Biography
Wang Xing, born on February 18, 1979, in Longyan, Fujian, is one of China's most renowned and resilient serial entrepreneurs. He is the founder and CEO of Meituan, a leading e-commerce platform for services. Before his success with Meituan, Wang Xing was famous for creating Xiaonei Network (the "Facebook of China") and Fanfou (the "Twitter of China").
Educated at China's prestigious Tsinghua University and later at the University of Delaware in the US, Wang Xing dropped out of his Ph.D. program in 2003 to return to China and dive into the burgeoning social media scene. His journey was marked by a series of ventures—some successful, some shut down—that earned him a reputation as a relentless innovator who was often ahead of his time.
In 2010, inspired by Groupon, he founded Meituan, a group-buying website. He successfully navigated the brutal "Thousand Groupon War," a period of intense competition, and emerged as a dominant player. Through strategic mergers and aggressive expansion into food delivery and other local services, he built Meituan into a multi-billion dollar "super-app" that serves hundreds of millions of users for everything from ordering food to booking hotels.
Education Background
- 2001: Bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University.
- 2001-2003: Attended the University of Delaware for a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering (did not complete).
Major Achievements
- 2005: Founded Xiaonei Network, which became China's most popular campus-based social network before being sold.
- 2007: Created Fanfou, China's first microblogging service, pioneering a format later popularized by Weibo.
- 2010: Founded Meituan and led it to victory in the hyper-competitive "Thousand Groupon War."
- 2015: Engineered the landmark merger between Meituan and Dianping, creating a dominant force in local services.
- 2018: Led Meituan to a successful IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising $4.2 billion.
- Transformed Meituan into a "Food + Platform" super-app, a one-stop destination for a vast array of services.
Business Philosophy
Wang Xing is known for his deep, analytical thinking and a management style rooted in logic and first principles. He is an avid reader and often references theories from business, technology, and history to guide his strategy. His philosophy centers on having "patience with strategy, but staying aggressive in execution." He believes in focusing on the long-term, relentlessly pursuing market leadership, and building a strong organizational capacity to adapt to constant change.
Innovation and Impact
Wang Xing's impact on China's internet is defined by his persistence and his ability to popularize and adapt Western internet models for the local market. While not always the first to introduce a concept, his teams have consistently out-executed competitors. He is a master of navigating complex, operationally heavy business models, particularly in the Online-to-Offline (O2O) space. His success with Meituan has fundamentally changed the urban lifestyle in China, making on-demand services an everyday reality for millions and setting a global standard for what a local services "super-app" can be.