Colin Huang
Colin Huang or Huang Zheng (, born January 1, 1980) is a Chinese billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder and former CEO of e-commerce company Pinduoduo, which is now the largest agriculture platform in China. Huang is also the owner of at least three other limited liability Cayman companies each owning a 7.7% stake in Pinduoduo. Early life and education. Huang was born in 1980 to a middle class factory worker parents in the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Huang attended secondary school at Hangzhou Foreign Language School. At the age of 18, Huang began studying computer  science at Chu Kochen Honors College of Zhejiang University. In his freshman year, he was selected as a fellow at the Melton Foundation, established by VeriFone founder Bill Melton. Huang graduated with a master's degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin in 2004. Business career. Early career. Huang joined Google as an intern, and then started working as an engineer in 2004. He also interned at Microsoft. In 2006, he went back to China with Kai-fu Lee to expand Google services in China. After resigning from Google in 2007, Huang started ecommerce site Ouku. He sold  it for $2.2m in 2010. Pinduoduo IPO. The Shanghai-based company Pinduoduo, also known as PDD, was founded in 2015, led by Huang, and reported revenue of 1.4 billion yuan ($280 million) in 2017. In 2019, its revenue was $4.33 billion US dollars (30.14 billion RMB). It became publicly traded following an initial public offering in the United States in July 2018, raising $1.6 billion. Following the July 2018 initial public offering of Pinduoduo on NASDAQ, Huang's 47% stake was valued at $14 billion, making him the 13th richest person in China. Resignation . On July 1, 2020, Huang stepped down as CEO but continued as the Chairman. On March 17, 2021, Huang stepped down as chairman and entrusted the voting rights of his shares to the Board. The company said in a statement that he will pursue "new, long-term opportunities". Awards and honors. 2019 In February, ranked top 100 in the "2019 Huran Global Rich List". In March, ranked 94th on the "2019 Forbes Global Rich List". In October, ranked 7th on the "2019 Huran Report". 2020 In February, ranked 60th in the "2020 Hurun Global Rich List". In March, ranked 2nd  in the "2020 Hurun Global Young Zhuang Sect Self-Made Rich List". In October, it ranked 8th in the "2020 Hengchang Burning Square Hurun Rich List" with a wealth of ¥220 billion. 2021 In April, he ranked 21st on the "2021 Forbes Global Rich List" with a fortune of $55.3 billion. In October, he was selected into the "2021 Hengchang Burning Square Hurun Rich List", ranking 6th with a wealth of ¥229 billion. In November, he was selected into the "2021 Forbes Rich List of Mainland China", ranking 6th with a wealth of ¥213.2 billion. Philanthropy . As of July 2, 2020, it is reported that from a June 30 filing that Colin Huang has reduced his PDD stake down to 29.4% from 43.3% as he donated 2.37% to the charitable foundation and 7.74% to the Pinduoduo Partnership. Huang donated 2.37% to the irrevocable charity with the aim of promoting social responsibility development and scientific research. Huang was named the leading philanthropist on the Hurun Philanthropy List 2021 after pledging billions for social responsibility projects and scientific research. According to Bloomberg, Huang and the Pinduoduo founding team has donated 100 million (2.37% of Pinduoduo shares) to the  Starry Night Charitable Trust to "support fundamental research in biomedical science, agriculture and food." Personal views. Since February 2016, Huang Zheng has successively created 9 articles in the official account, recording his own experience of studying and entrepreneurship, as well as his observations and thoughts on business, management and life. Among them, in the two articles "Turn Capitalism Upside Down" and "More Markets, or More Plans - Some Thoughts on Supply-side Reforms," Huang Zheng expounded a "semi-planned economy with demand-side circulation" "To promote the realization of the semi-'market economy' on the supply side," "the capitalist pays the ordinary  person to buy the certainty of his production capital allocation, forming a reverse insurance." This model of "reversely affecting the supply side by gathering demand" is regarded as the early prototype of Pinduoduo's "grouping model".