A letter to shareholders from Huang Zheng, founder of Pinduoduo, caused an uproar on March 17th. Pinduoduo announced his resignation as chairman of Pinduoduo at a time when Huang Zheng has become the largest e-commerce platform in China. Triggered speculation and discussion in the industry and media circles about the profound meaning and insider behind Huang Zheng's move. We have looked through almost all the public voices of Huang Zheng since 2015, trying to find some clues why Huang Zheng chose to retreat bravely.

Huang Zheng's public voice, it includes 9 original articles (from Huang Zheng Wechat official account), 17 exclusive interviews (including 5 video interviews), 5 industry meetings, 5 letters to shareholders and employees, 2 internal speeches and 7 Pinduoduo earnings call meetings to answer analysts' questions.

Through these 130000 words, we try to restore a more dimensional Huang Zheng, trying to explore his real motivation for choosing "rapid stream and brave retreat". At the same time, we also see that Huang Zheng thinks clearly and rationally about entrepreneurship, success and the realization of self-worth.

01 Huang Zheng's interview with the media and Pinduoduo's growth timeline in the same period

What kind of person is Huang Zheng?

He is a low-key person. "Huang Zheng is a typical man of science and technology. He is usually very low-key, quiet and hardly sociable. "this is Huang Zheng in the eyes of Hu Zemin, a partner of Magic Volume Capital, and it is also the consensus of Huang Zheng in the industry.

He is a rational man, starting a business in a sensible manner. Since he started his business in 2007, Huang Zheng has worked as an e-commerce operator and played games, and it is his fourth time to be Pinduoduo. "I was taught from an early age that starting a business is a good thing, so I wanted to start a business from the very beginning. "and" starting a business again can make me happier, and I certainly hope it can bring a little more happiness to the people around me and to more people I don't know. Huang Zheng explained his original intention and deeper pursuit in his Wechat article "Why do you want to start a Business again?"

Huang Zheng once said bluntly that Pinduoduo might be his last business. But for him, "starting a business is similar to playing golf, it's a contest between yourself and yourself." The scene may be different each time, but the basic action of swing is the same. What is needed is to keep a normal mind and make the movements more standard. "

He is also a man who wants to be a "scientist". In an open letter resigning as chairman of Pinduoduo, Huang Zheng said he wanted to do some research in the fields of food science and life science after "retiring". "now that I'm over 40 years old, it may be impossible to become a real scientist, but if I work hard to combine my favorite chemistry in high school, the computer I learned in college, and the management of learning at work, I naively thought that maybe I could do something more interesting. "perhaps it is also a very happy thing to have the opportunity to become an assistant scientist in the future.

In fact, this is not the first time Huang Zheng has shown interest in becoming a scientist. In his Wechat article "Reading Russell: happiness and the greed for Freedom", he wrote, "since junior high school, I have imagined myself to be a scientist, politician, entrepreneur and so on. "

At a conference call on Pinduoduo's Q2 newspaper in 2019, Huang Zheng mentioned that Pinduoduo is providing Yunnan farmers with training in scientific planting, and hopes to replicate the practice in Yunnan to more places.

In July 2020, Huang Zheng took another substantial step forward in scientific research-fulfilling the promise made by IPO, formally establishing the "Star Charity Fund" and donating shares, aimed at promoting social responsibility building and scientific research.

03 Huang Zheng made a public speech, Chief big data:

For Pinduoduo, the word Huang Zheng talks about most is more affordable and more fun.He has always stressed that Pinduoduo wants to be a "Costco+ Walt Disney Company" with more temperature and fun.

In Huang Zheng's view, social e-commerce can make shopping "warm": "not all shopping is purposeful, it is a part of entertainment and life."

He believes, "the future Pinduoduo should be a combination of real and virtual Costco and Walt Disney Company." He believes that "Costco+ Walt Disney Company" must be the future of the retail consumer market. "in the prospectus for listing, I solemnly wrote down that I wanted to be a combination of Costco and Disney. Of course, it was no joke. "on the eve of Pinduoduo's listing, Huang Zheng said in an interview with the media.

