He witnessed Alibaba 's rise from a tiny start-up running out of a small apartment to a global Internet giant . CNN 's journalist Lu Stout worked for Sohu , a Chinese tech start - up , in the 1990s . Sohu and peers like Alibaba are now some of the world 's biggest tech companies . Back then , offices were spartan and everything was instant noodles , not gourmet canteens . The rise of China 's mammoth dotcoms has been a phenomenon to both watch and report .
CNN 's journalist Lu Stout worked for Sohu , a Chinese tech start - up , in the 1990s . Sohu and peers like Alibaba are now some of the world 's biggest tech companies . Back then , offices were spartan and everything was instant noodles , not gourmet canteens . The rise of China 's mammoth dotcoms has been a phenomenon to both watch and report .