In fact, all of us are ignorant in our naive age. We only enrich ourselves through continuous learning and gradually accumulate to a certain extent before we can innovate. Since the beginning of the New Year in 2010, China's Internet sector has sparked an intense "hundred group" battle. Meituan, Juhuasuan, Mituan, Wowotuan, Gantuan, Tuanbao, Mengmai, Qiqi Tuan, KK Tuan... all these group-buying websites have gone online one after another. The situation could be described as "Suddenly, it seems that spring breeze comes overnight, and thousands of pear trees burst into bloom." According to insiders, at least nearly a thousand group-buying websites have been launched so far. Among this wave of enthusiasm, no one is more eye-catching than Wang Xing, the founder of Meituan. This is his resurgence after Xiaonei.com, Hainei.com, and Fanfou.com. Zhang Zhiyong, the founder of Mengmai.com, used the phrase "a rider leaves everyone else far behind" to describe Meituan when he spoke to reporters from Contemporary Manager. What makes Wang Xing so entrepreneurial passionate, repeatedly braving challenges? With many questions in mind, our reporter visited Meituan.
The interview was arranged in one of Meituan's meeting rooms. The room was not large, and its decoration was very simple - three chairs and a table. When the reporter was chatting with Wang Xing's assistant about Meituan, suddenly the door opened, and a head peeked in. A pair of glasses, and a pair of exceptionally spirited eyes - this was Wang Xing, still holding an iPad. Although the reporter had already looked up a lot of information about him before the interview, they were still somewhat surprised when he appeared in front of them. The person in front of them seemed to have nothing special except for being thinner. However, the strength of his handshake did not match his build - it was really powerful. It seemed that Wang Xing was someone who emphasized cultivating internal strength. Perhaps we cannot fully understand him just by surface phenomena. After a brief chat, the interview began.
Innovative Demand
Looking at Wang Xing's business card, it read: "Founder & CEO of Meituan." Although there were only a few words, I could see from the word "create" that Wang Xing did not like people to use the words copy or plagiarize to describe his entrepreneurship. Wang Xing's biggest controversy before was due to bringing famous overseas website models that had become popular "copied" into China. Previously, Facebook to Xiaonei, Twitter to Fanfou, and now Groupon to Meituan, all triggered debates on whether it was plagiarism. Although he expressed disagreement, when he heard these words, he did not avoid these issues. "Actually, there is nothing absolutely original. Even Facebook's model wasn't the first thought," Wang Xing told Contemporary Manager. He preferred the term learning. In fact, each of us was ignorant in our naive times. Only through continuous learning and self-enrichment, slowly accumulating to a certain extent, did we then innovate. China's Internet developed later than the West, so in the early stages, it was necessary to continuously learn from foreign experiences. Looking at Chinese modern history, how much of what China has isn't learned from abroad?
There is no word for "plagiarism" in Wang Xing's dictionary; it is just learning. Now the most critical point is that China does not yet have enough innovative demands. Why are so many things in the United States ahead of us? "Mainly because they came into contact with the Internet earlier, and some Internet needs arose earlier, which led to innovations in related areas. Therefore, it appears that many innovations come from the U.S., but the root cause is that demand plays a decisive role. I don't want to get entangled in words like copying or plagiarism. I only think about how to serve my users, serve Chinese netizens, and meet their needs. In this aspect, we have learned many foreign service models to serve Chinese netizens," Wang Xing told the reporter.
Not only does Wang Xing stay at the level of learning, but he also practices what he learns. Here, the word "practice" does not mean review, but exercise. He applies some good concepts he learned from abroad to China's Internet field. Indeed, SNS, microblogs, etc., which are closely related to our lives today, are all intricately connected to Wang Xing, and have greatly changed our lives. So why should we get entangled in whether it is plagiarism?
Learning and practicing frequently. When "practice" is interpreted as exercise, it requires us to frequently practice what we have learned. Simply put, it means applying the theories we have learned to practice often. Don't be a mere theorist; be a practitioner. "I have studied abroad for many years. I have the responsibility to apply what I have learned abroad to China to serve our netizens. For example, since I know that the SNS model is good and will suit Chinese netizens, why can't I learn it and use it to serve our netizens?" Wang Xing said to Contemporary Manager.
Wang Xing doesn't simply stop at the level of learning, but rather "learning and practicing frequently". If something learned from abroad suits the needs of Chinese netizens, it must go through a screening process. Just blindly copying the American model would undoubtedly result in another Google and wouldn't yield good results. Wang Xing carries this concept forward on the path of "replication", perhaps too focused on his own way to care about what others say.
