BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 23, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- PERSONALITIES Jimmy Lai Born: Dec. 8, 1948, in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Education: Raised in poverty, he left school after the fifth grade and at age 12 escaped to Hong Kong in a tiny boat. Career highlights: In 1981, launched Giordano, a Gap-style retail chain. Went into the media business in 1989 with Next, a weekly magazine. In 1995, founded newspaper Apple Daily. Last year, launched adMart, direct-sales retailer taking orders via the Internet, fax, and telephones. Took holding company Next Media public through a backdoor listing last year after having plans for IPO squashed. Politics: A vocal foe of the Chinese Communist Party. Because of his forays into newspaper publishing and retailing, he has alienated traditional powers that be in Hong Kong. Most famous quote: In a newspaper column, called former Chinese Premier Li Peng a ''son of a turtle egg,'' the Chinese equivalent of an S.O.B. Philosophy about e-business setbacks: His Net shop and news portal are doing poorly. ''It's going to take much longer for online business to materialize. But if you have the content, the page views, and the users, you have the staying power to wait for the right model.'' Family: A 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter with wife, Teresa. And two sons and a daughter from a previous marriage. Interests: Collects art by contemporary Chinese painters. Raises threatened bird species for release in the wild in China. Cruises around Hong Kong's waters aboard his junk, Free China. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS EBIZ Contents for issue dated Oct. 23, 2000 The Humbling of Jimmy Lai RESUME: Jimmy Lai ONLINE EXTRA: Q&A with adMart's Jimmy Lai INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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