theculturalconnect.com | Rotten Tomatoes and Stephen Wang

Company

Rotten Tomatoes
Xiaban.com

Month & year founded

August 1998 (online), April 2000 (official)

Website

Name, Title/Position

Stephen Wang, 30
Formerly VP/Publisher/Co-Founder of Rotten Tomatoes for IGN Entertainment
Currently VP, Online Operations for Xiaban.com

Hometown

Columbia, Maryland

City & State of current residence

Xiamen, China and Emeryville, California

Age

Education

UC Berkeley, BS Computer Science, 1997

Work Experience

2006: VP, Online Operations, Xiaban.com
2004-2005: VP/Publisher for Rotten Tomatoes, IGN Entertainment
2000-2004: Co-founder/Chief Technology Officer, Rotten Tomatoes
1997-2000: Co-founder/Technical Director, Design Reactor
1995-1997: Webmaster, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley

Ethnicity

Chinese-American

About company

Rotten Tomatoes is the premier destination for moviegoers to decide what to watch, providing reviews, news, trailers, and the largest online community of movie fans. We also offer the "Tomatometer", an easy-to-use quality rating systemthat aggregates the opinions of hundreds of the nation’s top critics. Online since 1998, Rotten Tomatoes has grown to 7 million unique visitors a month (Comscore) and is the industry-accepted standard for critical reaction.

Most notable achievements

I'm currently the Vice President of Online Operations at Xiaban.com (meaning "after work" in Chinese), a new startup aiming to be the leading provider of online and mobile shopping and dining services to China's metropolitan consumers. At Xiaban.com, I've rejoined Patrick Lee, another former partner and co-founder in two previous successful ventures, Rotten Tomatoes and Design Reactor, along with a talented and experienced team of Chinese online entrepreneurs.

I most recently served as Vice-President and Publisher of Rotten Tomatoes for IGN Entertainment, the Internet's leading destination for videogaming and entertainment enthusiasts. IGN Entertainment was recently acquired by Fox Interactive Media, the interactive arm of News Corp., joining the ranks of MySpace.com, FoxSports.com, and Scout Media. Prior to IGN, I co-founded Rotten Tomatoes, the premier website for movie and videogame ratings and reviews with seven million unique visitors per month (Comscore), and served for its first five years as Chief Technology Officer. While at Rotten Tomatoes, I negotiated and oversaw many of our business partnerships including deals with Microsoft, The New York Times, and Netflix. Additionally, my recent publisher role provided the opportunity to evangelize Rotten Tomatoes to the movie studios where we've developed long-term advertising deals with numerous studios. Patrick Lee, Lily Chi (CFO), and I negotiated and managed Rotten Tomatoes' acquisition by IGN Entertainment in July 2004. Finally, as a Vice-President at IGN Entertainment, I was fascinated by the potential opportunities of having the leading destination for videogame information enter the exploding China market. As a consequence, I spearheaded our continuing efforts to expand into China which will hopefully bear some fruit in the following years.

Prior to Rotten Tomatoes, I co-founded Design Reactor, a leading entertainment website and games developer, where I served as Technical Director and client manager for top brands including The Walt Disney Company, ABC, and Match.com. I managed the development of some major online properties for Disney including ZoogDisney.com, Disney's first and wildly popular online/on-air synergy for Disney Channel and the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" online game, the most played online game when it was released.

In 2005, I received the HSBC Young Entrepreneur Award.

What's the niche?

Rotten Tomatoes has fundamentally altered the way many moviegoers decide what movie to watch. Many moviegoers can simply refer to a movie's "Tomatometer" rating as shorthand when referring to the quality or critical response to a movie. As a consequence, we've become an important component in the marketing process of many movies, especially films that require building good word-of-mouth and critical reaction.

What's the biggest challenge?

We've been successful in building Rotten Tomatoes into a popular online phenomenon. Our ongoing challenge is to permeate Rotten Tomatoes as a mainstream-brand synonymous with film quality.With our expanding efforts to bring Rotten Tomatoes into print and on-air, we hope to become the "Good Housekeeping" seal of approval for movies, and later, all forms of entertainment.

What's in store for the future

Rotten Tomatoes continues to grow under the management of Senh Duong, who originally came up with the concept for Rotten Tomatoes.

I'm now consumed by my new job at Xiaban.com in Xiamen, China. I've rejoined Patrick Lee, my business partner for my last two companies, and our former classmate from Cal, Jimmy Zhuang, to build a shopping and dining services city portal for China. The Xiaban team have thus far built and launched an impressive array of services and we're currently fully concentrated on refining our offerings this year before expanding into other cities around China.

Who/what/type of company/individual would you like to be contacted by

In my new role at Xiaban, I've returned back to an operations role meaning that I'm working day-to-day to make sure that our Xiaban team is building and offering great stuff. As a consequence, I've reduced my time spent networking to concentrate while my partner, Patrick Lee, devotes time to exploring our new business opportunities. Nonetheless, we're always open to great ideas and suggestions by acquaintances, old and new.

« Previous 1 2 1 2 Next »

Best way to keep a competitive edge

I firmly believe that the only way to grow, both personally and career-wise, is by constantly challenging yourself to tackle new challenge. In general, the greater the risk, the greater potential reward. As a consequence, I continually analyze my situation to assess whether I've become too comfortable and, therefore, unmotivated and try to find new opportunities to grow.

Guiding principle in life

I try to maintain enough ambition and energy to achieve daring goals, but also enough humility to accept the challenges and loads of rejection that comes with being an entrepreneur.

