Advertisement
Who is Richard Liu? Chinese billionaire seeks to raise profile as JD.com expands outside China
Richard Liu, billionaire founder of JD.com, makes his Davos debut with tales of his humble beginnings and lays out his global ambitions
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Celia Chenin Shenzhen
Richard, who?
Richard Liu Qiangdong may have built JD.com into China’s second-biggest e-commerce company and amassed an estimated wealth of US$11.6 billion, but he remains a relative unknown outside his home country.
With recent investments into Southeast Asia and eventual plans to expand into Europe, the 43-year-old made his first appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this year. Speaking at a lunch for about 50 people including Adidas Group CEO Kasper Rorsted and Wal-Mart’s US chief Greg Foran, the guests listened over glasses of Chateau Montrose 2000 Bordeaux blend (full-bodied palate that is thick and rich yet refined and reserved, according to Wine Spectator) to Liu’s life story and how he came to start and build JD.com.
Advertisement
“The first reason I started my business was that I wanted to make money for my grandmother,” Liu said, speaking in what he self-deprecatingly called “Suqian English”, after his hometown in China’s Jiangsu province. “She was unfortunately sick at that time and she needed a lot of money for the medicine, but we had no money.”
From those trying times, Liu has built JD into a company with a market valuation of about US$67 billion, that employs about 162,000 workers and has begun to invest overseas as part of a plan to expand beyond China.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x