The TechCrunch International Event in Beijing is now less than a month away! From August 11 to 12, the event will feature talks, roundtable discussions and startup pitches. Guests to take stage this time range from well-known hardware technologists, high-profile venture capitalists to rising entrepreneurs.
Among our guests are three big-name entrepreneurs whose startups have landed major investments:
Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of Sogou
Sogou is now valued at $7.6 billion since Tencent made a $448 million investment in 2013 for a share of 36.5%. Wang Xiaochuan became the youngest vice president at Sohu after he led the Sogou Input team to successfully net 500 million users. This user base would later become Sogou Search Engine’s trump card in rivaling Baidu and SOSO.
Wang also introduced to China’s Internet industry the “three-stage rocket” model, with the input software, browser and search service as the three sub-rockets. In 2010, Wang took up CEO of Sogou. In 2011, Sogou became the second largest search engine service in China.
Is the three-stage rocket model Sogou’s killer app still? What’s the future of the search engine market? Wang will share his insights at the event
Zhang Yiming, CEO of Toutiao
Since Toutiao raised $100 million series C funding this June, its value has reached over $500 million. In less than two years after its launch, Toutiao became one of the most popular personalized feed readers in China. Empowered by data mining and machine learning, Toutiao has over 120 million registered users and 40 million active monthly users.
A series entrepreneur, Zhang Yiming has either worked at or founded Internet companies including SyncWrite, travel search service Kuxun, social network Hainei, property rental site 99fang, among others. Toutiao’s vision is to connect people with the most relevant information within the shortest amount of time, making information gathering more efficient in this age of information overload.
Popularity aside, Toutiao has been questioned by mainstream media for copyright infringement issues. What alternative monetization models are out there for content distributors? How does a news app acquire users? Let’s look forward to Zhang’s thoughts.
Arthur Shen, COO of VIPABC
This February, Online language-learning service VIPABC landed a record-breaking funding in China’s education industry in a round led by Alibaba, among other parties including Temasek and Qiming.
The Silicon Valley-based development team has built a proprietary technology platform that combines software, individual student’s history and data analytics to customize classes for language learners.
With more than 2000 teachers in 30 countries, TutorGroup provides real-time interactive language learning experiences. Annual users has reached 2.3 million. It’s currently working on a new product called VIPABC Jr targeted at users of age 8-18 in the Greater China region.
How did VIPABC come up with a solution that works for learners across the globe? Will it be able to replicate its previous success to VIPABC Jr? We will hear from Arthur Shen on stage.