Richard Liu Qiangdong is a Chinese Internet entrepreneur and the CEO of JD.com, a Chinese company that operates an online shopping platform. He is also the chairman and founder of Bytedance, which developed Toutiao, a news aggregator in China.
Liu Qiangdong was born in Beijing as his parents had been sent down to the countryside during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. His parents worked as corn farmers. He attended Zhuanghe Elementary School until the sixth grade and then studied at Nanping No. 5 Middle School for three years until 1992.
He entered the People’s University of China and studied for a bachelor’s degree in international business administration from the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). He majored in management science and research management.
Richard Liu founded JD.com business after graduating from BIT. He was an executive assistant to the information technology directorate of a large electronics retailer named Taobao before joining JD.com as a management quality control manager.
Qiangdong became the CTO of JD and was appointed CEO on 22 December 2013, two days after Robin Li took over the CEO position from Richard Liu’s uncle Ding Lei. He is known for his many appearances in the Bay Area and New York and meetings with venture capitalist firms and government officials.
When he was a sophomore at BIT, Liu started his own business to sell barcode scanners. He participated in BIT’s annual sales conference, helping his company win its first price war.
Liu is a successful entrepreneur who has built JD.com into one of China’s most essential e-commerce companies with a market. His company pioneered the concept of hyperlocal shopping via mobile devices and offered an almost limitless number of products online. JD.com has employees and is the 3rd largest e-commerce company in the world. Liu Qiangdong has received several accolades for his business success. Refer to this article for more information.
Liu was featured as an Honoree in Variety 500 entitled, “JD.com Richard Liu; Founder / Chairman / CEO”, as a result of his persistence, innovation, and hard work. During his free time, the billionaire loves to either spend time with his family or volunteering at Red Cross.
More about Richard Liu on https://peoplepill.com/biography/richard-liu/
