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Chinese food delivery giant Meituan’s co-founder, Wang Huiwen, quits corporate roles owing to ‘health reasons’ after starting an AI venture

By：Khongtu Review　Release Time：2023-06-30 18:42　Like：

Wang resigned as a non-executive director, a member of the Meituan board’s nomination committee and an authorised representative of the company
 
His resignation marks one of the latest in a series of senior executive reshuffles at China’s Big Tech companies

Meituan co-founder Wang Huiwen cited “personal health reasons” for stepping down from his corporate roles at the Chinese food delivery giant. Photo: Handout

One of Meituan’s co-founders, Wang Huiwen, has stepped down from his corporate roles at the Chinese food delivery giant because of “personal health reasons”, years after retiring from his senior management position at the company.
 
Wang, 44, has resigned as a non-executive director, a member of the Meituan board’s nomination committee and an authorised representative of the company, according to the filing made by the Beijing-based firm to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Sunday.
 
Before his resignation, Wang – one of the closest aides to Meituan co-founder, chairman and chief executive Wang Xing – was redesignated as a non-executive director at the firm in March from his previous executive director position.
This marks one of the latest in a series of senior executive reshuffles at China’s Big Tech companies, as these enterprises pursue new growth strategies amid the country’s sluggish post-Covid-19 economic recovery.

Several Meituan riders are seen on their way to deliver takeaway food to various customers at a busy street in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, on February 23, 2023. Photo: Elson Li

The 41-year-old chief executive of JD Logistics, Yu Yui, also cited personal health reasons for quitting the leadership role he has held at JD.com’s logistics and supply chain arm for the past two years, according to a Hong Kong stock filing on Monday.
 
Last week, 51-year-old Daniel Zhang Yong announced he will relinquish his roles as chairman and chief executive of Alibaba Group Holding to focus his efforts on the firm’s cloud computing services subsidiary, Alibaba Cloud.
 
Joseph Tsai, who has been serving as executive vice-chairman, will take over as Alibaba’s new chairman, while current Taobao & Tmall Group chairman Eddie Wu Yongming, will become the e-commerce giant’s new chief executive. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
 
JD.com last month said its chief executive, Xu Lei, had retired from the company because of “personal reasons”, just about a year after company founder Richard Liu Qiangdong handed him that role. The firm has named Xu Ran, its current chief financial officer, as the new chief executive.

Meituan co-founder Wang Huiwen was previously responsible for the company’s on-demand delivery business and new initiatives when he served as its senior vice-president. Photo: Shutterstock

Wang had stayed away from the public eye for a number of years after retiring from his daily senior management duties at Meituan in 2020, but returned to the spotlight in February when he announced a US$50 million investment in his artificial intelligence company Beijing Lightyear Technology, joining other mainland firms in a rush to develop new ChatGPT-like services.
 
Meituan chief executive Wang said in March that he “has to support” his former Tsinghua University roommate’s start-up, pledging to invest in the A-series round of fundraising for the new venture without disclosing the amount involved.
 
Earlier this month, Chinese tech blog Qbit AI reported that Beijing Lightyear Technology had become a unicorn – a start-up valued at US$1 billion without going public – in just 100 days since it was established. It also said the company raised US$230 million from investors that included Tencent Holdings and Kuaishou Technology founder Su Hua.
 
But in a private WeChat post, Wang said that both the valuation and funding size from investors were inaccurate, according to a report by Tencent News. Beijing Lightyear Technology was also seeking to buy OneFlow, a Chinese AI computing framework company, according to a report by Chinese media Caixin, which cited anonymous sources.
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