The 'Pig Farming Dream' of an Internet Billionaire: Why Did Ding Lei Make a Cross-Industry Decision That Stunned Everyone?

Prologue: A "Toxic" Hot Pot

The story begins in the winter of 2008, with a hot pot meal Ding Lei had in Chongqing.

During the meal, the waiter served a plate of pig's blood with an unusually vibrant color. As someone with a natural sensitivity to food quality, Ding Lei immediately felt something was wrong and declined the dish. The very next day, the news broke that a batch of "toxic pig's blood" made with pig's blood, formaldehyde, and industrial salt had been seized in Chongqing.

This incident left Ding Lei deeply shocked and frightened.

He began to pay close attention to China's food safety issues, and the more he looked, the more alarmed he became. From the "melamine" tainted milk powder to "gutter oil" and "clenbuterol," the endless stream of food safety scandals filled him with a deep sense of worry and anger.

"Can't the Chinese people have a single bite of safe pork?" This question began to haunt his mind.

As an entrepreneur who had already achieved financial freedom, Ding Lei started to ponder a question beyond business itself: What more meaningful things can I do for this society?

An idea that seemed absurd and audacious to everyone at the time began to brew in his mind: I am going to raise pigs! I will use an internet model to raise the safest and most delicious pigs in all of China.

Act I: The Manifesto of a "Madman"

In 2009, during the "Two Sessions" political meetings in Guangdong Province, Ding Lei, as a member of the Provincial Political Consultative Conference, officially announced his idea of "pig farming."

The news caused an uproar.

"Ding Lei has gone mad!" "An internet tycoon is going to be a pig farmer?" "Is NetEase's gaming business failing, forcing them to find a new way out?" ...

In an instant, doubts, ridicule, and curiosity flooded in from all directions. To the vast majority of people, a top internet company venturing into agriculture, the "earthiest" and "slowest" of industries, was simply incomprehensible. It was widely interpreted as a pure "PR stunt" or a whimsical hobby.

There was also strong opposition within the company. Many executives believed that pig farming had nothing to do with NetEase's core business, would not only divert the company's energy but could also damage NetEase's brand image as a "high-tech company."

However, facing immense pressure from both outside and inside, Ding Lei's attitude was exceptionally firm.

"I'm not doing this pig farming thing to make more money," he told all the executives at an internal meeting. "I truly believe that food safety is a major issue that affects every one of us, our next generation. Someone has to do it. We at NetEase have the funds, the technology, and the brand. Why can't it be us?"

His words were full of idealism and demonstrated an entrepreneur's sense of social responsibility that transcended business profits.

Ultimately, he convinced the board of directors and officially launched NetEase's pig farming project, naming it "NetEase Weiyang."

Act II: A "Seven-Year" Wait

Ding Lei's "pig farming" was never the traditional "farmer's model" from the start, but a thorough "technological experiment."

He invested heavily to build a highly intelligent and modern pig farm in Anji, Zhejiang. Here, the pigs' lives were even more "refined" than many people's:

They listened to music, lived in "apartments" with constant temperature and humidity, ate a nutritious liquid pig feed developed by NetEase, and their waste was turned into clean energy and organic fertilizer through an intelligent processing system. The entire farm had no traditional "pig farmers," only a few technicians in white coats managing everything through computers in a central control room.

Ding Lei tried to define and transform every aspect of the traditional pig farming industry with the mindset of an internet product manager.

However, agriculture, after all, is an industry that requires "awe of nature" and respect for cycles. The ideal soon met the harsh reality.

From the selection of pig breeds and feed formulas to the control of the farming environment and disease prevention, every step was full of countless "pitfalls."

NetEase's pig farming project progressed extremely slowly. For seven long years, the outside world heard very little news about "Ding's pigs." The initial ridicule gradually faded into oblivion.

Many people assumed that Ding Lei's "pig farming dream" had probably failed silently.

Epilogue: The "Comeback" of a Pig

It wasn't until 2016, at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, that Ding Lei personally hosted a banquet and served his own "Weiyang pork" to a group of internet tycoons including Pony Ma, Charles Zhang, and Lei Jun.

Photos of the tycoons praising the pork quickly went viral.

In the same year, "NetEase Weiyang" black pork was auctioned for the first time on NetEase Kaola, and one pig was sold for a sky-high price of 270,000 RMB.

"Ding's pig" became famous overnight.

People then realized that the "pig farming dream" that had been ridiculed for seven years had not failed. Instead, it had borne fruit in an extremely stunning way.

With its excellent reputation for safety and delicious taste, NetEase Weiyang pork quickly became the number one brand in China's high-end pork market. Ding Lei had successfully opened up a new and imaginative "second curve" for himself and for NetEase.

Looking back at Ding Lei's seven-year "pig farming experiment," we see two of the most precious qualities of an entrepreneur:

First, the purest "original intention" derived from a sense of social responsibility. Second, the "patience" to endure loneliness and resist temptation, using "brute force" to persevere to the end in order to realize this intention.

In an era where everyone was chasing "the next big thing" and making "quick money," Ding Lei chose the slowest and most difficult path. But in the end, time gave him the most generous reward.