Page 162 - How China Is Winning the Tech Race

include a built-in ad blocker that gets rid of the seemingly endless ads that
pop up on Chinese-language Web pages and so-called proxy support to access
Web pages anonymously and bypass blocked sites.
Word of Maxthon has spread quickly through chat rooms, blogs, and e-
mails as one friend introduces the browser to the next. The little details make
this new Chinese browser better.
Maxthon, which is supposed to mean “maxed on,” has never spent a cent
on promotion. Innovative features have done the advertising for it. “Maxthon
has passed a classic Internet success test, having achieved a significant fol-
lowing entirely through word of mouth and without any marketing
spending,” says the former Internet analyst Safa Rashtchy at Piper Jaffray &
Co. Chen still is trying to keep his own profile low. “I want Maxthon to be
famous, but not me,” says Chen, who is 32 years old.
Maxthon is a good example of the flat world of global technology devel-
opment, where ideas spread rapidly through instant online communications.
Chen works with a small group of developers in Beijing, supported by online
programmers around the world working together in open-source software code.
The idea is to speed up the pace of
tech innovation with codes that are
available for anyone to see, not
“Jeff is a 360 kind of guy. Very few people can sealed off to the public, for instance,
get stuff done, make money, and write code, by a commercial enterprise such as
but Jeff can. He is the company.” Google, Apple, or Microsoft. This is
the same movement that developed
Morten Lund,
the Linux operating system, a rival
Danish tech investor and of Microsoft.
cofounder, LundKenner
Chen’s managerial team is in
Hong Kong, Palo Alto, and Copen-
hagen. Team members commu-
nicate primarily by Skpe, as one might expect. Without the brainy Chen in the
front row, Maxthon would not have made it. “Jeff is a 360 kind of guy. Very
few people can get stuff done, make money, and write code, but Jeff can,”
says Lund. “He is the company.”
Although not registering among the top five most popular browsers
2
worldwide, Maxthon claims a hefty 115 million downloads. For the latest
update, visit the Maxthon site, where a counter on the home page racks up

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