Liu Qiangdong: The Journey of jd.Com Founder To Set One Of The Largest Chinese E-Commerce Company
Today, JD.Com is the famous and largest Chinese enterprise. Also, for delivery services the company boasts the largest fleet of drones. It also provides a wide range of quality products and the best customer service. In fact, it acquired 300+ million active customers. Liu Qiangdong set up the JD.com with his extraordinary vision in mind. However, in a very short period, it became one of the successful companies in China. Presently, the company aims to grow the business into Europe, Southeast Asia, and other regions of the world.
Liu Qiangdong
A Chinese entrepreneur and businessman, Mr. Liu Qiangdong is well-known for business skills. JD.com is the e-commerce venture of Liu. The company is also known as Jingdong Mall, China’s well-known e-commerce industry. Liu holds the net worth of USD 12.7 billion approximately.
Early life
He was born in China, either on 14 Feb 1974 or 10 March 1973. The parents of Liu were in the business of Coal-shipping. However, he spent most of the time at hometown, where he completed his formal education. Liu attended the people’s University of China for a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. At his young age, the Internet was just breaking the eggshell. But still, he was busy in learning programming, exploring the internet. As well, he discovered the e-commerce landscape very soon.
Career and Earlier businesses
During college, Liu started a restaurant venture. That time, he invested the income that he earned from programming also took loans from the family. But unfortunately, the business was unsuccessful. After his education, he served at Herbal supplement Giant Japan life. Soon, he became the director of the computer and service there.
The Backstory of JD.com Foundation
Eventually, he plunged into entrepreneurship with his innovative idea in 1998. He started the business by renting a small retail space located in the tech hub of China. It was the magneto-optical product distributor. However, he discovered that an e-commerce platform has much potential than physical retail stores. That time, the e-commerce platform was thriving, fortunately, which favored and encouraged his idea. So, he executes his idea and starts the E-commerce company called Jingdong. Afterward, it renamed as JD.Com. The initial J and D stands for JingDong.
One thing is very admirable that Liu always focuses on customer satisfaction, throughout his journey. In fact, the company uses advanced technology to offer a seamless user experience.
Achievements at JD.Com
The company soon flourished as the fastest growing E-commerce firm in China. Initially, the company JingDong was in the business of brick-mortar sales. But in 2005, after gaining online customers, Liu stopped those stores. In 2005, Liu had an offer in hand to sell his company for big money, almost 18 Million Yuan. However, he rejected the offer and focused on improvising the business. He included a wide range of goods in 2007. Earlier, the company was limited to selling consumer electronics.
Today, Liu Quiangdong has fame in the business world. Also, he has been compared to Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos. However, JD.Com is a tough competitor of Amazon.
Personal life
The company JingDong is named after Liu and his ex-girlfriend Gong Xiaojing. He has a son, but the mother is anonymous. However, in 2015, he married Zhang Zetian. She is an Internet celebrity popular as “Sister Milk Tea”. The couple has one daughter. Also, he was suspected in some controversy related to Criminal Sexual Conduct. Later, no evidence found against him and he released and did not face charges.
In 2008, he volunteered as a part of the Red cross. Basically, for helping the victims of the Sichuan Earthquake.
Bottom Line
JD.Com, the tiny enterprise founded by Liu Qiangdong has flourished in a very short period. In 2014, it was the Largest IPO as of its NASDAQ public listing. Today, the company is the result of business skills and the Future tech perspective of Liu. However, one thing is very admirable that Liu always gave top priority to customer satisfaction throughout thriving the business.
Jayshri is an Electronics Engineer, but her passion towards writing made her to be in this field. Apart from content writing, she loves reading, writing and surfing on various topics. In her free time, she likes to watch TV series and news. Sherlock Holmes is her all time favorite show. Jayshri loves cooking various Indian-western dishes.