ChatGPT is surging, and no Internet giants in China can seem to sit still.
In the past few days, the former co-founder of Meituan (Chinese: 美团), Wang Huiwen, who has retired in 2020, has frequently posted articles, updating his thoughts on how to do China's ChatGPT several times.
On the evening of February 11, Wang Huiwen issued his "Artificial Intelligence Manifesto" in Wechat’s Moments (Chinese: 朋友圈), saying that he would invest USD 50 million without any request for the salary or title of the position, asking to join a team. In his circle of friends, many entrepreneurs, left messages asking to join.
A day later, he said that his idea had moved forward and he would not consider joining an existing company. He said, "The great new era should be matched with a brand new life form. Everyone is welcome to form a team with me."
On the morning of February 13, he posted the latest news, saying that he would form a team to embrace the new era, build China's OpenAI, and set up Beijing Light Year Beyond Technology Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 北京光年之外科技有限公司) with an investment of USD 50 million and with a valuation of USD 200 million (about RMB 1.362 billion). He also mentioned that he does not personally own shares, his funds account for 25% of the shares, and 75% of the shares will be used to invite top research and development talents. The next round of financing has already been subscribed by top VCs for USD 230 million US dollars (about RMB 1.566 billion). At the same time, Wang Huiwen said that this round would only recruit research and development talent.
According to Tianyancha (Chinese: 天眼查), this company he mentioned, Beijing Light Year Beyond, was actually established as early as 2018. It is a company mainly engaged in technology promotion and application services. The sole shareholder is Wang Huiwen.
Wang Huiwen has long been regarded as an entrepreneurial veteran of the Internet. He once co-founded Xiaonei.com (Chinese: 校内网) with Wang Xing and others, which later became Renren.com （Chinese: 人人网）, and later founded Laidian.com (Chinese: 来电网) and Taofang.com (Chinese: 淘房网). He joined Meituan in 2011 and officially retired in December 2020.
He is viewed as the right-hand man of Meituan by the outside world. He led Meituan to break out in the "Thousand Groupon War (Chinese: 千团大战)" and was responsible for various businesses of Meituan, such as food delivery, taxi-hailing, and bicycle sharing. He taught "Internet Product Management" at the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, which aroused the attention and discussion of many Internet practitioners.
Having announced his retirement at only 42 years old, Wang Huiwen seems to be actually in his prime and has found a new interest. However, it is never easy to benchmark against companies with extremely high technical thresholds and start a business from zero. Whether his new venture can materialize, we shall wait and see.