Liu Qiangdong is a famous Chinese internet entrepreneur. Most people refer to him as the “Jeff Bezos of China.” Liu was born on March 10, 1973, in Suqian, Jiangsu. His parents were doing the coal business at his young age, where they shipped the coal from Northern China to southern China. As Liu was growing up, he developed an interest in politics. He aspired to become among the best politicians in China. Upon finishing his primary education, he applied to the Renmin University of China, one of the best universities in politics. However, after finishing university education, everything did not go as per Liu’s plan. He, therefore, opted to try other sectors of life, such as business.
After graduation in 1992, Richard Liu decided to learn some programming, which he mastered years later. He much desired to make the world better in whatever means he could. In 1996, Liu decided to use all the savings he had made from programming jobs to open a restaurant. At first, the restaurant worked very well and gave him some profits, but a few months later, the restaurant started encountering problems, and it collapsed in a few days. The restaurant made him incur debts, which amounted to up $200,000.
In 1998, Richard Liu decided to open a stall where he sold electronics and computer drivers. Within five years, Liu had laid plans that did his business to be very successful. However, in 2003, the SARS epidemic emerged and made his business close because of the government lockdowns and activities. During the lockdown period, he came up with the idea of selling his commodities to people but through an online platform. That is how he quickly ended up opening an e-commerce business. Over the years, Liu has become innovative, making his company, JD.com to be the largest e-commerce company in China.
In this COVID 19 pandemic, most businesses have been shattered, and others have been on their knees, struggling. As for JD.com, the revenue has increased, especially in the second quarter. The 2020 second-quarter revenue indicates an increase of 33.8% compared to the 2019 second quarter. According to Liu Qiangdong, this increase in revenue is due to increased customers by about 29.9% compared to 2019. The COVID 19 pandemic made many people stay at their homes due to fear of contracting the disease or government restrictions and lockdowns. Therefore there were many orders which were done online compared to 2019 when the pandemic was absent.
JD.com’s secretariat is highly impressed with the company’s service to the Chinese people during the pandemic. JD.com minimalized people’s movement to the shopping centers and supermarkets since they could get whatever they wanted from their homes’ comfort. Quality service to humanity is one of the objectives of JD.com; therefore, any satisfied client makes the company happy.
During the second quarter, the most sold products by JD.com were the general merchandise products, which their sale grew by 45% compared to 2019’s second quarter. The most sold general merchandise products were supermarket products and fresh and perishable agricultural products. Secondly, JD Health’s online medical consultation service recorded an increase of 400% in the second quarter of 2020.
This increase was mainly attributed to the fear of the people during the pandemic. Panic prompted most people to do a lot of medical consultation whenever they could have terrible flu or COVID 19 like symptoms. These increases made JD.com expand its services to reach people easily and very fast. The increased demand involved the expansion of the company’s warehouses throughout china. Also, there was an increase in the delivery means, such as drones, cabs, and quick rails.