Liu Qing (businesswoman)

Liu Qing

Liu Qing (Chinese: 柳青; pinyin: Liǔ Qīng, born 1978 in Beijing) or Jean Liu, is a Chinese business executive. Jean is the President of Didi Chuxing ("DiDi", formerly known as Didi Kuaidi), China's largest mobile transportation platform.[1] She worked at Goldman Sachs Asia for 12 years, becoming Managing Director for Asia in 2012, before switching to Didi Dache serving as its chief operating officer in July 2014.[2]

After joining Didi Dache, she led the strategic merger between Didi Dache and its main competitor Kuaidi Dache which then created a new car hailing company named Didi Kuaidi (later rebranded as Didi Chuxing) in 2015.[3] She also helped DiDi win the $1billion investment from Apple and masterminded DiDi's acquisition of Uber China in 2016.

In 2016, Jean was selected by Fast Company as one of "the World's Most Creative People in Business."[4] She was named to Fortune's international list of 2016 Most Powerful Women.[5] She was also ranked alongside Cheng Wei, CEO of DiDi, on The Wired 100 List.[6]

Jean was one of Fortune's 2015 Global "40 Under 40" Business Leaders, and tops Fortune China's "40 Under 40"[7] Business Leaders list together with Cheng Wei. In the same year, Jean was named one of China’s "25 Most Influential Business Women"[8] by Fortune, and one of China’s "Most Influential Women" by Women in China. She was also named one of China’s "Top Women Business Leaders" in 2013[9] and 2015[10] by the China Entrepreneurial Magazine.

Early life and education

Jean was born in 1978 in Beijing, China. She is the daughter of Chinese businessman and Lenovo founder Liu Chuanzhi, and the granddaughter of Liu Gushu, a senior executive banker at the Bank of China. She received a bachelor's degree in Computer Science at Peking University, and a master's degree in Computer Science at Harvard University.[11]

Financial career

After completing her master's at Harvard, Jean joined Goldman Sachs in 2002 as a junior analyst. For 12 years, from 2002 to 2014, she worked her way up to become one of the youngest managing directors in the bank’s history.[12]

Didi Chuxing

When Jean joined Didi Dache in 2014, the firm was in fierce and expensive competition with rival Kuaidi Dache. Together with Cheng Wei, Jean masterminded the company's fundraising and its merger with Kuaidi Dache.

In December 2014, Jean helped Didi Dache to close a USD $700 million fundraising round, the biggest fundraising record for private companies.[13] Investors include internationally renowned companies,such as Temasek, DST Global and Tencent.

On February 4, 2015, Didi Dache announced at the annual conference that Jean would be the President for Didi Dache and in charge of the day-to-day operation.[14] She is the first person to take up the role of president for the company.[15] On February 14 Didi Dache officially announced its merger with Kuaidi Dache.[16]

In July 2015, Jean led the company to complete a USD $2 billion fundraising round, bringing the company's cash reserves to over USD $3.5 billion.[17] This is the world's largest single fundraising round by any private company of all time, as well as the largest fundraising round for Chinese mobile internet companies.

In August 2015, Jean spoke with Jonathan Krim, former Technology Editor at The Wall Street Journal, on the future development of DiDi. She said,"Our philosophy is we don't really believe in disruptive termination. When it concerns millions of people's jobs, and when it concerns tens of millions of people's life, what we believe in is collaborative reform from within. We try to work with everyone."[18] In the same year, Jean appeared on the October cover of Forbes Asia.[19]

In January 2016, Jean announced on a press briefing that Didi Kuaidi and China Merchants Bank announced a comprehensive strategic partnership to cooperate on a wide range of initiatives, including in-app credit card payments, joint bank cards, automobile financing services, offline driver recruitment and other O2O initiatives.[20] The partnership includes a strategic investment by CMB in Didi Kuaidi.

The new company Didi Kuaidi, which rebranded itself[21] in September 2015 with a new name,Didi Chuxing, soon became one of the largest players in China's ridesharing market. Jean was named as the "Top Deal Maker"[22] by The Wall Street Journal for merging Didi Dache and Kuaidi and completing record-breaking fundraising rounds for Didi Chuxing.

She also helped DiDi win a USD $1 billion investment from Apple in May 2016, giving Apple a strong foothold into the Chinese market and an opportunity for the two to collaborate on product integration and marketing.[23][24] In an interview with CNBC,[25] Jean discussed how the two companies initiated talks of partnership. When meeting Apple CEO Tim Cook in California the month before the deal, Liu reportedly said that a company named after a fruit could achieve something big. She explained that the company refers to its employees as "oranges" since the company's registered name—Xiaoju—means "little orange." The USD $1 billion investment from Apple was announced 22 days after their first meeting.

