---
title: "Zong Qinghou, the Stalwart of Physical Retail: 'I Neither Resist Nor Embrace E-commerce!'"
description: "Zong Qinghou, the 73-year-old founder of Wahaha, remains a steadfast advocate for physical retail, stating he neither resists nor embraces e-commerce. He emphasizes the importance of hard work and warns young entrepreneurs against expecting overnight success, while also revealing plans for potential listing and continued innovation in marketing."
author: "李冲"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2018-06-25"
language: "en"
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# Zong Qinghou, the Stalwart of Physical Retail: 'I Neither Resist Nor Embrace E-commerce!'

> Zong Qinghou, the 73-year-old founder of Wahaha, remains a steadfast advocate for physical retail, stating he neither resists nor embraces e-commerce. He emphasizes the importance of hard work and warns young entrepreneurs against expecting overnight success, while also revealing plans for potential listing and continued innovation in marketing.

Click 'Read Original' for details.
White shirt, black trousers, and a pair of black cloth shoes on his feet. Despite having topped China's rich list several times, Zong Qinghou always leaves a simple and unadorned impression on the public. Recently, at the China Campus Health Action Public Welfare Eye Protection Summit Forum held by Zhongnan Group in Hangzhou, a reporter from Yangtze Evening News interviewed the 73-year-old Zong face-to-face. His hair is gray but neatly styled, his gaze is firm, and his tone is calm when answering questions.
Admirably, Zong Qinghou, now in his seventies, still travels on the front lines of the market, measuring it with his footsteps, and works from early morning until late at night. Regarding the currently booming e-commerce, Zong said: "I neither resist it nor embrace it."
**"I am an ordinary person, a mortal who rose from the bottom. Fortunately, I was born in a good era. In the process of starting a business, you will definitely encounter great difficulties, but you must still move forward unswervingly. Now, it's not as easy for young people to start a business as it was in our time; it's unlikely to get rich overnight. Young people should be down-to-earth and build up step by step."**
Zong Qinghou's early years were somewhat rough, but his legendary life is also very inspiring. Born in 1945 in Suqian, Jiangsu, his grandfather was the finance minister under Zhang Zuolin, and his father worked as a clerk in the Nationalist government. Zong's parents lived in Nanjing and Suqian, but after liberation, they lost their jobs in Suqian, so in 1949, the family moved back to their ancestral home in Hangzhou. Due to their poor family background, his father couldn't find work, and the family lived on the salary of his mother, who worked as a primary school teacher.
After graduating from middle school, Zong Qinghou worked at the Zhoushan Salt Field and was sent to the countryside for 15 years of labor. "This year marks the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up, but actually, that year was also a turning point in my life," Zong told the Yangtze Evening News reporter. In 1978, he had just returned to Hangzhou from the countryside and took over his retired mother's position. However, due to his low education level, he could only work as a salesman at a school-run cardboard box factory. But it was from then on that he embarked on the 'path of business.'
During his 10 years at the school-run factory, he worked as a salesman and also ran an electric fan factory and an electric meter factory, honing and accumulating rich experience. "The school-run enterprise didn't know how to do business and lost its capital. At the age of 42 (1987), an opportunity came. The education bureau was going to contract out the sales department of its subordinate school-run enterprises and publicly select a person in charge." Zong Qinghou volunteered himself, boasting that he could earn 100,000 yuan a year.
Thus, with two retired teachers, he contracted the loss-making school-run enterprise sales department with a loan of 140,000 yuan, selling soda, popsicles, and stationery.
Over the past 31 years, Zong Qinghou has turned this three-person school-run sales department into a giant in China's food and beverage industry with over 30,000 employees and a brand value exceeding 50 billion yuan. In 2010, at the age of 65, Zong Qinghou became China's richest person for the first time. At that time, he said, **"When I sold bottle by bottle of water to become the 'richest man,' someone asked me why I achieved today's success. I replied that I am not smarter than others; all I have is the impulse to focus on doing one thing and the willingness to take risks for it. I also have the spirit of seizing the day."**
When the Yangtze Evening News reporter asked about young people starting businesses, Zong Qinghou said: **"I feel that you young people have entered a misunderstanding about entrepreneurship. Many people think that being a boss is entrepreneurship, but in reality, there aren't that many bosses. I think doing the job you love is entrepreneurship. Being a good doctor or a good teacher is also entrepreneurship."** He added, "It's unlikely for young people to achieve overnight wealth through entrepreneurship. Our era was an economy of scarcity; reform and opening-up allowed some people to get rich first, with opportunities to start from scratch and succeed. But now, market competition is fierce, and starting a business is very difficult."
While answering this question, Zong also addressed the issue of succession at Wahaha Group. "So I suggest that young people should be down-to-earth and take it step by step. For example, becoming part of a company's management is also entrepreneurial success. Here, I will definitely have management take over. Furthermore, once you have some capital, you can also go out and start your own business. With capital and experience, your chances of success are greater."
Zong Qinghou is a staunch defender of physical retail: "**I neither resist e-commerce nor embrace it.** E-commerce is actually a new sales method that facilitates online shopping for young people via mobile phones. But I don't approve of them burning money to buy traffic, buying high and selling low, disrupting the prices of the entire physical economy, and eventually turning into counterfeit and shoddy products. That's not good."
In previous years, Zong publicly criticized Jack Ma's 'new retail' concept and e-commerce model. Regarding venturing into e-commerce, Zong has been "considering it," emphasizing that e-commerce may eventually return to physical forms.
