Lai Chee Ying
Encyclopedia
Lai Chee-Ying is a serial entrepreneur. Lai founded Giordano, one of Asia's largest clothing retailers and Next Media
, the largest listed media company in Hong Kong and one of the world's biggest Chinese-language media groups.
, Kwangtung
, China
with family roots in nearby Shunde
, Lai was educated to fifth grade level.
Smuggled to Hong Kong aboard a small boat at the age of 12, Lai worked as a child-laborer in a garment factory for a wage of $8 per month.
Bringing innovations to Hong Kong such as rewarding sellers with financial incentives, he built the chain into an Asia-wide retailer. One of the most well-known clothing retailers in the Asia, Giordano claims more than 11,000 employees in 1,700 shops across 30 territories worldwide.
government. Moved by the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
, Lai distributed Giordano T-shirts with portraits of student leaders and began publishing Next Magazine
, which combined tabloid sensationalism with hard-hitting political and business reporting. Despite Hong Kong's crowded and highly competitive market for publications, the magazine found almost instant success. He went on to found other magazines, including Sudden Weekly
(忽然一週), Eat & Travel Weekly(飲食男女), Trading Express/Auto Express (交易通/搵車快線) and the youth-oriented Easy Finder
(壹本便利).
In 1995, as the Hong Kong handover approached, Lai founded Apple Daily, a newspaper start-up that he was forced to finance with $100 million of his own money due to investor fear of association with a prominent critic of the Beijing government. With a circulation rising quickly to 400,000 copies by 1997, the newspaper had the territory's second largest circulation, despite fierce competition against 60 other newspapers.
Sudden Weekly and Next Magazine rank first and second in circulation for Hong Kong’s magazine market while Apple Daily is the No. 2 newspaper in Hong Kong.
Lai encourages a company culture of transparency and creativity without hierarchy. Employees are encouraged to tackle challenges through trial and error while assuming responsibility for their actions and sharing in profits from successful ventures.
In a 1994 newspaper column, he told Premier of the PRC Li Peng
to "drop dead," and called the Communist Party of China
, "a monopoly that charges a premium for lousy service". As a result, most of his publications remain banned in mainland China. China's government retaliated against Lai by starting a shut-down of Giordano shops, prompting him to sell out of the company he founded in order to save it.
Ahead of the record-breaking pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong of July 2003 that brought half a million people onto the streets, the cover of Next Magazine featured a photo-montage of the territory's embattled chief executive, Tung Chee-Hwa taking a pie in the face. The magazine urged readers to take to the streets while Apple Daily distributed stickers calling for Tung to resign.
In addition to promoting democracy, Lai's publication often ruffle feathers of fellow Hong Kong tycoons by exposing their personal foibles and relations with local government. Lai has frequently faced hostility from the many Beijing-backed tycoons, including attempts to force supplier boycotts of his companies and a lengthy battle to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that he sidestepped through a backdoor listing. Lai managed to list the company in 1999 by acquiring Paramount Publishing Group in October of that year.
Neither Bank of China nor any state-owned enterprise from mainland places ads in Next Media publications, while major Hong Kong property developers and a range of other top-line companies advertise only in competing publications. The offices of his publications have been vandalized and his house was firebombed in 1993. The against Lai increased his publicity, if not popularity. It was at this time he converted to the Catholic faith, which has a long history in China.
Lai pioneered a reader-centric philosophy with paparazzi
journalism in Hong Kong based on publications such as USA Today
and The Sun
. His best-selling Next Magazine and Apple Daily
newspaper, feature a mix of racy tabloid material and news items oriented to the mass market with plenty of colour and graphics that attracts a wide range of readers, some of whom are also critics of Lai and his ideology.
editions of Next Magazine in 2001 and Apple Daily in 2003, taking on heavily established rivals who made considerable effort to thwart him. Rival publishers pressed advertisers to boycott and distributors not to undertake home delivery. His Taiwan offices were vandalized on numerous occasions, but as the publications grew to have the largest readership in their category, the advertising boycotts ended.
In October 2006, Lai launched Sharp Daily
(Shuang Bao in mandarin), a free daily newspaper targeting Taipei commuters. The company also launched Me! Magazine in Taiwan.
