Self-confidence “. This is the key word written on all the glass doors of the offices at 23e floor of the Greenland Tower, Shanghai. It is from here that Colin Zheng Huang, 40, heads the ten companies, mainly applications and websites, which he has created. This Chinese billionaire has been the new Chinese Internet Pope for several years. The Financial Times, relayed by International mail, investigated the real empire that he was able to build and export to the whole world.
One company in particular made the success of Colin Huang: the Pinduoduo application, which has seen the value of its share rise 261% since January 2020. This e-commerce site created in 2015, and now valued at more than 140 billion euros, is little known in Europe but is a hit in Asia. It enables some 630 million customers to make group purchases at low prices on their smartphones. Globally, Pinduoduo is the third such platform behind Alibaba.com and JD.com.
Use of nominees
Like most of Colin Huang’s businesses, the commerce site first presented itself to investors as a company founded by him or at least linked to him through other companies, the Financial Times points out. But the billionaire frequently uses nominees. Thus, on the documents registered with the Chinese regulatory authorities, these are also the names that appear and not his. The practice is common in China: it allows wealthy entrepreneurs to sell their business shares to friends or relatives to limit their risks and not draw too much attention to their activities.
In the case of Pinduoduo, Colin Huang, for example, sold his shares to Chen Lei, a former comrade of the University of Wisconsin and general manager of the company, as soon as the company went public in 2018. Among the other figureheads, the Financial Times has tracked down a 69-year-old woman from rural China, who owns no less than 90% of several companies created by Colin Huang.
A secret man
The billionaire in any case likes to cultivate the mystery around his life. Chinese media describe him as a secret man and don’t even know if he’s married. This confidentiality also extends to its companies, since within Pinduoduo, its employees are called… by nicknames. Born in Hangzhou to factory-worker parents, Colin Huang studied computer science in China before leaving for the United States in 2022. He then worked for Google and then set up on his own “to do business. money ”and“ to be a little cooler ”, relays the Financial Times.
After selling his Google shares, Colin Huang launched Ouku, an electronic products site which he then sold in 2010 for $ 2.2 million. In the process, he sets up Leqee, which has helped major retailers set up their stores on the two main Chinese e-commerce platforms Alibaba and JD.com. Having become a sort of holding company, Leqee unveiled a new project two years later, Lebbay, a tool for creating e-commerce sites. Her last baby, Pinduoduo, was initiated in 2015.
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