This article is from WeChat official account:Tencent Technology (ID: qqtech)< span class = "text-remarks">, author: Liu Jing, from the title figure: vision China
On March 17, a letter to shareholders from Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng set off an uproar. When Pinduoduo became the largest e-commerce platform in China with users, Huang Zheng announced his resignation as the chairman of Pinduoduo. Aroused speculation and discussion in the industry and media circles about the profound meaning and inside story behind Huang Zheng’s move. We looked through almost all the public voices of Huang Zheng since 2015 and tried to find some clues to Huang Zheng’s choice to “retreat from the rapids.”
Huang Zheng’s public voices, including 9 original articles (from Huang Zheng’s WeChat public account), 17 interviews (including 5 video interviews), 5 industry conference speeches, 5 letters to shareholders and employees, 2 internal speeches and analysis of 7 Pinduoduo earnings conference calls The teacher asks a question.
Through the content of these 130,000 words, we tried to restore a more dimensional Huang Zheng, trying to explore his true motives for choosing “Rapid Retreat”. At the same time, we also saw that Huang Zheng has a clear understanding of entrepreneurship, success, and self-realization. And think sensibly.
1. Huang Zheng accepts media interviews and Pinduoduo’s growth timeline over the same period
Second, what kind of person is Huang Zheng?
He is a low-key person. “Huang Zheng is a classicThe company has achieved national prosperity in the poor surrounding environment. If you use the country as an analogy, Huang Zheng hopes that Pinduoduo will “be a small Singapore” and step on the beat in dancing with the giants.
4. Talk about the industry’s evaluation of Pinduoduo: Huang Zheng does not recognize these labels
Pinduoduo has been labelled as cheap since its inception. Before the listing of Pinduoduo, the media questioned that Pinduoduo was a fake or a copycat, and believed that Pinduoduo was downgrading consumption.
“I don’t like this word”, Huang Zheng said frankly, “In terms of material consumption, no one will take the initiative to consume downgrades. Everyone is. If there is no flush toilet, I want a flush toilet.” He dislikes the so-called “consumption downgrade.” There are two reasons for this: economically developed areas do not need the so-called “everyone uses French soap” consumption upgrade; secondly, consumers have different needs for upgrades. “Just like some people have never used kitchen paper before, after starting to use it, this is also an upgrade for him.” Huang Zheng gave an example.
He emphasized that many people simply understand Pinduoduo as social e-commerce and cheap, which is a deep misunderstanding of Pinduoduo’s business model. Everything is based on the logic of people, matching products according to people, so that the right people can buy the right things in the right scenes, and buy them happily. This is the password of Pinduoduo.
5. Talk about competitors: Pinduoduo is not another Taobao
Taobao—Taobao is a search, which is an e-commerce platform that gathers all kinds of things.
JD. The core of JD.com is that express companies cannot do e-commerce, and e-commerce is unwilling to do express delivery.
Pinduoduo——Pinduoduo wants to build an e-commerce version of Facebook, focusing on finding people for goods, and it is essentially two species with Taobao and Jingdong.
Huang Zheng described Taobao and JD as the “e-commerce version of Google”. They are search engine-style e-commerce companies, where people find goods. In his view, search-oriented e-commerce companies, such as Taobao, put more emphasis on efficiency. Users have clear purchase goals and aim to meet their needs most conveniently and quickly.
What Pinduoduo wants to create is to focus on porting the shopping scenes in offline life to online, so that users can use the least amount of traffic and get the most convenience and benefits.
Huang Zheng believes that the previous e-commerce model was trying to dig out a piece of Taobao to be a small Taobao, while Pinduoduo is doing e-commerce in another dimension, and it is a misplaced competition with Taobao, and it is the same group of users who are competing for it. There is no such thing as a small Taobao.
He said that the dislocation will grow faster. Just as Facebook grows up, Google will play Facebook, but in the long run, the two will coexist.
Six. Talk about the planning of Pinduoduo: Let different AI drive Pinduoduo “iteration”
Huang Zheng himself has a technical background. From going to university to working at Google, he has been doing AI-related work. This means that he understands AI better and knows how to make AI serve Pinduoduo. The AI he talks about is not only to help Pinduoduo improve efficiency, but also to integrate this technology with people’s lives and emotions, to promote personality, and to make shopping happier.
In his opinion, most of the current technologies are centralized AI, The emphasis is on efficiency. Distributed AI does not have a central neuron. It puts people in the circuit. Everyone is a part of the neuron and affects the entire neuron network. You can show your personality and show your attitude. “This is very interesting. It is not only the use of technology to improve efficiency, but also the use of technology to enhance the personality of everyone, which can make people more deeply connected, and with better ways of expression, you can also Your own personality influences more things.”
