Ding Lei (William Ding)

Ding resigned from three jobs in under four years, the first a secure government post at the Ningbo Telecommunications Bureau that he left over his parents' objections; the "iron rice bowl" life, he has said, felt suffocating, like a frog being boiled in warm water.¹ In May 1997 he pooled about 500,000 RMB of his own savings and friends' money and started NetEase in a room of under eight square meters in Guangzhou, with three other people. Known in Western media as William Ding, he is the founder, chairman, and chief executive of NetEase, the Chinese internet company that began as a free-email and portal pioneer and became primarily a video-game publisher and developer, with additional businesses in music streaming, online education, e-commerce, and agriculture. NetEase is dual-listed on the NASDAQ and Hong Kong exchanges, and Ding has ranked for years among the wealthiest people in China and Asia. He does not use the name "William Ding" himself in Chinese-language contexts; it is the Western rendering of Ding Lei.

Background

Ding was born in 1971 in Fenghua, in Zhejiang Province, the hometown of Chiang Kai-shek. His father was a deputy factory director on the technical side of the state-owned Fenghua Food Factory, where he negotiated with foreign companies and worked to United States FDA quality standards, giving Ding early exposure to the idea that products and systems could be deliberately engineered.¹

As a child, Ding assembled a six-tube radio in junior high and taught himself the BASIC programming language in high school, where he won second place in a computer competition. His interest did not translate into class rank; he placed only around fortieth to fiftieth in his class. He has cited Einstein and Edison as childhood heroes.

In 1989 Ding was admitted to the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, in Chengdu, with an entrance score one point above the cutoff. He wanted to study computer science, but his parents opposed it over fears of radiation, so he studied communications engineering instead, earning a bachelor's degree in 1993. He has said the biggest gain from university was learning how to think.

Getting started

Before founding NetEase, Ding held three jobs in under four years and resigned from each. From 1993 he worked at the Telecommunications Bureau in Ningbo, a secure government post; there, in 1994, he first reached the internet through a CFido dial-up connection, which he later described as a new world opening up. He resigned in 1995 over his parents' objections. He next worked at Sybase China in Guangzhou in technical support, finding the work narrow, then joined an internet service provider, Guangzhou Feijie, resigning in May 1997 after his proposals were rejected.

Ding was inspired by Hotmail and the idea that free, user-owned email could become an everyday habit rather than a fee-gated service tied to institutional affiliation, in a country that then had fewer than one million internet users. He tested demand first, partnering with the Guangzhou Telecom Bureau to run a free bulletin-board service that drew roughly 20,000 applications. In May 1997 he pooled about 500,000 RMB of savings and friends' money and founded NetEase in a room of under eight square meters in Guangzhou, with four people including himself.¹

What he built

In November 1997 NetEase launched China's first free bilingual webmail at 163.com. Ding chose the "163" domain because it was the phone number Chinese users already dialed to get online, turning an existing habit into a brand. The service grew by word of mouth at roughly 2,000 new users a day, and within two years NetEase was the largest email provider in China.¹ The company also built China's first Chinese-language search engine, its first personalized information service, and its first online auction, which added cash-on-delivery because most Chinese consumers had no credit cards.

In late 1999 NetEase raised about $20 million from ING and Goldman Sachs, and on July 1, 2000, it listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker NTES, raising $67.5 million. Ding was 29. NetEase survived the dot-com crash and, unusually among Chinese portals, pivoted its core business toward online gaming as the primary revenue driver. Its titles include the in-house Fantasy Westward Journey, Onmyoji, and Naraka: Bladepoint, and for many years the China license for Blizzard's World of Warcraft; that partnership broke down in 2023 and was later restored under a new deal in 2024.²

NetEase also spun out NetEase Cloud Music, an independent music-streaming platform that listed in Hong Kong in 2021, and Youdao, a New York-listed online-education unit. Its e-commerce arm Kaola was sold to Alibaba in 2019.² As a personal venture, Ding started Weiyang Farm in Zhejiang, a pig-raising operation he took up as an engineering and quality-control curiosity, and has served its pork at industry events.³

How he operates

Ding describes his approach as that of a craftsman, saying NetEase's product strategy is to be "like a craftsman, meticulously carving our products." He is skeptical of trend-chasing, and believes many so-called trends are "pseudo-demands" created by capital that lack long-term user value. He believes it is better to spend enough time polishing one product that can truly make users scream than to do a hundred mediocre things. NetEase ships more slowly than many peers and has built unusually loyal, high-retention products. Of leaving stable government employment, Ding has said the "iron rice bowl" life felt suffocating, like a frog being boiled in warm water.¹

Where things stand

As of the mid-2020s, Ding remains the founder, chairman, and chief executive of NetEase, which is a multi-billion-dollar, gaming-led conglomerate generating the bulk of its revenue from games. He continues to run Weiyang Farm as a side project and regularly appears in China and Asia rich-list rankings.³ He is regarded as one of the earliest and most consistently successful pioneers of the Chinese internet era, alongside contemporaries such as Robin Li of Baidu and Pony Ma of Tencent.

Key facts

• Founded NetEase in May 1997 in a room of under eight square meters in Guangzhou, with about 500,000 RMB and four people.
• Named the flagship product 163.com after the phone number Chinese users already dialed to get online.
• Resigned from three consecutive jobs in under four years before founding NetEase, each time after employers rejected his ideas.
• Took NetEase public on the NASDAQ in July 2000 at age 29, then pivoted the company from email and portal to gaming after the dot-com crash.
• Raises pigs at Weiyang Farm in Zhejiang as a hands-on side project and serves the pork at industry events.
• Describes a craftsman philosophy that favors depth over breadth and speed.