The David Rubenstein Show: Didi President Jean Liu

[Music] so most people would say if you're a managing director at Goldman life can't be much better than that why did you choose to leave my ex-boss there said I can believe you're joining a taxi company so far what would you say you're most proud of having achieved as the president of DD for the company I think I'm much too proud that we are providing 10 billion trips a year and serving all different type of need are you thinking of going public we do have a specific IPO timetable I screwed it that way would you fix your time please well people wouldn't recognize me if my tie was fixed but just leave it this way all right I don't consider myself a journalist and nobody else would consider myself a journalist I began to take on the life of being an interviewer even though I have a day job running a private equity firm how do you define leadership what is it that makes somebody tick one of my friends invested over a number of years ago it was at a three billion dollar market value I said well he's going to lose all his money no ride-hailing company can be worth three billion dollars in fact obviously uber turned out to be worth a staggering these larger sums of money and I was a publicly traded company I had the same reaction when I heard about a company called DD DD was a small uber-like company in China and I didn't think it could catch on there but I was wrong again DD today is the largest single ride-hailing company in the world the person running that company is a young woman from China named Jean Lee Yoo she rose up because of her intellect or hard work and now she's the president of DD it's an incredible success story she is one of the best-known women business leaders in China an extremely intelligent articulate person who is clearly going to make this company even more successful as she continues to lead it [Music] we're here we're jeans the you who is the president of DD which is the largest mobile transportation company in China and one of the largest in the world so when DD was started in 2012 it wasn't the first or wasn't the only company that was doing this is that right yes there were 30 players 30 30 doing exactly the same thing did you have anything that was better than the other 29 or what were your advantages of the other companies yeah we worked really hard we worked really hard for example you know there are a lot of very strong competitors right and when you know there are big competition I had we you know we sat down together and think about what's our strategy how can we provide better value so we launched you know four business lines in three months let's say year 2015 so there were a lot of moments that we really work very hard and try to catch up so there's another company in the United States called uber yes which you're probably familiar with yes the one who burst started it grew very quickly in the United States and in other parts of the world and it also had a division in China so in many places uber said well we will roll over our competition but in one point country they weren't able to do that and that's China in China you ultimately came to a deal where in effect you merged but you became the parent company in effect uber is an investor in your company now is that right yes are you an investor now and uber as well yes okay so small small investor in their company but your company now has grown to the point where how many riders do you have a day on your main taxi-hailing business right we have hundreds of millions of users right every month yeah hundreds of millions of users you have more users every month and less is that right and today what are your other businesses when talked about uber first of all I have to say we are very thankful for the competition it make us better and stronger and when uber first came to China you know their war chest is bigger what's bigger than our market cap right so because of a competition they help to push ourselves to launch different product lines so starting from taxi we launched the private cars in different end price and black premier you know and Express line and then later we have a hitch which is a social carpooling product and now we bikes and electric bikes so right we probably offer more than 10 services to our users so most Chinese companies that are technology leaders like Alibaba $0.10 I do have dominant positions in China but so far they haven't taken dominant positions outside of China now you are taking positions outside of China and building your business outside have you been very successful outside of China so far I wouldn't call you know we are very successful I think it's very encouraging we see very encouraging result we're in Brazil Mexico Colombia we are in the Latin market and we are just entering into Australia market and Japan market how do you have to change everything for the different markets at different qualities you have to bring to the table how do you make your service better for each of these individual countries I think we provide our service to the local people by combining two things one is our global technology architecture and then local innovation right so we tailor make products for different market product in preserving product in Japan very different unlike other companies they may do copy paste we have one product in the States and you know cookie cutting for other markets so it's a very different approach so you mentioned some countries that you're in you didn't mention you're in the United States are you prohibited from going in the United States or it's a very crowded market okay so not like that happen any time soon yeah we hope you know I think our philosophies as long as we can do something differently if we can bring some user value then we will consider if it's just you know same product only compete on pricing we don't see the point now the United States and China have a trade dispute that has been going on for a while does that affect your business in one way or another to be honest that doesn't really impact our business because we you know we're supported by our local passengers and drivers however you know I would think you know we have been benefited from trading and sharing over years right and you know it's it's unfortunate to see this and we of course we hope you can get resolved so if I'm an American tourist and I want to use your service I'm in China is it easy to do do I have to speak Chinese to be able to do it at all we have a great English version really yes we have a grading English version and actually a lot of our employees colleagues are from overseas from different countries especially now we have a global business uber is now publicly traded and it's losing a fair amount of money every year a billion dollars plus a year or something like that or more are you thinking of going public and are you losing money or are you making money mm-hmm well we do have a specific IPO timetable let's put it that way and back to the weber point I'm sure it's temporary and they would go through it there is very diligent CEO in a very experienced for us we think profitability is natural result of the value you really create and there are two things in China very different from the other market first the right here is cheaper than car ownership so that's the huge value creation you provide to your users and secondly in China