King of Capital

“Mr. Xie, there’s been a very popular article online recently called ‘A Ten-Year Brief History of Burning Money on China’s Internet.’ It says that in the ten years since you entered the industry, you led all the money-burning battles in the internet sector, including ride-hailing, food delivery, and down-market e-commerce. What do you think about that?”

“Thank you for the founders’ recognition.”

“For example, Zhang Yiming? He says you’re an extreme investor.”

“He never said that to my face.”

“Cheng Wei says everyone is a bit afraid of you. When DiDi burned through fifty million yuan in cash in a single day, his hand was shaking as he signed the paperwork. You comforted him by saying history will punish companies that don’t dare to burn money.”

“I didn’t say that. I just told him he could drink a little before signing tomorrow, and then his hand wouldn’t shake.”