It is difficult to overstate how remarkable the journey for Richard Liu Qiangdong has been –- from a child born into a poor region of Jiangsu province to a super-successful entrepreneur who built one of the most robust business models in Chinese history.

The company he founded and built from the ground up is JD.com, sometimes called “The Amazon.com of China”. Richard Liu, also known as Richard Liu Qiangdong, established his business in June 1998.

At first, it was a retail model selling electronic products in traditional retail fashion using brick-mortar locations. As Qiangdong continued to expand his reach on the street, the advent of the internet and better online transfer protocols prompted Liu to restructure his company as an online or e-commerce model.

Things began to happen rapidly after going online. The new JD.com built a loyal and dedicated user base at an extraordinary pace. The platform soon expanded beyond a focus on electronics to start offering everything – groceries, clothing, toys, auto parts – you name it.

As of 2023, JD.com boasts an incredible 580 million active customers. For perspective, consider that the entire population of the United States is 335 million. Amazon itself reports it has 300 million active customers.

Liu Qiangdong is, in some respects, an unlikely candidate to build one of the biggest tech empires in the world. In college, he earned a degree in sociology. After university, his first stab at a business was opening a restaurant in Beijing –- an eatery that failed and closed its doors after just a few months.

Like all legendary entrepreneurs, however, Richard Liu commanded an unstoppable persistence and will to move forward. To succeed. A self-taught computer geek, he leveraged what he has learned about technology and combined it with natural business instincts that would one day result in JD.com.

Forbes estimates the wealth of Richard Liu to be more than $12 billion.

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