On March 17, Huang Zheng, the founder of Pinduoduo, issued a letter to shareholders 202 1, announcing that the post of chairman would be handed over to Chen Lei, the current CEO, after the approval of the board of directors.
After "resigning", the super voting right of Huang Zheng 1: 10 will also be invalid, and the voting right of its shares will be entrusted to the Pinduoduo Board of Directors for voting.
After stepping down as CEO in July 2020 and as a director in August, Huang Zheng really bid farewell to Pinduoduo.
Along with the resignation letter, there is Pinduoduo's annual financial report.
The biggest highlight of Pinduoduo's 2020 financial report is that the number of active buyers is 788.4 million, which has surpassed Alibaba's 779 million in the same period and become the largest e-commerce platform in China in name.
Pinduo's attack is terrible, and it has the potential to drive the tiger to devour the wolf.
Therefore, some people think that Huang Zheng's choice to leave at this time can be described as "retiring after success"
But this is not the case. Pinduoduo is a staged success at most, but there is still a certain gap from Ali.
Pinduoduo's financial report shows that under non-GAAP, Pinduoduo's net loss attributable to Pinduoduo for the whole year was 2.965 billion yuan, which was significantly narrower than last year, but it is hard to say how long it will take to make a profit.
Besides, Pinduoduo's GMV last year was 65.438+06.676 billion yuan, while Ali's GMV has already exceeded one trillion dollars. It seems biased to say things only by the number of users.
Therefore, this wave of Huang Zheng is "going first without success"
So, is it a bad move for him to choose to leave at this critical moment?
On the contrary, this is a very wise choice!
Although Pinduoduo has not won the e-commerce market, life in Huang Zheng has been turned upside down.
In 20 15, the assembled goods created by Huang Zheng went online, and Pinduoduo began to hatch in the company in September.
20 16, good products and a lot of combined products, making great strides.
Two years later, Pinduoduo listed on NASDAQ, which is a miracle in the history of e-commerce.
In 2020, Huang Zheng surpassed Ma Yun to become the second richest man in China with a net worth of 32 1 billion.
It only took Huang Zheng six years to complete the 20-year journey of his predecessors.
According to Pinduoduo's soaring share price, it won't be long before Huang Zheng becomes the new richest man in China.
However, he quickly retreated and withdrew from the marathon only a few tens of meters away from the finish line. Why?
It's simple, because big trees attract the wind. The longer you stay in that position, the more wealth you have, and the more conspicuous you will be.
As the "No.1 position" of an e-commerce giant, even a small remark will be infinitely magnified, and its own controversial behavior will also plunge the company into a storm of public opinion.
20 18 Liu was denounced by the whole network for "Mingzhou incident". Although he was finally acquitted, the company's share price was also greatly affected. Since then, the east elder brother retired from the background and let Xu Lei take over.
2065438+September 2009, Ma Yun bid farewell to Alibaba under the watchful eye of 100,000 Ali employees, and focused on building the company's image. It was not until June 5438+00, 2020, after giving a speech on the Financial Bund, that Ant Financial was suspended from listing and Ali was interviewed. Since then, Mr. Ma has been silent.
In the eyes of the public, the founder is equal to the company, and his words and deeds represent the company. The more you talk and do, the more mistakes you make. Huang Zheng saw the fate of our predecessors.
Instead of making yourself the next target, it is better to get out early so that the founder is no longer bound by the company. In this way, it is good for everyone.
Someone asked, Huang Zheng is gone, where is Pinduoduo?
In fact, a listed company as big as Pinduoduo will not be controlled by Huang Zheng alone. Not only the company, but also any interest group will not have good results if it is supported by one person for a long time.
There are many such examples in the history of China.
Is Qin Shihuang good enough? Sweep the six countries and unify China, but the country died the next year.
Is Zhuge Liang smart enough? Hands-on, six out of Qishan, but soon Shu died.
No matter how powerful an individual is, his ability is limited and he will make mistakes. Only by forming a reasonable system can we ensure the long-term continuation of the group and improve the fault tolerance rate.
And Pinduoduo's system is the partner system.
Pinduoduo's partners have considerable authority, including but not limited to:
1, directly decide who is the executive director;
2. Nominate and recommend the CEO, who shall be appointed by the board of directors.
3. Nominate new partner candidates.
4. Vote for new or retired partners.
5. If the partner system is modified, it must be approved by 75% of the partners.
With such a group of partners, we can ensure that no matter who leaves, the company can operate normally and will not stop working because of the lack of a "key part".
What's more, Huang Zheng left Pinduo and had no right to ask about Pinduo? Anyway, Huang Zheng knows Pinduoduo best in the world, and the current CEO is his classmate and good friend. If he really faces a major decision, I believe Huang Zheng's words still carry weight.
In addition, Huang Zheng has transferred 370,772,220 ordinary shares (about 7.74% of the company's total shares) under his personal name to Pinduoduo Partner Collective since he resigned as CEO in July last year. So many shares will undoubtedly inspire other employees.
When the location of Huang Zheng moves, other people's locations can follow, and companies with liquidity can keep their vitality. Who wants to stay in a company with no room for promotion for a long time?
So Huang Zheng's departure is good for Pinduoduo. A wise man never does anything bad.
Huang Zheng mentioned in his letter to shareholders that he would engage in scientific research after "retirement" from Pinduoduo.
He put forward three interesting ideas, such as:
Can we improve the beneficial trace elements of potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and other crops, so as to improve our quality of life?
Can we develop healthier and greener artificial meat from the changes of human intake of different protein?
Can we follow the path of molecular machines, winner of the 20 16 Nobel Prize in chemistry, and further study protein robot, which can dredge human cerebral vessels and avoid stroke?
So, will Huang Zheng really put down Pinduoduo and devote himself to his favorite scientific research field? No matter where Huang Zheng went, at least Pinduoduo has been positioned as a technology company since its birth. Chen Lei, the current CEO, was the chief technology officer of Pinduoduo.
If Pinduoduo can really apply technology to Pratt & Whitney, that's really a good thing.
Huang Zheng said that Pinduoduo will always be a social enterprise that puts consumers' interests and social values first.
I hope he meant it when he said this.
Author: Zhao Yunhe