The e-commerce world has only gotten more and more important in recent years. Changes in the way that we live our lives and pursue our shopping goals due to the pandemic have increased our reliance on the availability of digital goods. One of China’s richest e-commerce giants and entrepreneurs is Liu Qiangdong of JD.com, a soaring digital platform with deep roots throughout much of Asia.
In a shocking move that sought to bolster China’s President Xi Jinping’s economic prosperity effort, Mr. Richard Qiangdong Liu would donate more than $2.28 billion in JD.com shares to charity.
Engineering Economic Prosperity
Over the past ten years, China’s leaders have watched as the nation’s GDP nearly doubled while the wealthiest of the individuals in the nation saw their wealth accumulate sixfold. Announcing the common prosperity effort, President Xi Jinping aims to have major figures within the tech sector engineer change by leading the charge themselves.
Among the most prominent names in the effort to close the increasing wage and equality gap was Liu Qiangdong of JD.com. Worth a fortune exceeding $15.9 billion, Liu has been a mainstay on the Real-Time Billionaire List presented by Forbes. To give back to the people of China, Mr. Richard Qiangdong Liu announced that the company would deliver more than 62,376,643 Class B Ordinary Shares to a third-party organization for the purposes of charitable outreach.
While Liu has been one of the leading names in the prosperity effort engineered by President Xi Jinping, he has been far from the only figure in the tech industry to reach out and make a change. Liu was joined by other prominent names within the tech world, including the founder and Chief Executive of Meituan, a food delivery giant in China. The founder, Wang Xing, announced donations in excess of $2.27 billion to a personal charity of his choice.
Other tech giants in China were quick to deliver on the prosperous efforts announced by President Xi Jinping. Zhang Yiming of ByteDance pledged more than $68 million to the city of Longyan in China for the development of the education sector. Tencent, a tech giant throughout Asia, also announced in April that it would present more than $7.9 billion in charity to both social and environmental causes. Other names donating to the cause included members of Alibaba, a rival to JD.com on the e-commerce marketplace.
Bringing JD to Life with Liu Qiangdong
Growing up in the poor village of Chang’an, it would have been somewhat shocking to expect Liu Qiangdong to turn into one of the largest names in e-commerce and marketing. Liu would leave his village behind to attend the People’s University of China, honing his skills in programming and marketing before opening up his first retinal shop in 1998. A few years later, Liu would move his business online, unveiling JD.com to the world.
Now one of the largest and most powerful internet businesses in all of China, JD.com is headquartered in Beijing, where Walmart owns a 9.3% stake in the business. JD.com has increased its effective delivery rates to do the vast majority of its business within one to two days, supplying much of China with the delivered goods that they need.
Liu Qiangdong considers JD to be the go-to site for authentic goods, tailored shopping experiences, and fast and effective service.