we are going through a transition that people you know people urge for better life quality better lives and people want to spend more money the average age of your wide share customers is what is it a lot of 30 or 20 to 30 20 actually a lot of them are students from college or just you know McKinsey third year analyst so people who are 50 60 or 70 they're not your target audience as much know that they are actually we definitely want to you know you know make our technology more accessible to everyone yeah back to the question of your profitability you you are profitable on our core business your business yeah one of the businesses that is not your core and I think you spun it off was your automatic driving with this driverless autonomous so why did you spin it off and when do you think autonomous driving will actually be very common yeah actually you know I think it will take huge commitment for autonomous technology to mature technology wise and also commercial wise right so any company who wants to succeed in that view to need to be prepared to spend money and human resources into it so we view you know we want to attract the top talent and make it independent so people fear we want to join this as a young company and at the same time we also we are advantage because we run the large largest Network right for a geofencing autonomous car to run is easy right in California it could be much easier than in Beijing so we have this huge amount of data so that makes us fear we know we're advantaged just how many years away before you actually really it would be a long time a long time means five five five to ten years you just blend that off because it's not gonna be that profit of one in the near future yeah I think it's a we are doing the investment period when you join the company had a market valuation of 500 million more or less so I let's suppose I say I like what you've said I'd like to invest in a five hundred million dollar valuation could I do that today not really no no you through your background your father is well known in the business world in China he was the founder of the novo yes and did he say to you you need to go into some kind of computer related thing when you grow up not really he did no not really he didn't put any pressure on you to get into the business ah not at all so you went to Peking University yes and you majored in computer science yes okay so after you graduated and I let me ask you in Peking University is it like the United States where there are more men than women in computer science we in our class there were 36 students 30 of them were men okay so you graduated presumably you did well but then you decided to leave China to go to a school in the United States Harvard was that hard to get into it was hard to get into right so you went to Harvard and you got a master's in computer science and did you find Harvard easier or harder than you thought it would be well I wouldn't say it harder or easier I think it's more interesting and you know my key purpose to go abroad is to see the world and to meet different people and it was totally rewarding ok now your English is by my view perfect and so not really pretty good where did you get this English at Harvard or to get it in China I think I probably get it in China you know in China you know we started to learn English starting from elementary school so you if you have some good English teacher at school you actually get pretty okay but I wouldn't come eyes English perfect so when you graduated from Harvard did you decide to go to a great Chinese firm like Goldman Sachs yes actually it was almost accidental to join gomen I did summer interning Goldman as in research division as an IT engineer in New York and and I thought it was fascinating when people are doing so I decided I want to apply it for a full-time job that's why I ended up in investment banking division in Hong Kong as well right so you went there after you graduated you went to Hong Kong and you stayed there twelve years yes and you became a managing director yes so most people would say if you're a managing director at go life can't be much better than that mhm and so you're on your way up to the very top why did you choose to leave yes a lot of people ask me that question especially when I resign from gomen my ex-boss there said I can't believe you're joining a taxi company because you know when I first moved back to Beijing you know I always find myself struggling in the middle of the street with my three young children I didn't have a license plate to drive in Beijing you need to have your license plate and it's hard to get it's a lottery system so and it's really hard to hail a taxi and then I met didi at that time which was a very young company and that company was started in 2012 yes 2012 I met I met Heung whay the founder in year 2013 when didi was 1 year old and I wanted to make an investment you know at the beginning I tried three times I failed three Trestman on behalf of Goldman or yourself on behalf of Goldman on behalf of command and I was a very good Goldman soldier and each time he said we don't need your money or what yeah because there are lines of investors waiting outside India faster you know the digital insurance process from Goldman is actually quite strict so I felt I always wanted to build something and this thing seems to me huge impact right so I think why do I just join him how big was the company in 2014 when you joined it was it was valued at around 500 million u.s. dollars and 700 people and the only product we had was the taxi-hailing app so that's you know when I joined you know a lot of my friends were my family advised me not because because you know in China is very competitive right and people think so much uncertainty so what do you say to the people that advise you not to join now do you ever see them and say if I'd listened to you I'd still be at Goldman you never say that well actually you know I hesitated right I hesitated to you know when I sat down with Zhang Wei say if you don't let me best ink you let me joint you he didn't back off which is surprised to me and then you know I got hesitated when people advised me not to so we went to Tibet together with a group of seven people it was a soul-searching trip and after that I made up my mind ok and what position do you join at chief operating officer so you came from Goldman Sachs but at Goldman you were not managing hundreds and hundreds of people so how could you be the chief operating officer yeah there I didn't manage hundreds of hundreds of people but I did see a lot of business I did talk to a lot of you know entrepreneurs and also I think it's just in my gene you know I want to Butte an organization that suits the you know this generation and who were the big investors in DD in the early days there actually there a number of them the strategic ones we have 10 cent Alibaba we also have Tim Cook Apple you know we also have a lot of very well-known you know financial investors and most of the investors were they large institutional investors from the United States or from China or from all over the world mix ok it's pretty diverse so when you join the company had a market valuation of 500 million more or less so let's suppose I say I like what you said I'd like to invest at a 500 million dollar valuation could I do that today not really you know not even you're