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Yahui Zhou:From Tsinghua students to the helm of African payment giants

In the wave of China's Internet, Yahui Zhou is an entrepreneur who cannot be simply defined. His story is not a smooth journey, but a continuous entrepreneurial epic that learns from setbacks, turns to challenges, and ultimately finds a new blue ocean on the distant African continent. Beginning at Tsinghua University, Defeated by the "God of Fire" Yahui Zhou's entrepreneurial genes were awakened early on. In 1999, as a graduate student in the Department of Precision Instruments at Tsinghua University, he keenly seized the opportunity of the school's policy to encourage taking a leave of absence to start a business and resolutely entered the business world. His first project was the original anime website "Huoshen.com", which successfully received an angel investment of 500000 yuan. However, the path of starting a business for the first time is full of thorns. In order to survive, the team had to undertake scattered businesses such as outsourcing animation and producing multimedia CDs. In the end, after four years of persistence, his first entrepreneurship ended in failure. This experience made him deeply reflect and realize his lack of understanding of technology, and he chose to join Qianxiang Interactive Company, which had a strong technical atmosphere at the time, to learn and accumulate knowledge. The Birth of Game Empires and the "Unicorn Excavator" in the Investment Industry The real turning point occurred in 2008. Yahui Zhou founded Kunlun Wanwei, focusing on web game development. With precise overseas market strategies, the company has rapidly risen and achieved a leading position in the web gaming market in South Korea and Japan, earning the title of "Overseas Little Tencent". In 2015, Kunlun Wanwei successfully entered the A-share market with a market value of 30 billion yuan, marking Yahui Zhou's first huge commercial success. After going public, Yahui Zhou did not stop. He turned his attention to investment and, with his unique vision and sharp judgment, successively invested in multiple unicorn companies such as Yingke, Qudian, Dada, etc., winning the resounding title of "unicorn excavator" in the investment industry. Transformation: Entering Africa and Reshaping OPay Despite his unlimited success in the investment field, Yahui Zhou always believes deep down that he is an "entrepreneur" rather than a mere "big shot". A strong sense of crisis drove him to constantly search for new battlefields. He admitted, "I have fallen behind now and cannot be left too far behind." And his target was the outstanding peers such as Wang Xing and Zhang Yiming. This time, he turned his attention to the vast potential of the African market. In 2018, Yahui Zhou launched the mobile payment platform OPay in Nigeria through the acquisition of Norwegian browser company Opera by Kunlun Wanwei. His ultimate vision is to create a "Alipay" in Africa. At first, in order to build scenarios for payment services, OPay quickly expanded its business line and launched a series of O2O services such as ride hailing (ORide) and food delivery (OFood), reaching a daily average of one million orders. However, this expansion soon faced severe challenges. After in-depth analysis and independent thinking, Yahui Zhou believes that in the African market with low unit prices, continuing to burn money to subsidize travel and other businesses is not a long-term solution, and the final business model may be difficult to establish. He made a difficult yet decisive decision: in 2020, he strategically contracted and closed almost all business lines except for payments. Faced with the possibility of obtaining a huge amount of financing, he chose to refuse because he regarded financing as a "credit liability" and adhered to the principle of "no business can fail". Achieving African Payment Giants This' heroic 'focus has proven to be a crucial turning point. After shedding the heavy burden, OPay focused all its energy on payment itself, making the organization lighter and achieving rapid business growth. By 2020, OPay had rapidly emerged, occupying the largest share of Nigeria's C-end payment market, processing over 60% of the country's electronic payment transactions, and boasting millions of users, becoming an undeniable force in Africa's fintech sector. Yahui Zhou's daily routine still maintains the high-intensity rhythm of an entrepreneur.His story is a vivid portrayal of cognitive evolution, strategic determination, and an entrepreneurial spirit that never stops. From Tsinghua Park to NASDAQ, and then to the streets of Lagos, Yahui Zhou has proven through his actions that true entrepreneurs are always on the road, and their battlefield knows no boundaries.