Luo Yonghao (, b. 9 July 1972) is a Chinese entrepreneur and

internet celebrity An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social ...

. He is the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and founder of Chinese technology company

Smartisan Smartisan Technology Co., Ltd. (), commonly known as Smartisan, is a Chinese multinational technology company headquartered in Beijing and Chengdu. It designs and markets consumer electronic devices and online services. Its hardware product line ...

and founder of now defunct blogging website

Bullog.cn Bullog.cn (Chinese: 牛博网) was a Chinese-language blogging website, created by Chinese internet celebrity Luo Yonghao. Before it was shut down, it was considered to be one of the most liberal blog portals in Chinese cyberspace. History Bu ...

. On August 20, 2018, Luo's company Smartisan launched the messaging service Bullet Message, which gained 7 million users in its first three weeks.

Early life

Luo was born to a Korean Chinese family in

Helong Helong (; Chosŏn'gŭl: 화룡; Hangul: 허룽) is a county-level city in southeastern Jilin province, Northeast China. It is under the administration of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. Administrative divisions Helong has three subdis ...

Jilin Jilin (; alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea (Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, Ryanggang and Chagang) and Russia (Prim ...

, China. His father is the party secretary of Helong county Luo Changzhen (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: 罗昌珍). At age 12, his family moved to Yanji and he transferred to Beishan Primary School. In his second year of high school, Luo dropped out. Luo pursued various business endeavors, including selling second-hand books and reselling smuggled cars. However, after economic pressure he decided to study English and pursue a career teaching English.

Career

In 2001, Luo became a teacher at New Oriental in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. From 2001 to 2006, Yonghao prepared students for the

GRE The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States and Canada and a few other countries. The GRE is owned and administered by Educational Testing Servi ...

test. Because of his humorous teaching style and often off-topic tangents, a few of his students filmed him and uploaded some of his lectures online. The videos, titled "Lao Luo Quotations", became popular with young people. Luo, nicknamed Lao Luo by his students, became an internet phenomenon and was featured in Baidu's annual top-searches between 2005 and 2006. In June 2006, Luo Yonghao resigned from New Oriental.

Bullog.cn

On July 31, 2006, Luo launched

, citing dissatisfaction with the censorship of the major blog portals such as

sina.com Sina Corporation (, "new wave") is a Chinese technology company. Sina operates four major business lines: Sina Weibo, Sina Mobile, Sina Online, and Sinanet. Sina has over 100 million registered users worldwide. Sina was recognized by '' South ...

and

sohu.com Sohu, Inc. () is a Chinese Internet company headquartered in the Sohu Internet Plaza in Haidian District, Beijing. Sohu and its subsidiaries offer advertising, a search engine (Sogou.com), on-line multiplayer gaming (ChangYou.com) and other se ...

. The site was considered to be one of the most liberalLiberal Blog Site Shutdown by Chinese Authorities
, ''Boxun News'', January 9, 2009. blog portals in Chinese

cyberspace Cyberspace is a concept describing a widespread interconnected digital technology. "The expression dates back from the first decade of the diffusion of the internet. It refers to the online world as a world 'apart', as distinct from everyday rea ...

. Luo opened his portal in 2006. His words and recordings aimed to inspire independent thinking and sticking to life mottoes. Some excerpts that satirized or criticized unreasonable situations and misdemeanors aroused sympathy among

netizens The term netizen is a portmanteau of the English words ''internet'' and ''citizen'', as in a "citizen of the net" or "net citizen". It describes a person actively involved in online communities or the Internet in general.

, and spread rapidly over the Internet. This became a topic of the year on the Chinese Internet.

References

External links

*
Luo Yonghao
on

Youku Youku Tudou Inc. (formerly Youku Inc.), doing business as Youku (), is a video hosting service based in Beijing, China. It operates as a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding Limited. Youku has its headquarters in the Sinosteel Plaza in Haidian ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luo, Yonghao 1972 births Living people 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Chinese company founders Chinese computer businesspeople Chinese people of Korean descent New Oriental people