INSIGHTS / MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Meituan-Dianping’s Wang Xing: From struggling copycat to IPO billionaire
China · Sep 10, 2018· By Liu Jing
As the internet startup sets to list in Hong Kong this week, we take a look back at the journey of its founder Wang Xing, once dubbed “the unluckiest serial entrepreneur”
On June 22, 2018, Meituan-Dianping, China's biggest on-demand services platform, filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company is seeking a valuation of up to US$55 billion, as it plans to raise US$4.5 billion from investors.
If successful, the IPO will make the company’s founder and CEO Wang Xing, who holds more than 10% of the company’s shares, one of the richest people in China. Forbes estimates that Wang, 39, currently has a net worth of US$4 billion. Not bad for someone once dubbed “the unluckiest serial entrepreneur” by the media.
Meituan-Dianping is the most important Chinese company to go public after Xiaomi in July this year. Formed when Meituan merged with its closest rival Dianping in 2015, the Tencent-backed company has blazed a new trail beyond the e-commerce, social media and search engine models dominated by Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. It has also expanded through investing in other startups, currently 29 of those in the food and beverage sector and 10 in the travel, hotel and commercial real estate fields.
Edited by Wang Xinlei and Wendy Lovinger
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E-commerce Food & Beverage Lifestyle Logistics & Supply Chain O2O On-demand Marketplaces & Platforms
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