From reflecting on JD.com’s “lost five years” to emphasizing the core position of the supply chain, from responding to the takeaway war to looking forward to the layout of the wine and tourism business, Liu Qiangdong’s voice is not only a summary of JD.com’s past problems, but also a re-planning of future development. He seems to be saying goodbye to the self who once retreated behind the scenes and returning to the front desk of JD.com with a more positive attitude.
The time point is correct – not the usual time, it is the day before the closing day of June 18.
The occasion is correct – not an open letter to the outside world, but an internal small-scale sharing meeting.
Posture, correct – not the face of the capitalist, but the style of the people’s entrepreneur.
To paraphrase the vulgar titles commonly used by self-media, Liu Qiangdong came out again to “respond to everything”.
If 2 months ago, Liu Qiangdong proved with “spend 20 yuan, you may let Brother Dong personally deliver food to you”, and his sentence “Don’t compare marketing with Lei Jun” in “Winning in China” 12 years ago is really humble, then now he has used the output of nearly 10,000 words to show that there should be the second half of his sentence back then: to spread with Lei Jun.
After reading the whole thing, you will find that he almost predicted everyone’s prediction of him, and every point he said was on the public’s concern.
Do you want to hear something exciting?
He said, “The last five years can be said to be the five years of JD.com’s loss, the five years of decline, and it can be said mercilessly, the five years without innovation, growth, and progress should be regarded as the most distinctive and least valuable five years in the history of my entrepreneurship.” ”
Do you want to hear the essence?
He said, “All the business of JD.com Group, we only revolve around the supply chain, and if it has nothing to do with the supply chain, I never touch it.” “Now almost all businesses are done 100% around the supply chain.” “My life, or the entire JD.com Group, has been doing business around the supply chain, we are not a so-called diversified company, it seems that there are many companies, but in fact, all companies serve the supply chain.”
In the past two days, many netizens have played memes, calling China’s takeaway war a break with the United States’ special horse, the exchange of fire between Israel and Iran, and the Russia-Ukraine war, and calling it the four major wars on a global scale.
He did not shy away from the topic of the takeaway war, saying that he was good friends with Brother Xing (Wang Xing, the founder of Meituan), and wanted to invite him to drink during June 18, and also sold guanzi, saying that “in another month, JD Takeaway will come out with a completely different business model from Meituan.”
JD.com’s first move in the food delivery industry is the rider’s five insurances and one housing fund, which has sparked various discussions.
He also joined the discussion: “In the 18 years from 2007 to now, we have paid more than 100 billion yuan with five insurances and one housing fund…… In China, it is legal to outsource employees, but we have never done it on JD.com. “Some people will say that you are pretending, it doesn’t matter, if any entrepreneur can give up 100 billion real money, everyone pretends to be good, and the world will be better.”
Fat Donglai, stablecoins, inventory accounting periods, cross-border e-commerce, retirement succession…… These are all hot topics.
He didn’t fall behind, he talked about it all.
The warm-up that should be done – JD.com wants to enter the wine travel industry, and it has done it; The foreshadowing that should be done – one month later, the takeaway business model that is different from Meituan was launched, and it was also done.
So how to summarize the meaning of Liu Qiangdong’s words and the sound outside the strings?
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I think it can be summarized in two sentences: Liu Qiangdong bid farewell to Liu Qiangdong, and Liu Qiangdong returned to Liu Qiangdong.
01
What Liu Qiangdong wants to say goodbye to is Liu Qiangdong, who retreated behind the scenes a few years ago.
A few years ago, the heads of China’s three giants, Ma Yun, Liu Qiangdong, and Huang Zheng, all chose to retire – retire.
In 2018, Liu Qiangdong said: “If I manage it for ten years and still can’t let go, this is my serious failure.” After that, he successively stepped down from those management positions in JD.com’s companies.
Corresponding to it is Xu Lei’s “upper position”.
In 2019, Jack Ma handed over the baton. Since then, he has become a wild crane and a leisurely cloud, hiding his merits and fame.
Accompanied by Daniel Zhang’s “leadership”.
