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Author | Yanda

Against the backdrop of small businesses "rebelling" every other day, Pinduoduo's boss Huang became the richest man in China.

According to Bloomberg, the 44-year-old Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng has replaced Nongfu Spring's Zhong Shanshan to become China's richest man with a net worth of US$48.6 billion (approximately RMB 348.8 billion).

If we were to guess what he was thinking, Mr. Zhong would probably breathe a sigh of relief, as he finally doesn't have to be the richest man in the world. He hasn't had a "good life" since he became the richest man in 21 years. He's either been scolded or on the way to being scolded.

Let's guess again, Mr. Huang probably won't be happy either. Family members know their own business. Even the "Pinduoduo" logo is rarely seen in Pinduoduo's headquarters in various places. How can such a deliberately low-key person be willing to be placed in a prominent position as the richest man? !

I don’t know what Bloomberg’s intention is, but it has thrown a hot potato to Pinduoduo.

It's lonely at the top, and the position of the richest man is especially difficult to hold. In the era of information explosion, the more you are in the spotlight, the easier it is to become a target, especially if you are hugely controversial yourself.

In my personal opinion, Pinduoduo has far more controversies than Nongfu Spring.

But judging rationally, Pinduoduo is unlikely to be repeatedly hit by the wave of public opinion like Boss Zhong. The reason is that Pinduoduo has a firm grasp on consumers and its rules are completely on the side of consumers. As for some small merchants who put up banners in rebellion every few days, compared with the support of countless consumer users, they cannot cause much waves.

But, how can you not know what you are doing? Only you know whether you are afraid or not.

730 top-level meeting, first mentioned"We must strengthen industry self-discipline and prevent 'involutionary' vicious competition."

Behind every new concept in the top-level design, there must be profound policy measures.

The most obvious example in the past was that in 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission, the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange all warned that Chinese companies' overseas acquisitions of real estate, hotels, film and television entertainment, and football clubs were irrational mergers and acquisitions. CCTV also used Suning's acquisition of Inter Milan as an example to analyze irrational overseas investment in the sports sector.

Pan Gongsheng, then deputy governor of the central bank and director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said it more directly: Many companies in China already have high debt ratios, and they borrow large sums of money to make overseas acquisitions, while some transfer assets under the guise of direct investment.

The mentality of Wanda's boss Wang, who was more popular at that time, was:"I earn my own money, so I can spend it however I like."This may be the reason why Lao Wang quickly sold 76 hotels and 13 cultural and tourism projects to cash out more than 63 billion yuan and quickly reduce his debt.

The top-level design has already given a signal that "industry self-discipline must be strengthened to prevent 'involutionary' vicious competition."

All walks of life are in internal competition, including the automotive industry, express delivery industry, e-commerce platforms, etc.So, in the e-commerce industry, who is China’s “King of Roll”?

The answer is actually self-evident. The fact that Boss Huang of Duoduo can become the richest man, and the fact that Alibaba and JD.com, which have ten or even dozens of times more employees than Duoduo, have to "learn from Pinduoduo and become Pinduoduo" is strong proof.

On the one hand, the rules guide merchants to bid to the extreme and lower their prices to the extreme. On the other hand, the platform is kneeling to consumers based on the rules. Consumers are naturally very comfortable. As long as there is an after-sales dispute, the consumer can get "kneeling" service. Which consumer would not be happy?

The result is that regardless of whether the customer is being taken advantage of for free or not, only the refund and fine are borne by the merchant. The anger of non-freeloaders who buy defective goods is directed at the merchant rather than the platform.

But few people care that the platforms that set extreme bidding and extremely unfair rules between merchants and consumers are the root cause of the repeated occurrence of inferior products.

So, rather than saying that Boss Huang is the richest man, I think that his ability to grasp human nature has reached the pinnacle.

Because it did not solve the problem of counterfeit goods, it only diverted the conflict and made money by the way, ... it made money by the fines and by the withholding of payment for the goods.

All after-sales conflicts are transferred to the merchants, who are often simply given refunds, high fines, or payment is withheld. This is how "E-commerce Somalia" came about.

Small businesses can't bear it, so they either go to the door with banners to seek justice or file a lawsuit.

There is actually no point in going to ask for an explanation except making some noise. However, you will find a phenomenon that you can hardly find an obvious "Pinduoduo" logo in the pictures or videos of the scene, and the office is also unusually low-key.

Litigation is a good solution, but the platform company has hundreds of thousands of lawsuits pending against it, and is known as the "Pizza Hut" of a certain place.

I don't know how long the queue will end.

Jack Ma said that there would be no business that is difficult to do in the world, but for Boss Huang, all business in the world has become difficult to do.

Every company has its reasons for success, but success does not mean it is worthy of respect. Being worthy of respect in the past does not mean it is still worthy of respect today.

The top-level design states that "we must strengthen industry self-discipline and prevent 'involutionary' vicious competition." Looking at the core of Duoduo's business model, it is extremely consistent with this "involutionary vicious competition."

Manufacturers offer extremely low prices to each other, bad money drives out good money, refunds are given without returns, greed is fully stimulated, and human nature is taken to the extreme.

Can a man who becomes the richest man in this way sit back and enjoy himself?