Luo Yonghao: Maverick founder who gave Smartisan its allure, but couldn't build a winner

China

6 min read

May 13, 2020

By Li Yuan, Wang Xiao'e

Image: Shutterstock

The Smartisan founder and internet celebrity is making a comeback with live commerce, after failing to sell enough smartphones at his own company

After selling off Smartisan's failed smartphone business to TikTok owner Bytedance in early 2019, Chinese serial entrepreneur and internet celebrity Luo Yonghao made headlines again last month for his e-commerce livestream debut on Douyin, China's version of TikTok and also a ByteDance company. In three hours and watched by 48m viewers, Luo sold over RMB 110m worth of goods ranging from lobsters to smartphones, including sets from ex-rival Xiaomi.
Luo started his career as a teacher in 2001 at the well-known English-language education company, New Oriental, where he gained online fame...

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Edited by S. Mani

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