Shen Xiangyang's New Job: Chairman of the Most Popular News and Information Platform in the United States
Since Harry Shum announced his departure from Microsoft in November last year, everyone has been paying close attention to where this AI giant will go next. After half a year, the answer is finally revealed: he chose the American version of Yidian Zixun "News Break".
Shen Xiangyang, former Microsoft global executive vice president and top expert in computer vision and graphics, finally updated his latest developments:He personally invested in the American local smart news platform News Break and served as its chairman.
After 23 years at Microsoft, a new chapter begins
In November 2019, Harry Shum, then Microsoft's global executive vice president, announced his departure from Microsoft, a news that attracted widespread attention in the industry.
At that time, he wrote in an internal letter to employees:
Leaving Microsoft was the hardest decision of my life... Today, Microsoft has become so successful that at this stage in my life, I feel it is time to start a new chapter.
Since then, the "new chapter" that Shum mentioned has been attracting much attention.
In February this year, Shen Xiangyang officially resigned from Microsoft, and it was not until today that his next stop was finally made public.
It is reported that after joining News Break, a Silicon Valley star startup, his next goal is to:To build the most popular hyperlocal news platform in the United States, focusing on corporate development strategy, core technology development direction, talent reserve and development,Taking News Break to the next level.
“In this day and age, and in the age of AI, especially as we face the COVID-19 pandemic, we have this opportunity and responsibility to really think about local communities and better serve local communities,” Shum said in an interview with GeekWire. “That’s really exciting for me and the News Break team.”
He also said, "News Break has huge potential to change the way news and information is distributed and shared, bringing people and communities closer together."
Regarding Shen Xiangyang’s joining, News Break founder and CEO Zheng Zhaohui said:
Shum and I both recognize that while people think globally, their lives are still local. As one of the smartest people in the technology industry, Shum brings a wealth of technical leadership and business acumen to the company, and we will use these advantages to build News Break into the world's top local smart news platform.
News Break: Top 3 in the US App Store
News Break is not very well-known in the country, but it is a star startup in the United States.
The company was founded in Silicon Valley in 2015 by Zheng Zhaohui and Ren Xuyang, the founding team of Yidian Zixun.Zheng Zhaohui serves as the company's CEO, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang serves as chief advisor.
In May 2017, News Break announced the completion of its B round of financing, with investors including Ding Lei, IDG and ZhenFund. Public information shows that in April 2016, News Break announced the completion of a multi-million-dollar A round of financing, with IDG Capital as the investor.
Simply put, News Break is a news and information app based on a recommendation algorithm, targeting the US market.,Provide “Easily Accessible” local news information to local community users.
At the beginning of its establishment, Zheng Zhaohui expressed his hope to move the Yidian Zixun model to the United States, so it is also called the "Yidian Zixun overseas version."
Technically,News Break realizes news push through "recommendation + search + subscription".Like Toutiao, it provides targeted recommendations based on users’ browsing preferences, making content tailored to each individual.
Since the launch of the iOS and Android apps in 2016, it has quickly gained popularity. Today, its download ranking has consistently ranked among the top three in the US news category and continues to grow rapidly.
According to App Annie data,Its daily active users (DAU) exceed 11 million and its monthly active users exceed 23 million., these data exceed major news apps such as The New York Times, CNN News, The Washington Post, Yahoo News and SmartNews.
News Break currently has more than 10,000 content providers covering more than 20,000 local communities across the United States.
Currently, the company is profitable, has more than 100 employees, and is growing rapidly.According to Shen Xiangyang, the company plans to expand its technical team and may open an engineering center in Seattle. The company is actively recruiting senior talents to join its Silicon Valley headquarters and branches in Beijing, Shanghai and Seattle.
Shum Heung-yang: A great man with both talent and integrity
Shen Xiangyang was born in Lishui County, Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province in 1966 and grew up there.
After graduating from the University of Hong Kong with a master's degree, Shum went to Carnegie Mellon University for further studies, where he studied under the famous computer scientist and Turing Award winner Raj Reddy. He was a fellow student of Kai-Fu Lee and Hsiao-Wen Hong (we once studied at Carnegie Mellon University)."The Mentor of Kai-Fu Lee and Harry Shum: A Turing Award Winner from Rural India"The article introduces how he started his research in computer vision.
In 1996, he received his Ph.D. in Robotics from the School of Computer Science. With the recommendation of Qi Lu, he joined Microsoft Research.
During his 23 years at Microsoft, he became famous for his research in computer vision and graphics and the development of Bing Search, rising all the way from a researcher to Microsoft's global executive vice president, the highest-ranking Chinese executive in a US tech giant at the time.
As early as 2006, Shen Xiangyang began to serve as a dual-appointed professor at Tsinghua University and has served as a mentor to many Tsinghua doctoral students.
On March 5 this year, due to the epidemic,Tsinghua University held the first remote appointment ceremony in its history, and Tsinghua University President Qiu Yong presented Shen Xiangyang with a letter of appointment renewal as a dual-appointed professor.
The industry has a high opinion of Shen Xiangyang both in terms of technology and personality.
As a mentor,He provides guidance to students in every detail, from research direction to academic experience, research skills, and even helping to find program bugs, but he also pays more attention to providing advice on students' career development;
As a colleague,He is easy-going and holds a high position but does not put on airs;
As a team leader,He recruits people based on their personal connections, has a deep understanding of the team, and discusses issues one-on-one with front-line programmers.
Precisely because he is such a great man with both talent and integrity, when he left Microsoft, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote a farewell letter in person, affirming and thanking Shen Xiangyang for his contributions; Microsoft Greater China also issued a letter of thanks, expressing its reluctance to part with Dr. Shen and its best wishes.
I wish Dr. Shum all the best in his future endeavors and hope he will continue to achieve great success.
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