From developing Sogou input method, to making Sogou browser, to dreaming of the NYSE, Wang Xiaochuan's 14-year persistence in Sogou is admirable.
Wang Xiaochuan once said that he was a geek. "Geeks can be understood from another angle: curiosity, persistence, insensitivity, and innovation." Obviously, he is the true portrayal of this sentence.
First, from ChinaRen to Sohu
Wang Xiaochuan was a "talented boy", and he was an outstanding student all the way through his school days. In 1996, he was admitted to the Department of Computer Science and Technology of Tsinghua University for his gold medal in International Mathematical Olympiad.
In 1999, Chen Yizhou, Zhou Yunfan, and Yang Ning found Wang Xiaochuan and invited him to join ChinaRen at a high salary. So, Wang Xiaochuan, who is still in his senior year, started his internship at ChinaRen, with 7 editors under his control.
He is very hardworking, often sleeps in the office, goes to the library to check the materials, and develops a news system that can comment. Eight months later, Wang Xiaochuan's website had 44 million daily page views, making it the fourth largest website in China at that time.
In 2000, Sohu acquired ChinaRen. In 2003, as soon as Wang Xiaochuan graduated from graduate school, Zhang Chaoyang personally called to invite him to work at Sohu.
At that time, Wang Xiaochuan's first task was to develop a search engine. He took 12 college students from the Tsinghua Olympic team and typed the code day and night. In 2004, Sogou Search came out, but few people asked for it.
At this time, another project of Wang Xiaochuan, Sogou Input Method, was successful.
二 、 Sogou input method
At that time, Wang Xiaochuan found that Ma Zhankai had good suggestions for Sogou products, so he threw an olive branch at him. Ma Zhankai believes that the domestic market lacks a powerful Chinese input method, and it is recommended that Sogou be used as the input method, which has been recognized by Wang Xiaochuan.
In 2006, Sogou input method was launched. The Wang Xiaochuan team innovatively uses search engine technology to make the Internet a "living" lexicon to meet the expression needs of netizens.
However, Sogou input method suffered setbacks in market promotion, with a market share of only 2% after one year.
In order to open the situation, Wang Xiaochuan established a promotion team to break through the channels and advertise at the popular download stations at the time. In 2008, the market share of Sogou input method reached 40%.
The success of the Sogou input method made Wang Xiaochuan realize that to be a search engine, the browser is the key bridge, so he proposed to Zhang Chaoyang to make a browser. At that time, the battle on the PC browser was fierce, and it was not easy for Sogou to emerge suddenly.
At this time, Zhang Chaoyang appointed another person to do the search. The stubborn Wang Xiaochuan not only did not leave, but devoted himself to the development of the browser.
Three, Sogou browser
Wang Xiaochuan has a deep love for Sogou, and he firmly believes that the browser will succeed. He worked day and night, and finally released the first version of Sogou browser in December 2008, occupying 10% market share in two years.
In 2010, Google announced its withdrawal from China, and the domestic browser landscape changed. This year, Sogou spun off its independent operation from Sohu, and Wang Xiaochuan became CEO. Under the operation of Wang Xiaochuan, Sogou soon realized its first quarterly profit.
In 2013, Zhou Hongyi and Zhang Chaoyang once again proposed the acquisition of Sogou, and the two parties basically negotiated the acquisition. However, Wang Xiaochuan insisted on relying on Sogou's own strength to fight in the search engine field.
Wang Xiaochuan found Ma Huateng, and the other side offered more favorable conditions than Zhou Hongying. Zhang Chaoyang, who was broad-minded, chose to support Wang Xiaochuan. In the end, Sogou married Tencent. Since then, Sogou's development has grown by leaps and bounds.
In 2017, Sogou was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States. Wang Xiaochuan, 39, was worth 250 million US dollars.
He said, "As long as I still have a chance to practice at Sogou today, I will continue to do it, and that day will be the end."