Rebirth of the Wild Age

In another time and space, Zhang Chaoyang scored himself at different stages: from entrepreneurship to 2004, he scored 9 points, and from 2004 to recovery from depression, he scored 6 points.

To put it bluntly, it has been inflated since 2004. I don't know what I am doing all day long, and I have been showing off to the point where I have been shown.

Last year, not only Wang Shitou was climbing, Zhang Chaoyang also climbed Mount Everest.

However, Wang Shitou climbed to the top of 8848 meters, while Zhang Chaoyang stopped at 6666 meters.

Because 90% of Internet companies rely heavily on mobile SMS for their livelihood at this time, the most important thing for Internet companies is their top number, that is, the code of the service provider that conducts business with mobile companies.

Sohu's service provider code happened to be 6666, so Zhang Chaoyang climbed to the height of 6666 meters on Mount Everest, and stood there to send Sohu MMS with his mobile phone. With Sohu crazily spending money on publicity, Zhang Chaoyang's move became a national sensation for a while, and Sohu's mobile SMS business also increased sharply. Therefore, he was praised by the media as "the most showy CEO in China's IT industry".

Although NetEase has the highest market value in Nasdaq, NetEase can only rank third in terms of influence in China.

Especially with the support of Song Weiyang, Zhang Chaoyang is not restrained by capital, and now Sohu has become the No. 1 in China's Internet industry. Sohu's various products are now dazzling: Sohu Portal (China's largest online media), Sohu Focus (China's second largest real estate website), Sohu Auto (China's top three traffic website), Xiaonei (China's largest online community), Sohu (China's second largest mobile network client), 17173 (China's largest game portal).

In addition, Soupai Changyou, a joint venture between Sohu and Sogou, also represents "Street Basketball" and is preparing for public testing.

Now, Sohu has launched a video website, which can be said to be taking the lead every step of the way. Zhang Chaoyang's strategic layout is indeed very exciting.

At this time, Sohu's president and coo Gu Yongjiang offered to resign... After Song Weiyang heard the news, he immediately called Gu Yongjiang: "Either you fly to Shenghai, or I fly to the capital, we should have a chat. "

"Let me fly to Shenghai." General Gu Yong said.

The two made an appointment to meet at Tomson Golf Club, Song Weiyang asked in the first sentence: "Are you having a conflict with Lao Zhang?"

"No." Gu Yongjiang denied it flatly, with a smile on his face, the same evil smile as always.

"Then why did you resign?" Song Weiyang asked.

Gu Yongjiang rubbed his face: "I'm so tired. After I joined Sohu, I worked as a CFO, planned financing, and went public; I also worked as a coo for several years. I was responsible for the company's daily operations, long-term strategy, and product operations. Now it’s even more troublesome, Lao Zhang directly put down the pick and asked me to be the president of Sohu. After being the president for a year, I am really exhausted physically and mentally, and I want to take a long vacation for myself.”

"Let you take care of everything, what about Zhang Chaoyang's own work?" Song Weiyang frowned.

Gu Yongjiang said with a smile: "He is learning from Wang Shitou."

Song Weiyang asked again: "After resigning, what are your plans?"

Gu Yongjiang said with a smile: "Although I used to be an investor, my real hobbies are travel and film and television entertainment. Two or three years ago, I wanted to quit my job to pursue my dream, but it was the cold winter of the Internet. If I quit, I would It’s so insincere. Now that the Internet winter has long passed, and Sohu has become the number one in the industry, it’s time for me to retire. After resigning, I will go home to accompany my wife and take her to travel around the world. For several years, I always came home very late and had almost no personal living space. My wife sacrificed a lot for my work. Accompanying my wife to travel around the world can make up for her and realize my travel dream. As for work plans, I I don’t know yet, maybe after traveling around the world, I will open a travel website, or maybe a film and television company.”

Song Weiyang chatted with Gu Yongjiang for nearly half an hour, and finally confirmed that Gu Yongjiang was indeed not forced to leave by Zhang Chaoyang, and it was not a conflict between the two as the original space-time reporter said.

No wonder later when the reporter interviewed Gong Yu, the founder of iQiyi, Gong Yu commented: "Zhang Chaoyang is emotional, Gu Yong will be rational, and I am between them." Gu Yong will retort: ​​"I think Gong Yu is more rational. I’m actually a temperamental person, and I do everything according to my hobbies.”

Well, Gong Yu, the founder of iQiyi, is also working at Sohu at this time. His position is the vice president of Sohu, and he is mainly in charge of Sohu Focus (a real estate website).

"If it's just because you're too tired, I don't think there's any need for you to resign." Song Weiyang insisted.

Gu Yongjiang said with a wry smile: "I'm really tired, my body is tired, and my heart is even more tired. There are endless tasks to deal with every day, and endless problems to think about every day. To put it bluntly, the sexual life between my wife and I is almost gone. Every day when I get home, she is already asleep, and the next day we have breakfast together and go to work separately. Employees still have weekends to rest, and I have to work on weekends when I am the president.”

Song Weiyang said, "Shall I reward you with a little more stock?"

"It's not a matter of money," Gu Yong said, waving his hands. "If it's something I'm interested in, I can work 24 hours a day. The problem is that I'm no longer motivated by my current job."

Song Weiyang said: "Your work status is very problematic, just relax properly and hand over more affairs to your subordinates."

Gu Yongjiang shook his head and said with a smile: "What I am doing now is actually the work of two people, and I am basically responsible for Lao Zhang's share."

Song Weiyang couldn't help laughing and said, "I'll talk to Zhang Chaoyang in detail. If he continues like this, he might as well resign as CEO and become the company's PR manager or product manager!"

Why did Song Weiyang insist on keeping Gu Yongjiang?

