Dangdang Chairman Yu Yu: Tianjin is one step ahead in the digitalization of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei

Yu Yu, born in Chongqing in May 1965, is the co-founder and chairman of Dangdang. In 1999, Ms. Yu Yu co-founded Dangdang with her husband Li Guoqing and served as co-president. In October 2010, driven by Yu Yu, Dangdang was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming China's first B2C online mall based entirely on online business and listed in the United States.

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Graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University with a bachelor's degree in English in 1986;

Obtained an MBA degree in finance and international business from New York University's School of Business Administration in 1992 , and delivered a speech on behalf of the graduates at the graduation ceremony;

After graduation, Yu Yu began to look for a job. She said that she had written more than 300 application letters, but she still could not find her ideal career. After a month of getting nothing, Yu Yu decided to start a company of his own to provide financial investment services.

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On the morning of August 17, the "Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum 2019 Summer Summit" was held in Tianjin. At the Innovation and Development Forum, Dangdang co-founder and director Chang Yuyu believes that the living environment in Wuqing, Tianjin is particularly good. The transportation from Tianjin to Beijing is becoming more and more convenient. He hopes that more employees can settle down in Wuqing.

"For people working on the Internet in Beijing, the biggest pain in the past 20 years is that the company has grown bigger and bigger, and employees live farther and farther away. Employees are on the road 3 or 4 hours a day, where can we talk about happiness? "Yu Yu said that according to feedback from Dangdang employees, Tianjin Wuqing has the best accommodation satisfaction.

Yu Yu said that the company came to Tianjin in 2010, with 1,500 employees, an annual output value of more than 3 billion yuan, and tens of millions in tax revenue every year. "What is one of my dreams over the years? Wuqing can have a large number of good houses. Employees of Dangdang.com, Lenovo, Huawei and other companies can take a subway in Wuqing and reach Beijing in a few dozen minutes. Jianguomen or Xizhimen." Yu Yu said that in the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the rail transportation between Tianjin and Beijing will be more convenient and will be more attractive to high-end talents for employment.

Regarding the digital development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yu Yu said: “The development of digitalization has brought consumers closer to each other in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. I hope that Tianjin will take the lead in the digital-based business industry in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. Dangdang will benefit from this. ”

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Entrepreneurship experience

In 1999, he participated in the establishment of Dangdang Online Bookstore. And in November, it was officially launched online.

In the early stages of starting a business, Dangdang had no office space or employees, so Yu Yu built a windowless cabin in Li Guoqing's book company, and then posted a week's recruitment on Sina's homepage. Advertise, find a few people and start operations.

Just a year or two after Dangdang announced its opening, China’s online bookstore business experienced a boom, with more than 300 at its peak. Faced with the unpredictable future, Li Guoqing and Yu Yu both There is no giving up. Under the careful management of the couple, in 2000, Dangdang began to stand out from the explosion of more than 300 online bookstores. In April 2000, Dangdang’s first round of financing was successfully completed. Li Guoqing received US$8 million in venture capital from IDG, LCHG, SOFTBANK, etc. invested in Dangdang.

In 1998 and 1999, whether in China or overseas, the entire Internet economy was developing rapidly, hot money was pouring into the Internet, and almost all companies with "Internet" were able to attract venture capital. . However, seemingly overnight, the Internet winter hit. In April 2000, the Nasdaq began to plummet. In such an Internet winter, e-commerce companies really feel the cold.

Everyone claimed at the time that the bubble in the Internet economy had burst and there was no cure. Yu Yu and Li Guoqing are still gritting their teeth and persisting. They believe this is the future trend of consumption.

In 2002, Dangdang proposed that the growth rate would remain unchanged and the performance would be flat; in 2003, they achieved break-even; in 2004, Dangdang’s sales were comparable to those of Xidan Book Building, accounting for 30% of the entire online retail share 40%. What is surprising is that Dangdang maintains a growth rate of 180% every year, while the annual growth rate of traditional bookstores does not exceed 5%.

Reject Amazon: Not selling for 1 billion

In January 2004, Amazon’s senior vice president in charge of strategic investment, Dake, visited Dangdang, which was already the largest online bookstore in China at the time. , proposed a specific plan to acquire 70%-90% of the shares for US$150 million. Faced with the temptation, Dangdang's shareholders, management team and investment advisors carefully weighed and proposed a response plan to welcome Amazon as a strategic investor and a minority shareholder of Dangdang.

Regarding Dangdang’s stance, Amazon immediately responded: If you are not satisfied with the price, you can negotiate between US$100 million and US$1 billion, but the absolute control requirement of more than 70% remains unchanged.

Since Amazon insisted on absolute control and Dangdang only accepted strategic investment, from March to July 2004, the two parties failed to negotiate many times. On August 6, Dangdang announced the termination of merger negotiations with Amazon.