2021 China Internet Haha List 4: Top Ten Figures

2021 is a year of rapid change in the field of science and technology and the Internet. Some old industries are disappearing, and some new outlets are emerging. People at the top of the industry are experiencing great ups and downs. Let us review the top ten figures of 2021!

1. Viya

On December 20, 2021, the Hangzhou Taxation Bureau of Zhejiang Province issued an announcement that Wei Ya evaded 643 million yuan in taxes from 2019 to 2020 by concealing personal income, fictitious business to change the nature of income, and false declarations, and underpaid 60 million yuan in other taxes. According to relevant national laws and regulations, Wei Ya needs to recover taxes, add late payment fees, and pay fines totaling 1.341 billion yuan.

As soon as the incident happened, the entire Internet was in an uproar.

On the evening of the 20th, Wei Ya’s official Taobao, Weibo, Douyin, and online stores were blocked one after another. The intensity of the handling from point to surface announced that Wei Ya, the top IP for live streaming e-commerce, has come to an end.

Prior to this, top anchors Xue Li and Lin Shanshan were also fined nearly 200 million yuan for tax evasion. For the big anchors, this may lead to another Horgos-style collapse, and the live streaming e-commerce industry will also usher in a turning point. The spring for the big anchors is over.

2. Meng Wanzhou

On September 26, 2021, Meng Wanzhou returned to China.

Meng Wanzhou, wearing a red dress, walked calmly from the red carpeted stairs to the people who greeted her. She made a brief statement on the airport tarmac, saying, "After more than a thousand days of suffering, I finally returned to the embrace of my motherland. The moment I walked down the gangway, my heart was filled with emotion! Motherland, I am back!"

As the daughter of Huawei's director Ren Zhengfei, Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada in December 2018 for assisting the US police in handling a case of suspected "bank fraud" listed by the United States. After the unremitting efforts and resolute struggle of the Chinese government, the US Department of Justice recently signed a deferred prosecution agreement with Meng Wanzhou, and the United States withdrew its extradition application to Canada. On September 24, local time, Meng Wanzhou left Canada without pleading guilty or paying a fine, embarking on a journey back to her motherland.

The country will not abandon any Chinese citizen. The fate of individuals, enterprises and the country are closely linked.

3. Yu Minhong

If the end of the universe is the internet, then the end of the internet must be live streaming sales.

On the evening of December 28, 2021, New Oriental founder Yu Minhong conducted the first live broadcast of agricultural products on Douyin. This was the first live broadcast since New Oriental announced its transformation into the live broadcast industry.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

Yu Minhong's own channel has 7.4 million followers. His first live broadcast brought in sales of nearly 5 million yuan, and the number of online users remained at around 30,000. Yu Minhong said that he would conduct live broadcasts through his personal Douyin account from time to time, and Oriental Selection will be broadcast continuously and on a regular basis every day.

Behind Yu Minhong's live broadcast is the fact that under the double reduction policy, educational and training institutions are transforming one after another and new challenges are emerging.

4. Dong Mingzhu

Dong Mingzhu and her 22-year-old secretary can be said to be frequent hot searches in 2021. On November 29, 2021, the topic #董明珠22年年部门曾MCN签红人# topped the Weibo hot search list, bringing the popularity of "Dong Mingzhu's successor" to the highest point.

In July 2021, Meng Yutong was appreciated by Dong Mingzhu in the variety show "We Newcomers to the Workplace". Dong Mingzhu said that she met her selection criteria, and Meng Yutong was promoted from an intern to Dong Mingzhu's secretary.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

On November 3, Meng Yutong appeared in Gree's live broadcast room. During the four-hour live broadcast, he put 24 products on the shelves. The total number of viewers was 113,000, and the sales volume of a single game was about 620,000 yuan.

The Douyin account of "Mingzhu Yutong Selection" was also quietly registered, which once again attracted the attention of the public and released a number of products including Gree air purifiers, smart rice cookers, smart door locks, humidifiers, etc.

Dong Mingzhu bluntly said that she wanted to train her to be "the second Dong Mingzhu". Repeated marketing has maintained Gree's vitality, but marketing is a means rather than the foundation. Consolidating the product foundation is the priority.

5. Li Ziqi

Since the last episode was uploaded on July 14, 2021, the pastoral utopia longed for by countless urban dwellers has gradually become desolate.

Short video blogger Liziqi has stopped updating for more than six months. The conflict occurred between Liziqi and the MCN agency behind her.

In July, Li Ziqi released her last salt-making video and no new works have been released since then; in August, Li Ziqi said on the Oasis APP under Sina Weibo that she was "sickened in the middle of the night" and replied to netizens "capital is really a good tool", and then deleted it within seconds; in September, Li Ziqi's assistant announced on Weibo that Li Ziqi had been busy sorting out problems with a third-party company, and Li Ziqi's dispute with Weinian was officially pushed to the forefront.

Currently, a large number of netizens around the world are waiting for Li Ziqi's comeback. In the comment section of YouTube videos, foreign netizens ask about Li Ziqi's whereabouts every day, hoping that Li Ziqi can return soon and continue to bring good works to everyone.

