Colin Huang, also known as Huang Zheng, is a Chinese businessman and philanthropist. He is the creator and former CEO of the e-commerce startup Pinduoduo, which has grown to become China’s biggest agricultural platform. Huang also owns at least three more limited liability businesses, including Pinduoduo.
Early life
Huang was born in the suburbs of Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in 1980. His parents were manufacturing workers from the middle class. He studied at the Hangzhou Foreign Language School. After displaying ability in mathematics, he competed in and won a medal in the Mathematics Olympiad while in school. The Olympiad’s award was a scholarship to a prominent school in Zhejiang province.
University education
Huang started studying computer science at Zhejiang University’s Chu Kuchen Honors College when he was 18 years old, where he earned a degree in computer science. During his first year, he was chosen as a Melton Foundation fellow. During his academic years, he excelled in mathematics and programming, gaining a thorough grasp of algorithms and software development. During his undergraduate years, he began an internship at Microsoft Bejing, where he got a stipend of 6000 YUAN. In 2004, Huang earned a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin.
Joining google
After finishing his schooling in 2004, he got job offers from three major corporations: Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle. He declined all three offers and chose to work with Google. Huang joined Google in 2004 as an engineer. He returned to China in 2006 alongside Kaai-fu Lee to grow Google’s services in China.
MBA program
Huang opted to continue his studies and enrolled at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business to obtain an MBA in 2006. He felt that combining his technological abilities with his commercial acumen would provide him with the tools he needed to launch a profitable firm. He engaged himself in several facets of business throughout his time at Stanford including entrepreneurship, strategy, and finance. Huang’s business ambitions were heightened during his stay at Stanford.
Business career
Huang founded the e-commerce site Ouku after leaving Google in 2007. The website quickly gained popularity, and Huang sold it for $2.2 million in 2010 after three years. Following Ouku, he established Leqi, another website, and Xunmeng, a game company. All three enterprises he founded paid him handsomely, prompting him to create another endeavor, Pinduoduo, which is also Huang’s most profitable venture.
Inception of pinduoduo
Huang established Pinduoduo in 2015, utilizing his educational background and industrial expertise. By combining social connections with e-commerce via a group-buying model, the site transformed online purchasing in China. This concept encouraged customers to ask friends and relatives to engage in large purchases, which resulted in further savings for all participants. Pinduoduo enjoyed exceptional success under Huang’s leadership, rapidly growing its user base and receiving substantial investments. In July 2018, the firm went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange, generating more than $1.6 billion and earning a market worth of over $24 billion. The success of Pinduoduo elevated Huang as one of China’s most renowned entrepreneurs and cemented the platform’s position as a significant player in the Chinese e-commerce market. Pinduoduo is one of the most recent firms to challenge more than a decade-old behemoths such as JD.com and Alibaba. After the aforementioned firms, it is the third-largest eCommerce company in China in terms of sales volume.
Conclusion
Huang was placed eighth on the 2019 Huron Report in October. He was placed second on the 2020 Huron Global Young Zhuang Sect Self-Made Rich List in March. He was selected to the 2021 Forbes Rich List of Mainland China in November, ranked sixth with a fortune of ¥213.2 billion.
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