In 1995, Zhou Hongyi worked as a programmer at Founder, squeezing the bus for 3 hours a day to work.
He was already sitting in Beijing's Jinshan, driving a white Santana through the streets, just like driving a Cayenne today.
He is an old revolutionary who debuted earlier, the first generation entrepreneur of Zhongguancun. By secular standards, he had long been a successful person, when Ding Lei and Ma Huateng had just worked, and Chen Tianqiao was still in school.
He said: "I am not a genius, nor a model worker, nor a god of war, I am just an ordinary engineer, pursuing my dreams and doing what I love." ”
Today, he founded a company with a team of more than 16,000 engineers and more than 500 million active users worldwide for mobile phone systems.
Lei Jun on the stage of xiaomi conference
Wuda career, extraordinary experience, Lei Jun young fame
Taking stock of Lei Jun's college career, almost everyone will say a "bull" about his experience: after completing all the credits in two years, compiling coursework into textbooks, achieving economic independence in his sophomore year, everyone praised as a computer expert, and even becoming an anti-virus expert.
In 1987, Lei Jun was admitted to the Department of Computer Science of Wuhan University. When he first entered the university, he hoped to use the opportunity of the university to prove his excellence. His diligence and self-discipline are also evident to everyone who knows him.
Freshman Lei Jun
Every morning at seven o'clock, Lei Jun went to the classroom on time to occupy a seat and listen to the lecture in the best position; in order to have more computer practice opportunities, he would spend the rest of the time in the computer laboratory except for professional classes in the classroom.
His computer skills are overwhelming, and the teachers greatly appreciate him, so they let him help choose the topic, do the design, and be a proper genius.
Lei Jun's "Assembly Language Programming" received full marks, and the homework of the "PASCAL Programming" course was selected as a textbook demonstration program. It took him two years to complete all the credits and even complete the graduation project of the university.
Computer expert Lei Jun
After two years of college, Lei Jun began to break into the rivers and lakes, and the electronic street in Wuhan was the starting place for his martial arts training. A broken bicycle and a broken bag full of disks and reference books became his belongings.
At that time, he felt that as long as he could learn the technology, it did not matter whether he made money or not.
So in the next two years, Lei Jun dabbled in a wide range of topics, wrote encryption software, anti-virus software, financial software, CAD software, Chinese systems and various practical gadgets, etc., becoming a small and famous figure in the electronic street, and economic independence is certainly not a problem.
During this period, he met Wang Quanguo, who was three grades higher than himself and four years older, and the two later started a business together, joined Jinshan, and became close friends.
Wang Quanguo later served as vice president of Jinshan
At that time, Wang Quanguo was doing computer technical support in a school-run enterprise and was writing an encryption software interface, and Lei Jun was also writing an encryption software kernel.
The two hit it off and worked together to complete the coding, testing, interface design and other programs of this encryption software, which won them praise from their peers.
In 1989, computer viruses were circulating in China, and all computers in Wuhan University's computer room were paralyzed. In order to solve this problem, Lei Jun and his classmate Feng Zhihong cooperated to develop a special anti-virus software "Immunity 90". Under the recommendation of the teacher, Immune 90 won the first prize of Hubei Province University Students' Scientific and Technological Achievements.
Lei Jun's many articles on viruses published in "Computerworld" and other publications have also made him a well-known "anti-virus expert", and the Hubei Provincial Public Security Department also specially invited Lei Jun to talk about anti-virus technology.
At this time, Lei Jun was only 20 years old and had not yet graduated from college.
Joining Jinshan, 16 years of hard work, Lei Jun is not easy
Lei Jun's relationship with Jinshan is related to his hacking career. He may not have imagined that he would stay in Kingsoft for 16 years, from programmer to chairman, and successfully lead Kingsoft to go public in the United States.
In 1989, Qiu Bojun, known as China's first programmer, developed WPS1.0, filling the gap of Chinese word processing software in mainland China.
In 1990, when Lei Jun used WPS Hanka, he was shocked by the interface and functions of this software.
Early WPS pages
He especially wanted to buy a set to use, but was persuaded to withdraw by the sky-high price of more than 2,000 yuan. Helplessly, Lei Jun decided to decrypt WPS and port it to an ordinary computer for use, and the WPS he decrypted became the most popular version of WPS in China.
In 1991, Lei Jun met Qiu Bojun, the father of WPS, at a computer exhibition in Zhongguancun. He handed Qiu Bojun a business card with his name and pager number printed on it, and the business card that Qiu Bojun handed him was impressively printed with the name of "Vice President of Hong Kong Kingsoft".