As for the relationship between Pinduoduo and Wechat, Huang Zheng said that before Pinduoduo, many people had tried all kinds of e-commerce, trying to subdivide people, do vertical segmentation, and also tried to be e-commerce for the community. but things really began to change when Wechat appeared.

He said in an exclusive interview with "Chinese operators"Pinduoduo's first tipping point benefited from seizing the bonus of shaking the red envelope of Wechat.Shaking Wechat made users' Wechat wallets have money, but at that time (offline) WeChat Pay was not popular, and users had money but no place to spend it.

For competitors, Huang Zheng stressed many times, "We and Taobao are misplaced competition, competing for different scenarios of the same group of users, dislocation will grow faster." "

In Huang Zheng's view, Singapore itself is very much like a company, achieving national prosperity in a poor surrounding environment. Using the analogy of the country, Huang Zheng wants Pinduoduo to "be a small Singapore" and step on the right beat in dancing with giants.

04 talk about the industry's evaluation of Pinduoduo: these labels are not recognized by Huang Zheng.

Pinduoduo has been labeled cheap since he was born. Before the listing of Pinduoduo, the media have questioned that Pinduoduo is a fake, fake goods, that Pinduoduo is doing consumer downgrade.

"I don't like this word," Huang Zheng said frankly. "in terms of material consumption, no one will take the initiative to downgrade. Everyone is. There is no toilet. I want to have a toilet. There are two reasons for aversion to the so-called "consumption downgrade": economically developed areas do not need the so-called "everyone uses French soap" consumption escalation; second, consumers have different needs for upgrading. "just like someone who hasn't used kitchen paper before, it's an upgrade for him when he starts using it. Huang Zheng gives an example.

He stressed that many people simply understand Pinduoduo as social e-commerce and cheap, which is a profound misunderstanding of Pinduoduo's business model. Everything is based on the logic of people, according to people to match goods, so that the right people in the right scene to buy the right things, and buy happily, this is Pinduoduo's password.

Talking about competitors: Pinduoduo is not another Taobao

Taobao-what Taobao does is search, and birds of a feather flock together.

JD.com-the core of JD.com is that express companies cannot do the work of e-commerce, and e-commerce is unwilling to do express delivery.

Pinduoduo-Pinduoduo wants to be an e-commerce version of Facebook Inc, focusing on finding people with goods. In essence, Taobao and JD.com are two species.

Huang Zheng will Taobao, JD.com described as "e-commerce version of Google", they are search engine-style e-commerce, people looking for goods. In his view, Taobao as an example of search-based e-commerce more emphasis on efficiency, users have a clear purchase target, in order to meet their needs most conveniently and quickly.

What Pinduoduo wants to create is to transplant the shopping scenes of offline life to online, so that users can get the greatest convenience and benefits with the least traffic.

Huang Zheng believes that the previous e-commerce model is trying to dig up a piece from Taobao to do a small Taobao, while Pinduoduo is an e-commerce in another dimension, competing with Taobao in a misplaced position, competing for different scenarios of the same group of users, and there is no such thing as being a little Taobao.

Dislocation, he says, will grow faster. Just as Facebook Inc grew up, Google will beat Facebook Inc, but in the long run, the two coexist.

06 talk about the planning of Pinduoduo: let different AI drive Pinduoduo's "iteration"

Huang Zheng himself has a technical background and has been doing AI-related work from college to working in Alphabet Inc-CL C.This means that he knows more about AI and how to get AI to serve Pinduoduo. What he called AI is not only to help Pinduoduo improve efficiency, but also to integrate this technology with people's life and emotions, publicize their personality, and make shopping happier.