6. Zhang Yiming

On May 20, 2021, ByteDance founder and global CEO Zhang Yiming informed all employees via email that he would step down as CEO and be replaced by ByteDance co-founder and head of human resources and management Liang Rubo. At the beginning of the internal letter, Zhang Yiming said that he was not satisfied with his three annual OKRs for 2020 - "exploring new long-term strategies, studying organization and management, and enhancing social responsibility". Stepping down as CEO will allow him to focus on important things.

The founder chose to retire at the golden age of 37, which can be said to have set another record for large Internet companies.

On November 2, ByteDance CEO Liang Ruobo issued a letter to all employees, announcing the adjustment of ByteDance's organizational structure, from the original expansion-oriented flat organizational structure to six major divisions: Douyin, Dali Education, Feishu, Volcano Engine, Chaoxi Guangnian, and TikTok. After this adjustment, the ByteDance executive team formed a new structure of 1-2-6.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

Let's wait and see what Zhang Yiming will do after he steps down.

7. Luo Yonghao

In the early morning of December 16, 2021, Luo Yonghao, CEO of Smartisan Technology, published a post saying that he would once again engage in "high-tech entrepreneurship", and pointed out in the comment section that the entrepreneurial direction would be AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) and MR (mixed reality) fields.

This proves that Luo Yonghao is finally returning to the technology circle and heading towards the Metaverse which has become popular this year.

The concept of the metaverse was quickly welcomed by the capital market this year. Facebook stated that it would transform into a metaverse company within five years. In August, ByteDance spent a huge amount of money to acquire a VR startup. Luo Yonghao regards the metaverse as his future entrepreneurial direction.

In the next 10 years, can Luo Yonghao prove himself with the "Metaverse"?

8. Lei Jun

In March 2021, Xiaomi officially entered the field of smart electric vehicles.

In July, Lei Jun posted a recruitment advertisement on Weibo, saying that the first batch would recruit 500 autonomous driving technicians. In September, Xiaomi Automobile Co., Ltd. was officially registered with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan; in November, Xiaomi signed a cooperation agreement with Beijing Yizhuang to build the Xiaomi Automobile headquarters base, sales headquarters and R&D headquarters in Beijing Economic Development Zone, and to build a vehicle factory with an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles.

Lei Jun said that the progress of Xiaomi's car manufacturing is faster than he expected. Xiaomi's actions have also brought the momentum of car manufacturing to a climax.

Looking at the current situation, almost all core Internet forces are building cars or providing smart car-related services.

Baidu and Didi have their own plans to build cars; although Huawei has repeatedly stated that it will not build cars, it has already developed an intelligent driving system and has applied it to models of multiple brands such as BAIC and Changan; Apple launched the Titan Project as early as 2014. Although no official products have been launched yet, once the products are on the market, the entire industry will inevitably be turned upside down.

The Internet giants’ dream of making cars continues, and the good show has just begun.

9. Zeng Yuqun

The latest Forbes rich list was released, showing that Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL, has been ranked second on the list of the richest people in China, surpassing Jack Ma and Pony Ma, and ranking behind Zhong Shanshan, chairman of Nongfu Spring, who ranked first on the list. According to Forbes data, Zeng Yuqun's personal assets reached 46.4 billion US dollars.

CATL is a leader in domestic new energy batteries, and Zeng Yuqun is also known as the "Battery King" by the outside world. CATL can be said to be a veritable machine for making rich people. Not only Zeng Yuqun, but many of its senior executives are frequent visitors to the rich list. In 2020 alone, a large number of talents from CATL squeezed into the Hurun Billionaires List.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

This is because since CATL went public in 2018, its stock price has been soaring all the way, from 30 yuan per share to 400 yuan per share, a true tenfold increase, and CATL only took three years to achieve such results.

At present, Zeng Yuqun has placed his bets on "sodium-ion batteries" again, and CATL is still on the road.

10. Robin Li

On December 27, 2021, at Baidu Create 2021 (Baidu AI Developer Conference), Robin Li judged that intelligent transportation will be a major change that will affect the next 10-40 years, and that China's first-tier cities will no longer need purchase and traffic restrictions within 5 years, and the congestion problem will be basically solved within 10 years.

He believes that intelligent transportation can solve three major problems:

• First, reduce road safety accidents by 90%.
• Second, the system solves the congestion problem.
• Third, autonomous driving and intelligent transportation can help reduce carbon emissions.

Li Yanhong's new book "Intelligent Transportation" was also published this year. The subtitle of the new book is "Major changes that will affect the future of mankind in the next 10 to 40 years."

I didn’t see any explanation in the book, but I calculated that Robin might mean: carbon peak will be reached in 10 years, and carbon neutrality will be achieved in 40 years. So, 10-40 years is in line with the dual carbon goals.

I prefer to call the dual carbon target the 30.60 target, which refers to the two time points of 2030 and 2060. The full statement is: strive to peak carbon emissions before 2030, and strive to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

Li Yanhong emphasized that the turning point of the intelligent transportation era has arrived.

How many human drivers will be replaced by driverless cars in the future? What changes will the transportation model undergo? Can intelligent transportation completely solve the problem of traffic congestion? The battle for intelligent transportation has already begun. If Internet giants want to keep up with the pace and avoid being eliminated, they must carry out all-round upgrades in technology, management, thinking and other aspects.

Click here to read more articles by this author