Getting the (Digital) Word Out
At the helm of a fast-growing start-up, Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a firsthand witness to how digital publishing is transforming the Chinese media.
|
Wu Xinyu is the founder and CEO of Youcan, a digital publishing firm.
 Print this article
 Send us a comment
Alumni Profile
Wu Xinyu
MBA '08
Founder and CEO, Youcan
"Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine."
|
By Zhang Jingjing
This article has been translated from the original Chinese and edited for length.
From the very first impression, it's clear that Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a woman in a hurry. Despite the dark circles under her eyes, she greets a visitor to her Beijing office with energetic warmth, speaking at a rapid clip. "I apologize, we've been working overtime this whole week in order to push out a new plan, and I have a bit of a sore throat. Also, I need to meet a publishing industry client of ours who wants to discuss a partnership, so I may have to leave early."
What Wu lacks in sleep and in free time, she makes up for in interest from potential partners and clients. Sales are growing rapidly at her one-year-old company Youcan, which provides digital publishing and mobile social networking services. And Wu – who is not only the company's founder and CEO, but also its general manager and chief salesperson – isn't about to let a minute go to waste.
When she founded the company in 2009, Wu says, she felt almost overwhelmed by the number of potential opportunities before her. As smartphones and tablets like the iPad transform the way people read, work, and play, a brand-new digital publishing industry is quickly taking shape to supply the platforms with content. Industry insiders expect the next few years to be a critical period for digital publishing, and Wu is determined to stake out a leading position in the field.
But that's far from easy. "Almost every company wants to take advantage of the changing rules of the game, to grab hold of new opportunities and become the next Google. But when you are leading your company in the midst of great change, you come to realize how difficult it is to make choices," she says.
Indeed, in the early stages Wu struggled to define the goals of her young company. Youcan was initially set up as a general online media services company. But after Wu managed to sign on Guangzhou Television as a customer, it got a lot easier to land new clients. Suddenly, all kinds of companies – from financial services to online gaming – wanted to see if Youcan could help them with digital media projects. If the fledgling company took the assignments, it stood to earn more than one million yuan in just a few months. "For a startup simply fighting for its survival, this was extremely tempting," Wu recalls.
|
Q&A with Wu Xinyu
CKGSB: How do you think the growth of digital publishing will affect the traditional publishing industry?
Wu Xinyu: Digital publishing is not just the digitization of traditional publishing, but rather a completely new business model requiring technological and product innovation. For a company that relies on innovation and efficiency such as Youcan, this means opportunity.
I think there are similarities to the development of the Internet and telecommunications. Most people rarely write letters anymore, but that doesn't mean that the traditional postal service will wither away. In fact, in China, e-commerce has actually helped the courier industry.
So, we believe that digital publishing is not just the simple upgrading of traditional publishing. For example, we've recently been discussing an application for the iPad and similar platforms with the company that publishes Trends magazine. But we wouldn't just be putting the magazine straight onto the iPad. We would be completely recreating the idea of a magazine and making an exciting, interactive new product.
CKGSB: What are your competitive strengths?
Wu: Our competitive strengths are first, being quick, and second, being tenacious. The iPhone is not officially on the market in China yet, and the Android platform is still starting out, but we've already started working with Phoenix TV to create a mobile version of Phoenix Weekly magazine. Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine.
CKGSB: What kind of new business opportunities would you expect to see as traditional media and publishing go digital?
Wu: The key is not to get stuck in a traditional way of thinking. Henry Ford had a saying, "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." The relationship between digital publishing and traditional publishing is just like the relationship between the car and the horse. Horses, cars, airplanes, telephones, iPhones – they're actually all the same. They all make the world a smaller place.
In the near term, development will be focused on smart phones and tablet computing platforms, as well as cloud computing. These will be the hottest areas in the next three to five years. The technology is moving incredibly quickly. Not only has the medium changed, but the way a consumer experiences the medium has changed. For example, if we helped CKGSB digitize this magazine, the resulting product might show not just the written article, but also a video of us talking face to face.
|
But she soon realized that if the company selected projects on the basis of short-term benefits, without a clear long-term course of action, its technology team would always be struggling to stay ahead of the curve. "As a growing company with only a couple dozen employees, if we lost our focus, we would just get lost in the competitive fray and have no hope of becoming an industry leader."
So, drawing on tools she learned during her MBA course, Wu and her two co-founders set out to create a long-term strategy for Youcan. It was already clear that digital publishing, designated as a favored sector in Beijing's twelfth five-year plan, was well-positioned for growth. So Youcan's founders decided to center their offerings around digital publishing. As a core product, they developed the "OpenRead" platform – software that uses cloud computing to allow television stations, magazines, and educational companies to engage in low-cost digital publishing. OpenRead has carved out a unique market niche. It offers a way for media and educational clients to engage with users and sell value-added services through tablets, PCs, and phones.
