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I grew up in Tuen Mun. We lived in a public housing estate.
When my brother and I reached form three in secondary school, my parents made us find summer jobs. Their theory was that we would only realize how much fun school was after we’d been in the real world.
I even interned at Ching Chung Koon, a Taoist Temple in Tuen Mun. Yes, they have a summer internship program.
I studied law at HKU, but unfortunately I didn’t do much studying, and I didn’t meet the requirements to become a lawyer. It was quite a depressing time.
Back then, if you wanted to share a funny picture, you needed to upload it to MSN messenger and ICQ each time. We thought that having an alternative platform to share funny content would be much more convenient.
We ran the website as a side project. When we went to the US for a startup competition, our mentor thought 9gag was the best among the ideas we proposed.
The idea of 9gag is really nothing new. It’s just sharing funny pictures. It’s definitely not any big idea that can change the world.
But we worked hard on it and we executed the idea. As long as you’re solving problems for a group of people, your idea will work.
Only one percent of success is about the idea—99 percent is execution.
Crises happen every day. The most memorable one is probably when we were in the United States for the contest, and the apartment we booked via Airbnb had only one bed, due to our limited budget. The three of us, all men, had to sleep together.
It’s funny looking back now, but it wasn’t funny then. You woke up touching someone else’s thigh. It was disgusting.
Active users clicking into our website get hooked not only because of the pictures—the comments section is the real gem.
Most visits are during school and working hours. There aren’t that many visitors on weekends.
People are stressed at work. If our website can make them laugh and relax for five minutes, that’s incredible to me.
People assume I’m funny because I work at 9gag. But we don’t create our content. Just like Stephen Chow—his movies are very funny, but the filmmaking process is not actually funny. He is known as a serious filmmaker.
When I come across Linkin Park, I immediately think of the joke, “Linkin Park is not really a park.” To be able to find humor in little things is a great mentality.
My favorite meme is “Philosoraptor.” It’s funny and educational.
Usually, I will have watched every viral video two or three weeks before my friends do. This affects my social life the most.
If I told my girlfriend every time she sends me a cat video that I have already watched it, she would stop sharing things with me. I need to adjust my response and can’t be too discouraging.
You only feel no pressure if something does not matter to you.
My parents could not wrap their heads around how we operated a business by just surfing the internet and sharing silly photos.
How do I explain to my parents what I do? That’s why we need to get ourselves into newspapers and magazines. The older generation thinks that if you’re on the news, you’ve made it.
My mother is always on Facebook. I open Facebook and usually all 10 new notifications are from her. She shares 9gag posts and writes notes about current news.
We want to build a company that can represent Hong Kong, just as how Nokia comes to mind when you talk about Finland.
It’s too easy to make money from industries like property and finance in Hong Kong. Rather than spending money on a struggling startup, why not invest in stocks and buy properties?
Hong Kong is too convenient. Why is Taobao so big in the mainland? Because it is difficult to buy high-quality products. It’s too easy here.
A dangerous mentality is to think that you can’t change things or there’s definitely no way you can buy a house. This is the internet age, and there are so many platforms for you to showcase your talents.
Some friends think that I’m very rich and successful. But 9gag is still struggling. The founders are paid just a little bit more than when we started.
I understand why no one wants to hear that. People like success stories.


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Photo-sharing website 9gag—the name comes from the Cantonese slang gaau gag, meaning “make a joke”—is read by roughly 2 million people every day. Co-founder Ray Chan tells Yannie Chan about how 9gag affects his social life and what the site has in common with Stephen Chow.
