Under the Banyan Tree, the earliest original literary site, is now very unremarkable.
I know that when there was such a literary website, it was still the king of digital literature, but unfortunately, after entering the third decade of the new century, it is completely reduced to a small bronze.
I tried to think about it, and in my memory it seems that in the zero years, some people on the Internet will click the name under the banyan tree from time to time, as for now, do you remember it?
For example, for a new generation of online novel readers, how many have heard of this site? I'm afraid I can't find one out of twenty readers.
Banyan tree under the home page
The purpose of writing this article today is not to recommend big guys to read novels under the banyan tree, and men can't find novels to read on this website.
Mainly because I am more bored, after learning about some of the events in the history of the development of online novels, I personally feel that some places are more interesting, so I want to write it down here and sort out the knowledge reserves.
At the same time, there is also a small purpose, share it with the big guys to see, and learn about some of the past in the history of online novels.
Here, I will mainly talk about the online novel platform under the banyan tree, how it rose from scratch to rise at that time.
It was at the end of 1997, and it was New Year's Day a few days away. On this day, a Chinese-American named William Zhu created a personal website in Shanghai called Under the Banyan Tree, which is the predecessor of the Banyan Tree Original Chinese Novel Network.
Why is it the predecessor, because at that time the website was still operating in the form of a personal homepage, not as a company. This is somewhat similar to the United States on the other side of the Pacific.
Two years later, William Chu found that literary sites seemed promising, and he registered a company under the name of Banyan Tree.
At this time, Banyan Tree can be regarded as a literary website in the true sense, or more professional.
From the time point of the establishment of this website, it can be seen that William Zhu is moving literature and art from the paper to the Internet, and to create a professional literary website with a purpose, and he is considered to be the earliest batch of entrepreneurs.
As the first person who dares to eat crabs, as long as he is not poisoned, then the next road will naturally have a first-mover advantage over the latecomers.
This is important because it's easy to remember who the first one is, but not necessarily the second one. It's the same way you can remember who the elementary school class president is, but scratch your head and can't remember who the chinese class representative is.
Of course, the success of entrepreneurship, in addition to the timing needs to be grasped, the personal ability of the founder also occupies a very important proportion.
In the past, when people discussed the rise and fall of this literary site under the banyan tree, they rarely touched on the topic of the founder. So, here I would like to say a few more words about the founder under the banyan tree.
Looking at some information about William Zhu, the founder of Banyan Tree, you will find that during that period, an American would come to China alone to develop, which is a very surprising thing.
In particular, he is still engaged in a nascent industry related to the Internet.
For a long time, the entire Internet actually had only one center, and that was the United States. But now there are two centers, we in China and the United States,
From this point of view, William Zhu is a very aggressive person and a very adventurous guy in his bones.
In terms of his professional experience, he is also a very intelligent entrepreneur.
A guy with vigor, brains, and a little entrepreneurial spirit, was able to make such a novel website under the banyan tree, and quickly developed into the largest literary website in China at that time, it seems that it is no longer so difficult to understand.
More importantly, William Zhu, who is an American and grew up in the United States, is well versed in the operation of American capital.
As an Internet company, what is the most important point for Banyan Tree to be favored by capital? It has to be able to publicize, what is the most effective propaganda, is that there must be a story to tell.
In 2000, a novel called "Message of Life" was serialized on the Banyan Tree Novel website, which was hotly discussed for a time.
Why does this novel catch fire because the novel causes readers to think about life? I don't think it's all for that reason.
When you know that the novel is written by a cancer patient, your impression of the novel will definitely become different, and your understanding of the novel will immediately become different.
Is this novel still a novel, no, it is more of a literary and artistic interpretation of human life.
And this is one of the stories that the founder under the banyan tree, William Zhu, found for his literary website.
Here, I will not discuss whether it is moral to publicize this kind of thing, the operation is good, and it is difficult for ordinary people to feel that there are traces of business here.
In fact, no one would have discussed whether a Chinese-American was moral or not.
From the results of this incident, it can be seen that after being reported by countless media, the novel website under the banyan tree has become famous ever since.
At that time, the vast majority of young literature lovers who wanted to write novels would prefer the platform under the banyan tree, which is a bit like today's countless online novel writers will first consider going to the starting point.
Some of the more well-known authors such as Han Han, Guo Jingming and Baby Anne have their names under the banyan tree.
In the eyes of those investors, this novel website has more selling points since then, this website has more imagination space, and its value is improving.
If everything goes smoothly and follows the development route set by William Zhu to banyan tree, it will not be long before this novel platform can be listed.
The record of the first domestic literary listed company is therefore at least ten years in advance.
Unfortunately, accidents will always appear outside the expectations, and it can also be said that the founder of Zhu William is unlucky. At this point in 2001, the entire Internet bubble was inevitably squeezed out, and countless Internet entrepreneurs returned to the pre-liberation period overnight.
The market value of connected companies that have already been listed has been greatly reduced, and those that have not yet been listed, such as start-ups such as Banyan Tree, are even more distant from the road to listing.
Not only is there no hope of listing, but in the eyes of investors, Internet companies are no longer so attractive, and even some investors are beginning to avoid this nascent industry.
This is why, after 2002, Banyan Tree, as the largest literary platform in China at that time, will change hands. That's why William Chu ended up selling the site for $10 million.
Here are my personal views:
In the final analysis, although William Zhu is the founder of the banyan tree, he himself is actually not optimistic about the development of online literature.
The reason is that he is an American, and even the United States, which was the center of the Internet industry at that time, has not yet had a successful literary website born.
The reason why he went to establish such a literary website is to see that the Internet industry is constantly creating a myth of wealth creation, and its purpose is only to hope that under the banyan tree, he can use the entrepreneurial trend of the Internet industry to successfully go public, and then make a profit.
This can also be seen in the fact that he cleanly sold all his shares under the banyan tree after seeing the entire dot-com bubble burst.
And after he sold the website, he did not continue to mix in the circle of online texts, but became a professional manager, and then continued to start a business in other fields.