Since the product was launched, Wu has attracted a prestigious list of clients, including the likes of China Mobile, CCTV, and Phoenix New Media. Youcan has even drawn the eye of some venture capital groups – though so far Wu has tactfully turned away would-be suitors. "Investors' ideas of where to take the company may not be in line with our own ideas," says Wu. She adds that her company has benefited from advice it received from Teng Bingsheng, a CKGSB strategy professor, and Philip Lin, an adjunct professor and venture capital investor.
Wu attributes Youcan's rapid growth to its tight-knit staff of some 20 employees, most recent graduates. Wu and her partners made a deliberate decision to hire relatively inexperienced staff and train them. The result, she says, has been a "young team full of innovative spirit."
One substantial advantage of this approach is that employees are able to grow with the company. "The managers in our team that have significant responsibilities were all hired as fresh university graduates a year ago, and they have advanced substantially through on-the-job experience, something that big companies definitely couldn't offer. On top of that, our company's strategic focus helps gives our employees confidence in our future," says Wu.
Youcan's employees have stuck with the company even through tough times. In its early days, Youcan operated out of office space that Wu borrowed from a friend. Its CEO and CTO organized a carpool to drive all the employees to work. When the staff was forced for a time to move out of the office, employees were willing to work from home to save costs. "Only on the first anniversary of the company's founding did we move into an actual office," Wu recalls. But because staff members stayed confident in the company's future, she says, not a single person left. In a fast-growing industry, Wu can only hope such loyalty will help Youcan emerge as a leader.
At the helm of a fast-growing start-up, Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a firsthand witness to how digital publishing is transforming the Chinese media.
|
Wu Xinyu is the founder and CEO of Youcan, a digital publishing firm.
Print this article
Send us a comment
Alumni Profile
Wu Xinyu
MBA '08
Founder and CEO, Youcan
"Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine."
|
By Zhang Jingjing
This article has been translated from the original Chinese and edited for length.
From the very first impression, it's clear that Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a woman in a hurry. Despite the dark circles under her eyes, she greets a visitor to her Beijing office with energetic warmth, speaking at a rapid clip. "I apologize, we've been working overtime this whole week in order to push out a new plan, and I have a bit of a sore throat. Also, I need to meet a publishing industry client of ours who wants to discuss a partnership, so I may have to leave early."
What Wu lacks in sleep and in free time, she makes up for in interest from potential partners and clients. Sales are growing rapidly at her one-year-old company Youcan, which provides digital publishing and mobile social networking services. And Wu – who is not only the company's founder and CEO, but also its general manager and chief salesperson – isn't about to let a minute go to waste.
When she founded the company in 2009, Wu says, she felt almost overwhelmed by the number of potential opportunities before her. As smartphones and tablets like the iPad transform the way people read, work, and play, a brand-new digital publishing industry is quickly taking shape to supply the platforms with content. Industry insiders expect the next few years to be a critical period for digital publishing, and Wu is determined to stake out a leading position in the field.
But that's far from easy. "Almost every company wants to take advantage of the changing rules of the game, to grab hold of new opportunities and become the next Google. But when you are leading your company in the midst of great change, you come to realize how difficult it is to make choices," she says.
Indeed, in the early stages Wu struggled to define the goals of her young company. Youcan was initially set up as a general online media services company. But after Wu managed to sign on Guangzhou Television as a customer, it got a lot easier to land new clients. Suddenly, all kinds of companies – from financial services to online gaming – wanted to see if Youcan could help them with digital media projects. If the fledgling company took the assignments, it stood to earn more than one million yuan in just a few months. "For a startup simply fighting for its survival, this was extremely tempting," Wu recalls.
|
Q&A with Wu Xinyu
CKGSB: How do you think the growth of digital publishing will affect the traditional publishing industry?
Wu Xinyu: Digital publishing is not just the digitization of traditional publishing, but rather a completely new business model requiring technological and product innovation. For a company that relies on innovation and efficiency such as Youcan, this means opportunity.
I think there are similarities to the development of the Internet and telecommunications. Most people rarely write letters anymore, but that doesn't mean that the traditional postal service will wither away. In fact, in China, e-commerce has actually helped the courier industry.
So, we believe that digital publishing is not just the simple upgrading of traditional publishing. For example, we've recently been discussing an application for the iPad and similar platforms with the company that publishes Trends magazine. But we wouldn't just be putting the magazine straight onto the iPad. We would be completely recreating the idea of a magazine and making an exciting, interactive new product.
CKGSB: What are your competitive strengths?
Wu: Our competitive strengths are first, being quick, and second, being tenacious. The iPhone is not officially on the market in China yet, and the Android platform is still starting out, but we've already started working with Phoenix TV to create a mobile version of Phoenix Weekly magazine. Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine.
