KongZhong went from founding to Nasdaq in about two years. Two former Sohu executives, Yunfan Zhou and Nick Yang, started it in Beijing in May 2002. China had more mobile phones than any other country, and most of them could do little beyond calls and text. KongZhong sold small things to those phones: news alerts, pictures, ringtones, and simple games. When it filed to go public in 2004, this business was one of the hottest corners of China's internet.

Two Founders From Sohu

Zhou and Yang had worked at Sohu, one of China's big web portals, before starting KongZhong. The company sold its services through China Mobile and other carriers, which billed users and took a cut. It added WAP, picture messages, and Java games as phones got better. The bet was that China's phone owners would pay small sums, often, for things to read and play. The risk was that a single carrier controlled the gate and could change the rules at any time.

Ten Dollars an ADS

KongZhong priced its IPO at $10 per American depositary share in July 2004 and listed on Nasdaq as KONG. Carrier rule changes soon hit its messaging revenue. Over the next decade the company moved into mobile and online games, which became the core of its business as smartphones replaced simple handsets. In 2017 a buyer group of company insiders took KongZhong private, and its shares left Nasdaq that April.

Cover: Flying Geese, Karl Bodmer. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for geese in flight (KongZhong means 'in the air').