On December 2, NetEase Cloud Music, the first share in the global music community, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. According to NetEase data, this is the fourth time that Ding Lei has sounded the listing gong, and the other three times are: NetEase was listed on the NASDAQ in 2000, NetEase Youdao was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019, and NetEase returned to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2020. Ding Lei has also become one of the Internet tycoons with the most gongs on the market.
In the eyes of the Chinese people, the name Ding Lei is simply a myth, he founded his own Internet company at the age of 26, became the richest man in China at the age of 32, and has been in the first echelon of the mainland rich list for many years, with a current value of up to 200 billion yuan, far more than Xu Jiayin, and once jumped to the richest man in Guangzhou.
In 1993, after graduating from Chengdu University of Electronic Science and Technology in Sichuan, 22-year-old Ding Lei returned to his hometown of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, and found an "iron rice bowl" job at the Ningbo Telecommunications Bureau. This envied stable job is a boring and tedious job for Ding Lei. Despite his family's opposition, he resolutely resigned from the Telecommunications Bureau and decided to go to other places to break in.
At that time, under the influence of Deng Xiaoping's "Southern Talk", a wave of entrepreneurship was set off in China. Ding Lei, who is interested in the Internet, decided to go to Guangzhou to develop. In May 1995, Ding Lei came to Guangzhou and worked in two technology companies, but due to fierce competition in the industry, the company suffered bankruptcy, and Ding Lei had to choose to leave.
Several jobs in succession did not go well, and Ding Lei simply decided to start his own business. The direction of entrepreneurship is naturally the Internet industry that he is most interested in. In this way, Ding Lei relied on the savings and contacts accumulated in his previous work to establish NetEase in 1997 in a small office rented in Guangzhou.
In terms of the Internet, Ding Lei is undoubtedly a business genius, he developed Chinese search engine yeah and NetEase Mailbox, and then kept pace with the times, transforming from mailbox to portal. With his keen business thinking, Ding Lei has made netease's development flourish and created a number of firsts in China's Internet. NetEase has thus become one of the three major portals in China, alongside Sina and Sohu, and is known as the "Three Musketeers of the Internet".
In June 2000, NetEase, which had been established for only three years, was listed on the NASDAQ in the United States. After the listing, Ding Lei made significant adjustments to the company's management model and business development direction. First, transform the business into a communication value-added service; second, fully develop NetEase Games. Facts have proved that Ding Lei's decision was correct.
NetEase's game was ultimately a great success, not only did NetEase's performance turn against the wind, but Ding Lei himself also made a lot of money. In 2003, Ding Lei ranked first in the Forbes China Rich List with a value of US$1.076 billion, becoming the richest man in China that year. At this time, Ding Lei was only 32 years old, and he had just arrived at the age of establishment.
In 2009, Ding Lei announced NetEase's pig raising plan, and in 2011, he opened his own pig base in his hometown of Zhejiang, built a 1200-acre pig farm, and began to raise pigs in a serious way. It is understood that NetEase has made a lot of efforts in the "pig house construction", the average living area of pigs is 2 square meters, divided into living rooms, dining rooms, toilets, entertainment areas and other different functional areas, but also equipped with air conditioning.
"Once China's richest man actually started a pig industry? It's money burning panic, right? For the incomprehension and ridicule of others, Ding Lei said disapprovingly: "I don't care what others think, there is a thing called career, there is a thing called ideal, my ideal is to raise pigs." ”
However, there are unexpected storms in the sky, and in 2013, there were major changes within NetEase. Mao Shan and Zhou Jiong, who formed a "pig trio" with Ding Lei, have left their posts successively, which has had a great impact on Ding Lei's plan to enter the pig industry. As a result, the news that Ding Lei's pig breeding career was about to fail spread.
However, Ding Jia Pig still appeared in the NetEase canteen in 2014, although it has not been officially announced, but it has also given the outside world more expectations and speculation. For two consecutive years, taking the opportunity of the World Internet Conference, Ding Lei will take out the "Ding family pig" to "feast" the big guys in Wuzhen.
On May 11, 2017, NetEase announced its 2017 Q1 financial report, achieving a net profit of 13.641 billion yuan, an increase of 72.3% year-on-year, and a net profit of 3.923 billion yuan, an increase of 59.4% year-on-year, setting a continuous record for quarterly net income and net profit. In July of the same year, NetEase and Ding Lei, who had been derided as "missing all the Internet outlets", were awarded Asia's most respected enterprises and Asia's best CEOs respectively.
In addition to raising pigs, Ding Lei, a rigorous programmer, also did a big thing and got involved in the entertainment industry. Ding Lei likes to sing, but the music on the market is not in line with his taste, and his hobbies are not satisfied, so he plans to make a music platform by himself. Ding Lei frantically spent 200 million yuan, personally inquired about the progress of the project, and also required the company's employees to download the software.
Such a large hand, naturally attracted a large wave of melon-eating masses to watch, people are waiting to see Ding Lei and his NetEase cloud fell to the bottom of the joke. It all ended with the listing of NetEase Cloud, which has gained a place in the music market with more than 200 million users and 1500 stars because of its unique selling points and good interactivity, and its market share is second only to QQ Music.
After developing NetEase Cloud Music, Ding Lei also learned to dj. He loves DJing, once went to the entertainment venues in Shanghai, disguised as a DJ on the stage, personally promoted his NetEase cloud music, and even Wang Sicong rushed to cheer for him and screamed for him offstage. To this end, at that time, some media ridiculed Ding Lei as "raising pigs during the day and playing DVDs at night".
At present, Ding Lei has been regarded as a leader in the Internet industry and has a high status in the Internet field. Ding Lei's high position is not because of his huge assets, but because he will help newcomers who have just entered the Internet industry, such as the current Pinduoduo, Xiaopeng Automobile, etc., who have received Help from Ding Lei.
Moreover, careful people will find that NetEase's style is unique, and Ding Lei did not follow the trend, but developed according to his own style. In the future, Ding Lei may not become the richest man in China, but he is definitely a big figure in the Internet industry that cannot be ignored.