Lei Jun and Qiu Bojun
Because of the experience of decrypting WPS, Lei Jun and Qiu Bojun had a good conversation, and later joined Kingsoft Company at the invitation of Qiu Bojun and became employee 006.
In 1992, Lei Jun led the establishment of the Jinshan Development Department in Beijing, responsible for the technical support of WPS Hanka. This year, Microsoft also set up an office in Beijing.
But at that time, WPS was like a mountain in front of Microsoft, occupying almost 90% of the domestic market.
At that time, most of the domestic computer configuration was still a DOS system, running Windows 3.1 system and word 5.0 is quite difficult, coupled with WPS is more suitable for Chinese environment, WPS occupies a favorable time and place.
However, when Qiu Bojun contacted the Windows 3.0 system and Word 5.0 in 1993, he found that Microsoft's office software had obvious advantages over WPS, and what he saw was what he got, and predicted that the Windows system would replace the DOS system.
He wanted to develop an office suite for Windows before Microsoft dominated the desktop.
Therefore, in 1993, he took Lei Jun and the main programmer of the company and began the "Pangu" plan that worked day and night. This is an office component that includes Functions such as Kingsoft Haoyue, Word Processing, Twin Cities Electronic Watch, Kingsoft English-Chinese Two-Way Dictionary, Business Card Management, And Transaction Management.
Qiu Bojun, Lei Jun and other jinshan main forces are mainly attacking the "Pangu" suite, almost giving up the maintenance of WPS under the DOS system.
What Qiu Bojun and Lei Jun did not expect was that when Pangu was developed in 1995, the DOS system was still the mainstream of the market, and the era of Windows system had not yet arrived. Kingsoft is missing out on the former glory of WPS step by step.
In the days of Kingsoft's painstaking research and development, domestic office software piracy was rampant, and Microsoft made a lot of money in Europe and the United States.
In 1996, Pangu was officially released. Lei Jun found more than 20 media, spent 2 million advertising, planned to sell 20,000 sets, did not expect that the market was flat, selling less than 2,000 sets.
Pangu advertising at the time
In the same year, Microsoft approached Kingsoft for cooperation, hoping that WPS would help with Chineseization, and hoped that Office and WPS could jointly support a compatible format that could read each other's files.
Kingsoft took over Microsoft's Chinese business and reached a compatibility agreement with Microsoft. Unexpectedly, this became the beginning of WPS's loss of the domestic market.
Not long after, Microsoft launched Windows 97, and at the same time bundled office software on the system, the DOS system was eliminated, WPS was directly confused, others had system support, and their own software had no other competitiveness.
Windows 97 page
WPS sales fell off a cliff, so that Kingsoft could not sustain it, and the programmers fled one by one, leaving only Qiu Bojun, Lei Jun and a dozen others. During that time, Lei Jun said: I lost my ideals. He even wanted to quit his job to open a bar, often relieving himself of his worries.
In order to raise money for the company, Qiu Bojun sold his villa for more than 2 million yuan, and Lei Jun and a dozen other people once again developed the Windows version of WPS day and night, and released WPS 97 in 1997.
Although 10,000 sets were sold within two months of launch, it still failed to save the users and market of WPS, and the market share of WPS was as low as 2%.
In order to survive, Kingsoft Company turned to software or games such as Kingsoft Wordmaster, Kingsoft Quick Translation, SwordMan Romance, Kingsoft Poison Bully, etc., relying on these small software to make profits to feed WPS.
In 1998, Lenovo invested in Kingsoft, rekindling hope for Kingsoft.
In 1999, when Kingsoft Ciba 2000 and Kingsoft Quick Translation 2000 were launched, in order to combat pirated software, Lei Jun set off a "red genuine storm" activity, reducing the pricing of Kingsoft Ciba and Kingsoft Quick Translation from 168 yuan to 28 yuan.
This storm swept the country in an instant, selling 1 million sets of genuine software in three months, refreshing the sales record of domestic genuine software. And this year, WPS 2000 was released, becoming the legitimate office software mainly purchased by the government and enterprises.
With Office piracy rampant, paid WPS on the market is difficult to move; in 2002, Microsoft even tore up the compatibility agreement signed with WPS in 95 years, forcing users to choose between the two, which made WPS in trouble.
So, Lei Jun made a decision: overturn the code of WPS and rewrite WPS modeled on Office. Because users are used to office operations, WPS must adapt to user habits.
In 2005, Lei Jun spent 35 million to redevelop WPS 2005 released, not only can compete with Office, but also perfectly compatible with Office, and for individual users forever free, WPS against Office competitiveness is back!
