Zhang Shuxin:Tech Martyr

Zhang Shuxin’s name is never far from discussions of the history of China’s internet technology and commerce. In terms of corporate triumphs and personal wealth， hers is hardly an inspirational tale. But the symbolic relationship between Zhang and China’s internet is so significant that she cannot be ignored.

In 1994， China first officially connected to internet. Only one year later， Zhang set up InfoHighWay， the first Chinese internet company providing Chinese-language information. It was the first commercial project in the country’s internet history， and it failed very quickly. Today， Zhang is involved in a field not at all related to the internet. She chairs the board of Genesis Capital， but seldom shows up at the investment firm.

Born in 1963， Zhang was not as young as many entrepreneurs when she launched InfoHighWay. However， with an acute sensitivity for future trends， she quickly found a home in Zhongguancun. Shortly after founding the company， she attempted publicity in an eye-opening manner： At the south end of Zhongguancun Avenue， she built a big billboard， which read“How far is the information superhighway from Chinese people？ 1，500 meters north.” About a mile up the road was her newly-opened InfoHighWay science center. The center would seem quite avant-garde today， with its major function providing Chinese people an opportunity to surf the internet and promoting sales of InfoHighWay software – a setup that resembled what Apple stores look like today.

The bold woman designed an amazingly prescient blueprint for the development of her company. From the website of InfoHighWay， people could access myriad services including a forum， e-mail post office， chat room， and game center. In 1997， the company launched a project to gather information from major newspapers each day， an early incarnation of news portals that emerged in China a year later.

However， due to the overall situation of China’s internet industry at that time， when InfoHighWay’s users reached 30，000， trouble followed. It was difficult to open an account and painfully slow dial-up connections drove people crazy. And when people finally logged in， they found little on the website. The business hemorrhaged money and found little income.

After fifteen minutes of glory from 1996 to 1997， InfoHighWay quickly tanked. Zhang began to realize she was ahead of the times in launching such services so early. In 1998， under pressure from a major shareholder， she resigned from InfoHighWay. “We trekked almost every road and made almost every possible mistake in the industry，” Zhang admitted years later. “It was an experience that meant a great deal to everyone. But now we can avoid such mistakes in the future.” It is fair to say that despite any early mistakes， China’s internet is now developing healthily.

Although she now chairs an investment firm， Zhang spends most of her time traveling the world. She doesn’t talk much about her past.“I was just a stepping stone for China’s internet industry，” she said of the failure of InfoHighWay， the country’s first internet enterprise.