DiDi said it closed a USD $4.5 billion fundraising round that attracted new investors such as Apple, China Life Insurance Co. and the financial affiliate of online shopping firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.[26] This fundraising round is the world’s largest equity share fundraising round by any private company of all time, refreshing the record set by DiDi and Jean.

She also lined up strategic partnerships with other three other car hailing companies overseas including Lyft(the U.S.), Ola (India) and Grab (Singapore).[27] On August 1,DiDi acquired Uber's China unit.[28]

Since Jean joined DiDi in July 2014, she and Cheng Wei have transformed the Company from a taxi-hailing platform into a diversified business that has become China’s largest comprehensive one-stop mobile transportation platform. Jean is working with Cheng Wei to oversee all the business operations of DiDi, which now offers a full range of mobility options on its app for close to 300 million users across over 400 Chinese cities, including taxi hailing, private car hailing, Hitch (social ride-sharing), DiDi Chauffeur, DiDi Bus, DiDi Test Drive, DiDi Car Rental and DiDi Enterprise Solutions. As many as 16 million rides were completed on DiDi's platform on a daily basis in Q2 2016.[29] Every day, DiDi's platform generates over 70TB data, which is larger than 70,000 feature films, processes more than 9 billion routing requests,[30] and produces over 13 billion locating points. In 2015, DiDi fulfilled 1.43 billion rides,[31] and total riding mileage surpassed 12.8 billion kilometers, which is equivalent to travel around China's border line 290,000 times.

It is reported that, in DiDi's four years of operation, the company has gathered information like common pickup points and destinations, peak demand times, and frequent routes in 400 Chinese cities. It is trying to make full use of the big data for predictive analysis and to create innovative products for smart transportation. According to Jean, at this stage, the company is keen to recruit and retain top talent. Jean makes finding and retaining talent a priority at DiDi.[32]In an interview with Fast Company, she said, "To be a great company you need not just the best product but also the best people. We aim to get the best young talent from many different fields and make sure that they have the feeling that they can have a huge impact."[33]

Personal life

Jean currently lives in Beijing with her husband and three children. In October 2015, Jean announced internally that she was being treated for breast cancer at the age of 37.[34] In early December 2015, she posted on her Weibo that she would return to work by the end of December after a two-month treatment.[35] According to DiDi, she is now fine and "has been in all-in mode for quite some time".[36]

After being named one of the "50 Most Powerful Moms of 2016"[37] by Working Mother, Jean spoke about how she balanced working for DiDi with her relationship with her three kids.

Honors

Jean has been recognized as one of the most influential business leader in the world by many mainstream media outlets.

In 2016:

In 2015:

In 2013:

Other activities

Jean has been a keynote speaker at several important industry conferences, including Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit,[51] WSJDlive,[52] RISE,[53] CONVERGE,[54] China Internet Conference, Code Conference,[55] Global Conference on Women and Entrepreneurship, and Global Entrepreneurship Summit.[56]

Jean is a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association Council,[57] and a member of the Board of Directors of the ONE Foundation.[58]

Books

Jean released her first book, DiDi: sharing economy is changing China[59], co-authored by Cheng Wei and Zhang Xiaofeng, the founder of "Internet Plus Club" and published by Posts & Telecom Press in June 2016. It is about how DiDi's use data-driven deep-learning algorithms drives the new era of economy and technology.

