not achieve the desired success.
The one who is coming to close the dark room is the rookie network. Its emergence, because logistics has become the shackles of BABA e-commerce business, when the "double 11" began to burst, the birth of the rookie is imminent.
Jack Ma, Zhang Yong and Tong Wenhong designed the top. Duan Hao (Shi en) took a team to enforce the closure. On April 1, 2013, Duan Hao and Xiong Jian moved into Unit 202, Building 16, Wind Lotus Garden, Lakeside Garden.
The explosion of "double 11" in 2012 undoubtedly stung Jack Ma. On November 12, he began to launch a "China Intelligent Logistics backbone Network" project (CSN) within BABA, led by Tong Wenhong.
On that day, he, Zhang Yong and Tong Wenhong, together with several people from the Group's property Department, as well as several major shareholders of Cainiao, conducted a "brainstorm" at the Lanxin Club on the Shanghai Bund. They are trying to find a way to solve China's logistics problems.
In March 2013, a major leader of one province visited BABA in the hope that BABA would invest in the past. Jack Ma received them.
Duan Hao took this opportunity to say to Jack Ma, "Boss Ma, it seems that BABA has a tradition to enter the lakeside garden, and a very important project is still to go to the lakeside garden to hatch." Our CSN project, the intelligent logistics backbone network project also seems to be very important. Shall we also touch the fairy spirit and incubate it? "
Ma Yun said: "OK, you contact my secretary tomorrow, no problem, I will arrange it for you right away."
The next day, Duan Hao contacted Secretary Jack Ma and moved into the lakeside garden on April 1. On the day he moved, Xiong Jian said to Duan Hao, "April 1st, April Fool's Day, isn't it good for us to go in on April Fool's Day?" "there's nothing wrong with it," Duan Hao said. "it's better to choose a day than to hit another day."
Duan Hao and his family were locked up in the lakeside garden for more than two months. When they shut down the "little dark room", the rookie network was established. No one knows what kind of company the rookie network will become, not even the leaders of Jack Ma, Zhang Yong and Tong Wenhong.
The rookie's name is Jack Ma. Once they discussed the name of the new company together, and someone suggested using "flash leopard" because leopards are very fast. Jack Ma thinks the name looks like a security bureau. Later, someone said, now that we have Tmall, let's just call it a "gopher". But the name is too bad. Who wants to be called CEO of Gopher Company in the future?
Ma Yun said: "I think of a name, rookie."
Everyone shook their heads.
Ma Yun said: we should be modest, and there is nothing wrong with keeping a low profile. We are indeed new recruits in the logistics industry. I think our expectations should not be too high, seek truth from facts, and we should keep a low profile. We should be modest and call ourselves rookies. In addition, the name of the company is the same as the name of the child. You are used to screaming. Today, I think the rookie is very strange. I think it's good to call it for two years.
The rookie was born.
There are six or seven rookies in the "little dark room" in the lakeside garden. The main thing they do in the lakeside garden is to hold meetings, keep resting and constantly designing blueprints for rookies. Various photos of BABA's start-up business are hung on the wall. Jack Ma wrote on the wall of the door, "Development is the last word!" . History is there coldly, with the stories of Taobao, Alipay, BABA's mother and Tmall Mall, success stories one by one. They felt the pressure.
Unlike other projects, they are not technicians, have no products, or even have complete ideas. They are just an implementation team, others are implementing project development, and they are implementing thinking. They can only keep thinking, discussing and arguing, constantly negating themselves and others, and trying to find a suitable path.
All the paths are complicated, and they don't know which one should go down first. In the middle, Jack Ma and Tong Wenhong held a meeting to tell them about the rookie's vision and expectations for them.
Duan Hao and they soon moved out of the lakeside garden.
Today's Cainiao network, under the leadership of Tong Wenhong, has become the key force in BABA's e-commerce business.
Tong Wenhong work number 116. BABA moved to Huaxing Science and Technology Building from Lakeside Garden on April 26th. That day was the day when Tong Wenhong went to BABA for an interview.
12
On May 26, 2014, the "madman" took six people to the lakeside garden without a trick. His arrival was rather gloomy.
No trick is a fancy name. his real name is Chen Hang, who left Weiye in 1999 to search for the future in Japan, and Chen Hang, who passed by Zhu Hong.
In 2010, Chen Hang returned home, joined BABA and became a member of Taobao. He has been in charge of several projects in BABA, all of which were unsuccessful.
It is reported that within BABA, he is regarded as loser, a loser. "at least at that time, BABA was on the verge of becoming a 'notorious' person: a professional manager who came back from Japan didn't get any better, and his dealings seemed to be coming to an end. BABA seems to have given him a lot of chances, but unfortunately, he didn't catch any of them. "
No one knows whether he can change from "mourning" to "recruiting mulberry" and win back the future that was readily available to him in 1999.