Jack Ma and Liu Qiang retreated eastward, and they had their own reasons for retreating.
But when the result of retreating is “retreating together” rather than “retreating to advance”, then there is no way to retreat.
A person’s advance and retreat must consider both personal wishes and the course of history. This sentence does not apply to ordinary people, but it applies to bigwigs like Jack Ma and Liu Qiangdong.
The retirement of Jack Ma and Liu Qiangdong naturally has no shortage of considerations for the “historical process”.
But history does not evolve linearly, and the historical process will also change.
In the past two years, many people captured the message of their “return” from Ma Yun and Liu Qiangdong’s whereabouts, which is not a signal that the historical process needs their return.
However, for reasons that cannot be described much, their return also needs to “look at the timing”.
Therefore, their initial “comeback” method could only be “intranet voice”, “internal message” and “internal speech” –
At the end of 2022, at JD.com’s internal management training meeting, Liu Qiangdong criticized some executives for being obsessed with PPT and fake empty words, but deviated from the company’s core strategy, and emphasized that the low-price strategy is “the most important weapon for success in the past, and it will also be the only basic weapon in the future”.
At the end of December 2023, Liu Qiangdong posted on the intranet, criticizing JD.com’s huge and bloated organization and low efficiency, and said that JD.com had so many problems because of his poor management and self-blame.
In June 2023, when Alibaba faced internal and external troubles, Jack Ma appeared in Hangzhou and said, “Taotian wants to return to Taobao, users, and the Internet.” ”
In April 2024, on the first anniversary of Alibaba’s restructuring, Jack Ma sent another letter of more than 1,000 words to all employees, saying that “we must admit and correct yesterday’s problems, and we must face future reforms.”
Maintaining a low sense of presence is pressure measurement and paving the way – after all, after all, after historical baggage, returning can only be gradual, not rushed.
Wait for the right moment to act, and the time will eventually come.
After being trained by cruel reality, many people who used to link “capitalists” with “street lamp ornaments” also began to realize the value of Jack Ma and Liu Qiangdong.
The more important changes in the direction are: in February this year, Jack Ma attended the symposium on private enterprises; One month ago, Liu Qiangdong delivered a speech at the National Young Entrepreneurs Conference.
This means that the invisible barrier is removed.
02
Why did Liu Qiangdong completely deny JD.com’s “last five years” in this speech?
This can be referred to Cai Chongxin’s statement in an interview in April 2024 that “Ali has lagged behind in the past few years” and Ma Yun’s later affirmation of Cai Chongxin daring to tell the truth.
Whether it is reflection or denial, it points to the direction and recalibration.
To some extent, this can also be understood as strengthening the legitimacy of management change (especially the return of founders) with the logic of organizational change of “poor changes, changes and changes”.
In the years when professional managers were at the helm, there was no shortage of highlights in both Alibaba and JD.com, but overall they were lost.
The stock price market capitalization is the most intuitive footnote.
Alibaba’s market value was once overtaken by Pinduoduo.
JD.com was directly left behind by Pinduoduo, and its market value has fallen by about 2/3 compared with the highest point ($161.857 billion) on February 16, 2021 – which has become a visual proof of Liu Qiangdong’s “lost 5 years, 5 years of decline”.
The decline in market value is due to environmental factors and the reasons of the enterprise itself.
How to correct the previous route deviation?
The return of the soul figure is the only way.
Without the return of the founder team (the core members of Jack Ma’s entrepreneurial period), it would be difficult for Alibaba to turn around.
Without Liu Qiangdong returning to the front line, it would be difficult for JD.com to make a big U-turn.
In reality, founders tend to be more aware of what their business needs in the long run.
Jack Ma let Taotian three “returns”, and emphasized the value of AI, Wu Yongming led Alibaba to reshape the business logic, under the guidance of the strategy of “user first, AI driven”, focusing on “AI + cloud + e-commerce”, Liu Qiangdong emphasized that all JD.com’s business should be carried out around the supply chain, saying that JD.com’s core competitiveness lies in low cost, which is directly hitting the essence of the business.
The effect is already being seen.
