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Charles Zhang

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Charles Zhang
Born
(1964-10-31) October 31, 1964 (age 60)
Xi'an, China
NationalityChina Chinese
Occupation(s)Founder, Chairman & CEO Sohu.com
SpouseSingle
ChildrenNone
Websitehttp://corp.sohu.com/20060507/n243126051.shtml

Charles Zhang (Chinese: 张朝阳 Pinyin: Zhāng Cháoyáng) (born October 31, 1964) is a Chinese businessman, investor and the Founder, Chairman and current CEO of Sohu.com Inc. (Chinese: 搜狐) Dr. Zhang is regarded as one of the China’s Internet pioneers and was named by Forbes Magazine as one of the richest men in China in 2010.[2]

Early life and education

Born to a very humble family, Charles Zhang’s parents were residential physicians at a small arsenal near Xi'an, China. Zhang has been interested in science from a very young age. As he excelled at school, Zhang was accepted to study Physics at the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing. Upon his graduation in 1986, Charles Zhang received a full scholarship from Nobel Prize Physicist Tsung-Dao Lee to attend graduate school at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.[3] Zhang graduated from MIT in 1993 with a PhD in Experimental Physics. He then went on to serve as MIT's liaison officer for China.[4]

Founding of Sohu

Soon after leaving MIT, Dr. Zhang joined Internet Securities Inc. (ISI) in November 1995 and returned to Beijing to establish the ISI China operation.[5] While at ISI, Zhang quickly envisioned an Internet search engine company. Charles Zhang started his own company, Internet Technologies China (ITC) in 1996 with two fellow MIT Professors and with the help of venture capital.[6] It was also the first VC funding of a Chinese Internet company.[3] In May, 1997, after a meeting with Jerry Yang, Zhang decided to transform ITC and changed its name to Sohu.[4]

Sohu and its search engine quickly became a household name in China. Zhang managed to successfully conducted four mergers with other Chinese Internet companies to raise capital. On July 12, 2000, Sohu was listed to trade on NASDAQ - GS.[7] During the dotcom crash in the early 2000s, Sohu's stock dropped below $1 USD, many board members and investors wanted to replace Zhang. He credited his nonconfrontational style helped him to hold on.[8] Today, Sohu is one of very well known Chinese Internet stocks, with a market value of around 2 billions dollars at around $45 USD/share.[7] Internet Community Blogging and Short-messaging service, which helped the company turn around and generated total revenues of $750 million in China in 2002, accounted for 48% of company's revenues in 2004 and 2006.[8][9]

Personal life

Charles Zhang has never been married and doesn’t have any children of his own. He cited the fact that he spent many years in academia as well as the starting and the building of Sohu and may have let him past the age of marriage. In a 2007 interview with Chen Luyu (陈鲁豫), Zhang said that he does not like to use email, “Emails can be copied and forwarded in a very short period of time. In Sohu, when I send out emails, the content of the email will be made public in a matter of hours, that’s why I hand out orders and instructions in ‘paper form’.” [10][11] In many occasions, Zhang mentions about hoping he can live till the age of 150. He believes that stress plays an important role in aging and if one practices yoga and understands Buddhism, he/she can be “freed” from stress, and so live till the age of 150.[12][13] Zhang also enjoys mountaineering, he has been training on Mount Everest and has reached the height of 6,666m above sealevel, he hopes to scale the top of Everest one day.[14][15][16]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://people.forbes.com/profile/charles-zhang/72775
  2. ^ a b http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/74/2003/LIR.jhtml?passListId=74&passYear=2003&passListType=Person&uniqueId=TRTG&datatype=Person
  3. ^ a b http://www.chinavitae.com/biography/Zhang_Chaoyang/bio
  4. ^ a b http://www.china.org.cn/english/MATERIAL/74339.htm
  5. ^ http://www.chinadaily.net/bizchina/2006-03/14/content_535371.htm
  6. ^ http://www.time.com/time/digital/cyberelite/45.html
  7. ^ a b http://www.nasdaq.com/asp/quotes_reports.asp?symbol=SOHU&selected=SOHU&page=stockreports
  8. ^ a b http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1005328,00.html?iid=chix-sphere
  9. ^ http://v.ku6.com/show/8oPPjaC9DvYrcr9F.html
  10. ^ http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzcwNzQ2MjA=.html
  11. ^ Oct 24th, 2007 - "A Date with Luyu" (鲁豫有约) - Phoenix Television
  12. ^ http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzcwNzQ3ODg=.html
  13. ^ Oct 26th, 2007 - "A Date with Luyu" (鲁豫有约) - Phoenix Television
  14. ^ http://www.time.com/time/2003/survivors/zhang.html
  15. ^ http://outdoor.travel.sohu.com/20081006/n259865431.shtml
  16. ^ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_39/b3851627.htm

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