References

  1. ↑ 宋静丽. "Didi Chuxing receives $600m investment from China Life Insurance - Business - Chinadaily.com.cn". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  2. ↑ "Tencent-Backed Didi Dache Pursues Buses, Government Cars After Daughter of Lenovo's Liu Chuanzhi Joined". Forbes.
  3. ↑ Clover, Charles; Hook, Leslie. "Jean Liu: Splashing the cash". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  4. ↑ "Jean Liu: Latest News, Work, Videos, Photos on Fast Company". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  5. ↑ "Fortune's 2016 International Most Powerful Women List". 2016-09-09. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  6. ↑ WIRED. "The WIRED 100". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  7. ↑ "Cheng Wei and Jean Liu". 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  8. ↑ "2015中国最具影响力的25位商界女性 - 财富中文网". www.fortunechina.com. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  9. ↑ 中国企业家网. "商界木兰：2013年度中国最具影响力的商界女性排行榜（3） - - 中国企业家网". www.iceo.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  10. ↑ "2015年度最具影响力的商界女性排行榜__中国企业家网". www.iceo.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  11. ↑ "Jean Liu: She Was Asked to Sing Céline Dion in a Job Interview, Now She's Uber's Greatest Threat in China". NextShark.
  12. ↑ Li, Danielle (2016-01-01). "10 things you may not know about China's largest ride-hailing platform Didi Kuaidi - AllChinaTech". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  13. ↑ "打车软件投资持续"高烧" 滴滴确认获超7亿美元投资_第一财经". www.yicai.com. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  14. ↑ "柳青升任滴滴公司总裁 负责公司日常业务运营". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  15. ↑ "柳青出任滴滴总裁-新华网". news.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  16. ↑ "Leading taxi apps Kuaidi and Didi in US$6b merger to counter Uber's advance in China". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  17. ↑ "China car hailing app Didi Kuaidi raises $2 billion as Uber rivalry intensifies". Reuters. 2015-07-08. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  18. ↑ "Jean Liu Reveals How Didi Kuaidi Is Beating Uber". Wall Street Journal. 2015-08-04. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  19. ↑ Huet, Ellen. "World War Uber: Why The Ride-Hailing Giant Can't Conquer The Planet (Yet)". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  20. ↑ "Didi Kuaidi joins China Merchants Bank to provide car financing for drivers". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  21. ↑ "Didi Chuxing: Meet Uber's Biggest Threat in China". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  22. ↑ Carew, Eva Dou and Rick. "Top Deal Maker Powers Didi Kuaidi Fundraising". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  23. ↑ "Apple's $1 billion investment in Didi came together in less than a month". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  24. ↑ Clover, Charles (2016-05-13). "Apple invests $1bn in Chinese ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  25. ↑ Chandran, Eunice Yoon, Nyshka (2016-05-19). "Didi boss: Apple deal was like 'speed dating'". CNBC. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  26. ↑ Osawa, Juro; Carew, Rick (2016-06-16). "Didi Chuxing, China's Rival to Uber, Scores $7 Billion in New Funding". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  27. ↑ "Meet The Woman Behind China's Largest Ride-Sharing Service". 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
  28. ↑ Beijing, Alyssa Abkowitz in; Kong, Rick Carew in Hong (2016-08-01). "Uber Sells China Operations to Didi Chuxing". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  29. ↑ "Didi Chuxing". Fortune. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  30. ↑ "Big data injects new impetus to economic growth --China Economic Net". en.ce.cn. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  31. ↑ Alba, Davey. "Didi Kuaidi Announces 1.43 Billion Rides in Challenge to Uber". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  32. ↑ Larson, Christina. "What's driving Didi Chuxing, the Chinese version of Uber that just raised $7 billion". Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  33. ↑ "Meet The Woman Behind China's Largest Ride-Sharing Service". 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
  34. ↑ "Boss of Didi Kuaidi in mainland China gets treated for breast cancer". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  35. ↑ Li, Danielle (2015-12-08). "Didi Kuaidi's president Jean Liu plans to return to work by the end of December - AllChinaTech". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  36. ↑ Clover, Charles; Hook, Leslie. "Jean Liu: Splashing the cash". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  37. ↑ "Introducing the 50 Most Powerful Moms of 2016". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  38. ↑ Magazine, Vanity Fair. "The New Establishment 2016 List Is Here". The Hive. Retrieved 2016-10-09.
  39. ↑ "Jean Liu: Latest News, Work, Videos, Photos on Fast Company". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  40. ↑ WIRED. "The WIRED 100". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  41. ↑ Staff, Wired. "25 Geniuses Who Are Creating the Future of Business". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  42. ↑ "Introducing the 50 Most Powerful Moms of 2016". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  43. ↑ "Fortune's 2016 International Most Powerful Women List". 2016-09-09. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
  44. ↑ "Cheng Wei and Jean Liu". 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  45. ↑ "2015中国最具影响力的25位商界女性 - 财富中文网". www.fortunechina.com. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  46. ↑ "Jean Liu | World Economic Forum". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  47. ↑ Asia, Forbes. "Didi Dache Jean Liu 36 (China) - pg.1 Forbes". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  48. ↑ "Liu Qing, Jean". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  49. ↑ "2015年度最具影响力的商界女性排行榜__中国企业家网". www.iceo.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  50. ↑ "2013年度最具影响力的商界女性排行榜__中国企业家网". www.iceo.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  51. ↑ Kosoff, Maya. "Uber's Biggest Rival Is "Going Global"". The Hive. Retrieved 2016-10-28.
  52. ↑ "Didi Chuxing eyes global growth as next step after Uber China merger". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2016-10-28.
  53. ↑ "RISE | HONG KONG 2016". 2015-08-05. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  54. ↑ Journal, The Wall Street. "Converge Conference 2015". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  55. ↑ "Code Conference 2016". 2016-05-05. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  56. ↑ "Liu Qing, Jean". Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  57. ↑ "Jean Liu | Harvard University - The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences". gsas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  58. ↑ "机构治理-壹基金". www.onefoundation.cn. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  59. ↑ "《滴滴：分享经济改变中国》呈现互联网+2.0". book.sina.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-09-08.

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