Yardstick of success

In practical terms, I hope that each of my successive enterprises is multiples larger in scale and achievements, and that I've played a vital role in their successes. In more general terms, I want to develop vastly new knowledge and skills in each position so that I become a more capable entrepreneur overall.

Goal yet to be achieved

I just want to take life one step at a time and so far I can't really complain with the outcome so far. As a consequence, the only "goal" that I'm concerned with right now is making sure that Xiaban.com is successful.

“I'm focused on building a fantastic service for a wide audience…and meeting Steve Jobs or Bill Gates wouldn't really help me accomplish that goal.”

Best practical advice

I was lucky enough to find a trustworthy and talented business partner to establish and run each of the companies. Like a marriage, we have our share of disagreements, but our competencies are different and very complementary. Bill Gates has Steve Ballmer; Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak; Jerry Yang has Dave Filo, and the list goes on and on… It's tricky, but having this kind of partner to continually support and challenge you will be the best first step for any entrepreneur.

Mentor

I don't have any formal mentors to speak of, but I always try to absorb the best qualities of the friends and co-workers who surround me. For instance, my co-founders at Rotten Tomatoes are enormously talented in their own ways: from Patrick Lee I try to emulate his almost preacher-like ability to build faith and trust in our future from co-workers, business partners, and investors. Larry Barber is well-known as being the sole white guy surrounded by Taiwanese during the heyday of the PC revolution. He was a co-founder and head of sales for Micronics, a leader in the early PC industry, and later President of Tyan, the motherboard manufacturer. I sometimes look to his example when I think about tackling new risky, oddball career challenges (like being Asian in the entertainment industry, or ABC in a company of Chinese natives).

What motivated you to get started

The online boom was well underway when we started Design Reactor in 1997 and I was already passionate about doing something web-related. I was also determined to work in a comfortable and fun environment with my friends rather than a cold, corporate atmosphere. It seemed scary and exciting when we signed the lease for our first office the day after my college graduation; in hindsight, however, it seems like the most rational choice given the circumstances.

Like best about what you do

In my mind, the opportunity to be with my friends in a fun work environment that WE get to define is the greatest benefit of my career. Only by having such a great and talented set of friends/co-workers are you able to tackle challenges like working through Thanksgiving back in 1997 to create our first web site for Disney on spec (i.e. no contract) or surviving dotcom bust between 2001 and 2003.

Like least about what you do

In my current position at Xiaban, I plan to spend three months at a time in Xiamen, China followed by two or three weeks back in the U.S.. While I really enjoy my friends and co-workers at Xiaban, I also really miss my old team at Rotten Tomatoes and, of course, my U.S.-based friends.

At age 10, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I was already deeply into programming computers at that time (BASIC on my Commodore 64) so I knew I wanted to do something related to computers.

“Again, this is another trait common amongst most engineers.”

Biggest pastime outside of work

Hilariously enough, rolling bread at Cinnabon back in high school. Actually, it makes me a little hungry for cinnamon rolls just thinking about it. My first real job, however, was as Webmaster for the Haas School of Business while an undergrad at Cal. By that point in time, I knew I wanted to do something web-related so I pretty much skipped classes in order to hold down the near full-time position.

Leader in business most interested in meeting and why

Because I'm concentrating on operations right now, I'm not really concerned with networking or meeting business leaders right now. I respect their successes (how about that Steve Jobs and the crazy Disney-Pixar deal?), but if I were to meet them we honestly wouldn't have anything of interest to speak of on either a personal or business level. I'm focused on building a fantastic service for a wide audience (moviegoers for Rotten Tomatoes, metropolitan shoppers for Xiaban.com) and meeting Steve Jobs or Bill Gates wouldn't really help me accomplish that goal.

One interesting fact about yourself

The Cal Wushu Team has oddly played a large role in each of our companies. I initially met many of my co-workers and business partners at Cal when we practiced wushu together. I guess the hard effort over the years built a kind of brotherhood bond because we started each of the companies together and hired a large number of employees from the team. Wushu people are amazingly computer-capable (i.e. nerdy) so it's not a bad place to look to if you want to start an online company.

Three characteristics that describe you

Focused – I like to have a laser-like focus when tackling challenges by breaking down the challenge into smaller problems and solving each problem sequentially. It's a trait common amongst most engineers.

Energetic – You need a lot of energy if you want to be an entrepreneur. In my case, I try to dedicate a lot of that energy towards my company.

Shy – Some friends would disagree with this one, but in general I tend to be very talkative with my friends but shun opening up to new people. Again, this is another trait common amongst most engineers.

Greatest passion

As you can guess from my Rotten Tomatoes-past, I'm passionate – but discerning – about movies. In a way, I actually watch FEWER movies now than I did before Rotten Tomatoes existed because the Tomatometer has trained me to avoid BAD movies.

Favorite book

In the Rotten Tomatoes vein, I'll offer up The Graduate (1967) as my sentimental favorite movie. While it's not for everyone, I find it hilarious and inspiring PLUS it has an entire section shot in Berkeley. "Go Bears!"

Favorite cause

I used to be very politically-oriented in high school towards social justice and I'm still a bit of a news junkie. However, I now find that I can best contribute back to the world by just working hard at the companies that I help build. Perhaps at some later point, I'll have enough time and passion to concentrate on an enterprise fully dedicated towards a particular cause, but my current endeavors help benefit my friends/co-workers and our users. For now, I'm satisfied with this contribution.

« Previous 1 2 1 2 Next »

Rotten Tomatoes and Stephen Wang

Also this week

Don't forget!