OKCoin: Chinese Bitcoin Company Lands in New York's Times Square

Times Square in New York, USA is the heart of Manhattan and the most prosperous entertainment and shopping center, with an average annual tourist flow of 40 million and a personnel flow of 100 million. It is regarded as one of the best windows to "attract global attention" and is known as the "crossroads of the world". On the afternoon of April 9, 2015, the OKCoin advertisement landed on the main screen of Times Square: "Bitcoin is here, OKCoin is here, Everything will be ok!" It attracted the attention of many Bitcoin enthusiasts.
Since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin has experienced a surge in 2013 and a sharp drop in 2014, and has been controversial all over the world. Although Bitcoin has brought a certain impact on the world, it is still a niche industry that is not taken seriously by most people. The landing of Bitcoin advertisements in Times Square has a special historical significance for the Bitcoin industry. For this, we searched for the protagonist of this article, the Bitcoin trading platform OKCoin. As the world's largest Bitcoin trading platform, OKCoin has been established for less than two years. Since the collapse of the Japanese trading platform mt.gox in March 2014, OKCoin has quickly emerged on the international stage and jumped to the lead. What is surprising is that OKCoin is a Chinese company.
OKCoin's China office is located in Shangdi, a district outside the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing where Internet technology companies are concentrated. The PR in charge of reception said, "To our left is Xiaomi, and to our right is Baidu." Snacks, yoga balls, massagers, and succulents are scattered in the open space. It is said that they even had a puppy named "Diudiu." The entire company is not a financial company as imagined, but more like an Internet company. Walking through the densely packed open workstations, I met OKCoin co-founder He Yi. To my surprise, this heavyweight in the Bitcoin industry, who is less than 30 years old, does not look like a geek, or even an IT practitioner, but more like a cute and beautiful girl next door. However, PR Zhang Jun told me that she is the driving force behind OKCoin's rapid rise and is fully responsible for the company's overall brand image and marketing. In the Bitcoin industry, He Yi is called "the first sister", but she does not make people feel distant at all. Just like what I saw on Tianjin Satellite TV's well-known recruitment program "You Are the One", He Yi loves to laugh, but when she mentions Bitcoin, she immediately switches mode and becomes serious.

1. Is Bitcoin legal?

Most people have heard of Bitcoin, but most have never seen it, or even know whether it is legal. People often ask me "What is Bitcoin?" and "Isn't Bitcoin illegal?" In fact, different countries have different attitudes towards Bitcoin. The Chinese government is relatively open-minded and classifies Bitcoin into the category of Internet finance, and defines it as a "tradable asset" similar to antiques and stamps; Europe's attitude towards Bitcoin is relatively tolerant, for example: Germany believes that Bitcoin is a "bookkeeping tool"; the United States is the most standardized, and they define Bitcoin as a digital asset, inheritance and transfer require taxes, and operations require a license; currently, the only countries that have declared Bitcoin illegal are Russia and Thailand.
It is worth mentioning that in the ever-changing Internet field: Dell, Microsoft, Newegg, PayPal and other companies support Bitcoin payments, and Bill Gates and other giants who commercialize technology have publicly expressed their optimism about Bitcoin technology. But what is more symbolic is that on June 28, 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown signed the AB129 bill, recognizing the legal use of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Bitcoin was finally allowed to circulate in the form of "currency", not just digital assets.

2. How did OKCoin become the largest in the world?

Today, we are big only in a niche area. We are big because this industry is still small and in its early stages. From 2009 to now, Bitcoin has experienced a surge to RMB 8,000 and a sharp drop. Many people even think that Bitcoin is "dead". Some people asked me if "Bitcoin" still exists? Just like Bitcoin is a company or a life, but in essence, Bitcoin is an emerging technology. Bitcoin appears in everyone's life as an asset allocation. Many people have achieved wealth freedom by speculating in Bitcoin. Some peers speculate that "Chinese aunts join the Bitcoin army", and everyone thinks that the currency is just for speculation, just like many people simply understand computers as "computers", but computing is only a basic function of computers.
I believe this controversy will continue for a long time. After all, it took more than 20 years for the Internet to be truly accepted by the public from its emergence in 1969, and more than 20 years for it to be popularized. In this process, it was also understood as a "den of criminals and pornography." Bitcoin has been launched since 2009, and it has only been 6 years today. It is normal for people to regard it as a "pyramid scheme" and a "tulip bubble." This industry is still in a very early stage and has not yet formed a real industry or competition. We have become the largest trading platform not because we are strong enough, but because we are the most rigorous Internet financial company. Because there is no supervision, we will be more strict with ourselves for fear of making mistakes. Therefore, whether in compliance or risk control, I feel a little "sorry" for my customers. Sometimes the conditions are too harsh.

3. How will the Bitcoin industry develop next?

How much salary a person can get depends on what value you provide to the company, and the growth of a company depends on what value you provide to the society. At present, there is no "killer" application in the Bitcoin industry, just like the emergence of "browsers" in the Internet industry. Many people have just started to understand Bitcoin, and the information they get is all professional names such as "algorithms" and "blockchains". Everyone thinks that this is something related to geeks and has nothing to do with ordinary people, just like the Internet before the emergence of browsers, which was not understood by most people. When we were young, we had to learn C language and the like to learn computers. In fact, it would be enough to learn to eat eggs. Why do we have to understand the chicken that lays eggs?
I think the Bitcoin industry also needs a "browser" that can truly meet the rigid needs of ordinary people. Fortunately, the Internet has become a standard, and the information gap is constantly being narrowed. Anyone can teach themselves, and anyone can become the creator of a "Bitcoin browser." Of course, OKCoin is also constantly trying and exploring to support emerging applications in the industry.

4. What do the ads in Times Square mean?

Currently, the China-related advertisements in Times Square are mainly promotional videos of cities and tourism culture, supplemented by advertisements of listed Internet companies such as "Baidu" and "Alibaba". But for OKCoin, we already have a large number of overseas users. More than 70% of OKCoin's USD site users are overseas users. We do not expect an advertisement to bring us many users. In fact, the original text of this advertisement is: "Dear Greece, Bitcoin is here, OKCoin is here, Everything will be OK!" In response to the April Fool's joke of the Greek Reporter website (Greek Reporter reported on April 1 that Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis said at a secret meeting of the Ministry of Finance, "We will use Bitcoin to walk ahead of all world economies. Although it may be painful at the beginning, in the long run, the Greek economy will flourish.") But my colleagues in the International Department killed my idea. They thought the idea was too crazy or discriminatory, but I think it was just a good-natured joke.
Bitcoin is a globally circulated digital asset. For OKCoin, there is no difference between advertising in New York's Times Square and advertising in Zhongguancun Startup Street. Both are aimed at popularizing and promoting the market. He Yi said: "This is an unshirkable responsibility as an industry leader."


Postscript: After the interview, He Yi stood up from her desk to see me off. I saw her jeans full of holes, and I remembered the Apple advertisement that flooded WeChat Moments in 1997: "To the crazy people. They are unique. They are unruly. They stir up trouble. They don't fit in. They look at things differently. They don't like to stick to the rules. They don't want to be content with the status quo. You can agree with them, oppose them, praise them or denigrate them. But you can't ignore them. Because they change ordinary things. They push humanity forward. Maybe they are crazy in the eyes of others, but they are geniuses in our eyes. Because only those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world can truly change the world."