I believe that most people are familiar with He Xiaopeng. In the field of Internet and investment, although he is not as famous as Jack Ma, Ma Huateng, etc., he founded the UC (Ushi) browser and Xiaopeng. Peng Motors is already well known.
He Xiaopeng was born in an ordinary working-class family in Huangshi, Hubei Province in 1977. He was later admitted to the Computer Science Department of South China University of Technology. In order to reduce the burden on his family, he worked part-time during college while helping his parents buy Soy milk, while going to work in the computer city.
After graduating from university, He Xiaopeng went to AsiaInfo Group, a leading company in China's communications industry, as an intern. For more than 2 years, he rotated through multiple positions such as technical manager, test manager and project manager. In this excellent Internet company, He Xiaopeng learned almost all Internet technologies. This enabled him to fully understand and become familiar with the internal operating structure and profit methods of Internet companies, and also laid a good foundation for his future entrepreneurship.
Four years later, He Xiaopeng chose to leave AsiaInfo Group. He believed, “I feel that no matter in terms of image, social resources, or experience, they are not as good as my boss at the time. On that road, I feel that I It’s impossible to surpass him. So, if I want to do better, I must choose to start a business.” In 2004, He Xiaopeng founded UC Youshi Company with his college classmate Liang Jie***. At that time, people were still using email, so they made UCMail. However, after UCMail was put into the market, there was not much response, because at that time, everyone was more accustomed to communicating through text messages, and email seemed cumbersome in comparison. Since UCMail did not have the prerequisites to change user habits at the time, it was difficult to succeed.
Seeing that UCMail did not open up the market, He Xiaopeng decided to start with the browser. Facts have proved that this is a key step related to the success of He Xiaopeng's first entrepreneurial venture. Fortunately, he chose the right direction. He Xiaopeng believes that at that time, mobile WAP basically had no users due to many shortcomings such as slow network speed, small content, and inability to synchronize with the network in real time. People were still accustomed to using computers to surf the Internet.
And if you can successfully solve these problems that affect mobile Internet access, you will definitely win countless users for your browser. Therefore, He Xiaopeng used a hybrid computing method of mobile terminals and network servers to open the channel between mobile terminals and the Internet, allowing people to access the Internet anytime, anywhere. On this basis, UCWAP was successfully developed.
As soon as UCWAP went online, it was sought after by netizens and quickly accumulated a large number of users. In just one year, the number of registered users exceeded 1 million, and the number of servers increased from the initial 3 to 50. So much so that He Xiaopeng defeated many opponents in the bidding and won the 2006 China Mobile National Mobile Office System Project with UCWAP.
However, despite UCWAP's success and the acquisition of large projects, it was unable to make a profit in the short term and its operations were temporarily in trouble. He Xiaopeng and Liang Jie had to run around to raise funds and investments. At this difficult time, they unexpectedly received a 100,000 yuan small and medium-sized enterprise technology support fund funded by the Tianhe District Government of Guangzhou, thus easing the financial difficulties encountered by the company.
Later, they were introduced to Yu Yongfu, who was the vice president of Lenovo Investment at the time. After understanding, Yu Yongfu was very optimistic about UC. After returning, he drafted an investment proposal, but unexpectedly it was rejected by Lenovo. Later, he was inspired by Lei Jun and became more confident in UC, so he resigned from Lenovo and joined UC. At the same time, Lei Jun invested 4 million in UC.
Yu Yongfu’s joining and Lei Jun’s investment were just like a long drought met with timely rain for UC at that time, which made UC completely regain its vitality. Since then, UC has developed very smoothly, and the industry has been optimistic about its development. With the prospects bright, major venture capital institutions have come one after another, allowing UC to completely solve its worries about future financing.
Looking back at the successful process of He Xiaopeng's first entrepreneurial venture, it can be seen that the reason why he was able to succeed was that he had the conditions to start a business. He Xiaopeng had already mastered the Internet technology and company operating procedures at that time. Second, at critical moments, he can always get help from noble people.
Just as Cai Chongxin is the noble man in Ma Yun's life, Lei Jun has also become the noble man in He Xiaopeng's life.
