---
title: "Wu Xiaobo: Within 5 to 10 Years, the Chinese Business World Will Be Thoroughly Disrupted by the Post-80s Generation"
description: "In a keynote speech at the Mingdao Conference on May 27, Wu Xiaobo, a member of Zhenhe Island, reviewed the history of Chinese business society and concluded that the important mission of each generation is to eliminate the previous one, just in different ways. Today's post-80s and post-90s generations will eliminate the main forces on the rich list and thoroughly disrupt China's business world."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2014-06-09"
language: "en"
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# Wu Xiaobo: Within 5 to 10 Years, the Chinese Business World Will Be Thoroughly Disrupted by the Post-80s Generation

> In a keynote speech at the Mingdao Conference on May 27, Wu Xiaobo, a member of Zhenhe Island, reviewed the history of Chinese business society and concluded that the important mission of each generation is to eliminate the previous one, just in different ways. Today's post-80s and post-90s generations will eliminate the main forces on the rich list and thoroughly disrupt China's business world.

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**Introduction**
In a keynote speech at the Mingdao Conference on May 27, Wu Xiaobo, a member of Zhenhe Island, reviewed the history of Chinese business society and concluded that the important mission of each generation is to eliminate the previous one, just in different ways. Today's post-80s and post-90s generations will eliminate the main forces on the rich list and thoroughly disrupt China's business world.
I remember when I was in college, I read a book, and one sentence stuck with me: Mark said to another person in the trench, "Is our generation more trustworthy than the previous one?" The important mission of a generation is to eliminate the previous one, just in different ways. When I graduated from university, I was assigned to the largest news agency in the country. There were two seniors of mine: one was a retired cadre, and the other was born around 1950. On my first day at work, the leader gave me a thermos. At work, you went to the reception room, everyone lined up, took your own thermos to write articles and do interviews, and then brought it down after work... So I felt I couldn't live like that.
We know that from 1978 to today, China has been reforming and opening up for 36 years. We can ask ourselves: Which generation has been the luckiest in these 36 years? After careful calculation, I think it's those born between 1962 and 1975. Why is this generation the luckiest?
First, our generation did not experience famine.
Second, we received a complete higher education. Those born before 1962 had incomplete primary, middle, and high school education.
Third, we enjoyed all the transition benefits. China entered a transitional society in the 1980s. We enjoyed the housing allocated by the state, the benefits of commercial housing, and the opportunities for entrepreneurship. So we experienced all the transitions.
One year, I met Rupert Hoogewerf and asked him to calculate the average age of the top 1000 richest people in China. 80% were born between 1962 and 1975, with the most born in 1963 (the Year of the Rabbit). This group is the wealthiest and youngest among all countries in the world today. Ladies and gentlemen, your future mission is to eliminate them.
Having talked about the beneficiaries, I think the world is beginning to undergo major changes. What changes are happening?
First, the people starting businesses are changing. Once, I went to Taobao for research. The small and medium-sized business owners (sellers) on Taobao number about 6 to 8 million, and over 85% of them are post-80s. China now has 36 million individual businesses. The number of new businesses each year is about 25 million or less. Among micro-enterprises with annual revenue below 5 million, 100% are post-80s. So the post-80s have become the main group for entrepreneurship and also the main consumers.
Second, who is on the move? I once met with Huazhu, which owns Hanting Hotels. Last year, 72% of Hanting's annual guest traffic was post-80s. That means most people traveling and sightseeing in first-tier cities across China are post-80s.
Third, when the people consuming, circulating, and starting businesses become post-80s, the original business models will be disrupted. In the next 5 to 10 years, the entire Chinese business world will be thoroughly disrupted. Those old-timers can wash up and go to sleep.
Next, let's look at what business logic is changing in the world of the post-80s and post-90s.
First, all business will be internet-based. This is a particularly powerful thing. I am in traditional publishing and have been writing books for over 20 years. I find the most troublesome thing is that over 80% of the post-60s and post-50s in China use e-books, and even the channels for obtaining books have disappeared.