In building Taiwan's most popular newspaper, Apple Daily, and magazine, Next Magazine, Lai's racy publications have had a great impact on the island's hitherto staid media culture.
Among Lai's heroes are Friedrich Hayek
, John James Cowperthwaite
and Milton Friedman
, bronze busts of each stand in the entrance hall to Next Media.
Next Media
Next Media Limited , founded by serial entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, has more than 3,600 employees and is the largest-listed media company in Hong Kong....
, the largest listed media company in Hong Kong and one of the world's biggest Chinese-language media groups.
Early life and escape from China
Born 1948 in an impoverished family in CantonGuangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, Kwangtung
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
with family roots in nearby Shunde
Shunde
Shunde District is a district of Foshan prefecture-level city in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong Province, southeast China.-Administration:Shunde was a county-level city until December 8, 2002, when it became a district of Foshan prefecture-level city...
, Lai was educated to fifth grade level.
Smuggled to Hong Kong aboard a small boat at the age of 12, Lai worked as a child-laborer in a garment factory for a wage of $8 per month.
Founding of Giordano
Rising to the level of factory manager, Lai speculated his year-end bonus on Hong Kong stocks to raise enough cash to buy out the owners of a bankrupt garment factory, Comitex, in 1975 and began producing sweaters. Customers included J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, and other U.S. retailers.Bringing innovations to Hong Kong such as rewarding sellers with financial incentives, he built the chain into an Asia-wide retailer. One of the most well-known clothing retailers in the Asia, Giordano claims more than 11,000 employees in 1,700 shops across 30 territories worldwide.
Transition to publishing
Lai has been an unrelenting advocate of democracy and high-profile critic of the People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
government. Moved by the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
, Lai distributed Giordano T-shirts with portraits of student leaders and began publishing Next Magazine
Next Magazine
Next Magazine is a Chinese weekly magazine, published in Hong Kong and Taiwan with different versions. Owned by Jimmy Lai , both magazines are the number one news magazines in both markets in terms of audited circulation and AC Nielsen reports...
, which combined tabloid sensationalism with hard-hitting political and business reporting. Despite Hong Kong's crowded and highly competitive market for publications, the magazine found almost instant success. He went on to found other magazines, including Sudden Weekly
Sudden Weekly
Sudden Weekly is a magazine in Hong Kong founded by Jimmy Lai's Next Media Limited.-Lam Woon-kwong incident :Issue 493 of the magazine carried a story that included photographs of Director of the Chief Executive's Office Lam Woon-kwong with a woman outside a hotel in Tokyo and an interview...
(忽然一週), Eat & Travel Weekly(飲食男女), Trading Express/Auto Express (交易通/搵車快線) and the youth-oriented Easy Finder
Easy Finder
Easy Finder was a weekly Chinese tabloid magazine which was first published on September 13, 1991 in Hong Kong. Published by Next Media Limited which is owned by Jimmy Lai. It stopped publishing on May 23, 2007. Easy Finder was commonly known to participate in Yellow journalism Easy Finder...
(壹本便利).
In 1995, as the Hong Kong handover approached, Lai founded Apple Daily, a newspaper start-up that he was forced to finance with $100 million of his own money due to investor fear of association with a prominent critic of the Beijing government. With a circulation rising quickly to 400,000 copies by 1997, the newspaper had the territory's second largest circulation, despite fierce competition against 60 other newspapers.
Sudden Weekly and Next Magazine rank first and second in circulation for Hong Kong’s magazine market while Apple Daily is the No. 2 newspaper in Hong Kong.
Lai encourages a company culture of transparency and creativity without hierarchy. Employees are encouraged to tackle challenges through trial and error while assuming responsibility for their actions and sharing in profits from successful ventures.
In a 1994 newspaper column, he told Premier of the PRC Li Peng
Li Peng
Li Peng served as the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China, between 1987 and 1998, and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, from 1998 to 2003. For much of the 1990s Li was ranked second in the Communist Party of China ...
to "drop dead," and called the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, "a monopoly that charges a premium for lousy service". As a result, most of his publications remain banned in mainland China. China's government retaliated against Lai by starting a shut-down of Giordano shops, prompting him to sell out of the company he founded in order to save it.