CKGSB: What kind of new business opportunities would you expect to see as traditional media and publishing go digital?
Wu: The key is not to get stuck in a traditional way of thinking. Henry Ford had a saying, "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." The relationship between digital publishing and traditional publishing is just like the relationship between the car and the horse. Horses, cars, airplanes, telephones, iPhones – they're actually all the same. They all make the world a smaller place.
In the near term, development will be focused on smart phones and tablet computing platforms, as well as cloud computing. These will be the hottest areas in the next three to five years. The technology is moving incredibly quickly. Not only has the medium changed, but the way a consumer experiences the medium has changed. For example, if we helped CKGSB digitize this magazine, the resulting product might show not just the written article, but also a video of us talking face to face.
|
But she soon realized that if the company selected projects on the basis of short-term benefits, without a clear long-term course of action, its technology team would always be struggling to stay ahead of the curve. "As a growing company with only a couple dozen employees, if we lost our focus, we would just get lost in the competitive fray and have no hope of becoming an industry leader."
So, drawing on tools she learned during her MBA course, Wu and her two co-founders set out to create a long-term strategy for Youcan. It was already clear that digital publishing, designated as a favored sector in Beijing's twelfth five-year plan, was well-positioned for growth. So Youcan's founders decided to center their offerings around digital publishing. As a core product, they developed the "OpenRead" platform – software that uses cloud computing to allow television stations, magazines, and educational companies to engage in low-cost digital publishing. OpenRead has carved out a unique market niche. It offers a way for media and educational clients to engage with users and sell value-added services through tablets, PCs, and phones.
Since the product was launched, Wu has attracted a prestigious list of clients, including the likes of China Mobile, CCTV, and Phoenix New Media. Youcan has even drawn the eye of some venture capital groups – though so far Wu has tactfully turned away would-be suitors. "Investors' ideas of where to take the company may not be in line with our own ideas," says Wu. She adds that her company has benefited from advice it received from Teng Bingsheng, a CKGSB strategy professor, and Philip Lin, an adjunct professor and venture capital investor.
Wu attributes Youcan's rapid growth to its tight-knit staff of some 20 employees, most recent graduates. Wu and her partners made a deliberate decision to hire relatively inexperienced staff and train them. The result, she says, has been a "young team full of innovative spirit."
One substantial advantage of this approach is that employees are able to grow with the company. "The managers in our team that have significant responsibilities were all hired as fresh university graduates a year ago, and they have advanced substantially through on-the-job experience, something that big companies definitely couldn't offer. On top of that, our company's strategic focus helps gives our employees confidence in our future," says Wu.
Youcan's employees have stuck with the company even through tough times. In its early days, Youcan operated out of office space that Wu borrowed from a friend. Its CEO and CTO organized a carpool to drive all the employees to work. When the staff was forced for a time to move out of the office, employees were willing to work from home to save costs. "Only on the first anniversary of the company's founding did we move into an actual office," Wu recalls. But because staff members stayed confident in the company's future, she says, not a single person left. In a fast-growing industry, Wu can only hope such loyalty will help Youcan emerge as a leader.
Getting the (Digital) Word Out
At the helm of a fast-growing start-up, Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a firsthand witness to how digital publishing is transforming the Chinese media.
|
Wu Xinyu is the founder and CEO of Youcan, a digital publishing firm.
Print this article
Send us a comment
Alumni Profile
Wu Xinyu
MBA '08
Founder and CEO, Youcan
"Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine."
|
By Zhang Jingjing
This article has been translated from the original Chinese and edited for length.
From the very first impression, it's clear that Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a woman in a hurry. Despite the dark circles under her eyes, she greets a visitor to her Beijing office with energetic warmth, speaking at a rapid clip. "I apologize, we've been working overtime this whole week in order to push out a new plan, and I have a bit of a sore throat. Also, I need to meet a publishing industry client of ours who wants to discuss a partnership, so I may have to leave early."
What Wu lacks in sleep and in free time, she makes up for in interest from potential partners and clients. Sales are growing rapidly at her one-year-old company Youcan, which provides digital publishing and mobile social networking services. And Wu – who is not only the company's founder and CEO, but also its general manager and chief salesperson – isn't about to let a minute go to waste.
When she founded the company in 2009, Wu says, she felt almost overwhelmed by the number of potential opportunities before her. As smartphones and tablets like the iPad transform the way people read, work, and play, a brand-new digital publishing industry is quickly taking shape to supply the platforms with content. Industry insiders expect the next few years to be a critical period for digital publishing, and Wu is determined to stake out a leading position in the field.
But that's far from easy. "Almost every company wants to take advantage of the changing rules of the game, to grab hold of new opportunities and become the next Google. But when you are leading your company in the midst of great change, you come to realize how difficult it is to make choices," she says.
