Benjamin "Ben" Chiu (; born December 27, 1970) is a

Taiwanese-American Taiwanese Americans ( Chinese: 臺灣裔美國人; pinyin: ''Táiwān yì měiguó rén''; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ''Tâi-Bí-jîn'') are Americans of Taiwanese ancestry, including American-born descendants of migrants from the Republic of China (Taiwan) ...

and Canadian

computer programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...

and internet entrepreneur. He is the founder of killerapp.com, a popular comparison shopping site for computers and consumer electronics that was acquired by CNET Networks Inc. in 1999 for $50 million.

Early life

Born in Taichung, Taiwan, Ben who is an only child, moved to

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange and Durham County, North Carolina, Durham counties, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 United States census, making Chapel Hill the List of municipa ...

, at eight months of age with his mother (Hsiu Lan) and father (Sheng Dien) where they lived for six years before moving to

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada. He attended high-school a
Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute
in

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

and graduated with honors and awards in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

Visual Arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

. In 1993 he received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

applied science Applied science is the application of the scientific method and scientific knowledge to attain practical goals. It includes a broad range of disciplines, such as engineering and medicine. Applied science is often contrasted with basic science, ...

industrial engineering Industrial engineering (IE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, an ...

from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. When he was 11, Ben began to take an interest in programming. One summer, Ben's father assigned him to write a database system (using

DBASE dBase (also stylized dBASE) was one of the first database management systems for microcomputers and the most successful in its day. The dBase system included the core database engine, a query system, a Form (programming), forms engine, and a pr ...

) for their family business. With help from his father, Ben started Linguasoft Corp. and sold his system to bookstores and libraries. To this day, the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

is still using his software. Barely a teenager, Ben Chiu played

table-tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of two, players t ...

for the provincial (Ontario) team. Under the relentless training of renowned

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

n coach

Zoran Kosanovic Zoran ( sr-Cyrl, Зоран) is a common South Slavic name, the masculine form of Zora, which means ''dawn, daybreak''. The name is especially common in Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia and to some degree in Slovenia. Notable people with this g ...

, Ben won the Canadian National Championships (junior singles), Formosa Cup (men's singles) and took 2nd place at the 1984 U.S. Open (junior doubles). In addition to high school, Ben also attended school for the gifted in visual arts. His art teacher once offered to buy one of his oil paintings but Ben declined. Some of his wildlife paintings have been displayed at th
McMichael Gallery
in Kleinburg, Ontario. At the time, his style was inspired by Robert Bateman, Glen Loates and

Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist and one of the best-known American artists of the middle 20th century. Though he considered himself to be an "abstractionist," Wyeth was primarily a realis ...

Career

In 1994 while the Internet was still in its infancy, Ben moved to

Fremont, California Fremont () is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San F ...

to help manage his father's publishing business
Pan Asian Publications
While buying computer hardware for the company, he discovered it was tedious to browse through thousands of magazine listings for the best deals. Instead, he cut the spines off publications like '' Computer Shopper'' and ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and continues . Overview ''PC Mag ...

'' and keyed all the specs and prices into a database, page after page, one page at a time. After e-commerce sites began to appear on the Internet, Ben developed a

web crawler Web crawler, sometimes called a spider or spiderbot and often shortened to crawler, is an Internet bot that systematically browses the World Wide Web and that is typically operated by search engines for the purpose of Web indexing (''web spider ...

that would automatically gather and update prices around the clock. This was to form the foundation for his new company. Ben formally incorporated KillerApp, Corp. in 1995 and went on to pioneer the concept of online comparison shopping (also known as the

price engine A comparison shopping website, sometimes called a price comparison website, price analysis tool, comparison shopping agent, shopbot, aggregator or comparison shopping engine, is a vertical search engine that shoppers use to filter and compare pro ...

). This paradigm shift proved devastating to the computer publication industry. "Print" simply could not compete with the timely content and convenience of these specialized

search engines Search engines, including web search engines, selection-based search engines, metasearch engines, desktop search tools, and web portals and vertical market websites have a search facility for online databases. By content/topic Gene ...

. The web crawlers at KillerApp ran 24/7, updating 1.5 million prices daily. Within two years,
killerapp.com
' was receiving 14 million

page views In web analytics and website management, a pageview or page view, abbreviated in business to PV and occasionally called page impression, is a request to load a single HTML file (web page) of an Internet site. On the World Wide Web, a page reques ...

per month and 1/2 million monthly users. The site was also generating 150,000 leads per month for its base of 360 merchants. In order to sustain the growth of its business, Ben raised two rounds of funding from angel investors that included: C.S. Ho (founder of

Mitac MiTAC Holdings Corporation, formerly MiTAC International Corp. () is a Taiwanese electronics company established 8 December 1982. It is a subsidiary of MiTAC-Synnex Group. Through a 100% stock swap from MiTAC International Corp., MiTAC Holdings ...