The so-called internetization of business, I think, consists of two parts. First, companies will rebuild their relationship with consumers. Second, companies will use internet tools to reform their internal processes. Tools like those provided by Mingdao are an internal internetization of the enterprise. It is a complete internal and external internet transformation. If these two transformations are not completed, traditional manufacturing and traditional service industries will be destroyed. I believe that in the next five years or so, 50% of traditional manufacturing will go bankrupt.
In this elimination process, the information revolution gives us great benefits. Companies that do not use these tools will leave the stage.
Second, all brands will be personified. We have to thank Mr. Jobs. The so-called brand personification means moving from the consumer goods era to the fan era. In 1984, a group of people started businesses, such as Wang Shi and Zhang Ruimin. They were the first to value consumers. In 1984, Zhang Ruimin smashed a batch of defective products in the factory, meaning that products leaving the factory must be qualified. Before that, defective goods could leave the factory in China, and there were counters for genuine products and counters for defective products. But after Zhang Ruimin smashed the refrigerators, consumers established a culture of genuine products. But today, that is no longer enough. Now people do not want a standard product.
Today, we can tolerate products with defects. We hope that the enterprise operating this product can make it better and better. So the concept of "the customer is God" no longer exists. Who is this consumer? They should be our brothers and sisters, our friends. So these brands may be eliminated in the future.
Third, all consumption will be entertainment-oriented. I only write very serious financial works. Then I wanted to make a video. My team is all post-85s. They suggested: "Teacher Wu, no one will watch your video." So they added an ugly thing to our financial channel. While I was talking about very serious macroeconomic issues, they were making sarcastic comments. And they gave me a constraint: all the comments cannot be changed. So the comments you see later are all unauthorized by me. So I say, entrepreneurs who cannot tell cold jokes are bound to have no future.
Fourth, all trends will be integrated between urban and rural areas. In the past, to form such a credit model and logistics model, you first had to establish a community of interests with distributors at levels 3 to 6. Second, you had to establish distribution warehouses, logistics systems, and distribution systems across the country. But today, with the internet, even in Dingxi, people can know at the same time as children in Shanghai when Nike releases limited edition sneakers, and then obtain them through virtual payment. Under the internet, the entire logistics and credit payment situation has changed completely. All consumption may be integrated between urban and rural areas. This is a huge blessing.
Finally, let me talk about the differences between you and me. The world will soon be handed over to you. I have two more words to say. What is different between you and us? I think there are some differences.
First, I hope you believe in common sense more than our generation. Our generation, the post-50s and post-60s, believe in miracles. In the past twenty years, there have been three people in China who became the richest person in China at the age of 31: Huang Guangyu, Chen Tianqiao, and Ding Lei. I have a peer who told me: "Every evening at six o'clock, I sit cross-legged on the bed and think, I am already 31, why haven't I become the richest person in China?" So our generation believes more in miracles and special ways. So I hope you can be different from us, because unfortunately, China's economic growth has now entered the 7% range, while when we were your age, China's economic growth was over 10%. So China has reached the stage of medium-speed growth. China's middle class is about 120 million people, so the era of believing in common sense has arrived.
Second, I hope you can believe in yourselves more. Our generation, the post-50s, post-60s, and post-70s, still believe in organizations, the state, and those civil armies. Comrades, I now realize that these are all unreliable. No organization is reliable, no political party is reliable, no organizer is reliable, no speaker is reliable. So we must believe in ourselves.
Third, we must believe more in democracy. Believe in freedom, believe that universal values do exist in this world. The premise of Chinese characteristics must not be to resist global universal values, but to integrate. How to progress harmoniously with the world is a problem our generation needs to solve, and this problem cannot be solved by authoritarianism. There is only one way to solve it, and that is democracy.
Fourth, your generation knows how to enjoy life better than we do. Entrepreneurship is bitter. Whether it's making movies, writing, or running a business, it's an inhuman life. But if a person achieves success at the cost of sacrificing life, I tell you, it's not worth it. The happiness that family brings you is as important as the happiness of honor and wealth, or even more important.
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