About William Ding
Willian Ding is 47 years old Chinese businessman known for establishing a Chinese internet technology company named NetEase in 1997. The company develops and operates online PC and mobile games, email services, advertising services and e-commerce platforms in China. He presently serves as founder and CEO of the company.
Early Life
William Ding was born on 1st October 1971 in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China as Ding Lei to an engineer father who worked at a state research institute. He attended Chengdu Institute of Radio Engineering now known as University of Electronic Science and Technology of China earning his bachelor’s degree in communication technology. He was in middle school when he tried to assemble a six-tube radio thus developing an affinity for electronic gadgets.
Career
William Ding started working as a telecommunication engineer in a local state department in Ningbo but quit two years later to work for Sybase in Guangzhou. In 1997, he founded NetEase with two of his friends having initial investment of $60,000 in Guangzhou, offering
China’s first free e-mail service. Soon they planned to expand their business working on online bulletin board, news services and internet based games. In 2000, they went for selling shares in an initial public offering further shifting their business to sectors outside internet in 2011. In 2001, he stepped down as chairman of the company by remaining its largest shareholder whereas in 2005 he returned back as chief executive officer of NetEase. In 2003 he became the richest individual in China by providing an essential asset to the progress of internet services. The company raised the expectations of users in market by introducing World of Warcraft in China in 2009 and StarCraft II to Chinese online game players. In 2015, William started 520 different types of games on NetEase. The company also works for e-commerce platform called Kaola generating the revenue of 54.1 billion Yuan in 2017.
Aside from his internet career, he planned to invest in real properties in 2015 by travelling to United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.
Achievements
He received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for his ground breaking use of information technology in 2004.
Personal Life
He is in marital relationship with Wang Xunfang since 2006.
Net Worth
It is estimated to be around US$18.3 billion as on February 2018.