In fact, Lei Jun was He Xiaopeng’s chosen one. Not only did he invest 4 million in He Xiaopeng, he also made a very crucial suggestion for the future development of UC. At the end of 2006, Lei Jun told He Xiaopeng that based on future development trends, he should abandon the corporate business and focus on the personal market.
How could you not listen to the words of a good brother? He Xiaopeng quickly adopted Lei Jun’s suggestion. In 2007, smartphones ushered in a big explosion. Taking advantage of this, the number of UC Browser users quickly exceeded 4 Hundreds of millions.
At this time, UC, which was developing well, had been coveted by many capitals, but Jack Ma was the fastest to make the move. At that time, after multiple rounds of financing, more than 60% of UC's equity had fallen to Alibaba. Alibaba Baba has become the actual controlling shareholder of UC.
Faced with this situation, He Xiaopeng quickly made his own judgment. He believed that as the equity in his hands continued to decrease, UC would eventually be acquired, so it was better to take advantage of the current valuation. If you sell it when it is higher, you can still get a good price.
So, in 2014, He Xiaopeng sold UC to Alibaba for US$4.35 billion (equivalent to RMB 30 billion). In this way, he also achieved financial freedom. After being acquired by Alibaba, He Xiaopeng joined Alibaba and became a senior executive. However, at this time, he had already begun planning his next entrepreneurial goal.
In June 2014, Tesla opened up all its patents to the outside world and encouraged other companies to develop electric vehicles. Tesla's open source and the huge market prospects of new energy vehicles gave He Xiaopeng a new entrepreneurial direction. (Actually, Musk sees further. His purpose of open-sourcing electric vehicle patents is to accelerate the global promotion of new energy vehicles, achieve future carbon reduction goals, and establish an interconnected Internet of Things and wireless networks around the world. He Xiaopeng took the lead in founding Xpeng Motors. In addition to him, there were also investments from other Internet executives. In 2017, He Xiaopeng decided to leave Alibaba and work full-time on new energy vehicles. In August of that year, He Xiaopeng officially became the chairman of Xiaopeng Automobile.
Different from the first time he started his business, He Xiaopeng's position and vision at this time were completely different from those in the early days of UC's business. Now that he has changed from his previous role of "product person" to "entrepreneur", the scale and height of his career are higher than before. He Xiaopeng has made great changes and progress. Now he knows how to look at problems comprehensively from the perspective of a CEO.
With years of entrepreneurial experience, connections, resources and vision, He Xiaopeng’s Xpeng Motors has received several rounds of financing in less than a year, including from giants such as Alibaba and Foxconn. At the same time, the company has joined several A professional in automobile manufacturing.
Xpeng Motors officially launched its first mass-produced car in October 2017. At the same time, it also completed a full-line industrial chain integrating independent research and development, production, sales and after-sales service, becoming the first in the Internet car manufacturing industry. Products that have received product announcements from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and achieved mass production. In July this year, Xpeng Automobile was listed in Hong Kong. He Xiaopeng also ranked 502nd on the "Forbes Global Rich List 2021" with a wealth of US$5.5 billion.
Judging from He Xiaopeng's two entrepreneurial experiences, after getting the first pot of gold in life, the situation has become completely different from the first time when he started his second business. From the very beginning, we had funds, connections, social status, and reputation, and we had the right time, location, people, and many other favorable conditions. Therefore, on this basis, as long as you choose the right entrepreneurial direction, the possibility of success in a second entrepreneurial venture is much greater than that of the first entrepreneurial one.
Conclusion
Starting a business is not an easy task for everyone and requires countless hard efforts. However, this is not terrible. What is terrible is that after putting in so much hard work, only a few will succeed in the end. Because starting a business requires not only personal effort, but sometimes a little luck.
Therefore, for all entrepreneurs, when making the decision to start a business, they must consider in advance whether they can face various difficulties and failures calmly and continue to persevere. If you can't do it, you should give up as soon as possible.
Because only those who always have firm confidence in entrepreneurship and make unremitting efforts in the direction they identify for a long time are likely to achieve success.