For Liu Qiangdong , which is less than 50 years old and dreams of making JD the world's largest e-commerce company, it may be too early to assert that it will quit JD.com. If the lawsuit in the United States is settled, there is a suitable opportunity in the future. It is not ruled out that Liu Qiangdong still has the possibility of reappearing. I just don’t know how long can the public and capital market remember negative events last?
In an interview, Liu Qiangdong firmly said to the host: "If one day I lose control of JD.com, I will sell JD.com without hesitation. I don't have time to play with capital."
As the founder, the company is not his money-making tool, but his close relatives. There is an inseparable family affection between him and JD.com. However, Liu Qiangdong seemed to have broken his promise. On April 7, 2022, 48-year-old Liu Qiangdong resigned as CEO of JD Group and turned around and handed over the country he had built over the past ten years to Xu Lei . He did not sell his business, nor did he react in extreme consequences, and everything seemed particularly calm.
As the pioneer of JD.com, Liu Qiangdong has led JD.com to create countless glory. In 2010, , JD.com, which was established for only 6 years, became the first online retail company in China with sales of more than 10 billion yuan; on May 22, 2014, JD.com successfully listed and traded on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in the United States, becoming the first large-scale comprehensive e-commerce company in China to be successfully listed on the Nasdaq in the United States. However, his luck was also exhausted in such business miracles.
Liu Qiangdong's entrepreneurial story has been sung by many people. As a model of starting from scratch, Liu Qiangdong helped his hometown after his success and built JD customer service center in his hometown Suqian . It can be said that Liu Qiangdong's image as "Brother Dong" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and attaches great importance to the welfare system of employees, so Liu Qiangdong's reputation is well received.
2000, the Internet industry ushered in a new stage of development. At that time, it was Tencent , Baidu , and Alibaba that rose in China! Alibaba was developing very rapidly at this time and had many competitors. Therefore, Liu Qiangdong saw the development trend of the Internet industry and believed that the Internet is a sunrise industry with broad future development prospects.
In 2004, Liu Qiangdong, who had a keen sense of smell, targeted the emerging unpopular industry of e-commerce. At that time, the concept of e-commerce was very unpopular. Many people have no idea what e-commerce is, and what is going on selling goods online.
The wind at this air outlet has not yet started, only a few people stood outside the door, looking and testing carefully.
Liu Qiangdong walked into this door and founded the "JD" online sales platform, opening the prelude to the JD era.
In 2007, JD.com received the first financing , which began to develop rapidly. At the same time, Liu Qiangdong made two shocking strategies: one is to build a self-built logistics system, and the other is to build JD.com into a one-stop shopping platform for all categories. From this moment on, JD.com began to transform in a real sense.
In 2009, Liu Qiangdong began to invest a large amount of his money in the e-commerce industry. In 2014, Liu Qiangdong received another $21 billion in investment from Alibaba Group. But these investments are the result of his own efforts. Another important reason why Alibaba spends so much money to invest in JD.com is that Jack Ma trusts him very much, and Liu Qiangdong did not disappoint Jack Ma's trust in himself.
Now JD Industrial Park has more than 8,000 companies settled in. In addition to self-operated e-commerce, Liu Qiangdong has also invested in many manufacturing industries, such as JD Smart Car, JD Fresh, etc. He successfully built himself into a business legend. Judging from Liu Qiangdong's personality and growth experience, Liu Qiangdong will not give up control over JD.com.
On May 22, 2014, JD.com was listed on Nasdaq with a market value of US$28.6 billion, and entered the China Rich List with a net worth of 4.8 billion
In addition, JD.com Group, as the second largest e-commerce company in my country, has made JD.com's gradual development has made JD.com Group's comprehensive strength increasingly stronger. With the vigorous development of JD.com Group, Liu Qiangdong's personal wealth has reached 70.5 billion yuan.It can be said that Liu Qiangdong is indeed a "winner in life". He not only has such a beautiful wife as milk tea sister , but also has a huge wealth. Perhaps for Liu Qiangdong, such a comfortable life is a true success.
. But when the "sexual assault" incident was exposed, the stock price of JD.com fell 16% in two trading days, and then fell below $20 at the end of that year, setting a record low. JD.com's market value fell from a maximum of more than $70 billion to $30 billion, and investors suffered heavy losses. As the soul of JD.com, Liu Qiangdong was regarded as a negative asset of JD.com by investors overnight.
In the US capital market, the evaluation of listed companies' management is an important part of the company's valuation, especially the core founder of the company. Investors are not only concerned with their management capabilities, but also with their personal qualities. JD.com has always given people the impression that JD.com is alone. Apart from Liu Qiangdong, it is difficult to find a second person with sufficient influence in JD.com's management, which makes JD.com's dependence on its founder too high. This time, because Liu Qiangdong's personal behavior has caused great harm to JD.com, the risks of JD.com's governance structure are fully reflected.
After the outbreak of the "sexual assault" incident, the capital market and investors began to re-examine Liu Qiangdong's value to JD.com. At that time, JD.com's stock price plummeted, and the incident in the United States was actually just a fuse. The deeper reason was that JD.com's performance at that time was poor, especially Pinduoduo's strong rise, which put huge pressure on JD.com.
Starting in 2019, JD.com has begun to "de-strengthening Eastward transformation". Because the scandal is no longer suitable for being the face of the company, and because of the intensification of competition, Liu Qiangdong, who no longer adapts to the current situation, welcomed JD.com's "de-Liu Qiangdong transformation" US capital market . Against the backdrop of the recent plunge in the US stock market, JD.com's stock price performed very strongly and was basically not affected by the plunge of US stock . The stock price in 2020 increased by to close to 20%. Unlike Jack Ma who had long been "premeditated" in his resignation, Liu Qiangdong's retreat came even more suddenly.
It seems that overnight, the big guys who were originally at the peak of the business world suddenly turned around and left this chaotic world and disappeared into the noisy crowd. The times create heroes, and heroes are also following the times. Their departures may be announcing the end of an era. Associate Professor of Tsinghua University Han Xiuyun once said: "As the saying goes, it is difficult to fight the country, but it is even more difficult to defend the country.
It is worth mentioning that although Liu Qiangdong has stepped down as the position of legal representative of JD Group, equity still exists, and Liu Qiangdong holds control of JD Group. For Liu Qiangdong personally, JD Group has worked hard on it, so it is impossible to ignore it. Under the influence of the "American incident", JD Group's stock has fallen sharply. Therefore, JD Group hopes that Liu Qiangdong will hope that Liu Qiangdong will be the first to do so. The resignation can make up for the losses caused by the "American incident".
In the future, Liu Qiangdong may not appear publicly. He withdrew from JD.com's management and also withdraw from the public eye. But Liu Qiangdong's legend will not stop. As an inspirational entrepreneur who came out of the countryside, Liu Qiangdong's never forgets his hometown and values friendship and righteousness has won praise from many people. In the future, there will be no Liu Qiangdong in the world, but JD.com is destined to be a legend.
As the founder of JD.com Group, Liu Qiangdong's frequent resignation of an important position in the company will inevitably cause heated discussions in the industry. Do you have any opinions on Liu Qiangdong's frequent resignation?