In his view, most of today's technologies are centralized AI, emphasizing efficiency. On the other hand, the distributed AI does not have a central neuron, it puts people into the loop, and everyone is a part of the neuron, which affects the whole neural network. You can show your personality, you can show your attitude. "this is very interesting, it is not only to use technology to improve efficiency, but to use technology to enhance everyone's personality, to connect people more deeply, and to have a better way of expression. You can also influence more things through your own personality. "

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 making people more efficient. "in the future, AI will simulate the real world, aggregate user needs with different preferences, predict unit sales, and reverse guide the supply chain to form another moat of Pinduoduo. "

As a technician, he also likes to use the word "iteration". In his eyes, Pinduoduo is an iterative thing. Not only front-end products, but also back-end operations, and even internal business and management need to be iterated constantly. "Panduoduo will be an imaginative and innovative enterprise. Costco+Disney 's vision will be more concrete and vivid in front of us. "

07 talk about interpersonal relationships: these people have a great influence on Huang Zheng

Duan Yongping, Ding Lei and Wang Wei are all angel investors in 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 a student at Zhejiang University, one day a stranger added me on MSN that he was Ding Lei and was studying a technical problem. At that time, I thought he was a liar. In 2002, I went to the United States as a graduate student and met Duan Yongping. After graduation, I worked in Alphabet Inc-CL C very close to his home, so I began to make some investments for him. "

However, in Huang Zheng's mind, Duan Yongping had the greatest influence on him. In an exclusive interview with time Finance, Huang Zheng said that Duan Yongping is the one who has the most influence on his life. Huang Zheng revealed that in the process of starting a business, Duan Yongping has been beating him in the ear to do the right thing, and then do the right thing."Duan Yongping taught me to have no ambition. Just do a good job at present. "

Huang Zheng agrees with Liu Qiangdong's view that the poorer things are, the more expensive things are. In an exclusive interview with Hu Wei before Pinduoduo's listing, Huang Zheng said that as far as I can remember, Liu Qiangdong once gave an interview and he talked about a phenomenon mentioned in the "Wealth of Nations" that the poorer and the more backward places are, the more expensive they are, but not the richer places are cheaper. This phenomenon is common. I think Pinduoduo has a dream in leveling consumption.

The departure of Huang Zheng in 2008 laid a foreshadowing in his previous public voice.

Back to Huang Zheng's latest choice-when Pinduoduo users reached the top, Huang Zheng chose to "retire with success." A number of Pinduoduo insiders revealed that Huang Zheng gradually stepped down as CEO and chairman of the board is in his plan. For the unsociable Huang Zheng, "you no longer have to worry about all kinds of social activities, and you can further reduce your time investment in the company's daily business, and you can do something you like and think about it." "this can be seen in Huang Zheng's official Wechat account as well as in past interviews and speeches.

He mentioned in his Wechat article "turn Capitalism upside down" that Buffett is admired and even called great because "he (Buffett) knows clearly that money is not the end." On the one hand, he enjoyed the happiness brought to him by the capital game, on the other hand, he wisely donated most of his money to Bill Gates, who was younger than him, and relieved Gates to complete the redistribution of wealth. "

For Huang Zheng, starting a business is a very enjoyable thing, "because it is a bit like playing games, more poisoned, there are some small partners working together to a common vision and goal." However, as you get older, it is impossible for anyone to build a career all his life. He loves the sense of achievement of starting a business, and understands that "money is a tool, not a goal," and that the driving force of starting a business is the realization of self-value.

He once said: "the experience of Google has let me see the side effects of people getting rich overnight. Because there is so much money in an instant, many people begin to look for new pleasures and careers, but often those new things they are not good at and may not like." "

Even in an exclusive interview with "Chinese operators", he even made the following astonishing words:"if you think clearly about your long-term social significance, then these are day-to-day, business competition is not that important. "

When Pinduoduo went public in 2018, there was a passage in Huang Zheng's letter to shareholders: "We hope that Pinduoduo is a public organization that exists to create value for the overwhelming majority of users." It should not be a tool to show personal ability, nor should it have too much personal color. "

So, on March 17, there was Huang Zheng's letter to shareholders who resigned from Pinduoduo and handed over the stick to Chen Lei, the current CEO, fulfilling the promise that "Pinduoduo should not be too personal." On the other hand, he will be able to pursue his "poetry and distance"-- combining his personal interests, devoting himself to the research in the fields of food science and life science, and heading towards becoming an assistant scientist.