Duan Yongping in the BBK era in 1999, aged 38. Image source Visual China
Written by Wen Shijun Edited by Yue Jiachen From Prism Tencent Xiaoman Studio
WEN Shijun Editor YUE Jiachen
Prism Tencent Xiaoman Studio
Jan 5, 2025 It was a slightly cooler winter day in Hangzhou, but Zhejiang University once again welcomed their most famous alumnus, Duan Yongping.
The event, called Duan Yongping’s Return Meeting, was very simple, with an hour and a half of questions and answers. Duan Yongping, dressed in a gray suit and purple tie, sat on a red sofa chair on the podium of the staircase classroom, facing the two youthful hosts on the stage and a large classroom full of teachers, students and alumni, and crossed his legs and talked eloquently.
In Zhejiang University, this meeting has long been hard to find tickets, the scene of the event, the party secretary of Zhejiang University Ren Shaobo President Du Jiangfeng also appeared in the audience, and even the gap in the back row of the staircase classroom, also stood full of young listeners.
Similar to his character, Duan Yongping, who was admitted to Zhejiang University’s Radio Electronic Engineering Department in 1978, interacts with his alma mater not frequently, but very pragmatically. Just a year before this meeting, Zhejiang University officials had announced Duan Yongping’s huge donation At the advent of the New Year in 2024, Duan Yongping, an outstanding alumnus of Zhejiang University, once again made a large donation totaling more than 1 billion yuan.
This news also mentioned that Duan Yongping’s donation to Zhejiang University began in 2006. In fact, in 2006, this donation, Duan Yongping and Ding Lei jointly donated 40 million U.S. dollars. At that time, this had set a record in the history of Zhejiang University, but also in the history of domestic colleges and universities, the largest donation record.
Some people in the financial social media snowball tanned out Duan Yongping again donated to Zhejiang University 1 billion screenshots, some people commented I remember him Duan Yongping that donation is not a very good feeling, that the income and expenditure is not transparent enough to come, eighteen years later did not expect to donate again.
In this regard, Duan Yongping with his own account Da Dao invisible I have type personally reply to refute the rumor Zhejiang University has been okay.
When I started my business, I was desperate.
On the scene of the event, Duan Yongping, in the face of teachers and students constantly threw the question, always with a very calm attitude to answer one by one, also occasionally mixed with a sentence or two of laughter, from time to time attracted the audience bursts of laughter and applause.
When asked how to quickly determine whether a company is worth investing in the long term, Duan Yongping said that he never makes quick judgments, and that the companies he has paid attention to over the past ten years are just a few, which stems from his own understanding of business products over the years. With the nickname of Duan Fite, he naturally mentioned his own role model I’ve never seen anyone who can make a quick judgment, including investment experts like Buffett and Munger, whose pace is also very slow. They are not afraid of missing some opportunities, but the most important thing is not to step on mines.
As a fan of value investment, Duan Yongping took his own investment in Apple from 2011 He also mentioned that Buffett only invested in Apple in 2016 As an example, he emphasized the importance of a deep understanding of the business model culture and other aspects, rather than simply pursuing short-term high returns. By now, 14 years of time, if the business can not understand, can not understand the culture, can not understand the business model, has long run away, sold out of the market, and it is not possible to stay until now.
Some people on the scene also asked about the impact of the information gap on investment. Duan Yongping emphasized that he does not like to rely on the information gap to make money. Previously, he has repeatedly criticized quantitative investment, in this meeting, his attitude is not too fierce Investment is not a zero-sum game, and the difference in information is a zero-sum game, with the difference in information to make money in advance, perhaps a little unethical. Quantitative investment is a little bit of this flavor, but you don’t do what others do, it’s just business. There is no excuse.
In his view, the information gap caused by stock price fluctuations, but only a small wave, too much care will make people very tired . Look at the long term, hold a good company, life will be much more pleasant. Look at Buffett and Munger, they are living a good life, while those who are very speculative, many are living a miserable life.
Question from a young alumnus: Do you still encourage contemporary college students to start their own businesses? As the earliest batch of entrepreneurs in China, Duan Yongping said that although the conditions for entrepreneurship are different nowadays, there are all kinds of financial support, and the situation is much better than they were back then, but we can’t start a business just for the sake of starting a business, but we really have an idea, and it’s really necessary to start a business when we need to do so.
He also said that sometimes it is a good way to start a business when you are desperate, because we were desperate back then. This does not seem to be a joke, but he was more serious.
On the topic of entrepreneurship, the moderator asked A good track often enters a period of low gross profit as competition intensifies, so how should entrepreneurs cope with such a period of low gross profit? Duan Yongping denied the premise of this question, saying that a good track will not enter the low gross profit, low gross profit is the business model is relatively poor product differentiation is very small products. He also suggested that entrepreneurs should not enter the low gross profit track, the wording is blunt As an entrepreneur you still have to go in, it is a bad brain.
Alumni are very interested in the issue of entrepreneurship, someone on the scene asked Duan Yongping If you were twenty years old today and you wanted to start a business, which track would you choose and what are the criteria for choosing a partner? Duan Yongping, who is over 63 years old, gave a lying version of the answer If I had the opportunity, I would still find a job and enjoy life. Entrepreneurship is not easy, you don’t just see the success of some people, the success rate is very low. Most people who are busy all their lives don’t really have anything good to show for it.
But he also encourages the questioner, if you have an idea and you have the means, go for it.
People are also interested in how Duan Yongping, as a successful entrepreneur, deals with setbacks. Duan Yongping’s answer is very interesting, he said the key is to save for a rainy day People like to see crisis times, not afraid of danger, but actually it does not necessarily make sense. To prevent such situations in advance, safety first. It will be too late to find a solution at that time, so you have to prepare in advance.
