E-commerce giant JD.com said its founder Richard Liu Qiangdong has handed over the chief executive role to company president Xu Lei, in the latest example of a Chinese tech billionaire retreating from daily operations.
Liu founded JD.com in 1998 — four years after Jeff Bezos founded Amazon — and has a net worth of $13.3 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.
He joins a growing procession of founder-CEOs quitting public leadership roles amid a sweeping crackdown by China's government on its burgeoning technology sector.
Liu will hand over the reins to JD.com’s president Xu Lei, according to a company statement. Liu will remain as the chairman of the board and continue to focus on JD.com’s “long-term strategies, mentoring younger management, and contributing to the revitalization of rural areas,” the statement said.
Liu is among a number of high-profile Chinese tech founders who have stepped back from the daily operations of their companies to dilute the so-called “key man risk” amid a regulatory crackdown in China’s internet sector. Others include Colin Huang Zheng from Pinduoduo, Kuaishou Technology’s Su Hua and Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok owner ByteDance.
The central government has taken aim at labor and consumer rights issues, launched antitrust probes against tech companies, and increased oversight on data security.
The uncertainty has dented investor confidence and hurt company earnings. Last month, Alibaba and social-media giant Tencent both reported their slowest revenue growth on record. JD.com also posted its first annual loss in three years.
E-commerce firms like JD.com and rival Alibaba have been suffering from economic headwinds and a slowdown in consumption, as well as increased competition from other players such as short-video companies like Kuaishou that have begun incorporating e-commerce functions into their platforms.
Do you want to find the best place and safest website to buy cheap JD Accounts? If you search on Google by:"Discount JD Accounts", "Cheap JD Seller Accounts with followers for Sale", "Buy JD Enterprise Accounts", "JD Business Account", and find the secure marketplace https://www.z2u.com/jd/accounts-5-16483, then you are at the right place for purchasing JD Accounts, special price, 100% safe, no hack, no cheats will happen, real sellers, real stocks! Shop now!