All You Need to Know About Richard Liu

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Liu got a work with Japan Life, a Japanese health product company, after graduating. He worked as the director of computers, the director of business, and the logistics supervisor while there. In June 1998, he established his own company, Jingdong, in a Beijing industrial park. Magneto-optical products were distributed by the company.

Following the SARS pandemic in 2003, Liu was forced to reconsider his business approach, since people were obliged to stay at home, and his brick-and-mortar stores suffered. He made the decision to switch to an e-commerce model. He developed his first retail website in 2004, and later that year, he founded JD.com. In 2005, he closed all of his physical locations and completely shifted to an e-commerce approach.

Liu has previously received an offer to sell JD.com for 18 million yuan by 2005. He declined the offer, believing that he would be able to oversee the company’s expansion in the following years. He implemented a full-category strategy for the company in 2007, shifting the company’s business model from selling consumer electronics to a far broader range of goods. It swiftly became one of China’s largest e-commerce companies, attracting comparisons to Amazon due to its comparable business style. As a self-made individual, Liu has been likened to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

JD.com expanded throughout the next few years. In January 2014, the company filed for an IPO in the United States. A few months later, on May 22, the day of JD.com’s IPO, the company’s stock price surged by nearly 15%. The corporation is still the world’s second-largest internet company and China’s largest e-commerce company. JD.com stated in April 2022 that Liu will step down as CEO, to be succeeded by Lei Xu, the company’s then-president.