appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Josephine Tee

You might not have heard of Kuaishou yet, but chances are you will soon. The video sharing app is rising fast in China – where it claims over 300 million daily active users and has already been touted as a rival to Douyin, the local version of TikTok. 
On its IPO debut at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last month, the company’s shares soared 161 per cent, valuing the 10-year-old company at HK$1.23 trillion (US$159 billion). You don’t need to be a mathematician or stock watcher to work out those are big numbers. And that whoever is behind the app is both very shrewd, and very rich. 
‘Modern-day Mulans’: China’s self-made female billionaires
Meet Kuaishou’s co-founder and CEO Su Hua, an overnight billionaire with a net worth of US$19.2 billion, according to Forbes. A former Google and Baidu employee, Su was responsible for transforming the unassuming app, initially designed to create GIFs, into one of the most downloaded video-sharing and live-stream platforms in the world. And his estimated age is only 39. Here’s how he did it. 
He graduated from Tsinghua University

Born in Hunan province, Su learned to code on a children’s learning computer at the age of 12. His passion for programming led him to enrol in Beijing’s Tsinghua University, ranked as Asia’s best, and regarded among the foremost research institutions in the world. There he studied software for nearly a decade. During his doctorate studies, he noticed the surging home prices in Beijing and decided he should drop out of school and start earning some money.
Who is Tony Xu, the billionaire behind food delivery app DoorDash?
He worked for Google in the US

With his prestigious academic credentials, Hua was able to get a job as a software engineer with Google in the United States. After two and a half years there, he pursued his first entrepreneurial venture, exploring online video advertising. However, Hua discontinued the project when he ran into funding problems amid the 2008 financial crisis. Following this first start-up effort, Hua would go on to pursue 32 other business ideas, which yielded no successes. He eventually shifted his gaze away from entrepreneurship and went back to being a software developer.
Meet ‘Thailand’s Paris Hilton’, the Nai Lert heiress bringing Aman to Bangkok
And also Baidu

Joining Baidu, he honed his leadership skills for two years, before leaving the company and developing search function technology which was acquired by Alibaba (the parent company of South China Morning Post). Hua declined a job offer from Alibaba though in favour of pursuing his start-up ambitions once again.
You won’t believe how much Mukesh Ambani spends on private security
His company is now the biggest rival to Douyin

In the summer of 2013, Hua was introduced to Cheng Yixiao, who had created a GIF-making app called Kuaishou which he had transformed into a short video community in late 2012. The pair hit it off instantly and Su was hired as CEO, working swiftly to streamline the app’s functions and interface design. These product improvements initially resulted in the app losing 90 per cent of its users.
How much does it take to be part of the world’s 1 per cent?
In line with the company’s core mission to “embrace all lifestyles”, Su focused on improving the app’s algorithm and content functions over the next few years. This marked a departure from engaging celebrities and influencers to gain new users, aiming instead to appeal to a wider audience from the start. 
The strategy worked, catapulting the app to most downloaded lists on both Google Play and Apple App Store in various countries last year. Today, Kuaishou claims over 300 million daily active users, including many rural Chinese, who spend an average of more than 85 minutes on the app.
Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. 



B-2 Spirit, AI cooperation, no US-China conflict: key Xi-Trump takeaways so far

China tech faces fresh scrutiny as US blacklist bill introduced, Lenovo case emerges

China’s humanoid robot IPO slowdown no threat to firms with ‘genuine strength’: Deloitte

Investors pivot to selective China bets in technology as property growth fades: DBS Bank

China technology

Watch out TikTok: who is Kuaishou’s Su Hua, the millennial CEO who quit Google and Baidu to take on China’s Douyin?

China’s Su Hua, millennial billionaire CEO of Kuaishou, a short video-sharing platform. Photo: Kuaishou

The logo of Chinese video sharing company Kuaishou at its offices in Hangzhou. Photo: AFP

Su Hua, co-founder and CEO of Kuaishou. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

A mascot in the courtyard at the Kuaishou Technology headquarters in Beijing, China. Photo: Bloomberg

Su Hua, co-founder and CEO of Kuaishou. Photo: handout

What is NFT art and who is ‘riding the crypto wave’? Elon Musk’s girlfriend Grimes and billionaire Mark Cuban are in on digital art as sales soar into the millions

The Bitcoin Angel, now available as an NFT “open edition”, and an oil canvas of UFC fighter Conor McGregor – two digital artworks released on sale by Trevor Jones. Photo: Trevor Jones

Conor McGregor, oil on canvas drawn by Trevor Jones. Photo: Trevor Jones

A commission for Bill Hare drawn by Trevor Jones. Photo: Trevor Jones

Part of Tom Hanks Beating the S*** Out of Coronavirus by Mike Winkelmann, otherwise known as Beeple. Photo: Beeple

Everydays: The First 5000 Days by Beeple is up for auction on the Christie’s website. Photo: Christie’s

Part of Bear Land by Mark Sabb for Felt Zine. Photo: Felt Zine

Which of India’s billionaires were the most generous in 2020? Mukesh Ambani funded Covid-19 relief but it was Wipro’s Azim Premji who donated a whopping US$1.1 billion

Billionaires Shiv Nadar, Mukesh Ambani and Azim Premji all gave a chunk of their wealth away in 2020. Photos: Shiv Nadar University, @newsparodyy/Twitter, AFP

Azim Premji. Photo: @goskribe/Twitter

Shiv Nadar. Photo: @biotheses/Instagram

Mukesh Ambani. Photo: @mukesh.ambaniii/Instagram

China’s richest man, Nongfu Spring billionaire Zhong Shanshan – who is the bottled water and pharmaceuticals entrepreneur that’s wealthier than Jack Ma?

Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Nongfu Spring. Photo courtesy of Nongfu Spring

Zhong Shanshan, China’s richest man and the founder of Nongfu Spring. Photo: Nongfu Spring

Zhong Shanshan made a fortune from bottled water and pharmaceuticals. Photo: @newmoney_gr/Instagram

Nongfu Spring water in a supermarket in China’s Henan province. Photo: AFP

Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Nongfu Spring. Photo: Sina Weibo

Bill Gates and wife Melinda’s modest parenting style: the Microsoft centibillionaire’s kids go to church and will inherit ‘only’ US$10 million each

The Gates family, from left to right: Melinda, Jennifer (front), Phoebe, Rory, and Bill. Photo: Bill Gates/Facebook

The Gates family, from left to right: Melinda, Jennifer (front), Phoebe, Rory and Bill. Photo: Bill Gates/Facebook

How Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath went from school dropout to stock market billionaire – the chess prodigy who launched India’s wildly successful brokerage platform

India’s youngest billionaire Nikhil Kamath, who gave up on education and tried chess as a career, before making millions out of setting up a share trading platform. Photo: @Designerlymag/Twitter

Magazines

Style

Luxury

After working at Google and Baidu he joined Kuaishou, guiding the video-sharing app to become China’s biggest rival to Douyin, the local version of TikTok
Kuaishou now claims 300 million daily active users who spend an average of more than 85 minutes on the app – when will it go global?


After stints at Google and Baidu the millennial tech whiz joined Kuaishou as CEO, which now claims 300 million daily active users who spend an average of 85 minutes on the app – watch out, TikTok
