A Pioneer's Tragedy: Why Was Wang Xing's Fanfou 'Unplugged' When It Was Closest to Success?

Prologue: A "Light" Departure

Selling Xiaonei gave Wang Xing a brief taste of "financial freedom," but it also plunged him into a huge sense of loss. He needed a new, cool, and challenging battlefield to channel his unspent creative energy.

In early 2007, he came across a "new species" called Twitter on an American tech blog. It allowed users to record and share their thoughts anytime, anywhere, in 140 characters.

Wang Xing was immediately captivated by this "light" model. Compared to the "heavy," real-relationship-based social networking of Xiaonei, Twitter was more like an open, fluid "public square of ideas."

"China should have this too!" The same thought struck Wang Xing again.

This time, he wasn't short on money. With the funds from selling Xiaonei and his increasingly seasoned core team, he quickly dived into developing a Chinese version of Twitter.

In May 2007, the website was officially launched. Wang Xing gave it a name full of life— "Fanfou," which means "Have you eaten?"

He hoped it would become a communication platform integrated into users' daily lives, just like eating.

Act I: The "Golden Age" of the Public Square

Fanfou was fortunate.

Its emergence coincided with the moment when China's first generation of "hardcore" netizens began seeking faster and freer ways of expression.

Unlike its successor, Sina Weibo, which initially focused on celebrities and "Big Vs," Fanfou's early users were almost exclusively elites from the tech, media, and cultural circles. Here you could find Luo Yonghao, who later founded Smartisan; the famous writer Hecaitou; and countless product managers and programmers who are now giants in China's internet industry.

This group of high-quality users established a unique community atmosphere for Fanfou that no other social product could replicate—free, intellectual, humorous, and avant-garde.

On Fanfou, people discussed the latest tech products, shared books they had just read, commented on social hotspots, or simply recorded everyday, trivial inspirations. Each 140-character "Fanfou-style" post was like a fragment of thought, together piecing together the most active and authentic "stream of consciousness" of the Chinese internet from 2008-2009.

Wang Xing himself was a heavy user of Fanfou. He would post dozens of times a day, sharing his reading notes, thoughts on business, and various product ideas. Fanfou became the best window for the outside world to observe Wang Xing the "thinker."

By the first half of 2009, Fanfou's user base had quietly surpassed one million. Although this number couldn't compare with QQ's at the time, its "user stickiness" and "community activity" reached an astonishing level.

Wang Xing seemed to have finally found a perfect model that could both carry his product ideals and build a business moat. He was closer than ever to a truly significant success.

Act II: The Unforeseen "Death"

However, tragedy always strikes at the climax.

On the afternoon of July 7, 2009, many users found that the Fanfou webpage was suddenly inaccessible.

At first, everyone thought it was just a normal server crash. Fanfou's official account even posted a lighthearted message on another website: "I'll be back."

No one, including Wang Xing himself, realized the severity of this "outage."

Days went by, but Fanfou did not return. Speculations and rumors began to spread online. It wasn't until a few days later that a vague official statement made everyone understand: Fanfou had been shut down indefinitely by the authorities due to "inappropriate" speech on the platform.

The news was a bolt from the blue, shocking the entire Chinese internet.

For Fanfou's million users, it was like losing a "spiritual home." For Wang Xing and his team, it was a "devastating" blow.

They had created such a vibrant, lively community with their own hands, only to have it forcibly "unplugged" for external reasons beyond their control. This sense of powerlessness and absurdity was enough to destroy any entrepreneur's will.

Epilogue: The 505-Day Wait and "Missed Opportunity"

After Fanfou was shut down, Wang Xing and his team did not immediately disband. They naively believed that as long as they cooperated with the investigation and cleaned up the "non-compliant" content, Fanfou would one day return.

They waited. A day, a month, a year...

During these long 505 days, Wang Xing went through the most painful and profound period of reflection in his life. He finally understood that when building a content community in China, the "quality" of the product might not be the sole determinant of its survival. Understanding and navigating the complex "regulatory environment" was an equally, if not more, important capability.

It was also during this waiting period that the landscape of the Chinese internet changed dramatically.

Sina saw the huge market vacuum left by Fanfou's shutdown. They quickly mobilized the entire company's resources and launched "Sina Weibo" in August 2009.

Leveraging its powerful celebrity resources and media operation capabilities, Sina Weibo quickly captured the market Fanfou had vacated and eventually became the undisputed hegemon of the Chinese microblogging sphere.

On November 26, 2010, when Fanfou was finally allowed to "quietly" return, the world had completely changed.

Its "golden age" was gone forever.

This failure was a huge blow to Wang Xing, but it also became the most important "turning point" in his entrepreneurial career.

It made him completely give up on his dreams for "media" and "community" products, and turn his attention to fields that were "heavier," more "substantial," and closer to transactions.

A year later, he founded Meituan. This time, he entered a brand-new battlefield, one unrelated to "sensitive words." And the "sudden death" of Fanfou stood as a warning monument on his entrepreneurial path forever.