Wang Xing (; born 18 February 1979) is a Chinese businessman, who co-founded

Meituan Meituan ( zh, p=Měituán, c=美团, literally "beautiful group"; formerly Meituan–Dianping, literally "beautiful group–reviews") is a Chinese shopping platform for locally found consumer products and retail services including entertainment ...

and has been serving as chief executive officer of

since January 2010. He previously served as chief executive officer of Fanfou from 2007 to 2010.

Early life and education

Wang Xing was born in 1979 in

Longyan Longyan ( zh, s=龙岩 , t=龍巖, p=, poj=Lêng-nâ or Liong-nâ, l=dragon rock; Hakka: ''Liùng-ngàm''; Longyan dialect: ''Liông-nâ iɔŋ˩nã˩') is a prefecture-level city in south-western Fujian Province, China, bordering Guangdong t ...

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

, China. Wang received a bachelor's degree in

electronic engineering Electronic engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering that emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current flo ...

in 2001. He enrolled in a PhD program in

computer engineering Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engi ...

at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

from 2001 to 2004, but dropped out with a master's degree in computer engineering.

Business career

After leaving the University of Delaware, Wang returned to China to launch his business career. In his first technology startup, Wang along with a couple of friends, tried to create a Chinese version of the then-social networking site

Friendster Friendster was a social networking service originally based in Mountain View, California, founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in March 2003.Eric Eldon, August 4, 2008.Friendster raises $20 million, nabs a Googler to be CEO" VentureBeat. ...

. His first such site was called Duoduoyou (兜兜友; ), targeting students in various Chinese universities. After Duoduoyou failed to take off, he started Youzitu (游子图; ) to serve Chinese students abroad but the site eventually ceased operation. In 2005, Wang created a Chinese version of

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

called Xiaonei (校内网; ). The site was a hit but Wang had to sell it off due to financial problems. The new owners re-branded the site, renamed Renren (人人网; ). In 2007, Wang created a Chinese version of

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

called Fanfou (饭否; ). It was China's first big microblogging site but was soon shut down by the government over politically sensitive content. It was eventually permitted to reopen but by then, other Chinese microblogging sites like

Sina Weibo Weibo (), or Sina Weibo (), is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ...

and Tencent Weibo had entered the market and captured substantial market share. In 2010, Wang established the Chinese group-buying site Meituan, which was based on the business model of

Groupon Groupon, Inc. is an American global e-commerce marketplace connecting subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in 13 countries. Based in Chicago, Groupon was launched there in November 2008, launching ...

. Meituan was hugely successful and merged with Dianping in 2015.

Controversy

Politics

On 3 May 2021, Wang posted a Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) poem about

book burning Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politic ...

on Fanfou, a social media platform owned by himself. The action was reported by Quartz News as a veiled swipe against the Xi Jinping Administration's clampdown on civil society, intellectual and academic freedom since ascension to office. The poem, entitled "Book Burning Pit," speaks about the late emperor

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary state, unitary d ...

's practice of beheading scholars and burning books, only to be overthrown by illiterate rebels later during his reign. As a result of the post, Meituan's shares plunged 7.1% on the same day, wiping $36.98 billion from the company's market cap over the subsequent weeks. The firm also subsequently came under scrutiny from the Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and became the target of an anti-monopoly investigation from the State Administration of Market Regulation, reported by

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

as political reaction for Wang's post.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Xing 1979 births Living people 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Billionaires from Fujian Chinese chief executives Chinese technology company founders Meituan people People from Longyan Tsinghua University alumni University of Delaware alumni