Huang Zheng said that in the next 20 years, Pinduoduo will integrate technology with life, integrate technology with human emotions, and try to use technology to make people happier, rather than simply letting people become happier. People become more efficient. “In the future, AI will be used to simulate the real society, to aggregate the needs of users with different preferences, predict the sales of single products, and reverse the supply chain to form another moat of Pinduoduo.”
As a technician, he also likes to use the term “iteration”. In his eyes, Pinduoduo is a thing that keeps iterating. Not only front-end products, but also back-end operations, and even internal business and management need to be iterated continuously. “Pinduoduo will be a company full of imagination and continuous iteration and innovation. The vision of Costco+Disney will be more vivid and vividly displayed in front of us.”
7. Talk about interpersonal relationships: These people have a great influence on Huang Zheng
Duan Yongping, Ding Lei, and Wang Wei are all angel investors of Huang Zheng. Duan Yongping was introduced to Huang Zheng by Ding Lei.
According to Huang Zheng, Duan Yongping was introduced by Ding Lei. “When I was at Zhejiang University, a stranger added me to MSN on MSN one day and said he was Ding Lei, and he was studying a technical problem. At the time I thought he was a liar. In 2002, I went to the United States to study as a graduate student and met Duan Yongping. When Google was working very close to his home, he began to help him make some investments.”
However, in Huang Zheng’s mind, Duan Yongping had the greatest influence on him. In an interview with Time Finance, HuangZheng said that Pinduoduo’s growth gene and the person who has the greatest impact on his life is Duan Yongping. Huang Zheng revealed that in the process of starting a business, Duan Yongping kept beating him to do the right thing and then do it right. “Duan Yongping taught me that if you have no ambitions, you just need to do the present.”
Huang Zheng agreed with Liu Qiangdong’s view that “the poorer the place, the more expensive things are”. In an interview with Tiger Sniff before the listing of Pinduoduo, Huang Zheng said that in my impression, Liu Qiangdong was interviewed once. He talked about a phenomenon mentioned in “The Wealth of Nations”. The poorer, the more backward the place is. The more expensive it is, not the cheaper the richer the place. This phenomenon is widespread. I think Pinduoduo has dreams of leveling out consumption.
8. Huang Zheng’s resignation has already laid the groundwork in his previous external voices
Back to Huang Zheng’s latest choice-when Pinduoduo users reached the top, Huang Zheng chose to “retire with success”. Several Pinduoduo insiders revealed that Huang Zheng’s gradual retirement as CEO and chairman is in his plan. For Huang Zheng, who doesn’t like to socialize, “You don’t have to worry about all kinds of entertainment anymore, and you can further reduce the time investment in the company’s daily business, and you can do something you like and think.” This is in Huang Zheng’s WeChat. The clues can be seen in the public account and past interviews and speeches.
He mentioned in his WeChat article “Turning “Capitalism” Upside Down” that the reason Buffett is admired and even called great is that “he(Buffett) clearly knows that money is not the goal. On the one hand, he enjoys the joy of capital games, and on the other hand wisely donates most of the money to Bill Gates, who is younger than him. , Rest assured that Gates will complete the redistribution of wealth.”
For Huang Zheng, starting a business is a very enjoyable thing, “because it’s a bit like playing a game, it’s more toxic, and there are some friends who are running towards a common vision and goal.” However, “With As he gets older, no one can create a lifelong career.” He loves the sense of accomplishment of entrepreneurship and understands that “money is a tool, not an end”, and the driving force of his entrepreneurship is the realization of self-worth.
He once said: “Google’s experience has shown me the side effects of people’s overnight wealth. Because there is too much money in an instant, many people start to look for new fun and careers, but often those new things , I’m actually not good at it and I don’t necessarily like it.”
Even in an interview with “Chinese Business Operators,” he even issued such an astonishing statement: “If you think clearly about your long-term socialMeaning, then these are daily routines, and business competition is actually not that important. “
When Pinduoduo went public in 2018, Huang Zheng’s letter to shareholders included a paragraph: “We hope Pinduoduo is a public organization that creates value for the vast majority of users. It should not be a manifestation of personal ability. Tools should not be too personal.”
So, on March 17th, there was Huang Zheng’s letter to shareholders who resigned as chairman of Pinduoduo and handed over to the current CEO Chen Lei, fulfilling “Pinduoduo should not be too personal. “Promise of. As for himself, he will be able to pursue his “poems and distances”—combining personal interests, devoting himself to research in the fields of food science and life sciences, and moving towards becoming an assistant scientist.
This article is from WeChat official account:Tencent Technology (ID: qqtech)< span class = "text-remarks">, author: Liu Jing