Entering 2025, Alibaba’s valuation center will be strongly boosted, and its market value will rebound significantly.
In the first quarter of 2025, JD.com’s revenue growth rate also hit a new high in the past three years.
In the sharing meeting, Liu Qiangdong reflected on the “first retirement” as “too idealistic at the time”, saying that JD.com had “gone downhill” in the past five years, and also announced that he would say goodbye to the retreat posture of “retreating” after going to school abroad for more than 8 months in 2018, and “retreating” after experiencing mud.
“It’s over”, but for Liu Qiangdong, it’s not over yet.
As the first public face-to-face meeting with the media in several years, Liu Qiangdong seems to be showing that Liu Qiangdong, who tried to keep a low profile and try to avoid the spotlight, is a thing of the past. He has completely come out of that snowstorm.
03
Liu Qiangdong bid farewell to the retired Liu Qiangdong and returned to Liu Qiangdong, who had no shortage of jianghu energy.
As the “most successful venture capital in the history of Suqian”, although there was little news in the years when Liu Qiangdong “semi-retired”, the news of sending money to the elderly in his hometown at the end of the year to deliver New Year’s goods can always be on several waves of hot searches.
This is very Liu Qiangdong. He has always had a strong “people’s nature”.
Among Chinese entrepreneurs, there are not many who can be called “people’s entrepreneurs”, Yu Donglai is one, and Liu Qiangdong is also one.
The hard indicator of “people’s entrepreneurs” on the list is “anti-exploitation”, which is “heavy welfare” in terms of remuneration.
My friend Nidro once summed up: There are three mainstream trends in the domestic consumer market, namely consumerism, welfareism and nationalism, and Xiaomi, Fat Donglai, and Huawei are typical representatives of the three.
JD.com’s corporate image card position is also closer to the strong sense of social responsibility that is core welfare.
This is mainly reflected in several points –
Social security: Since 2007, JD.com has paid five insurances and one housing fund in full for couriers, and by the end of 2024, more than 1,200 front-line employees have retired and enjoyed stable pensions. After JD.com launched its takeaway business in 2025, JD.com transplanted this practice to the takeaway field, becoming the first platform to pay five insurances and one housing fund for full-time riders.
Salary: Four consecutive salary increases for front-line employees, the salary of front-line customer service has increased by more than 30%, the annual salary of the procurement and marketing team has increased from 16 to 20 salaries, and the year-end bonus can reach up to 8 times the monthly salary.
Benefits: There are staff dormitories, and the “Employee Children’s Education Program”, employee relief funds, interest-free home purchase loans, etc. are also launched.
I suspect that Liu Qiangdong is deeply influenced by the value spectrum of left-liberal.
Liu Qiangdong mentioned at the sharing meeting that since 2007, the cumulative amount of social security paid to couriers has reached hundreds of billions, revealing that there have been more than 120,000 full-time takeaway riders…… Can you say that there is no element of moral flaunt? No. But can you say that this is just a show of lip service and not reality? No, it cannot.
In the Wenchuan earthquake and the new crown epidemic, rushing to the front line to send supplies is also in line with this background, which is a moral plus.
I have always advocated that business is the greatest public welfare, but there is no reason to dismiss more pure public welfare actions beyond commercial considerations.
Needless to say, many of JD.com’s practices are very fat Donglai, and when the full-time riders were paid social security, some people said that JD.com wanted to do “fat Donglai in the takeaway industry”, and in this sharing meeting, Liu Qiangdong also Cue to Fat Donglai: “Fat Donglai gives profits to consumers, and at the same time makes the quality of the goods extremely good, the cost performance is extremely high, and fully trust the employees, give the employees five insurances and one housing fund, so that the employees really like this job.” “So I think Brother Donglai and our JD.com’s business philosophy is the same.”
This is the cherishing of the same kind.
04
The welfare of enterprises usually needs to establish some kind of relationship bond based on “human feelings” outside the modern enterprise system. This is reflected in the corporate culture, which may not be the same.
In Fat Donglai, it is “paternalism” – Yu Donglai is the big parent, so he once “daddy” to restrain the wedding banquet and bride price of employees.
