Fanfou

"The protagonist of this book—Wang Xing—is precisely a great learning example. Born in 1979, Wang Xing started his entrepreneurial journey early. In 2004, he began a venture with classmates and launched the social network Xiaonei in 2005. In 2007, he founded Fanfou, one of the earliest Twitter-like platforms in China. In 2010, he founded Meituan. Both Xiaonei and Fanfou had regrets in Wang Xing’s entrepreneurial journey, not reaching a perfect conclusion. However, Meituan carved a bloody path out of over 5,000 group-buying websites and has become one of the most watched startups to date. By July 2014, Meituan’s monthly transaction volume exceeded 3.9 billion yuan."

"From Xiaonei, Fanfou to Meituan, Wang Xing’s early entrepreneurial partners remain and are now the backbone of Meituan. On the night of March 1, 2014, Wang Xing and I chatted for four hours in a cafe in Wangjing. I asked Wang Xing, “What is the reason behind your reuniting at Meituan?” Wang Xing replied with four words: Spirit of Contract!"

"From 2007, Wang Xing successively founded Fanfou and Hainei. Fanfou was a website similar to Twitter, one of China’s earliest microblogging sites. Hainei was an SNS site aimed at office workers. During Fanfou’s plateau, Wang Xing focused his efforts on this site."

"During the wait for Fanfou’s return, to keep the team from dispersing, Wang Xing and his team considered starting another project, which led to Meituan. On March 4, 2010, Meituan went live. This Groupon-like website introduced the concept of group buying to China. This team that had launched Xiaonei and Fanfou turned to build a substantial company."

"More typically, every venture he undertakes leads the wave of imitation in China’s internet scene. Renren, akin to Facebook, led the campus SNS wave; Fanfou, similar to Twitter, led the microblogging trend; Meituan, similar to Groupon, pioneered the group buying wave. His grasp of American internet trends is very accurate, and when transplanted to the Chinese internet, the products he made were outstanding. There is a lot of replication of foreign websites in the Chinese internet, many people only jump in when they see someone doing it successfully. Discovering an opportunity first once may be luck, but Wang Xing being the first every time is quite intriguing."

"After eating the fifth bread, your stomach is full. However, without the first four pieces of bread, eating the fifth one alone wouldn’t satisfy you. Those scientists, inventors, and entrepreneurs who left records in history all went through a treacherous road of failures before succeeding. These failures led them to success. Take Wang Xing, for instance— Before Xiaonei, nearly ten projects failed because the direction was wrong. Xiaonei, the team was good, the direction was correct, but there was a lack of funds. Fanfou, no lack of funds, the team was fine, the product was decent, the timing was right, but there was a lack of political understanding. Hainei, no lack of funds, the direction was correct, the team was fine, the politics were in order, but the product was poor. Meituan, no lack of funds, the direction was correct, the team was fine, and the product was good. Thus, Meituan succeeded."