Many Internet companies in China were founded by oversea returnees (called Hai Gui in Chinese) from the United State. Their business models are also strikingly similar to the Internet companies in U.S. Here is a short who is who in Chinese internet gold rush.
Internet Portal
The largest Internet portal play Sina, Sohu, Tom Online, and China.com are all Nasdaq traded public company.
Internet Search Engines
Baidu.com recently went IPO on Nasdaq with a first day trade pop of almost 400%, making hundreds of its employee paper millionares. Its co-founder Robin Li’s stake is valued at more than US$600 million.
Sogou.com is the home grown search engine of sohu.com.
3721.com, a local search engine, was bought by Yahoo for $120 million. That operation is now part of Alibaba.com, as part of Yahoo’s $1b investment deal in Alibaba.
Internet Auction
Alibaba.com operates Taobao.com, a C2C auction site in China.
EachNet based in Shanghai was bought by eBay for $180 million.
Internet Payment
Alibaba.com operates Alipay.com.
Internet etailer
Joyo.com was bought by Amazon.com for $75 million. DangDang.com is the another big etailer in China.
Internet Media
Job search leader ChinaHR.com sold a 40% stake to monster.com for $50 million.
Travel site eLong.com sold a 52% stake to InteractiveCorp for $168 million.