Ma Hui: Entrepreneurs' 2017 and 2018

Time flows like water, never ceasing day or night. Time is the fundamental variable in nearly every operating function of the world, driving nature, society, technology, business, and entrepreneurs through endlessly fascinating transformations — linear or nonlinear, point or plane, wave or spiral, divergent or convergent, tranquil or surging, cyclical or transcendent.

The seasons turn: spring sprouts, summer grows, autumn harvests, winter stores. A new year approaches, bringing spring breezes and a hundred flowers in bloom.

A new era begins. Society enters a stage of more comprehensive and balanced development; people eagerly pursue a better life.

Moore's Law marches on. Information technology's impact on production and life accelerates — in breadth and in depth.

Multiple waves converge. Under the new normal, the new economic and commercial ecosystem is vast, prosperous, and ever-shifting. So many blossoms threaten to overwhelm the eye; penetrating insight and the unity of knowledge and action are required.

Pain and joy intertwined. Entrepreneurs face comprehensive tests of physical stamina, mental acuity, and emotional resilience. The growth function is often a rising spiral — demanding patience and tenacity, calm and courage.

Listed alphabetically by name

Lixin An, Chairman, GeShang Wealth

2017: Diligent Progress

One word to summarize 2017: diligent progress (jingjin). A Buddhist term — it means not seeking comfort in standing still, but striving diligently toward the good and the upward. This year, I made diligent progress; GeShang made diligent progress; the great companies of our era (Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan, ByteDance...) all made diligent progress; and our nation made diligent progress.

2018: In the field, in the depths — advance without blame.

Qi Chen, CEO, Meili United

2017: Dragons Riding Clouds

From Han Fei's Han Feizi · On the Power of Position: "Dragons ride clouds, flying serpents roam mist... It is the excellence of dragon and serpent that enables them to ride and roam upon the power of cloud and mist." Entrepreneurs must quietly hone their products, building deep reserves through sustained innovation, so they can rise with the wind when the moment arrives.

2018: Original Intent, Unwavering

Feng Gu, Founder & CEO, Suishou Technology

2017: Surfing

Embrace policy changes. Go with the flow. Serve users.

2018: As technology continues to evolve, financial AI built atop vast multidimensional data will help more people harness the power of finance to improve their lives and careers.

Yang Gao, Founder & CEO, Ruigu

2017: Cultivation

2017 was a year of cultivation for Ruigu — a year of comprehensively elevating our product system, distribution system, and team system. This cultivation enables Ruigu to fly higher and walk more steadily on the road ahead. In Ruigu's view, only a solid chassis can cross mountains and cut through brambles. From an industry perspective, industrial internet will once again step into the market spotlight. To shine on that stage, one must assume all functions that previously existed in the industry — and execute them more efficiently.

2018: Looking forward to Ruigu charging forward in the market.

Enmin Lin, Co-founder & President, INK Group

2017: New Era

After the 19th Party Congress, Chinese politics entered a new era unlike any before. The global economic order began to shift; new business models erupted everywhere — whether IoT, AI, VR, or digital currency. The tech world is redefining life and civilization in the new era through new means. All of INK Group's business follows the footsteps of this "new era," eager to create user value and commercial value for society under its banner.

2018: The aspiration of all INK people is to be "born for the future" — create value, and live without regret.

Xiang Li, Founder & CEO, CHJ Automotive

2017: Efficiency

Many people ask me: What advantages do new car companies like yours have over traditional automakers? I say: Anyone who thinks they have advantages in supply chain cost or experience is deceiving themselves. Our only advantage is efficiency. Efficiency compensates for lack of experience. While traditional companies iterate once, we iterate ten times. Efficiency compensates for supply chain cost disadvantages. While traditional companies need 20 percentage points to sell a car, we must do it within 5 points — transforming commercial efficiency. This makes up for supply chain cost gaps, and frees more investment for product costs, strengthening competitiveness and added value. Efficiency — first the consciousness of efficiency, then the real application of technology and business innovation to enhance it.

2018: The further you see, the more confident your steps.

