Disruptors
Those who traverse cycles understand the weight of time.
Charles Cao
“The value of the media lies in guarding the truth and maintaining credibility in the flood of information.”
He is "that accountant who never uses a calculator." Joined Sina in 1999 and promoted Weibo in 2009. In 2025, Weibo’s monthly active users will be 567 million. He spent 27 years proving that the real rebel is not a subversive, but a person who holds the chessboard. Among the heroes of China’s Internet, many entrepreneurs have distinctive styles. Jack Ma is straightforward in his expressions, Ma Huateng tends to think like an engineer, and Zhang Chaoyang is passionate about fashion expressions. Cao Guowei has long been labeled an accountant by his peers and outsiders in the industry. Faced with this label, he gave a straightforward response: "I am just an accountant who never uses a calculator." In 1999, he thought he would only go to Beijing temporarily to complete a short-term audit work and would only stay at Sina for one year. Twenty-seven years have passed, and he has become the core manager who has accompanied Sina for the longest period of development. In the Internet track, some people take the initiative to open up new tracks, while others coordinate the overall situation and formulate expansion plans. Cao Guowei always plays the role of stabilizing the market and guarding the foundation. 1. Entering the game: The person who "settled accounts" Cao Guowei was born in 1965. He studied in the Journalism Department of Fudan University in his early years and worked as a journalist after graduation. Later, he went overseas for further studies, obtained the qualification of Certified Public Accountant from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and delved into the fields of finance and corporate capital structure. In 1999, he was arranged to go to Beijing to complete Sina's audit work on behalf of his colleagues. This temporary business trip made him deeply involved in Sina's development. After joining the company, he led the listing process of Sina Nasdaq and participated in the entire process of building VIE stocks suitable for domestic Internet companies.
Charles Cao
Asia Cover Character·Retrograde in the Business World | Cao Guowei: The "accountant" who guards the chessboard, the gamekeeper who has traveled through the 27-year cycle
Asia cover character・Business rebel
Total Issue 023 - ACF-NXZ-2026
【Abstract】
He was “that accountant who never used a calculator.” Joined Sina in 1999 and promoted Weibo in 2009. In 2025, Weibo’s monthly active users will be 567 million. He spent 27 years proving that the real rebel is not a subversive, but a person who holds the chessboard.
Among the heroes of China’s Internet, many entrepreneurs have distinctive styles. Jack Ma is straightforward in his expressions, Ma Huateng tends to think like an engineer, and Zhang Chaoyang is passionate about fashion expressions. Cao Guowei has long been labeled an accountant by his peers and outsiders in the industry.
Faced with this label, he gave a straightforward response: "I am just an accountant who never uses a calculator."
In 1999, he thought he would only go to Beijing temporarily to complete a short-term audit work and would only stay in Sina for one year. Twenty-seven years have passed, and he has become the core manager who has accompanied Sina for the longest period of development.
In the Internet track, some people take the initiative to open up new tracks, while others coordinate the overall situation and formulate expansion plans. Cao Guowei always plays the role of stabilizing the market and guarding the foundation.
1. Entering the game: the person who “settles accounts”
Cao Guowei was born in 1965. He studied journalism at Fudan University in his early years and worked as a journalist after graduation. Later, he went overseas for further studies, obtained the qualification of Certified Public Accountant from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and delved into the fields of finance and corporate capital structure.
In 1999, he was arranged to go to Beijing to complete Sina's audit work on behalf of his colleagues. This temporary business trip made him deeply involved in Sina's development. After joining the company, he led the listing process of Sina Nasdaq, participated in the entire process of building a VIE equity structure suitable for domestic Internet companies, sorted out and cleaned up equity issues left over from the company's history, and cleared obstacles for companies to comply with listing.
When he first joined Sina, he positioned himself as a short-term expatriate and never imagined that he would be deeply involved in corporate operations for a long time. In the span of twenty-seven years, he has completely witnessed the company's development from start-up to listing to multiple rounds of industry cycle fluctuations.
Talking about his familiarity with the company's business, Cao Guowei said bluntly: "No one knows Sina's business more thoroughly than me, and no one can come close to me about the overall operation of each business line."
At the same time, he calmly accepts external accounting labels: "I am an accountant who never uses a calculator."
He is not an accountant, he is a chessboard guard.
For a true chess player, the first step determines the outcome.
2. Defending the situation: poison pill plan and strategic contraction
In 2005, Shanda Chen Tianqiao gradually increased its stake in Sina, with its shareholding ratio reaching 19.5%. There was an expectation in the market that external capital would acquire control of the company. Faced with the risk of sudden equity changes, Cao Guowei finalized the entire poison pill plan within four days. After implementation, he successfully resisted external acquisition attempts and maintained control of Sina's independent operations.
In 2006, Cao Guowei officially took over as Sina CEO. After taking office, he did not follow the industry trend to expand diversification. Instead, he launched a comprehensive strategic contraction, eliminating non-core business sectors that deviated from the main line of media, and concentrated resources on the two core sectors of media content and advertising.
Industry opinion once suggested that Sina has entered the era of Cao Guowei, but he maintained a rational statement: "We have not changed our strategy too much, we have just become more focused on our core business."
Most companies in the industry continued to add businesses and expand their business boundaries during the same period. Cao Guowei chose to streamline redundant layouts, concentrate resources on consolidating his own advantageous tracks, and give up uncertain cross-border attempts.
Others do addition, he does subtraction.
It’s not that we don’t expand, it’s that we only expand what we are good at.
3. Luozi: The birth of Weibo
When the SNS product craze in the industry was on the rise, Sina internally promoted the development and implementation of the Sina Friends project. After the product was formed, Cao Guowei made a stop-loss decision, suspended promotion and launch, and directly shelved the project.
