Richard Liu is the CEO of JD.com, a popular e-commerce powerhouse built from humble beginnings. He was born in Suyu, a district in China, to parents who were into coal shipping. He was a bright student and graduated from the People’s University of China, where he pursued an undergraduate degree.
Liu’s Entrepreneurial Journey
Richard Liu is self-taught in computer coding and programming skills, which helped him start his online business. His business acumen, the right attitude, faith in excelling in e-commerce saw him delve into a world of business before most discovered its potential. After graduation, he started working at Japan Life, which is a natural supplement company. He was an excellent employee that saw him rise to the position of Director of Computers.
After some years in the company, Richard Liu left to start his own business. He started Jingdong, a small commercial space he had rented in China. He initially started selling magneto-optical goods in this company and later expanded into 12 store chains. The business was thriving, but people’s buying behavior was changing, and he saw it fit to change with the times. He closed the brick-and-mortar locations, and using his coding skills, turned it into an online business by the name 360Buy Jingdong.
At first, he sold the same products he was dealing with at the physical shops. After streamlining shipping and focusing on customers, he started dealing with other products. The company, after utilizing the opportunities, expanded and was renamed JD.com.
The Rise of JingDong
Across China, families are enjoying a smart living at home, thanks to JD.com Internet of Things (IoT). There’s an air conditioner that keeps the house cool, a security system that helps you monitor your home while away, and a ready elevator at the lobby. Security and convenience are in demand making the smart home market grow speedily in China. It was at a value of US $7 billion in 2018 and is expected to rise five times over in 2025. There’s an expectation of 13.7% from 4.6% of smart home appliances penetration into China homes. There’s also a rise in demand in 2019 for smart curtains and smart locks on JD., an increase of 22x and 62x, respectively.
The real estate firms are also inviting the idea of smart home living in a bid to add value to the properties they own. JD.com is, however, focusing on the residential compound rather than the individual house level. In this way, property managers who notice a broken street light can repair it immediately thanks to the centralized visual operations system. There’s already a partnership between JD IoT and more than 20 leaders across 30 cities in china in the real estate industry. The deal is in a bid to offer IoT solutions for smart property and smart home management. The features include smart parking payment, temporary QR code access for visitors, management via an app, facial recognition for building access, among others.
The installation of JD smart home solutions by Tianrun Real Estate in the Tianrun Avenue Foch community in Beijing is one of those partnerships. The residents enjoy a variety of intelligent living features such as elevators and lights which activate on their arrival, humidifying systems that adjust to climate conditions throughout the day, and air conditioners that turn on before they get home. There’s a fully integrated software and hardware system platform by JD in the Caifu Building in Changsha. It includes smart parking, property management system, parking smart payment, and management apps for owners, smart services like smart access, and smart elevators. The earlier that people adopt these technological trends, the more convenience they will enjoy.