Jingbo Wang, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Noah Holdings

2017: Meditative Concentration

"Meditative concentration" (chanding) means maintaining steadiness while persistently doing things well. Wealth and asset management is fundamentally a marathon. In the past, the mixed quality of participants has driven up industry-wide "compliance" and "licensing" costs. To resist temptation and build core capabilities requires "meditative eyes" — eyes that penetrate to the essence of things.

2018: Diligent progress. "Diligent progress" means using sustained, precise effort to unlock greater possibility. In the age of digital existence, discontinuity, mutation, nonlinearity, and uncertainty mean every industry must be redefined. "Diligent progress" means we must break through, keeping a burning heart while focusing on the path ahead.

Chaocheng Wang, Founder & CEO, Yijiupi

2017: Value Precipitation

After two years of rapid expansion, 2017 was about maintaining healthy growth while precipitating our model and strengthening customer value — preparing for a greater breakthrough.

2018: 2018 will be a year of deep breakthroughs for FMCG industrial internet. Consensus will form on how the internet revolutionizes offline channels. Segment leaders will emerge in large numbers. Industrial internet companies will begin their phoenix rebirth.

Peng Wang, Founder & CEO, Juli Xinfang

2017: Breaking and Building

Everything that doesn't defeat you makes you stronger. Facing March's regulatory tightening, Juli leveraged its mature data systems and service model, plus strong team execution, to actively respond to severe conditions in Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities. From April through December, we seized the momentum to expand into 8 cities nationwide, achieving at least 20% monthly growth.

2018: The macro environment is favorable, so we must work even harder to fulfill humanity's ideal of housing. In the real estate e-commerce track where Juli operates, two trends are already certain:

1. Internet, data technology, and traditional industries are beginning to deeply integrate. In 2016-2017, various new service-oriented e-commerce platforms rose rapidly. Previously impenetrable domains for traditional e-commerce — housing, vehicles, and other large durable goods — began showing clear results. This trend will continue in 2018. Not just in rental housing and used cars, but in new cars, new housing, and used housing, excellent service-oriented e-commerce platforms will emerge one after another.
2. The structural adjustments underway in real estate markets will show results next year. After land supply and bubble-suppression measures in 2016-2017, land will gradually enter development and the market in 2018. Meanwhile, "mistakenly hurt" and "wait-and-see" rigid demand will gradually release. What follows should be a relatively long-term stable market with more supply and demand released, and the platform value of real estate transactions will continue to rise.

Xing Wang, CEO, Meituan

2017: Overlapping Waves

The course of history has always been shaped by overlapping waves — technological innovation, institutional transformation, globalization, demographic trends, all interweaving. For decades, multiple forces happened to align in the same direction for an extended period. This was an unrepeatable era of dividends, but it also made people prone to self-delusion. When I first raised the idea of the "second half" in 2016, I was already thinking along these lines. As 2017 passed, this feeling grew stronger. The overlapping waves are increasingly showing asynchronized forces. This will affect every industry differently, but one thing is nearly certain: most people will find the world growing more complex. Perhaps this is its true face.

2018: New Year's Day is merely an artificially drawn line. The world doesn't fundamentally change just because we've crossed this human-made boundary. The past has not departed; the future has already arrived. The tide of the world continues; overlapping waves will only grow more pronounced. My sole reminder: don't simplistically understand overlapping waves as several curves with different peaks and troughs on an x-y axis. The world is more complex than that. Considering possible black swan events in the coming year or two, perhaps we should imagine a z-axis suddenly emerging, with a massive wave surging from it...

Kai Xia, Founder & CEO, Zenjoy

2017: Flourishing

Chinese internet companies going global is part of grand history, not merely a passing fad. That grand history has only just begun.

2018: More fleets will set sail. A hundred boats contend in the current — we await it with anticipation.

Haitao Ye, Founder & CEO, Asset360

2017: Quantum Leap

A quantum leap — the process by which a quantum mechanical system undergoes a discontinuous jump in state. In 2017, supported by everyone around me, I absorbed tremendous energy and made a leap. Our team made a leap through massive talent acquisition and business refinement. Asset360 made a leap through continuous market accumulation and breakthroughs. The entire industry made a leap through constant shifts in market conditions. So many leaps mean tremendous energy changes to come.

