Resignation from IBM

The bean seedling in Jack and the Magic Bean, a Grimm fairy tale, climbed to the sky overnight, and Douban seems to have such magic. Starting with an angel investment of 2, yuan from one person, Douban has quickly achieved more than 4, registered users in one year. This website, which collects books, movies, music reviews and recommendations, has been recognized as a pioneer in China's Web2. era. Yang Bo, the founder of Douban.com, has also become a man of the hour in the Web2. era.

Yang Bo, graduated from the Physics Department of Tsinghua University, and received his Ph.D. from the Physics Department of the University of California. This young man, who calls himself "in his thirties", has a net name of "Abei", and his online avatar is an angry youth with his head wrapped in red cloth. But when he met face to face, he revealed his true colors: he looked younger than his actual age, tall but not loud, gentle and even a little shy, a typical science student's appearance, and a literary youth's heart. Three years ago, he lived in Douban Hutong near Chaoyangmen, Beijing, and frequented Starbucks nearby, holding a stripped Apple notebook and frantically compiling a bunch of programs that people couldn't understand-half of the programs of Douban were written in Starbucks, and the name came from Douban Hutong.

This "turtle" went ashore and returned to China only because his job at IBM in the United States was too stable. "I can imagine my position, salary and benefits decades later with my eyes closed. But people around me are talking about returning to China to start a business. " With a vision and challenge for the future, he sold his car and furniture and resigned from IBM to return home.

after returning to China, I tried the water for the first time, and I joined "Quick Step Yi Jie" as the chief technology officer. Like many companies with lofty ideals in those years, the goal of "Kuaibu" is to become the most important logistics networking solution provider in China. However, "after going through the process of financing and burning money,' Quick Step' failed to move forward towards the goal". The biggest lesson he learned from "Fast Yi Jie" is to at least do what he likes. In this way, no matter what the result is, the process is happy.

Gather "like-minded people"

Yang Bo is determined to make his favorite website.

at first, he chose to travel. Just halfway through the page, Yang Bo found the plan too small. In busy China, few people will spend a lot of time and money just for backpacking, so it is difficult for such marginalized websites to gather popularity.

Yang Bo turned to books. Reading is more popular than traveling. He is a book lover, but like many people, he despises the ranking of best-selling books and the recommendation of media editors, and would rather go to a corner and look for some more niche non-mainstream books and periodicals. "If there is such a website with people similar to me, we can communicate with each other, know what is better now, and share our feelings with you. At least for me, this is a useful website."

In March 25, Douban, a website for book reviews, film reviews and music reviews, developed and operated by one person, began to "wander" in the online world. When Douban appeared on the Internet for the first time, it was quite lonely in bred in an inner chamber, with no one knowing her. Yang Bo is sweating and staring at the monitor and constantly brushing the screen. The first string of footprints left by a netizen named "Bored to the core" on Douban. com made him realize what mixed feelings are, just like a new father hearing his child's first cry.

the positioning of douban. com is to help you find something you like. How to do this? Yang Bo was inspired by real life. "A bunch of people are chatting. When you talk about a book, a colleague jumps out and says that I have seen it. You will talk and talk about other books. " The most effective influence on most people often comes from relatives, friends and colleagues, and a casual recommendation or two not only conveys their own true feelings, but also includes the judgment of your taste and the subsequent screening.

Now Douban.com has expanded the recommended groups, so that strangers with similar tastes can come together. Douban. com has no editors and writers, and there are no special articles. All the contents, classification, screening and sorting here are generated by registered members themselves. Once you register as a "bean friend", you can upload the books, music and movies you collect and recommend on your own page, and through the technology behind the website, you can know how many strangers are reading the same book and watching the same disc with you, their comments and preferences. As long as you click on their heads, you can add them as "friends and neighbors" and gradually form a small circle. "This can be understood as a personal network with books and other specific objects as the medium."

"If you are a bookstore, there is a problem of inventory restriction. Books that you haven't purchased are not in the database. But Douban is different. As long as someone has seen it, it can be added, and its space has no cost. " There are currently 8, kinds of books on Douban. The database is connected with Dangdang, Zhuoyue and Amazon. Users can also add some old books themselves, which often surprises book lovers.

Douban has accumulated tens of millions of records about who is reading what books and who likes what music. Here, you can soon find friends who share the same rotten tastes, and establish a circle where birds of a feather flock together and people are divided into groups.

Like all Web2. websites, Yang Bo claims to be "free forever" for users.

"Douyou" became an employee

For a long time at first, Yang Bo was basically the only one who made Douban. "In the beginning, the website only needs to pay attention to the core values such as book reviews and book recommendations, and there is no need to put up such a big shelf." Yang Bo said, "I couldn't afford so many people at that time."

in March 26, on the first anniversary of Douban's official launch, Douban welcomed its second official employee, Brant. This year is the third year after Douban went online. At present, there are about 25 people in the team. Only last winter, Yang Bo held a job fair in colleges and universities, which expanded many talents he was satisfied with.