Judging from Huang Zheng’s statement, it is his personal choice to resign as chairman of Pinduoduo. The reasons include that Pinduoduo’s own organizational upgrades and governance changes due to changes in the external environment require a new generation of management to take responsibility. More responsibility. At the same time, Huang Zheng's commitment to research in the scientific field after leaving office may be related to Huang Zheng's interest in related fields. After all, in his letter to shareholders, Huang Zheng used some relevant terms to explain future development goals.
Looking at the founders of many large companies at home and abroad, they often choose more "retreating" fields after retirement. For example, Bill Gates chooses to devote himself to public welfare undertakings. This is also a manifestation of the higher spiritual pursuit of entrepreneurs when they reach a certain stage in life, from "joining the world" to "coming out of the world".
Of course, Huang Zheng’s resignation as chairman of Pinduoduo may be caused by deeper external factors. It can be said that the platform economy, including Pinduoduo, is experiencing an important moment of change. As a new economic format, the platform economy has made many contributions to the country’s economic development.
However, it is undeniable that the platform economy has also exposed many problems in recent years, such as in e-commerce, mobile payment, local life services and other applications, big data kills familiarity, forces "choose one", and infringes on users The risks and challenges of irregular development and unfair competition such as privacy, monopoly price increases, and disorderly expansion of capital are increasingly emerging.
For example, Pinduoduo’s e-commerce and community group buying businesses also face the same controversies and challenges. Therefore, as supervision escalates, companies must make adjustments and responses as soon as possible, including management changes, which may be regarded as part of Pinduoduo’s self-adjustment to better respond to environmental changes through changes in the corporate governance system.
Therefore, Huang Zheng resigned as chairman of Pinduoduo due to a combination of personal choices and external reasons. After all, perhaps the new management can make balanced choices in better balancing Pinduoduo’s rapid development and responding to challenges such as disorderly expansion and antitrust, thereby ensuring Pinduoduo’s fundamental interests.
Extended information
Huang Zheng announced that the board of directors has approved his resignation as chairman of Pinduoduo:
On March 17, Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng released 2021 The annual letter to shareholders announced that the board of directors has approved his resignation as chairman of Pinduoduo. Chen Lei will take over as chairman with immediate effect and continue to serve as CEO.
After Huang Zheng no longer serves as chairman and Pinduoduo management position, Huang Zheng’s 1:10 super voting rights will also become invalid. The voting rights of his shares will be entrusted to Pinduoduo’s board of directors to make decisions by voting. .
Huang Zheng stated in a letter to shareholders that he will focus on the fields of food science and life sciences after resigning. "You can't become a scientist, but you may have the opportunity to become the assistant of a (great) scientist in the future. That is also a very happy thing."