Jian Shuo Wang at Kijiji China

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Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. I have something to announce. :-)

One month ago, I made a serious decision.

I decided to leave the company I have worked for 6 years. Microsoft is a great company. I enjoyed the wonderful time I had in the last 6 years. I experienced roles from engineer to business development manager, from developer to tester, from project manager to consultant, from trainer to team manager, from community buildup to partner buildup. The six years mean more for me than others. To be honest, it was not as painful a decision as I thought. I wrote in my farewell email: “The fruits don’t feel the pain when picked up after completely mature in autumn”.

I miss my friends there, the days and night I spent in the Metro Tower and everything I was so passionate. I started new things every year and every year is a fresh start for me. Six-year is not long, but it is by no means short in one’s life. I don’t know how many six years I have. I own deep appreciation to this company and to everyone I had obliged to work with. Now, I call myself an ex-Microsoft employee. :-)

The second day I left, I joined another great company: eBay. I will run the eBay’s new venture, Kijiji, in China. I was deeply moved when I talked with great people in eBay. Their passion to help people, the highest level of ethics, and their passion attracted me a lot. Kijiji is a online classified business, and it has the potential to change everyone’s life in China. I see more Ayi got their job via classified (although there should be some ways other than online to reach them); I see people in the same neighborhood stepping out of their doors and starting to meet each other based on common hobby (just as Kijiji, “village” in Swahili implies); I see more arts and gathering become prosperous in Shanghai, in Beijing and in all the cities we launched the site… It is an exciting new world for me to explore. I am honored to be able to lead the team to do something meaningful for people. The passion is there. I can feel it. There is something in common between Kijiji and this blog. Just like I built up this community with passion and the willingness to share, I believe Kijiji will be a community with greater impact.

I didn’t announce it immediately after the change. After about one month, I am pretty sure I figured out where I am going and feel comfortable to share the news with everyone. The senior management team supports me to continue the blog, and I definitely will. As you may feel, I wasn’t able to update this blog as often as before (I missed three days or four in the last month). If there is a post, you may find it posted pretty late (1:00 AM in the morning?) You know what to expect when a completely new business opens in a new market. I have my own commitment to the company and will devote most of the time on it.

If you like, please drop by to my new site Kijiji.cn, and post your classified. I will be happy to see more people mentioning it in their blogs – no matter positive review or negative. At least, you may feel some connection with the newly born site – there is something you are familiar behind this site. Drop me an email if you have any comment. You know whom you should yell to if something does not work well. I love to get your direct feedback.

My friends, my readers, I appreciate your support in the past and I am looking forward to your continuous support. I owe big thanks to everyone who read my blog, comments on this blog, and write about this blog. I will definitely continue. It needs some courage to disclose this in a highly competitive market and there are too much uncertainty in PR or legal perspective :-), so let me put the disclaimer, that whatever I expressed on this blog only represents my personal opinion, and does not present my employer. As always, I will continue the mission of this website: To bring first hand information to help visitors and expats to Shanghai. “Life is short. Let’s have more fun.”

34 thoughts on “Jian Shuo Wang at Kijiji China”

  2. congratulations!

    关于kijiji的一些思考：

    1）人气不足。可能需要和其他网站合作来提高知名度。

    2）收费。早报网的分类广告曾用手机作为收费平台，效果不错，国内手机普及率高，也可考虑。

    3）定位。THATS杂志的分类广告也就几大类，KIJIJI目前是包罗万象，太分散了。可以参考一些报纸上比较热门的分类广告，先做一小部分，先”窄而深”再”宽而深”比较合适。其实80%的领域生意是很少的。

    4）技术。应该是商业模式的问题，而不是技术的问题。现在的操作已经有些看不懂了，老王一来，会不会出现”技术第一”的倾向呢？忧虑中…

  3. So, Bill must be in quite a chock now, I guess !

    I wish you all well in your new position !

    I hope to be there on saturday for the photo-show event.

    By the way, is Kijiji something that we “non-chinese” can enjoy, or is it only in chinese ?

  4. Carman, thanks.

    bingfeng, thanks for your congrats and suggestions. I agree with your point 1, 2, and 3. For technology, don’t worry. I am a business many with technolog background. Now, the major software I use is Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. :-) I am no longer a technical guy, not from three years ago.

  6. Ebay bought an interest in an Online Classified site here in US, http://www.craigslist.com

    Appears as though Ebay intends to make a move to monopolize this market worldwide. Then,its logical that they will go from “free” to “pay” and make huge profits…just as they did with the

    original Ebay auction site. Ask for stock options…you could get very rich…fast.

  7. Jian Shuo, what an exciting new opportunity for you. They are so lucky to have found you! But, best news of all…the EBay campus here in California is just a few miles from our house!!! :D Surely there will be a reason for you to come visit sometime soon!

