Weibo: Zuckerberg Charms China At Tsinghua, Xiaomi Events
Chinese tech executives have been buzzing for much of the past week over Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) founder Mark Zuckerberg, who was working hard to charm many of China’s high-tech elite on a semi-official visit to Beijing. Zuckerberg was in town to attend an event at the prestigious Tsinghua University, often called the MIT of China. But he also found time to visit smartphone sensation Xiaomi, where he received abundant praise from company officials led by the increasingly influential and high-profile CEO Lei Jun.
Separately, 2 homegrown Chinese tech legends also received widespread praise and admiration, as Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) veteran Chen Tong and Zhang Xiangdong, president of recently listed mobile game maker Sungy Mobile (Nasdaq: GOMO), both announced they would leave their longtime employers. The departures of this pair also drew a certain degree of reflection and nostalgia, as many noted the passing of the Internet from an earlier generation of technology enthusiasts to a new, younger group of more marketing-savvy, seasoned business people.
Such change is a constant theme on China’s Internet, and Facebook’s youthful Mark Zuckerberg was certainly hoping to tap into such sentiment on his widely reported trip to China. Facebook has been blocked in the country since 2009 due to its inclusion of sensitive user-generated content that is not subject to Beijing’s strict censorship rules. But Zuckerberg has made no secret of his desire to enter the market, and regularly visits China to test the political winds.
His latest trip was quite high-profile compared to previous ones, as he attended an event where he was also nominated as an advisory member of Tsinghua’s School of Economics and Management. (previous post) Rather than focusing on the content of what he said, Chinese media and those in attendance were fixated on the fact that Zuckerberg gave his remarks in Mandarin, which he has only recently begun studying.
The Zuckerberg lovefest began with a post from Lin Jiashu, vice president of US-listed e-commerce company LightInTheBox (NYSE: LITB), who reposted photos of Tsinghua’s president Chen Jining meeting with Zuckerberg and remarks that Facebook looked forward to working more closely with the prestigious Chinese university. Among those who attended the event was Zeng Xuezhong, head of the cellphone unit of ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063), who commented both on Zuckerberg’s Chinese and also on how his visit reflected his determination to enter the China market. (microblog post)
Facebook’s China love affair later moved to Xiaomi’s Beijing offices, where Zuckerberg once again wowed company employees with his Chinese and also had a lengthy meal with CEO and co-founder Lei Jun. In his microblog post, Lei complimented Zuckerberg’s Chinese, saying it was better than his own English, and said they spent much of their time discussing his own company’s plans to go global. (microblog post) A wide range of other Xiaomi officials made similar remarks praising Zuckerberg and his Chinese.
I don’t want to be too cynical, but Zuckerberg’s charm offensive certainly looks quite calculated and targeted at winning over skeptical Beijing leaders. Tsinghua is China’s top science and technology university, and gained major “face” through Zuckerberg’s visit. Likewise, Zuckerberg’s willingness to make time to discuss globalization strategies with a high-profile rising tech star like Xiaomi also looks designed to capture the attention of Beijing leaders. Of course we’ll have to wait and see if the charm offensive bears any fruit.
Meantime, let’s close out this weekly microblogging round-up with some high-profile praise for 2 Chinese tech executives who are stepping down after years of helping to build names for companies they helped to found. Sungy Mobile announced Zhang Xiangdong would leave the company he co-founded to pursue unspecified entrepreneurial endeavors, while Sina’s chief editor Chen Tong said he would also leave his longtime employer of nearly 2 decades.
Zhang was quite sentimental in his series of microblog posts, reflecting wistfully on a company he helped to found and likening the past 10 years to a ride on a bicycle where the goal is to remain riding and not fall over. (microblog post) The long list of well wishes included microblog posts from executives at PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992) and search engine Sougou. The sentiment was well summarized by ZTE executive Ni Fei, who commented on how lucky Zhang was to be able to turn his own passion into a career over the last decade. (microblog post)
Finally there was Chen Tong, whose departure from Sina drew even more attention, including both well wishes and an equal amount of speculation on where his next move might take him. Chen himself was mute on the latter subject.
But Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) vice president Yu Guangdong denied knowing anything about rumors that his company might be preparing to hire Chen. (microblog post) Other potential rumored employers mentioned included Xiaomi, as well as US electric car sensation Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA). But the broader sentiment was certainly that Chen’s departure is part of a change of guard that is seeing an early generation of Chinese Internet pioneers slowing get forced out of the companies they helped to found and build up.