Indeed, in the early stages Wu struggled to define the goals of her young company. Youcan was initially set up as a general online media services company. But after Wu managed to sign on Guangzhou Television as a customer, it got a lot easier to land new clients. Suddenly, all kinds of companies – from financial services to online gaming – wanted to see if Youcan could help them with digital media projects. If the fledgling company took the assignments, it stood to earn more than one million yuan in just a few months. "For a startup simply fighting for its survival, this was extremely tempting," Wu recalls.
|
Q&A with Wu Xinyu
CKGSB: How do you think the growth of digital publishing will affect the traditional publishing industry?
Wu Xinyu: Digital publishing is not just the digitization of traditional publishing, but rather a completely new business model requiring technological and product innovation. For a company that relies on innovation and efficiency such as Youcan, this means opportunity.
I think there are similarities to the development of the Internet and telecommunications. Most people rarely write letters anymore, but that doesn't mean that the traditional postal service will wither away. In fact, in China, e-commerce has actually helped the courier industry.
So, we believe that digital publishing is not just the simple upgrading of traditional publishing. For example, we've recently been discussing an application for the iPad and similar platforms with the company that publishes Trends magazine. But we wouldn't just be putting the magazine straight onto the iPad. We would be completely recreating the idea of a magazine and making an exciting, interactive new product.
CKGSB: What are your competitive strengths?
Wu: Our competitive strengths are first, being quick, and second, being tenacious. The iPhone is not officially on the market in China yet, and the Android platform is still starting out, but we've already started working with Phoenix TV to create a mobile version of Phoenix Weekly magazine. Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine.
CKGSB: What kind of new business opportunities would you expect to see as traditional media and publishing go digital?
Wu: The key is not to get stuck in a traditional way of thinking. Henry Ford had a saying, "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." The relationship between digital publishing and traditional publishing is just like the relationship between the car and the horse. Horses, cars, airplanes, telephones, iPhones – they're actually all the same. They all make the world a smaller place.
In the near term, development will be focused on smart phones and tablet computing platforms, as well as cloud computing. These will be the hottest areas in the next three to five years. The technology is moving incredibly quickly. Not only has the medium changed, but the way a consumer experiences the medium has changed. For example, if we helped CKGSB digitize this magazine, the resulting product might show not just the written article, but also a video of us talking face to face.
|
But she soon realized that if the company selected projects on the basis of short-term benefits, without a clear long-term course of action, its technology team would always be struggling to stay ahead of the curve. "As a growing company with only a couple dozen employees, if we lost our focus, we would just get lost in the competitive fray and have no hope of becoming an industry leader."
So, drawing on tools she learned during her MBA course, Wu and her two co-founders set out to create a long-term strategy for Youcan. It was already clear that digital publishing, designated as a favored sector in Beijing's twelfth five-year plan, was well-positioned for growth. So Youcan's founders decided to center their offerings around digital publishing. As a core product, they developed the "OpenRead" platform – software that uses cloud computing to allow television stations, magazines, and educational companies to engage in low-cost digital publishing. OpenRead has carved out a unique market niche. It offers a way for media and educational clients to engage with users and sell value-added services through tablets, PCs, and phones.
Since the product was launched, Wu has attracted a prestigious list of clients, including the likes of China Mobile, CCTV, and Phoenix New Media. Youcan has even drawn the eye of some venture capital groups – though so far Wu has tactfully turned away would-be suitors. "Investors' ideas of where to take the company may not be in line with our own ideas," says Wu. She adds that her company has benefited from advice it received from Teng Bingsheng, a CKGSB strategy professor, and Philip Lin, an adjunct professor and venture capital investor.
Wu attributes Youcan's rapid growth to its tight-knit staff of some 20 employees, most recent graduates. Wu and her partners made a deliberate decision to hire relatively inexperienced staff and train them. The result, she says, has been a "young team full of innovative spirit."
One substantial advantage of this approach is that employees are able to grow with the company. "The managers in our team that have significant responsibilities were all hired as fresh university graduates a year ago, and they have advanced substantially through on-the-job experience, something that big companies definitely couldn't offer. On top of that, our company's strategic focus helps gives our employees confidence in our future," says Wu.
Youcan's employees have stuck with the company even through tough times. In its early days, Youcan operated out of office space that Wu borrowed from a friend. Its CEO and CTO organized a carpool to drive all the employees to work. When the staff was forced for a time to move out of the office, employees were willing to work from home to save costs. "Only on the first anniversary of the company's founding did we move into an actual office," Wu recalls. But because staff members stayed confident in the company's future, she says, not a single person left. In a fast-growing industry, Wu can only hope such loyalty will help Youcan emerge as a leader.
