In Focus

Yang Chih Yuan... That's Jerry Yang, Chief Yahoo!

NOTE: All this month in the Chicks' Eye View we will be featuring the richest of the rich from the Forbes List of the World's Richest People. Just who are they and how'd they get to be so filthy rich?

Wow, talk about the American dream... Jerry Yang is living proof that it can come true. At age 10, his family moved to San Jose, CA from Taiwan to find "good opportunities." It looks like six short years ago, Jerry latched onto one. At that time, he and fellow Stanford student, David Filo, co-founded, arguably, the most widely recognized and used internet guide, Yahoo! Since the Chicks are Yahoo! shareholders, much has been written about the company and its former CEO, Tim Koogle. Today, I want to focus on the one thing that has remained constant about the company... the involvement of co-founder, Jerry Yang. He's actually quite a hoot, which shouldn't surprise anyone. After all, he gave the company its unique name which typifies the company's unique spirit.

Despite his enormous wealth, Jerry maintains a sense of normalcy in his life. His younger brother, Ken, and he still go home every Sunday for mom's cooking. Quite recently, he was still flying coach and surfing the net with a 28.8 modem because he wanted to have a "normal consumer experience." His mother, Lily, remembers Jerry asking "what" and "why" about everything since the time he could speak. Gee, my two year old, Olivia, has the same annoying habit. Maybe I could bottle my frustration knowing that such inquisitiveness might lead her to a net worth of 6.4 billion dollars by the time she's 31! I'll bet our Mr. Yang never imagined he'd have so much yen! His worth places him 38th on Fortune Magazine's Wealthiest Americans' list. Sorry, single Chicks, this one's hitched. Jerry wed Akiko, a Costa Rican woman of Japanese decent, back in 1997. David Filo, on the other hand, is still unattached at the age of 34. (If you'd like to see a picture of him, just ask me to bring it to the next Chick Fest. He was sweet enough to pose for a picture with the Chicks at the Yahoo! Shareholder's meeting last April. Unfortunately, Jerry snuck out before we could snag him.)

Probably not surprising, but yet, mighty impressive is the fact that Jerry was a straight A student who finished his bachelor's and master's degrees in four years -- at Stanford no less! He was busy getting his doctorate in electrical engineering when Yahoo! was created. Actually, in 1994, he and Filo were following the same course of study when boredom, burn out and the inevitable procrastination set in. During my years at UCLA, I took off to the beach to avoid studying; these guys chose to index their favorite places on the Web. Guess what? They're rich and I'm not. Who knew the world wide web would be such a big deal? I guess they did, or at least big enough that it would require a compass for navigation.

In the beginning, it was Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web. They stored the data on Jerry's computer, nicknamed "akebono," and the search engine was on David's computer, nicknamed "konishiki." Their computers were named after two famous Hawaiian sumo wrestlers. Have I mentioned Jerry's favorite pastimes? He loves to watch ESPN, play golf, cycle and, that's right, watch sumo wrestling.

Since Yahoo!'s inception, Jerry and David have had some of their own wrestling to do, mainly with competitors and naysayers. Since internet directories became an industry in their own right, competition for global leadership was inevitable. What I found most admirable is the fact that Yang and Filo didn't have to hang around for the fight, but rather chose to do so. Early offers came in from both America Online and Netscape which would have allowed them to retire comfortably with about 3 million dollars in their pockets. Neither claimed that they were in it for the money, but rather, each preferred to be a part of what they created. God forbid, they might have had to return to grad school!

Choosing independence was a courageous act. Few believed these Stanford guys with their million dollars of venture capital could really make a go of it. Competition with better funding was certainly to come. One early challenge came from Netscape Communications, maker of Netscape Navigator. They bounced Yahoo! from its top position on their directory page, replacing them with a competitor who paid a tidy sum to be in its place. Despite the fact that Yahoo! had contributed greatly to Netscape's success and was now getting burned, the boys showed much restraint. One can certainly say they took the high road and refrained from public attacks, choosing instead to focus on doing what they do best -- "creating the best possible online directory, adding content and other features along the way when it makes sense." I think that's pretty much how Yahoo! is run today. They keep their nose to the grindstone and try not to react to the press.

Fortunately, Yahoo!'s traffic continued its upward momentum, even after the Netscape debacle. Eventually, Netscape relented, offering all directories a chance to be at their site at a given price. Jerry Yang has always felt that there is room for everyone, that Yahoo!'s success should not depend on the failure of others. What sets them apart is the fact that they're "built to last." Whereas some newfangled directories offer updated reviews on sites, Yang finds this implausible. How can one company possibly keep up with all the sites on the internet?. Thousands are being added on each day, not to mention how many sites are under constant renovation. It would take an army to keep up. One thing you can count on, this Chief Yahoo! has his own combat boots on and he's down in the trenches fighting the good fight -- not to win, necessarily, but certainly to thrive.