Synnex Synnex was an American multinational corporation that provided information technology (IT) services to businesses. It merged with competitor Tech Data to form TD Synnex. It was founded in 1980 by Robert T. Huang and based in Fremont, Calif ...

and honorary chairman of

Computex COMPUTEX Taipei, or Taipei International Information Technology Show (), is a computer expo held annually in Taipei, Taiwan. Since the early 2000s, it is one of the largest computer and technology trade shows in the world. The most recent COMP ...

); Charlene Wang (president of FIC and daughter of tycoon Y.C. Wang); Ming Chien (chairman of FIC) and

Cher Wang Cher Wang ( zh, t=王雪紅, p=Wáng Xuěhóng; born 15 September 1958) is a Taiwanese businesswoman and entrepreneur. As co-founder and chairperson (since 2007) of HTC Corporation and integrated chipset maker VIA Technologies, she is one of t ...

(chairperson of

VIA Technologies VIA Technologies, Inc. () is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory. It was once the world's largest independent manufacturer of motherboard chipsets. As a fabless semiconductor company, ...

and daughter of Y.C. Wang). In 1998,

Ziff-Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. Founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology- and health-oriented media websites, online shopping-related servic ...

approached Ben with a buy-out offer. He declined but instead brought in

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

to produce competitive bids. A long M&A roadshow ensued. Ben held

due diligence Due diligence is the investigation or exercise of care that a reasonable business or person is normally expected to take before entering into an agreement or contract with another party or an act with a certain standard of care. Due diligence ...

discussions with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, ZDNet,

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

, CNET,

Excite Excitation, excite, exciting, or excitement may refer to: * Excitation (magnetic), provided with an electrical generator or alternator * ''Exite'', a series of racing video games published by Nintendo starting with '' Excitebike'' * Excite (web por ...

Lycos Lycos, Inc. (stylized as LYCOS), is a web search engine and web portal established in 1994, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, web hosting, social networking, and entertainment websites. The company ...

and

Inktomi Inktomi Corporation was an American Internet service provider (ISP) software developer based in Foster City, California. Customers included Microsoft, HotBot, Amazon.com, eBay, and Walmart. The company developed Traffic Server, a proxy se ...

. On March 23, 1999 he sold his company to CNET in a

stock swap In corporate finance, a stock swap is the exchange of one equity-based asset for another, where, during the merger or acquisition, the swap provides an opportunity to pay with stock rather than with cash; see . Overview The acquiring company ...

valued at US$54 million and joined CNET as the Director of Commerce Services.

In the media

Ben Chiu is the second

Taiwanese American Taiwanese Americans (traditional Chinese, Chinese: 臺灣裔美國人; pinyin: ''Táiwān yì měiguó rén''; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ''Tâi-Bí-jîn'') are Americans of Taiwanese people, Taiwanese ancestry, including American-born descendants of migrant ...

(since

Jerry Yang Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang (; born Yang Chih-Yuan; November 6, 1968) is a Taiwanese-born American billionaire computer programmer, internet entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. and founding partne ...

co-founder of

) to appear on the cover of ''

Wired Magazine ''Wired'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and Online magazine, online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in public ...

''.

Po Bronson Po Bronson (born March 14, 1964) is an American journalist and author who lives in San Francisco. Early life and education Bronson was born in Seattle, Washington. After attending Lakeside School in Seattle, he graduated from Stanford Univers ...

chronicled Chiu's rags-to-riches story in his best-selling novel ''The Nudist on the Late Shift ()''. His story has also been recounted in Chinese by Peggy Teng () in her book
華裔網路英雄傳奇
' (translation: Unique Passages of Overseas-Chinese Internet Heroes).

References

External links

CNET Acquires KillerApp Corp.KillerApp.com is now CNET Shopper.com
* ttp://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-123001yearpo,1,4909595.story?ctrack=1&cset=true LA Times Follow-up Article: Heading to Greener Pastures When the Valley Turns Brown {{DEFAULTSORT:Chiu, Ben 1970 births American computer programmers American computer businesspeople American emigrants to Canada 21st-century American publishers (people) American male table tennis players American technology chief executives American technology company founders Businesspeople from California Businesspeople from North Carolina Businesspeople from Taichung Businesspeople from Toronto Businesspeople in information technology Businesspeople in software Canadian computer businesspeople Canadian computer programmers Canadian people of Taiwanese descent Canadian publishers (people) Canadian male table tennis players Canadian technology chief executives Canadian technology company founders Living people Naturalized citizens of Canada People from Chapel Hill, North Carolina People from Fremont, California Sportspeople from Taichung Taiwanese emigrants to the United States University of Toronto alumni 20th-century American sportsmen

Early life

Career

In the media

References

Further reading

External links