  8. Even more exciting…I’ve just read a little more about Kijiji and I understand now that it is very much like Craigslist in terms of what it is trying to do in different international communities. Jian Shuo, this is SO PERFECT for you! It exactly fits your philosophy about enabling people in your local community to come together more easily. I am really really happy that you were offered this wonderful opportunity. You are the ideal person for them to have selected to spearhead this new venture. Happy congratulations all over again :D

  9. but why with eBay? why couldn’t you do it by yourself or with your own team? eBay might be paying you a decent wage, but in the end, they will gain the most interests.

  10. Congrats, JianShuo, Good luck with your new position. With your skills, ability and talent, you will be very successful in the years to come. Although I never heard about Kijiji before, I think it will become Ebay China’s major revenue driver in the coming years because of you. If you can turn your own personal blog to a “cult”, then I truely believe you can lead Kijiji to a successful e-business model…. I bet in 2 years, kijiji will become a household name in China. Maybe it is time to jump in Ebay’s stock now, I buy Ebay because I believe in you! Btw, kijiji looks like US’s craiglists list which has a lot of followers…

  11. Good luck on your new job at eBay! Sounds like a very exciting opportunity!

  12. good point, John! I think with Jianshuo’s ability, he can run his e-commerce site. Maybe jianshuo doesn’t want to get through the VC fund raising hussles. Maybe this is an opportunity for jianshuo to practice his entrepreneurial skills under a big umbrella and test the water first, then strike his own… This is also a smart move.

  14. Congratulations, Jian Shuo. Sounds like a creative move and a creative new position. You will do great, by being creative.

  15. Congrats on the new job!! I’ll be watching for great things to come from Kijiji!!

  16. Wish you all the very best in your new venture.

    Sounds like this new position will really suit your creative spirit – well done!

  19. I appreciate your effort on this site. It really helps. I introduced it to many of my colleagues. If possible, I think you can come and visit our school to give a talk about your ideal e-busienss.

  20. Kijiji is a great idea. Since I’m more familiar with Beijing, I checked out kijiji’s Beijing site, and found it was great, very informative. I’m just wondering if you already have, or are intending to build, an English site especially for expats in each big city? I think that’ll be appealing too…

  22. Jianshuo, since you joined ebay,

    although you’re not working on ebay.com.cn,

    I still want you to remind them to change to homepage of ebay.com.cn.

    It’s un-browserable with Firefox/Mozilla.

    You know Firefox and Mozilla shares about 10% market around the world.

    And it’s really a shame that ebay.com.cn has ‘Powered by Sun’ logo but only browserable with Microsoft IE!

  23. Ginn, I have forwarded your question to my friends who runs the Product Management team here. Although I am not at ebay.com.cn, but I love eBay and I want t take responsibility to help to make it better. I appreciate your feedback, and expect more…

  24. Can we enjoy Kijiji in english later ?

    Now it’s only in chinese…

    (JSW, please check your ebay-email)

  25. It is an interesting idea. My question is, what is the population of expats in China? I remember it is 0.3% of total population in Shanghai. I agree that Internet Penetration is higher in expats, and people are more familiar with classified ads. So it may be interesting. My second question is, what do you think is the most effective way to communicate the message (marketing) to expats in China? I don’t want to build something only several people use. :-D

  26. Hippy, drop me an email. I am more than happy to do that in your school. We didn’t get together for a long time. Please drop an email to me. Find my email address and the footer of this page.

  27. I don’t agree with the point of “Charge via Cell Phone”, although the percentage of cell phone is high in shanghai, because most people are afraid of leaving cell phone numbers to the websites. And this phenomenon is unlikely to be changed in a short time in nowadays environment.

  28. jianshuo,It is glad to hear you started a new journey recently. the service like kijiji is a “MUST” for our life. The main point for success in chinese market as I think is to create or lead a ” trust” enviroment for information sharing.Good luck to you.

    telefan from hangzhou

  31. I would like to advertise my Web Site on Kijiji,Beijing/Shanghai etc China sites.

    Would it be possible to send the note to you and you to translate it to Chinese language ?

    I would be very happy if you could do this for me.

    I cannot read/write Chinese,it is way too hard to even try to figure it out ,but I would be very happy

    to advertise in kijiji/China sites.

    Thanks a lot for listening.

    Any advise would be appreciated.

    Marja Koivumaki

    Surrey.BC

    canada

    http://www.gotocanada2study.com/

  34. Jian Wang,

    I am planning on spending a semester in China, August 2011 until December 25th doing research on entrepreneurship inside China and guest lecturing at various universities. I would also like to visit and interview various successful Chinese Entrepreneurs. Would you know of any I can meet with and any schools that would have an interest for me to guest lecture on entrepreneurship at their university? I would also like to attend one of your CEO meetings as a guest, can you arrange for me to attend one of your meetings this fall 2011? I would like to interview you and other successful entrepreneurs. Please let me know who to contact for this interview and if you know any other entrepreneurs I might contact.

    If you can provide me with some contacts I would appreciate it.

    Professor Nygren

    Director of Entrepreneurship

    BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

    CEO: Nygren Investments Inc.

    208 496-3637

    nygrenm@byui.edu

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