Getting the (Digital) Word Out
At the helm of a fast-growing start-up, Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a firsthand witness to how digital publishing is transforming the Chinese media.
|
Wu Xinyu is the founder and CEO of Youcan, a digital publishing firm.
Print this article
Send us a comment
Alumni Profile
Wu Xinyu
MBA '08
Founder and CEO, Youcan
"Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine."
|
By Zhang Jingjing
This article has been translated from the original Chinese and edited for length.
From the very first impression, it's clear that Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a woman in a hurry. Despite the dark circles under her eyes, she greets a visitor to her Beijing office with energetic warmth, speaking at a rapid clip. "I apologize, we've been working overtime this whole week in order to push out a new plan, and I have a bit of a sore throat. Also, I need to meet a publishing industry client of ours who wants to discuss a partnership, so I may have to leave early."
What Wu lacks in sleep and in free time, she makes up for in interest from potential partners and clients. Sales are growing rapidly at her one-year-old company Youcan, which provides digital publishing and mobile social networking services. And Wu – who is not only the company's founder and CEO, but also its general manager and chief salesperson – isn't about to let a minute go to waste.
When she founded the company in 2009, Wu says, she felt almost overwhelmed by the number of potential opportunities before her. As smartphones and tablets like the iPad transform the way people read, work, and play, a brand-new digital publishing industry is quickly taking shape to supply the platforms with content. Industry insiders expect the next few years to be a critical period for digital publishing, and Wu is determined to stake out a leading position in the field.
But that's far from easy. "Almost every company wants to take advantage of the changing rules of the game, to grab hold of new opportunities and become the next Google. But when you are leading your company in the midst of great change, you come to realize how difficult it is to make choices," she says.
Indeed, in the early stages Wu struggled to define the goals of her young company. Youcan was initially set up as a general online media services company. But after Wu managed to sign on Guangzhou Television as a customer, it got a lot easier to land new clients. Suddenly, all kinds of companies – from financial services to online gaming – wanted to see if Youcan could help them with digital media projects. If the fledgling company took the assignments, it stood to earn more than one million yuan in just a few months. "For a startup simply fighting for its survival, this was extremely tempting," Wu recalls.
|
Q&A with Wu Xinyu
CKGSB: How do you think the growth of digital publishing will affect the traditional publishing industry?
Wu Xinyu: Digital publishing is not just the digitization of traditional publishing, but rather a completely new business model requiring technological and product innovation. For a company that relies on innovation and efficiency such as Youcan, this means opportunity.
I think there are similarities to the development of the Internet and telecommunications. Most people rarely write letters anymore, but that doesn't mean that the traditional postal service will wither away. In fact, in China, e-commerce has actually helped the courier industry.
So, we believe that digital publishing is not just the simple upgrading of traditional publishing. For example, we've recently been discussing an application for the iPad and similar platforms with the company that publishes Trends magazine. But we wouldn't just be putting the magazine straight onto the iPad. We would be completely recreating the idea of a magazine and making an exciting, interactive new product.
CKGSB: What are your competitive strengths?
Wu: Our competitive strengths are first, being quick, and second, being tenacious. The iPhone is not officially on the market in China yet, and the Android platform is still starting out, but we've already started working with Phoenix TV to create a mobile version of Phoenix Weekly magazine. Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine.
CKGSB: What kind of new business opportunities would you expect to see as traditional media and publishing go digital?
Wu: The key is not to get stuck in a traditional way of thinking. Henry Ford had a saying, "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." The relationship between digital publishing and traditional publishing is just like the relationship between the car and the horse. Horses, cars, airplanes, telephones, iPhones – they're actually all the same. They all make the world a smaller place.
In the near term, development will be focused on smart phones and tablet computing platforms, as well as cloud computing. These will be the hottest areas in the next three to five years. The technology is moving incredibly quickly. Not only has the medium changed, but the way a consumer experiences the medium has changed. For example, if we helped CKGSB digitize this magazine, the resulting product might show not just the written article, but also a video of us talking face to face.
|
But she soon realized that if the company selected projects on the basis of short-term benefits, without a clear long-term course of action, its technology team would always be struggling to stay ahead of the curve. "As a growing company with only a couple dozen employees, if we lost our focus, we would just get lost in the competitive fray and have no hope of becoming an industry leader."
So, drawing on tools she learned during her MBA course, Wu and her two co-founders set out to create a long-term strategy for Youcan. It was already clear that digital publishing, designated as a favored sector in Beijing's twelfth five-year plan, was well-positioned for growth. So Youcan's founders decided to center their offerings around digital publishing. As a core product, they developed the "OpenRead" platform – software that uses cloud computing to allow television stations, magazines, and educational companies to engage in low-cost digital publishing. OpenRead has carved out a unique market niche. It offers a way for media and educational clients to engage with users and sell value-added services through tablets, PCs, and phones.