After an internal strategic discussion, Cao Guowei finalized a new product direction and fully promoted Weibo's R&D operations. In his judgment, the lightweight short content communication model is highly consistent with Sina’s media genes that have been cultivated for many years. Compared with the SNS social model, it is more in line with the platform’s own resources and user base.
Subsequently, Cao Guowei took the lead in completing the management buyout. The team invested US$180 million to purchase 5.6 million shares of Sina, and the management became the company's largest shareholder. Reviewing this equity adjustment, he said: "MBO is more about my thinking about the company's positioning and development."
After holding the core equity of the company, he did not slow down the layout of core products, but reorganized the long-term development path: "I want to re-plan Sina's future with the mentality of an entrepreneur."
Abandoning established social products and focusing all resources on the Weibo track, this step of adjustment will later become a key strategy for Sina to cross the cycle.
He gave up a product and gambled on an era.
Chess players will not make moves all the time, but every move they make counts ten moves.
4. Changing Situation: Impact of Short Videos and User Anxiety
The rapid rise of short video and content platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu has caused the usage time of users on the entire network to be diverted by multiple platforms. Weibo is facing an industry change in which users’ attention is distracted.
In December 2025, Weibo had 567 million monthly active users and 252 million daily active users. Both core user data declined slightly year-on-year; the overall revenue for the year was US$1.76 billion, which was basically the same as the previous year, and revenue growth stagnated.
In the segmented revenue segment, total advertising and marketing revenue was US$1.5 billion, and independent advertising revenue after excluding Alibaba-related advertising was US$1.328 billion, down 4% year-on-year; the company's operating profit margin dropped from 28% to 26%.
The net profit attributable to the parent company for the year was US$449 million, a year-on-year increase of 49%. The profit growth did not come from the expansion of the main business, but mainly relied on external investment income and internal cost reduction control.
When the pressure for business growth emerged, Weibo's daily operations and management were gradually handed over to Wang Gaofei. Cao Guowei gradually retreated behind the scenes, no longer involved in front-line daily decision-making, and only controlled the top-level long-term strategic direction.
The external industry environment continues to iterate, and the original media and social track pattern has changed. Platforms that have long adhered to their inherent genes are facing a realistic test in terms of growth.
The chessboard of the Internet has changed, but the defenders are still there.
Not looking for an explosion, but looking for longevity.
5. The chess game is not over: the “accountant” guarding the chessboard
In 2026, Cao Guowei will be 62 years old. The platform implemented Weibo’s intelligent search function, and the number of monthly active users exceeded 80 million after its launch. The full implementation of artificial intelligence has become Weibo’s core strategic direction this year.
At the management level, he continued to complete the handover of management authority, and Wang Gaofei fully took over the front-line operations. However, the corporate operation logic established by Cao Guowei over the years was completely retained, and the overall development idea still maintained the tone of not seeking short-term explosions and prioritizing long-term stable operation.
Chao Guowei's long-term defensive strategy has helped Sina and Weibo smoothly survive multiple rounds of Internet industry cycle fluctuations. However, the extreme focus on their own media genes and the rejection of borderless expansion has also caused the platform to miss the two high-speed growth waves of mobile social networking and short videos.
A slight decline in monthly activity and stagnant growth in main business revenue in 2025 are the shortcomings of this conservative focus strategy in the new market environment. His choice is a rational judgment based on the boundaries of the company's own resources and capabilities. This set of choices delimits the upper limit of the company's development, and also establishes a safe bottom line to resist industry risks.
He does not chase short-term market dividends, but prioritizes long-term viability when judging layout. He uses the rational perspective of a financial manager to measure the long-term gains and losses of each step of the layout, rather than the book data of a single quarter or a single year.
He never calculates short-term gains and losses, he only calculates the final outcome.
The chess game is still going on and he is still making moves.
ending
In 2026, Cao Guowei will be 62 years old.
From an accountant who temporarily went to Beijing for auditing in 1999, to a manager who has maintained stability for 27 years. He does not have a dramatic comeback from the trough, but he has carved out a long-term and stable development path in the rapidly iterative Internet industry.
The industry track is constantly being restructured, and new and old platforms are replacing each other. He has always maintained the core foundation of the media and completed industry cycles one after another in a restrained and rational manner.
The chess game is still going on and he is still making moves.
The real rebel is not the most dazzling subversive, but the most tenacious defender.
There are not only generals on the chessboard, but also those who guard the chessboard. Those who guard the chessboard often live to the end.
Data source
About Cao Guowei joining Sina in 1999 and being deeply involved in designing the VIE structure and listing: public reports.
On the 2005 Poison Pill, 2006 CEO Succession: Public Reports.
About the birth of Weibo and MBO in 2009: public reporting.
About Cao Guowei’s original words “I am just an accountant who never uses a calculator”: Securities Times reported in 2019.
Regarding Weibo’s monthly active users of 567 million and daily active users of 252 million in 2025: Futu Niu Niu reported in March 2026.
Regarding Weibo’s revenue of US$1.76 billion and net profit attributable to the parent company of US$449 million in 2025: Financial Tiger Network reported in March 2026.
Regarding Weibo’s operating profit margin falling from 28% to 26%: Financial Tiger Network reported in March 2026.
About Weibo Smart Search monthly active users exceeding 80 million, 2026 strategy: DoNews reported in January 2026.
About Cao Guowei handing over to Wang Gaofei: Futu Niu Niu reported in March 2026.
Follow
Scan to follow for more stories
Cover ArchiveArchive
View archive file →Every cover publication is registered and kept in the ACF Cover Archive. The code is permanent.
Not Everyone Makes the Cover
Asia Cover Figure · Influencing Those Who Influence