One of the founding members of Chinese tech company ByteDance, which runs the short video app TikTok, has resigned to start a new business. This follows the departure of former ByteDance executives Louis Yang Luyu and his colleague Wang Jingjin, who both left the company for generative AI startups.
But unlike his colleagues, Ren Lifeng, who helped found Douyin in 2016, is instead pursuing a new career in cross-border e-commerce.. Following the astronomical success of Chinese-owned e-commerce platforms SHEIN and Temu, Ren has established a new company called Beijing Xiuming Wanwu Technology Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 1 million yuan (US$139,000).
According to WeChat technology blog Tech Planet, Ren's e-commerce business could follow a similar model to Shopify, a Canadian platform that makes it easy for sellers to create self-hosted online storefronts. Via the website's backend administrative functions. This is in contrast to a marketplace model like the one used by Amazon, which makes money by charging sellers a fee to process transactions between buyers and sellers. In contrast, platform models typically rely on more diverse revenue sources, such as advertising revenue, subscription fees, and in-app purchases.
Beijing Shumei Wanwu Technology Co. has reportedly secured funding from IDG and HongShan, the Chinese branch of Sequoia Capital, and is currently valued at $50 million.
