I can see why Lei Jun doesn't want to be called the Steve Jobs of China. If you look at his history, he's more like a quasi-Bill Gates with a hint of Jeff Bezos, with Marc Andreesen tendencies, and only a soupçon of Steve Jobs.
Look at his history:
Given what we know of Lei Jun's history and numbers, you would be hard pressed to make a deeper comparison of Lei Jun and Steve Jobs that goes beyond black shirts, blue jeans, and smartphone icons. Instead of chiding over the fact that Lei Jun ripped off Steve Jobs during his Xiaomi product launches, pause for a moment and consider the idea that he (and his entire PR and marketing team) wants you to think that he's ripping off Steve Jobs. After all, it's the single most important point about Xiaomi that the press talks about. And the fact that he goes out and says he doesn't like the comparison, while the Xiaomi Weibo account mocked his death, make it all the more damning.
Remember, reading about Steve Jobs is what got him into being a tech entrepreneur in the first place. I would not be surprised if his team reverse engineered Steve Jobs' identity and career and are now replicating it in Xiaomi fashion. That's what makes Lei Jun a compelling and polarizing figure. He's calculating.
Don't forget Lei Jun's connections too. Tencent, progenitor of WeChat, invested in Kingsoft. Alibaba acquired UCWeb. Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, is a personal friend. These are the big three of China. For Valley heads out there, that would be like a founder getting investment from Facebook for his first startup, getting one of his web projects acquired by Amazon, and then being chummy with Larry Page of Google. Lei Jun is arguably the most well connected entrepreneur in China. So, the recent PR hullaballoo around an air purifier that Jack Ma teased Lei Jun about is only something Lei Jun can do. Think about him in the context of the surrounding ecosystem that he is in (and that he creates). A case in point is WiWide.com, a startup that Xiaomi funded, and which got funding from Tencent last week.
Lei Jun is more than just a Chinese Steve Jobs, he actually looks more like every single Silicon Valley hero all wrapped into one. Maybe that's what makes him worth US$9.1 billion. Or, as our own Paul Bischoff notes, he might be worth even more than Jack Ma.
