Photos: Jia Yueting’s glorious and dim days at LeEco
Timmy Shen
Jia Yueting is stepping down as CEO of Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp Beijing but will remain as chairman. The firm is part of his business empire known as LeEco.
The company has undergone explosive growth and arguable failure in the past few years under Jia’s leadership. The 44-year-old started out by running a small technology company in his hometown Shanxi in central China for two years, and then headed to Beijing in 2004 to start his dream company LeTV which was perceived as China’s Netflix and later rebranded to LeEco in 2016.
Starting from video streaming, Jia crafted a strategy and built an ecosystem for his empire by expanding the company’s business to developing smartphones, televisions and cars. Fast expansion led to financial problems, and LeEco encountered a cash crunch last year which Jia confessed was a consequence of aggressive growth.
AllChinaTech put together a summary of Jia’s glorious and dim days at LeEco.
In August 2010, LeEco, then called LeTV, launched its IPO as an internet streaming company and the corporation was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Its market capitalization was around USD 21 billion. Later on, the corporation restructured and expanded into different divisions. Not all of the the company subsidiaries went public. Screenshot from 163.com.In May 2013, Leshi launched smart televisions. Photo from Sina.In April 2015, Leshi released its first smartphone LeMax. Jia Yueting took a selfie with celebs at its launch event. Photo from 163.com.In April 2016, Jia shed tears of joy at the launch event of its concept driverless car from LeSEE, LeEco’s automobile division. Photo from Sohu.In October 2016, Jia announced LeEco’s official expansion into the U.S. However, just a month later, Jia sent an internal memo to the staff confessing the tech giant’s extremely quick expansion and huge capital challenge. Photo from Sina.To tackle the firm’s financial issues, China’s leading real estate company Sunac China announced its strategic investment in LeEco in January 2017, and became LeEco’s second largest shareholder in a deal worth RMB 16.8 billion (USD 2.4 billion). LeEco later abandoned a deal to acquire U.S. television manufacturer Vizio in April, and is also seeking to cut staff. Photo from LeEco.
Now that Jia has stepped down, the board members have designated former longtime Lenovo executive Liang Jun who joined LeEco in 2012, to take over and serve as CEO. As LeEco’s chairman, Jia will continue to focus on strategic planning and core product innovation.