Recently, Wahaha collaborated with animation company Zhongnan Tianyan Technology Co., Ltd. to launch a new health beverage called 'Tianyan Jingjing,' which has obtained the national health food approval number. This product abandons Wahaha's traditional offline 'joint sales' marketing model and instead enters social retail, exploring new marketing models through internet fan economy and WeChat business channels. Zong told the Yangtze Evening News reporter that **product innovation is not difficult; the difficulty lies in marketing.** He places great importance on this product, repeatedly endorsing it and the broader health industry, and said he wants to make it a new 'national beverage' to contribute to national health.
"I have not resisted e-commerce, nor have I embraced it," Zong said in an interview with the Yangtze Evening News reporter. The new sales model is to adapt to the consumption habits of young people who order via mobile phones. To a certain extent, e-commerce has solved the problem of information asymmetry between rural production and urban demand; e-commerce can help farmers sell agricultural products across the country. "I think this is a very good public welfare undertaking, and this form of e-commerce is relatively good, but I do not approve of burning traffic for e-commerce." Zong believes that physical retail will survive for a long time.
"Because people can't stay at home looking at their phones all day; that would mean no fun in life. They always need to experience life and go shopping." Zong also exposed some problems in e-commerce, such as, "Now many young people, after shopping in malls, go online to search for the same product and compare prices. If it's cheaper, they buy it from e-commerce, but what they get might be fake." Zong laughed heartily.
In recent years, Zong has not only been accepting e-commerce but has also changed his stance on Wahaha's listing. Around the Spring Festival of 2018, Wahaha initiated an employee share buyback plan to reduce the number of shareholders, which was interpreted by the industry as preparation for an IPO.
When asked about this, Zong said that **he would consider listing at an appropriate time, as listing can accelerate the company's development, but it requires the right timing.** He said Wahaha currently does not lack money, has good cash flow, and has no debt or bank loans. "If we don't need money, listing would mean the money has no place to use, and returns to shareholders would not be good."
Enterprise development is about constantly finding a way out. As Zong wrote in his autobiography published last year, "We were just in an era where there was no way out, desperately trying to find a way out for ourselves. When we get older and look back, we find that we have actually carved out a waterway—'Of all the waters, I only take one gourd to drink.'"
The outside world calls him the 'dictator' of Wahaha. In response, he said: "The first generation of private entrepreneurs are somewhat like this. Without centralization, internal friction would be too great, and the company simply couldn't grow. This is caused by the times."
For 31 years, Zong Qinghou has been on the front lines of the market. Over the years, he has always been hands-on, and almost all major market decisions have been made by him alone. According to media reports, as a 'versatile person,' Zong has never set up a deputy general manager position in the group. He spends more than 200 days a year on the market front. When he travels, his office sends him dozens of work faxes every evening, and he gives instructions by phone or signs and faxes back, remotely controlling the company's affairs. "Recently, I've been on the front lines, inspecting the market. I just returned from business trips to Chengdu and Chongqing."
When asked about his current work pace, Zong said he basically lives in his office, arriving before 7 a.m. and leaving at 11 p.m. The Yangtze Evening News reporter learned that although he is 73, Zong is still energetic and lives and works at a fast pace.
Although he has topped the rich list several times, his life remains frugal. He dresses simply and prefers black cloth shoes. Netizens have even spotted him in second-class seats on high-speed trains. At Wahaha, his thrift is well-known; his annual spending does not exceed 50,000 yuan. When asked about his low consumption level, Zong said that everyone's sense of happiness is different. In fact, clothes costing tens of yuan are fine as long as the quality is good.
Zong does not play golf, own private jets, or engage in other pastimes favored by the wealthy. He said his greatest hobby is work. "I still feel very young. To accomplish something, you first need ideals. Although I no longer need to make money, I still work hard, just to make a contribution to society and the country." As for other hobbies, he told the Yangtze Evening News reporter, "I used to be a heavy smoker and liked smoking, but now for my health, I've quit."
Zong enjoys reading and sets aside time for it every day. Besides reading all the newspapers, he also likes to buy books during business trips, buying them while waiting for flights and finishing them on the way. "I don't like romance novels or Korean dramas. My reading is eclectic, and I most enjoy history books."
Zong said that history can often be referenced in the present. Reading history makes one wise; the more you read, the more thoroughly you see problems, and you can find some laws of social development. "Reading more books and history can give young people more experience and benefit their lives."
The Yangtze Evening News reporter learned that Zong not only likes reading but also writes books. Last year, he published an autobiography titled 'Zong Qinghou: The Principle of Universal Gravitation.' In his own preface, he mentioned Li Yunlong from 'Bright Sword': "What I can give Wahaha is like what Li Yunlong's independent regiment gave—that kind of thing called soul and spirit."
Quick Q&A:
> **Reporter:** Do you shop online?
>
> **Zong Qinghou:** I never shop online, and I don't use WeChat either.
>
> **Reporter:** When you volunteered, you said you'd earn 100,000 yuan a year. Did you achieve it?
>
> **Zong Qinghou:** Yes, I earned 100,000 yuan in the first year.
>
> **Reporter:** Do you take reading notes when you read?
>
> **Zong Qinghou:** No. I read very fast; I used to have a photographic memory.
>
> **Reporter:** Wahaha has passed its 30th anniversary. What are your expectations for the company's future?
>
> **Zong Qinghou:** Thirty years is still young. Our goal is to create a century-old brand.
>
> **Reporter:** Do you still have New Year's Eve dinner with migrant workers who stay in Hangzhou?
>
> **Zong Qinghou:** Yes, this tradition has lasted for 30 years.
>
> **Reporter:** What does Wahaha mean to you?
>
> **Zong Qinghou:** **Wahaha is my entire life, all my dreams, all the meaning, value, labels, and symbols. It is proof that I existed in this world.**
Source: Yangtze Evening News
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