so nice and friendly we're running one of the biggest companies in China and one of the bigger companies in the world in terms of market value so how do you keep that from going to your head it's very challenging job you know when I first joined this company I thought is the technology company and now I know it's about people it's about safety so how do you get to work every day do you take one of your yes yes if you were you're taking one of your cars and you don't like the service what do you say did they know who everybody know who you are you know the other day you know we had this assignment that we have to drive as well we have to you know test the driver experience and the other day you know I did with my colleague and we pick up this young guy and my colleague introduced to him this is our president and we want to survey you some question he didn't seem impress at all I said whatever he said why don't you give me some coupon if you want to survey me so you know I guess I'm not a you know celebrity very view well now you are now widely viewed is one of the most powerful women in business in China women in business around the world and not just a prominent woman you're a prominent executive you're running one of the biggest companies in China and one of the bigger companies in the world in terms of market value so how do you keep that from going to your head Wow good question actually you know I think I really have a very tough job right it's a very challenging job you know when I first joined this company I thought it's a technology company and now I know it's about people it's about safety you know last year there were two terrible incidents happen on our platform two young girls got killed it was devastating right and for all of the senior executive ie the 25 year olds right you know we sat together and think to ourselves what's the next step right this is much more challenging than when Wilbur came in or when you know other competition was the drive was the death because of the driver did something wrong yes the driver yeah the driver was a criminal so how do you screen those kind of people in the future after so after that now we launched more than 40 product features about safety facial recognition right route sharing so itinerary sharing so there 40 of them but the challenge part is not about how committed we can be for Safety's there are a lot of dilemmas that I can ask our data scientist for an answer - it's a social problem for example you know one dilemma we face this do we allow drivers to reject drunk passengers because there are a lot of internal conflicts from drunk passengers tend to assault drivers right so drivers complain to us hundreds of them complain to us daily saying can we reach actor this drunk passenger do we allow it or not what do you do we put up a nationwide consultation forum and we ask people's feedback 80% of them thinks we shoot it's surprise to us because our original concern was if we let that happen then what if something bad happened to the drunk passenger right so what we do not encourage a strong passenger to ride by themselves they need to be accompanied by a sober friend make sure your drivers are not drunk oh that's very easy that's very easy a breathalyzer what do you do how do you make sure yeah we have this SDK on other drivers cell phones so if they drive dangerously speed driving you know hard brake hard turn we test it immediately right and before he gets you know he pick up order we would do a facial recognition and their phone calls if we see anything you know random so in the United States there's a lot of discussion about whether women are allowed to get senior positions in companies and very few fortune 500 companies actually are have CEOs as women is it easier in China for a woman to be a CEO of a company or harder well I think you can't always be a CEO or president but most of the time you're not likeable right because I think there's to a glass ceiling in everywhere but I think in China is already a very encouraging work environment for example in didi we have DD Women's Network we launched a four years ago you know the key point is to encourage women to plan their career for next 30 years like David you know when you were young you must have planned your career for the next 30 years but it's a it's a challenge for young girls say what I want to do for my next 30 years because they always feel their life will pause when they have kids when they get married you know so we want to make sure you know erima employee whew they're empowered and you know that's why we encourage a lot of you know working from home right we encourage a lot of culture like that young mom can work from home one day a week so just you have three young kids do you work from home one day a week I can't do that I can't today but my kids are really big they're 10 and 9 so and are they impressed with your job do they know how powerful you are in the business world or they don't really know they know they know but you know they don't think me as powerful they think mom always have a lot of problems because I do go back home and discuss with them you know my work issues and you know in my view you know the younger generation Generation Z right they have more access to information than we do so I think they have very independent views yeah so we talk a lot so for many women in China and elsewhere but surely in China you're a role model so how do you fulfill that role do you speak to a lot of women's groups do you tell women that they should do X Y & Z to advance how do you take on that responsibility well first of all I think we are all learning and growing I wouldn't consider myself as a role model but I would consider myself as someone who loved to share my own life experience because you know I have also experienced ups and downs personally right and professionally so I think the best way is to share your life story without really telling people who what to do right because people will get inspired anyways now your father is a very prominent person in the Chinese business world and the global business world Lenovo is a company that he basically built does he give you advice on what to do or he doesn't at this point you know one one piece of advice I got and benefit me for my whole life was he always said life is supposed to be hard right you know when we had our he cub we had the incidents a lot of times is you know it's frustrating right if you helpless and hopeless like what happened last year and you know I always remember my father told me life is supposed to be hard right so I think that makes me more resilient you know stronger so so far what would you say you're most proud of having achieved as the president of DD well for the company I think I'm most proud that we are providing 10 billion trips a year and serving our different type of need and we are creating income for more than tens of millions of drivers personally what makes me feel you know proud is we have Butte you know a team with resilience and commitment and people feel this is the right thing to do

Channel: David Rubenstein

Views: 76,593

Rating: 4.8341794 out of 5

Keywords: Bloomberg, didi, gig economy, china, ride sharing, uber, ride hailing, ceo, leadership, Didi Chuxing, david rubenstein

Id: 0-iphU-n8RM

Length: 23min 56sec (1436 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 18 2020