2018: Excited state. Through quantum leaps into higher energy levels — more energetic, more active. Asset360 advances to a higher form on the path of making non-performing asset disposal simple, bringing more complete and higher-energy services to the industry.

Qiang Yan, Founder & CEO, Cijinrong

2017: Submersion

2017: a stifling, heavy entrepreneurial environment, forcing oneself to stay composed, to settle and precipitate, to press forward despite hardship. Policy impacts meant we could operate freely for only half the year — as if bound hand and foot, capacity constrained, falling noticeably short of self-set targets, emotions inevitably heavy. In the final two months, regulatory policies struck like thunder, making the entire financial entrepreneurship atmosphere stifling and tense. Winds shift and clouds change; entrepreneurship is not easy. Only by remaining calm and responding to each move could one survive, forced to cultivate internal strength. After a year, direction is clearer: persist in micro and supply chain finance, persist in inclusive finance, persist in compliant operations. Make Cijinrong lighter, more tech-savvy, more deeply grounded, with stronger core competitiveness.

2018: The other shoe drops. To God what is God's, to Caesar what is Caesar's. Stay the course on inclusive finance and tech finance, unwavering.

Lucky Yang, Chairman & President, Yimi Dida

2017: Metamorphosis

2017 was a year of pragmatic progress and solid foundation-building for Yimi Dida. It was the year the company completed nationwide network coverage, entered the industry's top five by revenue scale, and achieved cargo volume compound growth far exceeding peers. It was the year the company transitioned from a light-operating platform to a heavy-light hybrid operating platform. It was the year information system construction was upgraded again, yielding operational efficiency gains. It was the year of capital market validation, with three consecutive funding rounds. It was the year the company completed its metamorphosis from zero to one.

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2018: The future logistics market will be one of heavier competition on product, quality, and informatization. In 2018, while further deepening its network and incubating new businesses, Yimi Dida will focus on product upgrades, operational quality upgrades, and end-service upgrades. Upholding the corporate mission of "making logistics smarter, making connections more efficient," we will strive tirelessly and march forward to realize the grand vision of becoming "the preferred integrated service platform based on logistics"!

Hui Zuo, Chairman, Lianjia

2017: Online-ization

Despite many new concepts, what truly impacts business today is still the online-ization of people, things, and scenarios across nearly every vertical — and online-ization itself is elevating the offline interface.

2018: Two foundational logics of the real estate industry are undergoing fundamental change: marketization, and turnover and circulation. The future is de-[XXX]-ization — not complete de-[XXX]-ization, but reaching an intermediate state. The quantitative description of this intermediate state is the foundational insight for future strategy.

Yahui Zhou, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Kunlun Tech

2017: Zen

Zen walking — forgetting time and space. Walking with zen on the entrepreneurial path cultivates a good mindset. Walking with zen on the investment path breaks down prejudices and embraces change.

2018: Continue neither good nor bad.

Yiming Zhang, Founder & CEO, ByteDance

2017: Reflection

Reflection — a technical term. In physics, it means the reflection of light. In programming, it refers to allowing a running program to access information about its own state. Applied to people, it carries the meaning of self-examination. I believe reflection is crucial for individuals to maintain clarity. Specifically: frequently switch subject and object positions in thinking; shrink the ego; examine one's relationship with the world. Crystal clear, unmoving — that is the good state of reflection.

2018: Continue exploring globalization.

Zhenhong Zhao, Founder & CEO, Baibu

2017: Breaking Through Soil

This term describes a plant pushing through earth to sprout and grow. This year, for me personally and for Baibu, was a year of breaking through pressure to grow. When the world presses heavily on a grass seed, it always finds its own way to break through the soil.

2018: Thriving and flourishing.

Zijing Zhou, Founder & CEO, Ether Capital

2017: Synergy

After internal business expanded, new challenges emerged in how different businesses should synergize, how teams with different attributes should be organized, and how external brand image should be coordinated. Through this process, I learned and understood how to build organizations — what should be done, what shouldn't, what should be done internally, what externally.

2018: Faster, and also steadier.

Source Code Capital

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