It's not because Gu Yongjiang later created Youku, but because Sohu's fastest and best development years happened to be the years when Gu Yongjiang was in office. And after Gu Yongjiang resigned, Sohu continued to go downhill and missed countless development opportunities.

If Zhang Chaoyang is the emperor of Sohu, then Gu Yong will be the chief minister. Sohu without General Gu Yong is equivalent to a court without a prime minister. The successor will either be unable to restrain the officials, or will not be able to wrestle with the emperor.

Song Weiyang thought for a while and asked, "If Zhang Chaoyang is the president, how about you becoming the CEO?"

"Don't make it like I want to grab the class and seize power." Gu Yong waved his hands again and again.

"That's it, I will contact Zhang Chaoyang," Song Weiyang made a decision directly, not allowing the other party to refuse, and said, "Also, I will take a month-long vacation with you, and you can go on a good trip with your wife."

"Boss..." Gu Yongjiang was very unhappy.

Song Weiyang raised his hand and said, "That's it. Zhang Chaoyang, as compensation, I will give him 1% of the shares."

President and CEO are often used interchangeably, but strictly speaking they are not the same. There can be many presidents of a company, but only one CEO (there are exceptions). From the perspective of the division of rights, the CEO is equivalent to "president + director" and has greater decision-making power in the company.

Currently, Sohu's CEO is Zhang Chaoyang, while Gu Yongjiang is the president and coo.

When Song Weiyang communicated with Zhang Chaoyang, there was a long silence on the other end of the phone, and it took a long time before he asked, "Why?"

"No reason, think about it for yourself," Song Weiyang said to save him some face, "Also, don't be angry with General Gu Yong because of this. He planned to resign and travel around the world, but I forcibly persuaded him to stay. .”

Zhang Chaoyang now looks confused and full of resentment. He runs outside all day to put on a show, isn't it to promote the company's products and expand the company's influence, why is his CEO position suddenly lost? Moreover, when Sohu has developed to a new level and became the No. 1 portal website in China, the big boss will come to kill the donkey.

Although Sohu had several shareholders, Song Weiyang's proposal would definitely be approved if a board meeting was to be held, and Zhang Chaoyang had no ability to resist at all.

Song Weiyang didn't want to do anything wrong, so he said, "Let's do this. Sohu has a dual-CEO system. Your CEO position will be retained, and Gu Yong will also be the CEO."

Zhang Chaoyang couldn't help asking: "When the two CEOs disagree, who should they listen to?"

"You coordinate it yourself. If you can't coordinate it, I'll check it out." Song Weiyang said.

"This will lead to a division of the company's top management. How can a company have two decision makers?" Zhang Chaoyang strongly objected.

Song Weiyang said: "Do you really want me to explain clearly? In the future, Gu Yong will be in charge of the company's affairs, and you will act as the company's living sign. You have the right to make suggestions, but not the right to make decisions. I will give you 1% of the equity as compensation."

Zhang Chaoyang was stunned for a while, resisting the urge to drop his phone, and said aggrievedly, "Thank you boss for saving me face."

Song Weiyang said earnestly: "Old Zhang, we are old friends. How about I fly to the capital and have a good chat with you face to face. I really don't want to target you this time."

Can a glass of wine release military power?

Zhang Chaoyang really wanted to ask this question, but he was not that kind of staunch character, so he actually endured it: "No, if the boss really wants to chat with me, it's better for me to fly to Shenghai."

Song Weiyang comforted: "Old Zhang, in fact, this appointment is more suitable for you. You continue to be the CEO of the company in name, and you don't have to be entangled in trivial matters all day long. In the future, you can climb the mountain you want to climb, and which fashion event you want to attend Just go to attend. You are still the founder of Sohu, you are still the top leader of Sohu, why not do it?"

"It turns out that the boss is dissatisfied with my actions." Zhang Chaoyang couldn't help but smile wryly.

Song Weiyang said: "I'm not dissatisfied with your show, but dissatisfied with your distraction. Think about it yourself, where are you thinking all day now?"

"Hmm." Zhang Chaoyang didn't bother to argue.

Song Weiyang added: "Old Gu's CEO appointment will not deliberately announce the news, but will only inform internal employees. You know Lao Gu very well, he is not the kind of person who likes to make public, and he will definitely treat you very well in the future." Respect. Well, let’s talk about it when you come to Shenghai. I’ll introduce you to some bosses. Let’s play golf together. Don’t you like to be in the fashion and entertainment industry? Let me introduce Jiang Wen to you. He’s quite interesting. people."

Before Zhang Chaoyang flew to Shenghai, Sohu Video, which had just been launched not long ago, ushered in an all-round revision.

Under Song Weiyang's strong suggestion, Sohu Video changed to ugc mode, that is, allowing users to upload video content by themselves. Now belongs to the era of web 2.0, mobilizing the masses is the kingly way. It is too slow to rely entirely on the website to post videos. The most important thing is that if there is a copyright issue, you can blame the netizens, because they are uploaded by netizens.

In fact, Sohu wanted to do video news at first, but the government suddenly promulgated the "Administrative Measures for the Dissemination of Audio-Visual Programs on the Internet and Other Information Networks", which clearly stated that foreign-funded, joint-venture, and Sino-foreign cooperative organizations are not allowed to engage in the dissemination of audio-visual programs on information networks. And even a Chinese-funded company needs a license to operate a news video website.

Therefore, Sohu Video, and LeTV, which was launched at the same time, are facing a very embarrassing situation, and it is impossible to obtain a news video license.

If you want to attract users for a long time, you can only engage in ugc mode, allowing more people to make videos, move videos, and publish videos, so as to quickly enrich the content of video websites. There is almost no supervision in this field, and videos of gourd babies with mosaics may appear. Even if there is a big disturbance, at most it will be deleted afterwards.

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