In 2007, Kingsoft was reborn with the help of online games, hong Kong listed, Lei Jun's value suddenly increased by more than one billion, but he was confused and said: "At this stage, I have nothing, except for money." ”
The 38-year-old Lei Jun has long been successful in the eyes of others, but he feels that he has not achieved the expected success. In the 16 years of Jinshan, he even doubted himself for a while: Is it wrong to live such a model worker's life? He decided to leave Jinshan.
In October 2007, Lei Jun participated in a commercial talk show "Bo Shi Tang", and the host asked Lei Jun: "If you don't have Jinshan in your life, what else?" ”
Lei Jun said: "I firmly believe that I was invited because I was the president of Kingsoft. I really hope that in the future, because I am Lei Jun, I am sitting here. Two months later, Lei Jun resigned as president and CEO of Kingsoft on the grounds that he was physically and mentally exhausted.
In fact, from Lei Jun's experience, I still understand him quite well.
Young and famous, full of spirit, at that time he was like a ranger, everything was under his control; joining Kingsoft, competing with Microsoft, and the era of rampant piracy, making him passive and forceful, as if fighting against the trend.
Founded Xiaomi, fought for 11 years, Lei Jun followed the trend
After resigning, Lei Jun had money and leisure, became an angel investor, and successively invested in many new generation enterprises such as Lakala, UC Browser, Vanke Eslite, Shangpin.com, Lexun Community, Good Doctor, etc., which saved contacts and experience for him to do Xiaomi ecology in the future.
Lei Jun, as a technology enthusiast, with the release of Apple's mobile phone and the open source of the Android system, he saw opportunities in mobile phones. In addition, at the beginning of 2009, the domestic 3G license was issued to the hands of the three major operators, and a new era of mobile networks was coming.
Lei Jun, who had rested for two years, was eager to move, in such a wave of technological updates, he could not keep himself out of the matter, he was a hipster, not panicking in the center of the wave. People who knew him well already felt that Lei Jun was about to re-emerge from the jianghu.
One snowy night in December 2009, in the Beijing Lounge Café, Lei Jun called bi Sheng, Li Wanqiang and other friends to drink, he appeared sad, frustrated, contradictory, bottle after bottle of drinking, when the group dispersed, Lei Jun left a sentence: Go with the flow, do not move against the trend.
The "potential" that Lei Jun said is the mobile Internet, the era of smart phones. The business model foundation he built in his heart has been formed, and the three major elements of hardware, software and the Internet have been put in place.
In 2010, Lei Jun founded Xiaomi and started his own business, and he could no longer miss this wave. Successful people are all products of history and environment, and are the crystallization of opportunities and accumulation.
He found Lin Bin, global technical director of Google, Li Wanqiang, design director of Kingsoft Software, Huang Jiangji, engineering director of Microsoft Windows Mobile, Hong Feng, engineer of Google Maps Street View project, Liu De, industrial designer of American Art Center College, and Zhou Guangping, senior director of Motorola's Beijing R&D Center.
Lei Jun's millet porridge covenant
Lei Jun's entrepreneurial partners are from Google, Microsoft, Kingsoft, Motorola and other executives, in a period of time, the company quickly gathered the talents of these first-class companies, everyone is eager to set off a huge wave in the trend of the times.
Lei Jun and several founders unanimously decided to start with the mobile phone operating system that the team is best at, and then cut into the hardware after the system is smoothly popularized.
Xiaomi's operating system, naturally called MIUI, does the best brushing ROM, so that mobile phone enthusiasts fall in love with this operating system, which is the original intention of MIUI.
In June 2010, the iPhone 4 was released, setting off a boom in the Chinese market. Immediately after, the Android system beat the Symbian system and became the first mobile operating system. This year became a turning point in the transition from functional machines to smart machines.
In August 2010, the first version of MIUI was released, which brings together the efforts of 100 early users of the MIUI forum and Xiaomi engineers.
Xiaomi mobile phone has not yet been made, Xiaomi's MIUI forum has accumulated 500,000 fans, 300,000 active users, they come from all walks of life, various countries, MIUI system has been translated into 24 Chinese words have been circulated and used.
More and more enthusiasts brushed the MIUI system, in addition to marveling at the smoothness of MIUI, they often encountered the caton of mobile phones, and Xiaomi's strategy of producing its own mobile phones was put on the agenda.
In order to get the hardware supplier, Lei Jun and Lin Bin can only personally go to the front line to negotiate with the supplier, although lei jun has long been a legend in the software and Internet world, but in the supply chain world, Lei Jun is just a strange name.
Relying on his connections in the investment, financial, software and Internet circles, Lei Jun walked into the conference rooms of suppliers and repeated the opening words of "Hello everyone, I am Lei Jun".