Regarding the future of China's Internet, Wang Xing remains confident, "Although many innovations in the Internet domain currently come from the U.S., this is largely due to the U.S. generating these needs earlier. Americans aren't smarter than Chinese people. Since they generated the need earlier, they naturally produced products targeted at those needs first. But as China's Internet develops, with more and more netizens, there may arise needs that American netizens do not have, so there will definitely appear many modes that do not exist abroad, which is our innovation. However, the premise is that currently we still need to learn from abroad."
Symbiosis and Win-Win
Previously, the biggest controversy regarding Wang Xing was that all the websites he created domestically were without exception copies of well-known foreign websites. Unexpectedly, the launch of Meituan itself was heavily copied, even by numerous domestic well-known websites. The establishment of Meituan brought group buying into the 2.0 era and also ushered group buying into the era of the hundred groups battle. Moreover, internet giant QQ also extended its tentacles into the group-buying domain. Facing these competitors that seemingly emerged overnight, Wang Xing did not show too much concern. He told Contemporary Manager, "China's market is large enough to accommodate many companies developing together." When asked about Tencent's influence on Meituan, Wang Xing said, "QQ's impact on us is not significant. Tencent indeed has a lot of money. If having money alone could ensure success, then no Internet company would be richer than the state, and China Mobile would be richer than Tencent. How come they don't do it? Money alone doesn't guarantee success. Currently, Meituan is leading in the group-buying field. Their entry is also an incentive for us. On one hand, I can't deny that they are our competitors, but on the other hand, their entry gives Meituan greater motivation to focus on serving users. In this sense, they are also friends."
Actually, Wang Xing does not care about the hundreds of competitors that have already appeared. After experiencing the competition against over a hundred college SNS sites in 2006 while doing Xiaonei, and facing dozens of microblogging site competitors in 2007 while doing Fanfou, Wang Xing has long been accustomed to the chaos presented during the initial phase of each model. He repeatedly emphasized that Meituan is not seller-oriented e-commerce but buyer-oriented e-commerce. "How many will die this year, I don't know, nor do I care. The only thing I care about is whether Meituan can provide better services to our users," Wang Xing said. Perhaps after Xiaonei and Fanfou, he understands new interpersonal communication models better than other websites and knows how to acquire users through the Internet and increase user stickiness.
"When friends come from afar, isn't it delightful!" Wang Xing's magnanimity impressed the reporter. There aren't many who can regard competitors as friends, but precisely these "friends" and Meituan's competition make them strive to offer the best service to users. Group buying as a new form of e-commerce has just started, and corresponding market norms and mature profit models still need to be established. Wang Xing also expressed to the reporter his hope to work with industry peers to make this market bigger and stronger, jointly building an open, healthy, and orderly group-buying market. This is both fortunate for China's Internet and for Chinese netizens.
Determined and Calm
"Plagiarism", "copying" - every time the reporter mentioned these terms, they worried it might be inappropriate. However, as the conversation deepened, the reporter found that he actually didn't care. His response was always, "These are not important. What's important is whether we can better satisfy the needs of our users." The Analects of Confucius says: "If others do not understand you and you do not become angry, aren't you a gentleman?" This means that if others do not understand or know you and you remain calm, that is one of the virtues of a gentleman. Whether others know or not depends on them, but whether you act or not depends on yourself. You cannot stop moving forward because no one cheers for you, nor abandon your efforts because someone doubts you. Wang Xing should belong to such a category of people.
There has always been skepticism about Wang Xing's entrepreneurial journey domestically. Even when Wang Xing founded Meituan, Zhou Hongtu, CEO of Qihoo, once remarked that "group buying is outdated." However, Wang Xing always remained calm about it. He told the reporter, "I still like Zhou Hongtu a lot. Sometimes what he says makes sense, but looking back, it doesn't matter how I see it, how Zhou Hongtu sees it, or how the media sees it. What matters is how the users I serve see it." His answer startled me. Although our ages were similar, we had different levels of understanding. This should be the result of Wang Xing's experience with storms and trials after returning home.
Zhu Xi said well, "It is easy and natural to find joy in benefiting others, but it is difficult and challenging to remain calm and untroubled when others do not understand you." Using contemporary language to interpret this sentence, it means that when you do meaningful things, if someone appreciates or praises you, continuing to do so is "easy and natural"; however, doing similar things when others do not know or understand you, or even slander you, and you continue to do them, that is "difficult and challenging." This can more truly reflect a person's moral quality, though this does not mean that "easy and natural" is not worth advocating. Just as we often say, "True feelings are revealed in adversity," it does not mean that true feelings only exist in adversity. It's just that this emotion is real or fake and needs to be tested, and the standard of testing is often under adverse conditions. Similarly, the "difficult and challenging" situation can also be used to test the perseverance of entrepreneurs. [...]