Since the product was launched, Wu has attracted a prestigious list of clients, including the likes of China Mobile, CCTV, and Phoenix New Media. Youcan has even drawn the eye of some venture capital groups – though so far Wu has tactfully turned away would-be suitors. "Investors' ideas of where to take the company may not be in line with our own ideas," says Wu. She adds that her company has benefited from advice it received from Teng Bingsheng, a CKGSB strategy professor, and Philip Lin, an adjunct professor and venture capital investor.
Wu attributes Youcan's rapid growth to its tight-knit staff of some 20 employees, most recent graduates. Wu and her partners made a deliberate decision to hire relatively inexperienced staff and train them. The result, she says, has been a "young team full of innovative spirit."
One substantial advantage of this approach is that employees are able to grow with the company. "The managers in our team that have significant responsibilities were all hired as fresh university graduates a year ago, and they have advanced substantially through on-the-job experience, something that big companies definitely couldn't offer. On top of that, our company's strategic focus helps gives our employees confidence in our future," says Wu.
Youcan's employees have stuck with the company even through tough times. In its early days, Youcan operated out of office space that Wu borrowed from a friend. Its CEO and CTO organized a carpool to drive all the employees to work. When the staff was forced for a time to move out of the office, employees were willing to work from home to save costs. "Only on the first anniversary of the company's founding did we move into an actual office," Wu recalls. But because staff members stayed confident in the company's future, she says, not a single person left. In a fast-growing industry, Wu can only hope such loyalty will help Youcan emerge as a leader.
Getting the (Digital) Word Out
At the helm of a fast-growing start-up, Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a firsthand witness to how digital publishing is transforming the Chinese media.
|
Wu Xinyu is the founder and CEO of Youcan, a digital publishing firm.
Print this article
Send us a comment
Alumni Profile
Wu Xinyu
MBA '08
Founder and CEO, Youcan
"Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine."
|
By Zhang Jingjing
This article has been translated from the original Chinese and edited for length.
From the very first impression, it's clear that Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a woman in a hurry. Despite the dark circles under her eyes, she greets a visitor to her Beijing office with energetic warmth, speaking at a rapid clip. "I apologize, we've been working overtime this whole week in order to push out a new plan, and I have a bit of a sore throat. Also, I need to meet a publishing industry client of ours who wants to discuss a partnership, so I may have to leave early."
What Wu lacks in sleep and in free time, she makes up for in interest from potential partners and clients. Sales are growing rapidly at her one-year-old company Youcan, which provides digital publishing and mobile social networking services. And Wu – who is not only the company's founder and CEO, but also its general manager and chief salesperson – isn't about to let a minute go to waste.
When she founded the company in 2009, Wu says, she felt almost overwhelmed by the number of potential opportunities before her. As smartphones and tablets like the iPad transform the way people read, work, and play, a brand-new digital publishing industry is quickly taking shape to supply the platforms with content. Industry insiders expect the next few years to be a critical period for digital publishing, and Wu is determined to stake out a leading position in the field.
But that's far from easy. "Almost every company wants to take advantage of the changing rules of the game, to grab hold of new opportunities and become the next Google. But when you are leading your company in the midst of great change, you come to realize how difficult it is to make choices," she says.
Indeed, in the early stages Wu struggled to define the goals of her young company. Youcan was initially set up as a general online media services company. But after Wu managed to sign on Guangzhou Television as a customer, it got a lot easier to land new clients. Suddenly, all kinds of companies – from financial services to online gaming – wanted to see if Youcan could help them with digital media projects. If the fledgling company took the assignments, it stood to earn more than one million yuan in just a few months. "For a startup simply fighting for its survival, this was extremely tempting," Wu recalls.
|
Q&A with Wu Xinyu
CKGSB: How do you think the growth of digital publishing will affect the traditional publishing industry?
Wu Xinyu: Digital publishing is not just the digitization of traditional publishing, but rather a completely new business model requiring technological and product innovation. For a company that relies on innovation and efficiency such as Youcan, this means opportunity.
I think there are similarities to the development of the Internet and telecommunications. Most people rarely write letters anymore, but that doesn't mean that the traditional postal service will wither away. In fact, in China, e-commerce has actually helped the courier industry.
So, we believe that digital publishing is not just the simple upgrading of traditional publishing. For example, we've recently been discussing an application for the iPad and similar platforms with the company that publishes Trends magazine. But we wouldn't just be putting the magazine straight onto the iPad. We would be completely recreating the idea of a magazine and making an exciting, interactive new product.
CKGSB: What are your competitive strengths?
Wu: Our competitive strengths are first, being quick, and second, being tenacious. The iPhone is not officially on the market in China yet, and the Android platform is still starting out, but we've already started working with Phoenix TV to create a mobile version of Phoenix Weekly magazine. Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine.
