“Hidden ebb tide” of the first founder of the Internet factory is constantly surging with sina flowers.
Jingdong recently announced that Xu Lei, President of Jingdong group, will be the CEO of Jingdong group, responsible for daily operation management; Liu qiangdong will devote more energy to long-term strategic design, major strategic decision-making and deployment, training of young leading talents and Rural Revitalization. Previously, the retirement of the younger faction such as Huang Zheng and Zhang Yiming also once aroused heated discussion.
The retirement paths of the founders of dismantling large factories include at least the following: some founders adopt the “true retirement model”. Huang Zheng was approved by the board of directors to resign as the chairman of pinduoduo in 2021. At that time, he said in a letter to shareholders that the increasingly fierce and even alienation of industry competition made him realize that the traditional competition based on scale and efficiency has its inevitable problems, To change, we must find the answer based on the core technology and its basic theory. After resigning as chairman of the board, Huang Zheng will devote himself to the research in the field of food science and Life Science in combination with his lifelong interests, and explore new space for high-speed, high-quality and in-depth development for pinduo in ten years.
A certain proportion also adopted the “semi hidden” mode of sitting behind the scenes. Take Liu qiangdong as an example. Due to his mastery of major strategic decisions and arrangements, he still has the right to make decisions on JD’s important strategies, which is regarded by the market as Liu qiangdong’s control over JD.
There is also a way to be passive. Forced by the highly tense capital chain, Zhang Jindong and Suning holding group jointly reduced their shares of the company through block trading and agreement transfer last year, and made Suning.Com Co.Ltd(002024) into a state of no controlling shareholder and no actual controller through multiple transfers.
At present, a considerable proportion of the retirement cases of the first founder have the characteristics of “retirement without rest”. This can be seen from the shareholding ratio of the head platform. For example, the proportion of pinduoduo shares controlled by Huang Zheng still exceeds 20%, indicating the hidden influence and decision-making power.
Statistics show that these retired founders are not old, which was originally in the “year of fighting” in the private business community, but finally chose “whether to fight or not”.
Liu qiangdong is only 48 years old this year; Huang Zheng was only 40 years old when he stepped down as CEO of pinduoduo; Zhang Yiming is a young representative in the ebb tide. He was born in 1983. He is only 39 years old this year and has not yet reached buhun.
This retirement age level is more eye-catching in comparison with other entity entrepreneurs. Compared with the cases of Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co.Ltd(600660) Cao Dewang, Wahaha Zong Qinghou, nongnongfu Shanquan Zhong Zhuo and others who are close to or even more than 70 years old and still choose the “old horse and Carpinus”, the retirement line of the founder of the head big factory is clearly outlined.
Why did the first founder of the big factory choose to “fight and retreat”?
No matter whether it is a famous saying or not, “can’t move” should be an important reason why it can’t get rid of. Many of the founders of big companies are platform companies. In the past ten years of Internet dividends, the goal of traffic and even profit growth can also be reached by constantly reaching up, so that these giants can build their own oligarchic framework among 10000 people, so as to enjoy the “golden decade” under the disorderly expansion of capital. The myriads of changes, the kByte beating, the American League and the fast hands all have killed a bloody path in the wilderness and radical times of China Mobile Internet, and have grown fiercely into a huge monster in the ever-changing Kwai Chung.
However, with the peak fall of Internet dividends, the feast of traffic growth is coming to an end. Taking the e-commerce industry as an example, the growth rate of online transactions also began to slow down. Coupled with the strengthening of supervision, the whole industry is learning to dance with low speed. According to the financial reports of the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2021 released by the three e-commerce giants recently, low growth rate has become a consistent keyword, and the receivable growth rate of some platforms has fallen to single digits for the first time. Coupled with the recurrence of the epidemic and the weakness of consumption, how to find their own new growth logic is a new test that these giants have to face.
What is more important is the change of Internet ecological pattern.
For a considerable period of time, including Baidu, headlines, Tencent, Alibaba and pinduoduo, there have been periodic “mutual pinch”, which is similar to the palace fight of love and killing among overseas Internet giants such as apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook.
However, with the changes of industrial iteration, the boundary between various head platforms tends to be clear and the competition pattern tends to be balanced. Each company has its main market share in the field they are good at. Although they are eager to try, they often do not easily and aggressively step into the advantageous territory of other platforms, which is regarded by industry insiders as that the Internet industry is entering the spring and autumn era of mutual checks and balances.
In this new stage, the mission of the first founder will also face a shift, and it is also necessary for the Internet platform to rely on the professional strength of professional managers in order to achieve “guarding the country” after “fighting the country”. However, with the end of the dividend of the times and the indefinite arrival time of the next generation Internet dividend season such as yuancosmos, “guarding the country” is no less difficult than the start-up stage of “fighting the country”.
