Shanghai Diners Flock to Web Site Created by Entrepreneur Zhang Tao '97

April 24, 2006

April 24, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - "Many people have struggled to find a good place to eat in Shanghai, but few have turned the problem into a highly successful Web site. Zhang Tao is an exception," notes today's edition of the Shanghai Daily. "The 34-year-old has spent the past three years setting up an online dining guide, Dianping.com, which now has hundreds of thousands of registered users." Zhang Tao is a 1997 graduate of DePauw University.

"Starting a company comes naturally to Zhang... He founded a campus recruitment firm as a 20-year-old studying at DePauw University in Indiana," writes Zhu Shenshen. Zhang, who was an economics major and Management Fellow at DePauw, tells the newspaper, "I am the kind of person who likes to surprise people. I preferred to found, rather than join, campus organizations."

Dianping.com allows its 600,000 registered members to search for eateries by location, price and food style as well as by popularity. A graduate of DePauw and the Wharton School of Business, Zhang "decided to create a Web site that allowed users to post and share comments about restaurants in Shanghai. The idea of basing the site on user comments was inspired by the book reviews on Amazon.com, credit system on eBay.com, and Wikipedia -- an encyclopedia based on definitions created by users. 'The essential part is the public's anticipation and third party's informal comments and reputation among the public,' said Zhang. 'That's the biggest charm of the Internet -- valuable start-up Web sites needn't spend dollars on promotion, like Google, eBay and Baidu in their initial stage.'"

Read the complete article at the newspaper's Web site.

Zhang Tao was also featured in a November 23, 2005 story in the New York Times. You'll find details in this previous story.

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