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Andy Zhong Enjoying Success in Founding New Companies
Although only 30 years old, low-key serial entrepreneur Andy Zhong already has an impressive list of accomplishments to his name. He started one company and sold it, and his newest venture has already raised around US$25 million (about NT$800 million) in less than a month of fundraising. Zhong is the founder of the FunPlus Group and is also founder and CEO of Next Entertainment, which recently launched the MeMe platform in Taiwan.
Zhong has been operating internet businesses for 7 years and has gained experience in several different fields. Despite his seasoned experience, he retains a youthful demeanor, including a very a casual style of dress.
This refreshing outlook is in contrast to other internet leaders, such as Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma or Cheetah Mobile’s Fu Sheng. Zhong seems like more of an engineer with a shy demeanor, and doesn’t seek out interaction with a crowd.
But in private, behind his thick black-rimmed glasses, Zhong is an altogether different person. He traveled to the Nevada desert to take part in the 8-day Burning Man Festival, and has a deep fondness for sports such as skiing.
And when he explain his passions and dreams, he’s not a cold rational engineer. But rather he’s someone whose constitution is more akin to that of an artist, and at the same time a philosopher.
Turning back the clock to 9 years ago, Zhong had just developed two very popular Facebook games: Birthday Cards and Zoo World. He also held the post of Vice President of TheGameNet.com. But in 2010 he decided to return to China to start new ventures.
He remembers that when most people heard him say he wanted to start a gaming company they responded with disdain. Even his close friends tried to persuade him saying that “you are so popular in Silicon Valley, why are you coming back and working so hard?"
Zhong admits that when he came back, "I knew nothing about the Chinese market at the beginning.” Furthermore, there were an estimated 3,000 game companies just in Chengdu, China, at the time, and if one looks at the whole country, it’s no exaggeration to say that there were more than 10,000 such companies. Zhong says he knew he had to quickly learn about the market or he wouldn’t survive.
Zhong said the company developed very slowly at the beginning, but in the past three years it has been growing very rapidly, with Family Farm generating more than US$200 million in revenue.
Looking back upon his accomplishments, Zhong is quite modest, saying he’s simply been committed to core values and the importance of the user experience and platform innovation.
"Of course many companies will say that we are simply playing games,” said Zhong, but he added that in fact one needs to be quite focused and committed to something for a long period of time to succeed in the market.
Zhong says FunPlus was created by people from a mix of different cultures. Although they had limited office space, he always had the goal of creating an international company. As he imagines it, the Taiwan office should have a global capacity and vision, and be competitive with Silicon Valley.
In 2014 Zhong sold off profitable parts of the company, such as Family Farm and a Facebook Texas Hold'em game which brought in US$960 million. While outsiders may be puzzled by the move, Zhong believes that the team behind the creation is the most important asset. He believes that as long as the team is intact, there is the chance of yet another successful venture
In fact, it wasn’t hard for Zhong to raise US$25 million in just one month despite a slowdown in internet investment. His reputation alone was able to attract money for Next Entertainment, a newly established company with products just beginning to be launched.
Next Entertainment began operating in Taiwan last October, and on January 10th officially launched MeMe. The launch coincides with a similar market expansion in Japan.
Formed in 2015, MeMe already has more than 100 million downloads worldwide, and the number of active users has reached 15 million daily, with more than 200 entertainment stars currently using the platform.
MeMe hopes that focusing its expansion primarily on the Taiwan and Japan markets will better serve the company. At the moment, Zhong says the Taiwan office has more than 10 employees, with continued recruitment expected. Zhong sees no limit on the number of people the company can hire, but he truly hopes to find staff that share his same entrepreneurial spirit.
Since the start of MeMe in Taiwan last October, Zhong says that operations have been "very good", but he didn’t want to disclose actual operating figures.
Instead, he offered a longer term outlook, stating "We hope to lay the foundation over the next 3-6 months. We all know that it takes a very long time to do this work. Everyone knows we can’t just finish this work tonight and collect money the next morning.” Zhong’s seasoned approach to business just may pay off in the long run.
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