Zhao Nan is not the first time that WeChat has made Zhang Xiaolong famous, but the domestic software industry has branded his mark. Zhang Xiaolong is known in the industry for his Foxmail, which is the first time that Zhang Xiaolong has become famous. This email client software launched from 1996 has attracted 2 million users in the four years of 2000. This software, which can make most people give up the Outlook mailbox that comes with Microsoft system, was also rated as 5-star software by ZDnet, the most famous technology website in the United States at that time. In 2000, in a cafe in Zhongguancun, Beijing, Zhang Xiaolong's first impression to media reporter Li Xueling was that he was always as calm as water, without the confidence and pride he imagined. However, in this conversation, Zhang Xiaolong told Li Xueling that he wanted to sell Foxmail to his friends and then go to the United States alone. At that time, Zhang Xiaolong some depressed. 2000 was also the first year of the Internet bubble. After the Foxmail version, Zhang Xiaolong has rarely updated it. She reads the encouraging emails sent by users every night. I almost took refuge in Lei Jun. In fact, as early as 1998, Lei Jun, general manager of Jinshan Software, had already taken a fancy to Foxmail and had the idea of acquisition at that time. 1one day in September, 998, Lei Jun found out the secret BUG of Foxmail login and sent a letter to Zhang Xiaolong according to the email address left by Foxmail software. Zhang Xiaolong also responded quickly and left his phone number in the email. Lei Jun first told Zhang Xiaolong about the BUG he found on the phone. Zhang Xiaolong responded on the other end of the phone:? Many people complain that there is something wrong with the secret, and I don't know what it is. Thank you. ? When Yang Miao, a technology blogger, found some problems with WeChat and found Zhang Xiaolong more than ten years later, Yang Miao said that Zhang Xiaolong also had the above plain and modest tone. On the phone, Lei Jun learned that Zhang Xiaolong was working in a system integration company in Guangzhou. Lei Jun began to cut to the chase. Can he sell Foxmail to Jinshan? Zhang Xiaolong responded: 1.5 million. This telephone conversation is almost over. Lei Jun recalled that 6.5438+0.5 million was the price acceptable to both parties on the phone at that time. Originally intended to invite Zhang Xiaolong to discuss specific details in Jinshan, Zhuhai. However, because Lenovo was busy injecting capital into Jinshan, R&D personnel sent to negotiate with Zhang Xiaolong thought that Jinshan could make such a software within 654.38+0-2 months. Then it disappeared. In March 2005, Tencent acquired Foxmail. Why did Tencent acquire Foxmail? At that time, the Foxmail team, including Zhang Xiaolong, had only 20 people and less than 5 million users. Ma Hua Teng told the media at that time that Tencent valued Foxmail's technology and customers. At that time, the number of netizens in China just exceeded 1 100 million, and the number of netizens will increase exponentially in the next three or four years. Ma believes that this period is the key time for Tencent to win customers. Among Foxmail's 5 million users, 3 million users were not covered by Tencent before. After Tencent's acquisition, Zhang Xiaolong's Foxmail team has been living in Guangzhou, becoming the R&D department of Tencent in Guangzhou, and its main products have been around Tencent's mailbox business. A whole year after the acquisition, its products were integrated with Tencent, and it was the first to show the entrance on Tencent enterprise TM client. In the following years, Zhang Xiaolong and his team have been completing the transition from client to Web. Among them, it also tries to explore the mailbox from the instrumentality of the network to the sociality. Products include reading space, drift bottles, etc. ? Washington, DC? Those things 2011/wechat developed by Yan Guang's team in Zhang Xiaolong went online, and this product also brought him a greater aura. In fact, the success of WeChat is inevitable and accidental. Peng Zhijian, head of Tencent's investment department, once told this newspaper that before WeChat came out, Tencent had three departments working on products similar to WeChat. So, the question is, why did Zhang Xiaolong succeed? This is also a question in the hearts of many Tencent insiders. Due to the historical reasons that Zhang Xiaolong team and Foxmail merged into Tencent, the R&D center in Guangzhou, where Guangdong Zhang Xiaolong team is located, can be regarded as a piece planned by Tencent? Washington, DC? . This Washington? For a long time, there is no need to undertake complicated internal affairs like other departments of Tencent, and this reason also enables Zhang Xiaolong's Guangzhou R&D Center to grow freely under the huge system of Tencent. This kind? Washington, DC? Sex is also the envy of other Tencent departments. Zhang Xiaolong's personality is also suitable for Tencent? Washington, DC? And Li's strength, in Ma's view, is also in line with the character and style of the current mobile Internet. People who have had many contacts with Zhang Xiaolong say that he is a man with? Faner? People. This kind? Faner? Not to write your temper on your face, but to obey your inner persistence and your exquisite and indifferent attitude. Warm and low-key, is Zhang Xiaolong's character label. Hongbo, a partner of 5G Consulting, said, Who is Zhang Xiaolong? How low-key is it That man. And then what? Hard to see? , is already a very strange degree. In addition, Zhang Xiaolong, who is hidden behind tenderness, also has strong persistence. Under the big company system, it is more difficult to touch the interests than the soul? There are more and more people, but Zhang Xiaolong can still follow his heart. BD appeals from other departments found him, and Zhang Xiaolong dared to refuse, but other executives may not be able to follow their hearts. Another top domestic marketing mogul said that WeChat refused to cooperate with all marketing companies and advertising companies at present, because in Zhang Xiaolong's view, WeChat is still a strong relationship product to solve interpersonal communication, and the biggest requirement of this product is not to harass users. So, what about WeChat next? Bigger is a matter of great concern to the industry. In the infant and growth stage of products, there is no doubt that Zhang Xiaolong is the best person to answer this question, but any product that develops to the core strategic level of the Group will be handed over to a higher decision-making level. So, at that time, was Zhang Can Xiaolong still speaking for WeChat?