CKGSB: What kind of new business opportunities would you expect to see as traditional media and publishing go digital?
Wu: The key is not to get stuck in a traditional way of thinking. Henry Ford had a saying, "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." The relationship between digital publishing and traditional publishing is just like the relationship between the car and the horse. Horses, cars, airplanes, telephones, iPhones – they're actually all the same. They all make the world a smaller place.
In the near term, development will be focused on smart phones and tablet computing platforms, as well as cloud computing. These will be the hottest areas in the next three to five years. The technology is moving incredibly quickly. Not only has the medium changed, but the way a consumer experiences the medium has changed. For example, if we helped CKGSB digitize this magazine, the resulting product might show not just the written article, but also a video of us talking face to face.
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But she soon realized that if the company selected projects on the basis of short-term benefits, without a clear long-term course of action, its technology team would always be struggling to stay ahead of the curve. "As a growing company with only a couple dozen employees, if we lost our focus, we would just get lost in the competitive fray and have no hope of becoming an industry leader."
So, drawing on tools she learned during her MBA course, Wu and her two co-founders set out to create a long-term strategy for Youcan. It was already clear that digital publishing, designated as a favored sector in Beijing's twelfth five-year plan, was well-positioned for growth. So Youcan's founders decided to center their offerings around digital publishing. As a core product, they developed the "OpenRead" platform – software that uses cloud computing to allow television stations, magazines, and educational companies to engage in low-cost digital publishing. OpenRead has carved out a unique market niche. It offers a way for media and educational clients to engage with users and sell value-added services through tablets, PCs, and phones.
Since the product was launched, Wu has attracted a prestigious list of clients, including the likes of China Mobile, CCTV, and Phoenix New Media. Youcan has even drawn the eye of some venture capital groups – though so far Wu has tactfully turned away would-be suitors. "Investors' ideas of where to take the company may not be in line with our own ideas," says Wu. She adds that her company has benefited from advice it received from Teng Bingsheng, a CKGSB strategy professor, and Philip Lin, an adjunct professor and venture capital investor.
Wu attributes Youcan's rapid growth to its tight-knit staff of some 20 employees, most recent graduates. Wu and her partners made a deliberate decision to hire relatively inexperienced staff and train them. The result, she says, has been a "young team full of innovative spirit."
One substantial advantage of this approach is that employees are able to grow with the company. "The managers in our team that have significant responsibilities were all hired as fresh university graduates a year ago, and they have advanced substantially through on-the-job experience, something that big companies definitely couldn't offer. On top of that, our company's strategic focus helps gives our employees confidence in our future," says Wu.
Youcan's employees have stuck with the company even through tough times. In its early days, Youcan operated out of office space that Wu borrowed from a friend. Its CEO and CTO organized a carpool to drive all the employees to work. When the staff was forced for a time to move out of the office, employees were willing to work from home to save costs. "Only on the first anniversary of the company's founding did we move into an actual office," Wu recalls. But because staff members stayed confident in the company's future, she says, not a single person left. In a fast-growing industry, Wu can only hope such loyalty will help Youcan emerge as a leader.
At the helm of a fast-growing start-up, Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a firsthand witness to how digital publishing is transforming the Chinese media.
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Wu Xinyu is the founder and CEO of Youcan, a digital publishing firm.
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Alumni Profile
Wu Xinyu
MBA '08
Founder and CEO, Youcan
"Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine."
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By Zhang Jingjing
This article has been translated from the original Chinese and edited for length.
From the very first impression, it's clear that Wu Xinyu (MBA '08) is a woman in a hurry. Despite the dark circles under her eyes, she greets a visitor to her Beijing office with energetic warmth, speaking at a rapid clip. "I apologize, we've been working overtime this whole week in order to push out a new plan, and I have a bit of a sore throat. Also, I need to meet a publishing industry client of ours who wants to discuss a partnership, so I may have to leave early."
What Wu lacks in sleep and in free time, she makes up for in interest from potential partners and clients. Sales are growing rapidly at her one-year-old company Youcan, which provides digital publishing and mobile social networking services. And Wu – who is not only the company's founder and CEO, but also its general manager and chief salesperson – isn't about to let a minute go to waste.
When she founded the company in 2009, Wu says, she felt almost overwhelmed by the number of potential opportunities before her. As smartphones and tablets like the iPad transform the way people read, work, and play, a brand-new digital publishing industry is quickly taking shape to supply the platforms with content. Industry insiders expect the next few years to be a critical period for digital publishing, and Wu is determined to stake out a leading position in the field.
But that's far from easy. "Almost every company wants to take advantage of the changing rules of the game, to grab hold of new opportunities and become the next Google. But when you are leading your company in the midst of great change, you come to realize how difficult it is to make choices," she says.