After non-stop visits, Xiaomi's hardware suppliers began to gradually run through: Qualcomm flagship chips, Sharp screens, Nanjing IAC foundries, etc., one by one signed cooperation with Xiaomi.
On August 16, 2011, Lei Jun came to beijing 798 Art Center wearing dozens of pieces of fanke eslite black T-shirts and jeans, as well as dozens of yuan of Letao.com canvas shoes.
The venue, which originally accommodated 500 people, was squeezed into 800 people, and everyone was waiting for an important moment - the release of The Xiaomi 1 generation mobile phone.
Xiaomi 1 generation mobile phone, dual-core 1.5G, 4-inch screen, 8 million pixels, ever-changing theme, versatile lock screen, MIUI system developed by Internet mode, and 1999 yuan pricing, the announcement of each parameter has made the rice noodles on the scene applaud and scream.
You know, at that time, the same configuration of mobile phones needed about 4,000 yuan, and Xiaomi directly reduced the price by half!
The Millet generation mobile phone that came out of nowhere made 300,000 rice noodles who had never met before feel the sincerity of Millet, and at the press conference, there were rice noodles shouting "Rebbs!" ”
At this moment, Lei Jun's clothing and demeanor are indeed somewhat similar to Jobs's press conference at the Mosconian Convention Center.
The release of the Xiaomi generation of mobile phones has opened the prelude to the Xiaomi era.
From 2011 to the present (January 2022), Xiaomi mobile phones have successively released Xiaomi digital series, Mix series, cc series, Redmi digital series, note series, K series, covering high-end, high-end and low-end users.
When it was founded 7 years ago, Xiaomi's annual revenue exceeded 100 billion yuan, and it was listed on the main board of Hong Kong in July 2018.
Now in the past 11 years of entrepreneurship, Lei Jun has taken Xiaomi as its base camp, invested more than 500 enterprises through its own Shun as capital, and incubated dozens of industry unicorn enterprises, sitting on 4 listed companies: Xiaomi Group, Kingsoft Software, Kingsoft Office, Kingsoft Cloud.
Xiaomi investment ecological chain (picture from the network)
In December 2021, Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi has more than 16,000 engineers and plans to increase R&D investment to 100 billion yuan in the next 5 years, a dead end to hardcore technology.
Xiaomi, from the very beginning was rejected by various suppliers, to the current suppliers chasing cooperation, becoming a Fortune 500 company, all the way with praise and depreciation, maintain love, and move forward.
Xiaomi entered the world's top 500 enterprises in July 2019
Betting on cars, injecting 10 billion yuan, Lei Jun embarked on a new journey
In March 2021, Lei Jun announced that he was involved in the "crown of manufacturing" automobile manufacturing, saying that he was willing to put on all the achievements and reputation of his life savings and fight for Xiaomi Cars.
Lei Jun's car reminds me of the four words when he founded Xiaomi: go with the flow. He believes that the field of smart cars is already a must for soldiers, Xiaomi mobile phones may become a traditional industry in the future, Xiaomi does not build cars, will be abandoned by the times.
In September 2021, Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd. was officially registered, injected 10 billion yuan, and the first factory was located in Beijing Yizhuang, and is expected to be mass-produced in the first half of 2024.
Lei Jun is not an entrepreneur who is willing to accept the status quo, and he is even more unwilling to stand idly by in the tide of the times.
He once changed China's mobile phone industry with the "triathlon" business model of software + hardware + Internet; now, can he change the smart automotive industry in this way?
Some people believe that Lei Jun chooses to build a car, the challenge is greater than the opportunity, and the threat is greater than the advantage. But whether he can build a car successfully or not, how can the 52-year-old not be admired for his courage and attempts to bet on everything again?
Although Xiaomi's marketing is always criticized, Lei Jun is pragmatic, the attitude of operating Xiaomi is solid, and the courage to dare to embark on a new journey is worthy of respect!
Write at the end
Why did Lei Jun fight so hard? I think there are three points.
In Jinshan, he is fighting for the grace of Bojun's knowledge and development, and his expectations for himself do not allow him to do nothing;
Founding Xiaomi, this is a goal he set for himself by taking advantage of the trend, and it is a benchmark and a milestone that he must set up for his life;
Fighting for Xiaomi Cars is (probably) his last venture, Xiaomi's development requires him to be far-reaching, and the trend of the times is pushing him to this track.
Looking at Lei Jun's experience along the way, you will find that he has a strong sense of purpose and is a fierce person with ideals! Doing his best to do what he is doing is the true portrayal of Lei Jun, and he will not be willing to be idle.
Seeing this, you may wish to leave a message to talk about your views on Lei Jun, or what do you think of Lei Jun's car? Comments are welcome.
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