-->Schauen wir mal ob die Blase noch im Sommer platzt und wie weit sie platzen wird... Das ganze hat absolut keinen Unterschied zur US-Portalmanie. Umsätze und Gewinne sind zwar da, aber keiner hat so richtig eine Ahnung wieviel davon manipuliert ist. Mit dem platzen der Aktienblase wird es vermutlich auch zu einem Rückgang der Einnahmen kommen, was die Bewertung dieser Klitschen sehr schwer macht!

RICHEST MEN IN CHINA

Charles Zhang, Sohu's founder and chief executive, is now one of China's richest men. His eight million Sohu shares would give him a net worth of $326 million, placing him in the top ten of Forbes magazine's 2002 list of the richest Chinese.

Other survivors include NetEase founder William Ding, whose shares are worth more than $700 million.

Zhang, a slightly built 39-year-old who climbed Mount Everest in May, confessed he just bought a bigger flat in Beijing after living in rentals for most of his last eight years in China.

"It's a gradual realisation," he said of his sudden wealth."I think about it, and also in truth I've spent some time improving my quality of life. But mostly I'm still working."

Zhang founded Sohu in 1996 when he was still a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, cobbling together an investment of $225,000 from two professors and another student.

The company went through several rounds of private funding before a 2000 public offering that saw its market capitalisation soar to $400 million just after its IPO. But then the tech bubble burst and its value sank as low as $18.5 million the following year when shares sank to an all-time low of 52 cents.

"I was kind of depressed," says Zhang."But I always compare it with 1997 and 1998 when the company was only a sketch. At that time I couldn't pay the credit card bills, and I was trying to persuade people to invest."

Hurst Lin, Sina's U.S.-born chief operating officer who owns 517,000 shares according to a recent U.S. filing, said his lifestyle had not changed at all.

"I think I have a much more mature attitude about success these days," he says, leaning back on a padded chair at Sina's Beijing headquarters.

"I learned my lesson in 2001. I thought I was doing really great, but then you can be a laughing stock," said the Brooklyn native who founded Sina's predecessor Sinanet.com. (Additional reporting by Doug Young in Hong Kong)