Toward the end of the exchange, Duan Yongping was asked what his next life goal or ultimate goal was. Duan Yongping said Live a long and healthy life. Duan Yongping responded that there are still a lot of opportunities and luck in life. Duan Yongping’s response was that you will eventually become the person you were meant to be anyway.
Lazy man Duan Yongping
From the launch of Ze Wang, a small electronics factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, to the creation of BBK, won the CCTV King of the lightning popularity, and then in 2001 to get a green card, the following year, at the age of 41, left the BBK front line, moved to the U.S., planting vegetables, playing golf, but also spend money to play with Tiger Woods, playing games, raising their children. So the calculation is that, Duan Yongping’s practical path of the industry is only more than a decade of time.
For a long time, he deliberately kept a low profile, and in a 2009 interview, he even told a reporter who was about to take his picture that those celebrities would be glittering when they saw your camera, and I would avoid them. However, after leaving the industry, Duan Yongping’s twenty years of investment have brought him into the limelight every time he returns to the public eye.
Duan Yongping in the fade out of BBK at the same time the company was split up, under the command of a number of generals were commanded, derived from OPPO VIVO a plus small genius pole rabbit express and a number of influential in the market BBK system enterprises. He also began to be called a godfather figure by the media.
In this meeting at Zhejiang University on January 5, Duan Yongping answered the question about how to face challenges and pain, and also recalled the turnaround of his life I am a mortal, and I have pain, too. I’m still a lazy person, you see I retired early, retired for more than 20 years, so I’m 63 years old this year, about 40 years old I retired, obviously I just don’t want to face this kind of pressure.
Duan Yongping became a hands-off shareholder and sat on his hands. He said I retired, no longer meddle in corporate affairs, I want to play ball ah.
Duan Yongping’s investment in the open market began with NetEase. 2001, Duan Yongping has been planning to live in the United States, but also want to do something in the United States, I can not stay at home all day. He felt that making investments was a viable path.
It was at this time, coinciding with the bursting of the Internet bubble, Nasdaq fell 80, NetEase stock prices fell to 0.8 U.S. dollars. Duan Yongping in the ruins of the gold in the 1 U.S. dollars under the bottom of a large plunge in NetEase. For NetEase, this is also a snowball investment. After this battle, also let Duan Yongping and Ding Lei in the heart, of course, also let Duan Yongping made money NetEase stock price then rebounded, to 2003 has rushed to 50 dollars above.
In this meeting at Zhejiang University, Duan Yongping also recalled his own investment in NetEase when he invested in NetEase, and in a few months, he made more than 20 times, really more than 20 times ah, and I’m full position. But he felt that this is unrepeatable that people say that you are really great, you do it again, I said this will not. You’ve stumbled upon it.
It was around this time that he came into contact with Warren Buffett’s theory of value investing Buying a company’s stock is the same as buying the company, buying a part of it or all of it, investing in a company that you can see and understand is undervalued by the market.
In 2006, in the eBay U.S. e-commerce site Lunch with Warren Buffett auction, the screen name of fastisslow means fast is slow bidder, to 62.01 million U.S. dollars in the high price of the opportunity to successfully auction, and set a new record price of the event for seven years.
The mysterious fastisslow was Duan Yongping. Talking about this much-anticipated sky-high lunch, his attitude is iconic calm Buffett does not lack the money for this meal, I participate in the bidding is by no means for utilitarian purposes, not as the outside world speculated that, attempting to ask for the so-called investment secret recipe from him A night of wealth of the brocade bag of wonderful plans, those conjectures are all nonsense. As far as I’m concerned, it’s purely for fun, just for fun.
Duan Yongping also said I took this lunch opportunity, but also want to support the old man Buffett, with practical action to show the world, he upholds the investment philosophy of the knowledge imparted is indeed very valuable, and deserves to be understood and valued by more people. Of course, after the financial crisis in 2008, Duan Yongping, who is not short of bullets, also took a plunge and closed his eyes and used a lower price than Buffett to buy the stocks that Buffett had bought.
After that, Duan Yongping’s biggest label is no longer Ze Wang and BuBuGao, but Mr. Duan, the investor.
It is worth mentioning that Duan Yongping not only brought his family to this lunch with Warren Buffett, but also brought a young man in his twenties from Zhejiang University, who later founded Pinduoduo’s Huang Zheng.
In this meeting at Zhejiang University, Duan Yongping himself mentioned Huang Zheng, and some people also asked about Huang Zheng. A ZJU student asked There is a deep friendship between you and Huang Zheng, and you may value some of the qualities in Huang Zheng. May I ask what qualities of young people attract you?
Duan Yongping doesn’t mince words about his admiration for Huang Zheng I think these qualities actually have nothing to do with age, I don’t like to deal with people who can’t communicate. I really like to communicate with Huang Zheng because I think he is a person who sees the essence, just like me, and I think that’s more important.
When we chat, we can always be on the same channel, but most people are not like this, I feel that it is difficult to communicate smoothly when I chat with many people. Duan Yongping said.
From A Duan when he first broke into Guangdong, to the Duan on behalf of BBK lifted the CCTV advertisement bidder From the mouth of American investors fastisslow Mr Duan, to the Chinese Internet Duan Fitt. Whether it’s donating 1 billion to Zhejiang University, helping Huang Zheng and other alumni of Zhejiang University, or talking about investment and life with young siblings today Whether it’s being active in the social media and talking about stocks and gold with netizens, over the age of old age, or always preaching for the value of the investment shouting, these may be the wealth of the free Duan Yongping the pursuit of the value of life way.
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