No way to return to BABA, is in charge of Taobao Yitao project. Yitao spent a lot of effort, but finally became a "failed project" in the eyes of others. No tricks said to me: "in BABA all the way, there are no too successful products, just hit the hole all the way, there are some small products are successful, but small products can not say anything." When the general situation fails, it makes no sense for you to be small. "
In 2013, "communication", which is based on strategic confrontation against Wechat, was born "with a silver spoon in its arms". It was the "CEO project" of Lu Zhaoxi, then CEO, and the whole BABA Group was cheering and applauding for it. Every Ali, based on the same belief and longing for the future, is willing to water and fertilize "exchanges" to help it become a big tree as soon as possible.
After a year of watering and fertilizing, "communication" is gradually described as a laughingstock, first the opponent, then the media, then within the group. When people come and go to the canteen to eat, when they see acquaintances, they will be asked, "are you still doing it?" The people questioned were ashamed of themselves and felt that they had failed the expectations of the whole group.
Chen Hang and Zhu Hong are both people who come and go. After 14 years, the two young people who are most likely to become the founding fathers of BABA finally meet each other after going back and forth countless times.
Those who meet are doomed to meet, just like the arrangement of fate. It took them 14 years to draw a trajectory for their destiny. first, they went their separate ways, and then because of BABA, they got together because of their exchanges.
At that time, one millet was the interacting architect, and there was no recruitment to be responsible for the product design. It took them a year to prove how they were maimed. Some people decided to keep fighting, even if they died together. He decided to find a way out and launch an attack from another path. He tried hard to make something to prove himself.
The exchanges were later divided into three, one exchanges, one Wukong, and one working circle. There is no way to "work circle". On May 26, 2014, he moved to the lakeside garden with his "work circle". Few people want to go with him, everyone wants to make great plans in the personal social field, "work circle" only if there is no such loser to do it.
BABA and Jack Ma did not incubate the "work circle" as a core project as usual, although Jack Ma likes the product very much. No way to find Ma Yun said: "Mr. Ma, since we do it independently, can you lend us the lakeside garden for a change of feng shui?"
Jack Ma agreed. There are a lot of things on Wuzhao, like Jack Ma in 1999. He is paranoid and likes to rush forward desperately. He is not blind, he will constantly adjust the direction of the impact. When personal socialization is not moving, he decisively turns to corporate socialization.
Yimiu is still in charge of the architecture design of the whole communication, and he has to go around in three places: the travel, the Wukong and the work circle. One day, there was no way to talk to him in detail. He talked about the current situation of exchanges, the trend and the past. He moved a drop of milk. One millet joined the work circle team and became the CTO of the work circle.
The work circle, now renamed "Nail", is considered another successful project hatched by the lakeside garden. A few days ago, Zhang Yong, CEO of BABA Group, came to nail to cheer them up. He told Wu that nailing was successful only because the group had implemented a basic principle, "do not disturb."
In the lakeside garden, they were left undisturbed. They are not disturbed by the outside world, are not affected by all departments of the group, and write their own code according to their original intention and judgment of the future.
A year later, when he had no way to move out of the lakeside garden, the "work circle", the last opportunity, had brought him back to life.
After 14 years of parallel trajectory, there is no way to meet a millet. This time, they believe they will go far.
13
Nail also has a team of 20 or 30 people entrenched in Room 202, Unit 1, Building 16, Wind Lotus Garden, Lakeside Garden. As long as BABA Group and Jack Ma do not drive them out, they will be firmly entrenched there.
They are developing a new project there, which is said to be about the future of nails. When I went to visit, I led my nail to be pushed out of the door: "Don't come in!" If you want to go in, you need to sign a confidentiality agreement, even if he is a nailed colleague.
Since May 2015, nailing has been BABA's longest entrepreneurial project in the lakeside garden. They tried to lock themselves up in Jack Ma's "little dark room". They seem to have tasted the sweetness from "closing the dark room".
Zeng Ming, the chief of staff of the BABA Group, who was called "professor", told me that the lakeside garden is more than just a symbol. For projects stationed in Lakeside Garden, on the one hand, BABA Group will tilt resources and give full support; on the other hand, it will also tell the whole group that this is a project that represents the future of the group.
Not all projects plated with gold in the lakeside garden will be successful, and only those who can keep their original heart and find light in Jack Ma's "dark room" will find the future.
Jack Ma's "little dark room" is not magical in itself. it is those Ali people who are inspired by entrepreneurial spirit, who believe that they can walk ahead of time, believe that that person made a great promise for BABA 18 years ago, and believe that China can change for the better. it turned Room 202of Unit 1, Building 16, Wind Lotus Garden, Lakeside Garden, into a symbol.
It doesn't need to describe itself as Jobs' garage or the best incubator in the world. It just needs to say "lakeside garden".
Because of the power of symbolism, they are willing to close, calm and precipitate themselves, and they are willing to look for the future. The neighbors of the lakeside garden tolerate their indulgence and arrogance.
They like to see them move out quickly, as those who "think about crossing the cliff" in BABA Xixi Park hope.