Tattoo, wearing gold, and going on variety shows... Behind JD.com welcomes a new CEO, various e-commerce giants have changed their handsomeness one after another?

      When it comes to Liu Qiangdong, you will naturally think of JD.com. This powerful binding has become an inherent impression, but on September 6, a news from JD.com broke this situation - JD.com has a new president.

      Xu Lei, formerly CEO of JD Retail, became the president of JD Group and was also the first company executive to coordinate and manage all JD Group's business lines except Liu Qiangdong .

New CEO? Who is this?

      Xu Lei joined JD.com as early as 2007. He was born in marketing and suggested to Liu Qiangdong in 2014 that consumers must remember one symbol, that is JD.com's 618. Later, the "JD Red June" shopping event was upgraded to the "618 Shopping Festival" that is now popular with Double 11.

      Three years ago, under the "encirclement and suppression" between Pinduoduo and Taobao, JD.com's performance plummeted. Xu Lei, who was still the group's CMO at that time, made drastic moves in supply chain, management and business, leading JD out of the mud. One of the data can simply and shockedly see the contribution Xu Lei has brought to JD.com: in 2018, JD.com Group's free cash flow was -7.9 billion yuan, and in 2019 the free cash flow changed to 19.453 billion yuan, which increased to 34.9 billion yuan in 2020.

      This president is contrary to what the public thinks. He has tattoos, trendy clothes, earrings, rings, and variety shows. Sometimes he even swears. Can you imagine that this is a president who is "above ten thousand people"?

Will Liu Qiangdong retreat behind the scenes?

      Since the incident in 2018, Liu Qiangdong seems to be withdrawing people's vision intentionally or unintentionally and downplaying the connection between JD.com and it. Before Xu Lei took over as CEO, the position was served by Liu Qiangdong. Later, he hired many professional managers through airborne to hold various key positions.

      However, due to various reasons, these airborne managers have stepped down one after another, and Liu Qiangdong also focused on the veterans of JD.com. Xu Lei also became the CMO of JD Group and later the rotating CEO of JD Mall.

      After taking over the group CEO, Xu Lei is not the only one who became a senior executive of JD.com. JD Retail CEO is Xin Lijun, CEO of JD Health; and JD Health CEO is Jin Enlin, head of JD Health’s Department.

      As the founder of JD.com, Liu Qiangdong publicly stated that he would delegate power in full as early as 2014 when JD.com went public. However, seeing his "children" hit walls everywhere, Liu Qiangdong, as an "old father", had to come out again and save him again and again.

      After promoting the "second-in-command", Liu Qiangdong once again put the idea of ​​retreating to the second line on the agenda . He devoted more time to long-term strategic design and rural revitalization, and handed over all the important tasks of taking charge of the overall situation to Xu Lei.

      Once the news fermented, JD.com's stock price rose instead of falling, which may be the market's most realistic view of this decision.

Will e-commerce be in a change after Internet giants retreat to the second line and change their coaches?

      Although Liu Qiangdong has not completely withdrawn from JD.com, he officially resigned as JD.com's legal person and general manager last year. He is in his prime and is much earlier than his official retirement.

      Not only Liu Qiangdong, but in recent years, Internet tycoons seem to have retreated to the "second line" intentionally or unintentionally. Alibaba's Jack Ma officially stepped down as Alibaba's chairman in 2019. He was only 55 years old at the time.

      In July 2020, Huang Zheng, the founder of Pinduoduo and 41 years old, resigned as chairman.

      In May 2021, Zhang Yiming, the head of ByteDance, announced that he would step down as CEO, and he was only 38 years old at this time.

      These Internet giants are getting younger and younger in their "retirement". Has the standards for aging been extended downward?

      It may be to downplay the bondage between celebrity entrepreneurs and enterprises. After all, negative news about entrepreneurs has been emerging recently, which has damaged the corporate image. They have higher sensitivity than ordinary people, perhaps they think that low-key behavior will be good for themselves and companies.

      No matter what these bigwigs think, the future of e-commerce is in the hands of its takeover.

      JD Group CEO Xu Lei, Pinduoduo CEO Chen Lei, Taobao Tmall and Alibaba Mom Career Group CEO Jiang Fan, ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo, four of them, who have different growth backgrounds, personalities and ideas, will bring changes to e-commerce? Let's wait and see...