Chapter 443: Meeting the Pioneer of the Internet (Part 1)

Ms. Zhang?

Not only was the middle-aged woman taken aback, but Shen Lingyao was too.

According to her knowledge, Zhao Qingfeng had never been to Shanghai before, so when did he get to know such a person as Ms. Zhang?

Online? Impossible, Brother Qingfeng shared everything with her.

Actually, it’s not surprising that Shen Lingyao doesn’t recognize Zhang Yuxin, yet she’s well-known in the internet industry.

Besides being a female boss, she is also considered the first person to lay the foundation for China’s internet.

Six years ago, she had already made a name for herself in Zhongguancun. At that time, at the zero-kilometer mark of Haidian South Street, next to the corner south of Baiyi Road, a billboard suddenly erected with a shocking slogan was her doing – “How far are the Chinese from the information highway? 1500 meters north!”

The appearance of the billboard left the onlooking crowd puzzled.

In 1996, Beijing, where the highway had only been open for two years and only led to Beijing’s airport, what was this information highway?

They didn’t understand.

This was the ‘declaration’ of China’s first internet company founded by Zhang Yuxin.

Talking about Zhang Yuxin, she was no ordinary figure, albeit her fate was full of ups and downs, and now, in her twilight years, she’s considered past her prime.

Zhang Yuxin was born in 1963.

At 23, she, hailing from the north, graduated from China University of Science and Technology.

This talented woman, who majored in Chemistry, was the first female student council president in the history of China University of Science and Technology and also served as the president of the poetry club.

However, after graduation, instead of going abroad or pursuing further studies as everyone expected, she resolutely chose to work at the “China Science Newspaper,” becoming a journalist.

Three years later,

Zhang Yuxin switched jobs to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, working in enterprise research.

During this period, she truly witnessed the overnight rise of Zhongguancun and many stories of ups and downs.

The late 1980s were the era of ideals and passion bursting forth, the era of wealth creation.

At that time, Zhang Yuxin, who only earned a little over a hundred yuan a month, shared the same dream as everyone else – to make a fortune!

Many people’s business careers seem to start this way.

By 1992, Zhang Yuxin had already left the Academy of Sciences, becoming part of the ’92 wave of entrepreneurs,’ doing planning, selling computers, dealing with pagers – anything that made money quickly, thereby accumulating her first pot of gold.

The real turning point in Zheng Yuxin’s fate began with her trip to the beautiful country in 1994.

That year, for the first time, the number of internet users in Europe and America surpassed 2 million, and the global internet users reached 5 million. Zhang Yuxin witnessed two Stanford students establishing Yahoo in a garage.

Her keen senses felt as if she was riding a time machine.

After feasting her eyes on the ‘future’ world, she was convinced that what happened in developed countries would one day play out in China too.

For this,

Zhang Yuxin specially envisioned a future: one day, the internet would change everyone’s lives just like electricity and steam.

She indeed seized this opportunity, bringing the ‘future’ back to China.

In early 1995, after returning from abroad, Zhang Yuxin, together with her husband, used 8 million in cash from mortgaging their property and a 7 million loan as startup capital, pouring it all into the internet to establish China’s first internet company – “Wei Hai Wei.”

15 million!

This was 800 times the startup capital of Jack Ma!

That year, Jack Ma was still struggling to sell ‘China Yellow Pages,’ Ma Huateng had just graduated from Shenzhen University, Ding Sanshi had just resigned, and Zhao Qingfeng was a 13-year-old kid, sneaking over walls to steal bird nests with Shen Lingyao.

At the beginning of its establishment,

Zhang Yuxin quickly built a nearly perfect and impregnable platform for Wei Hai Wei.

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