Indeed, in the early stages Wu struggled to define the goals of her young company. Youcan was initially set up as a general online media services company. But after Wu managed to sign on Guangzhou Television as a customer, it got a lot easier to land new clients. Suddenly, all kinds of companies – from financial services to online gaming – wanted to see if Youcan could help them with digital media projects. If the fledgling company took the assignments, it stood to earn more than one million yuan in just a few months. "For a startup simply fighting for its survival, this was extremely tempting," Wu recalls.
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Q&A with Wu Xinyu
CKGSB: How do you think the growth of digital publishing will affect the traditional publishing industry?
Wu Xinyu: Digital publishing is not just the digitization of traditional publishing, but rather a completely new business model requiring technological and product innovation. For a company that relies on innovation and efficiency such as Youcan, this means opportunity.
I think there are similarities to the development of the Internet and telecommunications. Most people rarely write letters anymore, but that doesn't mean that the traditional postal service will wither away. In fact, in China, e-commerce has actually helped the courier industry.
So, we believe that digital publishing is not just the simple upgrading of traditional publishing. For example, we've recently been discussing an application for the iPad and similar platforms with the company that publishes Trends magazine. But we wouldn't just be putting the magazine straight onto the iPad. We would be completely recreating the idea of a magazine and making an exciting, interactive new product.
CKGSB: What are your competitive strengths?
Wu: Our competitive strengths are first, being quick, and second, being tenacious. The iPhone is not officially on the market in China yet, and the Android platform is still starting out, but we've already started working with Phoenix TV to create a mobile version of Phoenix Weekly magazine. Within four days of the iPad entering the U.S. market, we started to work with Trends to develop the iPad application for Men's Fashion magazine.
CKGSB: What kind of new business opportunities would you expect to see as traditional media and publishing go digital?
Wu: The key is not to get stuck in a traditional way of thinking. Henry Ford had a saying, "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." The relationship between digital publishing and traditional publishing is just like the relationship between the car and the horse. Horses, cars, airplanes, telephones, iPhones – they're actually all the same. They all make the world a smaller place.
In the near term, development will be focused on smart phones and tablet computing platforms, as well as cloud computing. These will be the hottest areas in the next three to five years. The technology is moving incredibly quickly. Not only has the medium changed, but the way a consumer experiences the medium has changed. For example, if we helped CKGSB digitize this magazine, the resulting product might show not just the written article, but also a video of us talking face to face.
|
But she soon realized that if the company selected projects on the basis of short-term benefits, without a clear long-term course of action, its technology team would always be struggling to stay ahead of the curve. "As a growing company with only a couple dozen employees, if we lost our focus, we would just get lost in the competitive fray and have no hope of becoming an industry leader."
So, drawing on tools she learned during her MBA course, Wu and her two co-founders set out to create a long-term strategy for Youcan. It was already clear that digital publishing, designated as a favored sector in Beijing's twelfth five-year plan, was well-positioned for growth. So Youcan's founders decided to center their offerings around digital publishing. As a core product, they developed the "OpenRead" platform – software that uses cloud computing to allow television stations, magazines, and educational companies to engage in low-cost digital publishing. OpenRead has carved out a unique market niche. It offers a way for media and educational clients to engage with users and sell value-added services through tablets, PCs, and phones.
Since the product was launched, Wu has attracted a prestigious list of clients, including the likes of China Mobile, CCTV, and Phoenix New Media. Youcan has even drawn the eye of some venture capital groups – though so far Wu has tactfully turned away would-be suitors. "Investors' ideas of where to take the company may not be in line with our own ideas," says Wu. She adds that her company has benefited from advice it received from Teng Bingsheng, a CKGSB strategy professor, and Philip Lin, an adjunct professor and venture capital investor.
Wu attributes Youcan's rapid growth to its tight-knit staff of some 20 employees, most recent graduates. Wu and her partners made a deliberate decision to hire relatively inexperienced staff and train them. The result, she says, has been a "young team full of innovative spirit."
One substantial advantage of this approach is that employees are able to grow with the company. "The managers in our team that have significant responsibilities were all hired as fresh university graduates a year ago, and they have advanced substantially through on-the-job experience, something that big companies definitely couldn't offer. On top of that, our company's strategic focus helps gives our employees confidence in our future," says Wu.
Youcan's employees have stuck with the company even through tough times. In its early days, Youcan operated out of office space that Wu borrowed from a friend. Its CEO and CTO organized a carpool to drive all the employees to work. When the staff was forced for a time to move out of the office, employees were willing to work from home to save costs. "Only on the first anniversary of the company's founding did we move into an actual office," Wu recalls. But because staff members stayed confident in the company's future, she says, not a single person left. In a fast-growing industry, Wu can only hope such loyalty will help Youcan emerge as a leader.
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