[News Inside] The Asian 'Mark Zuckerberg' Who Rejected Jack Ma... The Story Behind Becoming a Thorn in the Side of Chinese Authorities

Wang Xing, Founder and CEO of Meituan

▲Wang Xing, Founder and CEO of Meituan

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jaehee] The man Jack Ma coveted. The man who rejected Jack Ma.

The founder and CEO of Meituan, the Chinese version of Baedal Minjok, Wang Xing, is that very person.

Today, Meituan has become an indispensable essential lifestyle app for Chinese people, but it started very modestly. It was born after several failed attempts at entrepreneurship.

Wang Xing was born in 1979 in an ordinary family in Longyan, Fujian Province, southeastern China, at a time when the Chinese government was calling for reform and opening up. As a child, he was intelligent and excelled in studies, becoming a model student loved by teachers. Among these qualities, Wang Xing showed early talent in computers; in 1992, when he was a middle school student, he became interested in a product that imitated the Apple II computer. His parents, observing this, gifted him a personal computer. This was the moment that became the starting point of Meituan's founding. In the mid-1990s, when most parts of China did not have internet access, he famously bought a modem and connected his computer to access online bulletin boards in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which were far away.

Reflecting his interests, combining innate intelligence and acquired effort, he was admitted to the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University, one of China's prestigious universities. At Tsinghua, he stood out and was given the opportunity to study abroad. He enrolled at the University of Delaware in the United States and, while pursuing his doctoral studies, discovered the social networking service (SNS) "Friendster," which completely changed his life. Wang Xing later recalled, "I was very excited when I saw SNS, and I was convinced that SNS would become the infrastructure for information flow in the future." He could not give up his dream of entrepreneurship and returned to China.

Upon returning, the first SNS Wang Xing launched was Duoduo Youda in 2004. However, it was a service too early for the reality of the Chinese internet and had to shut down within a year. Wang Xing did not give up. The following year, he created Xiaoneiwang, a Facebook for Chinese college students. It became more widely known and popular than his previous work. At one point, the number of subscribers exceeded 30,000, earning him the nickname "China's Mark Zuckerberg." However, he lacked the financial resources to expand the business. Wang Xing sold Xiaoneiwang to the Chinese comprehensive internet group Qianxiang after just one year. He then developed Panfou Wang, the Chinese version of Twitter, and Haineiwang, which connects overseas Chinese, but again had to close the businesses due to financial difficulties.

Despite consecutive failures, Wang Xing's passion for entrepreneurship did not wane. Quoting Winston Churchill, he posted, "This is not the end, nor is it the beginning of the end. But it can be seen as the end of the beginning," revealing his determination to continue his entrepreneurial journey.

Wang Xing's persistence, which did not retreat despite multiple failures, eventually bore fruit. In March 2010, China's first social commerce company, Meituan, was born.

Starting as a food delivery service, Meituan now provides lifestyle services across all fields, including ticket booking, restaurant search, and accommodation reservations. In January 2018, Meituan launched Meituan Dache and entered the ride-hailing business, and in April, it acquired the bike-sharing company Mobike, expanding its business comprehensively. It has become an essential lifestyle app for Chinese people.

▲Wang Xing, Founder and CEO of Meituan

Currently, Meituan is the number one in the delivery agency industry. As of last year, the number of delivery workers registered with Meituan was 9.5 million, approaching 10 million. Among them, about 1 million are professional delivery workers who make a living through daily deliveries. Because of this, in January, Meituan was the only IT company to receive commendation from the Chinese State Council. It was recognized for creating a new occupation called delivery workers and contributing to employment stability.

However, recently, it has become a thorn in the side of Chinese authorities. This happened after Wang Xing posted a poem on SNS that could be interpreted as criticizing President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party. Consequently, Chinese authorities launched an investigation into Meituan for violating antitrust laws and imposed a fine of 3.44 billion yuan (about 640 billion won) on the 8th for violating the Anti-Monopoly Law. This amount corresponds to 3% of Meituan's annual sales.

However, this unexpectedly acted as a 'boon.' Instead, Meituan's stock price soared. CNBC interpreted this as "the market viewed the fine as less severe than expected."

Wang Xing's role model is Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. However, his ultimate goal differs from Bezos's. Wang Xing's ultimate goal is to create a world where everyone eats better and lives better.

This reflects his management philosophy, which he has emphasized repeatedly: "I will only think about the consumer."