In JD.com, that is the “brother culture” – Liu Qiangdong is the most popular domestic Internet tycoon to shout “brother”, and there is no one.
If you look closely at Liu Qiangdong’s previous letters, you will find that the frequency of “brothers” is extremely high, and the signatures are often “your brothers”.
I have previously ridiculed:
The BGM in which Liu Qiangdong appears should be Ren Xianqi’s “Brother”: There is this life, this life is a brother, there is no next life, and I will miss you in the next life……
Confucius’s proud protégé Zixia said, “A gentleman is respectful and not lost, respectful and courteous to others, and within the four seas, they are all brothers.” Liu Qiangdong did not talk about respect and respect, but directly picked up the wine glass: Come on, brother, take a bite.
In the preface to “Creating JD.com”, Liu Qiangdong once told that in the early years, after working overtime at night, JD.com’s brothers often gathered in taverns and food stalls. After a few sips of wine, most of the fatigue and depression accumulated from a day’s work were resolved, and the cups touched each other, and the friction caused by work passed. Later, the brothers got together more and more, the memories accumulated more and more, but the wine became less and less.
Liu Qiangdong toasted 200 tables of employees at the company’s annual meeting in 2010, saying, “I drink with my brothers, and I must not drink water”; In November 2016, when he visited JD.com’s new employee dormitory, he found that the conditions were poor and he was furious, and immediately shouted to the executives to ask for reform, “Let the employee brothers live with dignity!” ”…… They are all classic sections.
Although he was a little embarrassed when he said in May last year that “it is not my brother who messes around”, this does support the relatively decent treatment and relatively sound protection of JD.com’s employees: for example, JD.com’s employee room is said to be comparable to a star-rated hotel; For example, if an employee of JD.com encounters misfortune during his employment, JD.com will be responsible for his children’s study and living expenses until the age of 22……
What is the most common socialization for brothers? Drink.
Liu Qiangdong raised a glass when inviting the delivery man to eat hot pot more than a month ago, saying, “I will never refuse to drink with my brothers”, which is very Liu Qiangdong.
What the brothers firmly believe is that “there is nothing that cannot be solved with one drink, if there is, then two meals”.
Therefore, can you understand the logic of Liu Qiangdong’s behavior of asking Wang Xing for dinner before JD.com got involved in takeaway, and this time revealing that he originally planned to invite Wang Xing to drink in the near future?
05
Some people speculate that Liu Qiangdong spoke out to the media after many years in order to “enter the wine and tourism business” and “change the takeaway model” to wrap this plate of dumplings with vinegar, in order to earn traffic without spending money.
Entering the wine and tourism business, of course, is JD.com’s deepening and strengthening of the supply chain chessboard – it is not surprising that instant retail is close to local life.
Some people speculate that Liu Qiangdong’s food supply chain refers to prefabricated dishes, and I think it may also be a reshaping of the supply side of ingredients in the catering industry from the field to the table.
Can these new businesses help Liu Qiangdong Make JD.com Great Again and help JD.com create a new JD.com?
Hou Yi, former CEO of Hema and former cadre of Liu Qiangdong, commented on this, believing that the ant soldier model that gathers thousands of small shops is more efficient than the supply chain of self-operated + platform in the mobile Internet era.
I understand that this is the PK of centralized warehousing and distribution networks and decentralized distribution systems. Whoever can have the last laugh can wait for time to give an answer.
But I don’t think that Liu Qiangdong’s meaningful appearance speech this time is just for Amway’s new business, which is more like a sign that he wants to return more thoroughly – he wants to put this on a clearer surface.
I can’t comment on what kind of storms Liu Qiangdong will stir up after his complete return, although there is a grass snake gray line in the takeaway war.
But those who have experienced “ten thousand horses are pitiful” will always miss the Internet rivers and lakes where the bigwigs could still make a big fuss in the past.
In the movie “Kung Fu Football”, Stephen Chow said: The senior brother is back…… I feel that they are all back.
What to do with “all coming back” is a matter later, and the important thing is that they “come back” first.