Ahead of the record-breaking pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong of July 2003 that brought half a million people onto the streets, the cover of Next Magazine featured a photo-montage of the territory's embattled chief executive, Tung Chee-Hwa taking a pie in the face. The magazine urged readers to take to the streets while Apple Daily distributed stickers calling for Tung to resign.
In addition to promoting democracy, Lai's publication often ruffle feathers of fellow Hong Kong tycoons by exposing their personal foibles and relations with local government. Lai has frequently faced hostility from the many Beijing-backed tycoons, including attempts to force supplier boycotts of his companies and a lengthy battle to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that he sidestepped through a backdoor listing. Lai managed to list the company in 1999 by acquiring Paramount Publishing Group in October of that year.
Neither Bank of China nor any state-owned enterprise from mainland places ads in Next Media publications, while major Hong Kong property developers and a range of other top-line companies advertise only in competing publications. The offices of his publications have been vandalized and his house was firebombed in 1993. The against Lai increased his publicity, if not popularity. It was at this time he converted to the Catholic faith, which has a long history in China.
Lai pioneered a reader-centric philosophy with paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
journalism in Hong Kong based on publications such as USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
and The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
. His best-selling Next Magazine and Apple Daily
Apple Daily
Apple Daily is a Hong-Kong-based tabloid-style newspaper founded in 1995 by Jimmy Lai Chee Ying and is published by its company, Next Media. A sister publication carrying the same name is published in Taiwan, Republic of China under a joint venture between Next Media and other Taiwanese companies...
newspaper, feature a mix of racy tabloid material and news items oriented to the mass market with plenty of colour and graphics that attracts a wide range of readers, some of whom are also critics of Lai and his ideology.
Taiwan Publications
Lai launched TaiwanTaiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
editions of Next Magazine in 2001 and Apple Daily in 2003, taking on heavily established rivals who made considerable effort to thwart him. Rival publishers pressed advertisers to boycott and distributors not to undertake home delivery. His Taiwan offices were vandalized on numerous occasions, but as the publications grew to have the largest readership in their category, the advertising boycotts ended.
In October 2006, Lai launched Sharp Daily
Sharp Daily
Sharp Daily is a free Chinese-language tabloid newspaper, published in Taipei, Taiwan by Next Media.Launched on October 24, 2006 as a rival to Cola , another free tabloid published by United Daily Newspaper , Sharp Daily shares news content with the Taiwanese Apple Daily...
(Shuang Bao in mandarin), a free daily newspaper targeting Taipei commuters. The company also launched Me! Magazine in Taiwan.
In building Taiwan's most popular newspaper, Apple Daily, and magazine, Next Magazine, Lai's racy publications have had a great impact on the island's hitherto staid media culture.
Other Companies
During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, Lai started the Internet-based grocery retailer which offered home delivery service, adMart. It expanded its product scope beyond groceries to include electronics and office supplies, but was shut down after losing between $100 and $150 million. Lai attributed this business failure to overconfidence and the lack of a viable business strategy. Admart.Asia (www.Admart.Asia), a popular free classifieds website covering Asia, is now no longer associated with Lai.Quotes
"If you have fewer friends, you have more readers.Among Lai's heroes are Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
, John James Cowperthwaite
John James Cowperthwaite
Sir John James Cowperthwaite KBE CMG , was a British civil servant and the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1961 to 1971...
and Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...
, bronze busts of each stand in the entrance hall to Next Media.
External links
- Businessweek profile
- International Herald Tribune profile
- New York Times profile (paid)
- Asia Times profile
- Time magazine profile
- Wired magazine profile
- Columbia Journalism Review profile
- Asiaweek profile
- Admart website
- The Call of the EntrepreneurThe Call of the EntrepreneurThe Call of the Entrepreneur is a 2007 documentary produced by Acton Media, part of the Acton Institute, along with Cold Water Media. It premiered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA on May 17, 2007.-Plot:...
, a 2007 documentary produced by the Acton Institute