Back
Wang Wei
Wang Wei
Chairman, SF Express

#SecretSelfmadeBillionaires0214 Wang Wei Delivery King of China How he Built SF Express in 24 yrs

🎥 Dec 15, 2017 📺 SecretsSelfmadeBillionairesbyPaulChan ⏱ 6m
Wang Wei founded SF Express at age 22 with a loan of HK $100,000 from his Dad. In 24 years he built SF Express into China's largest deliver company with his own fleet of 41 airplanes and SF Airlines. This is his story. He is now one of richest man in China.
Watch on YouTube

About Wang Wei

Wang Wei, chairman of SF Express, founded the company in 1993 at age 22 with a HK$100,000 loan from his father, starting with six employees and working 15-hour days. He initially used a price-cutting strategy, charging HK$40 when others charged HK$70, and later expanded through franchising in the Pearl River Delta. After franchisees began stealing from him in 1999, he gave them an ultimatum to join him or leave, buying them out over three years, which created enemies and led him to hire bodyguards and maintain a low public profile for 15 years. During the 2002 SARS crisis, SF Express became the first Chinese delivery company to use air transport, and during the 2009 global financial crisis, Wang Wei bought his own fleet of airplanes, which grew to 41 by 2017. In 2016, he broke his silence after an employee was assaulted, stating he would be unworthy as CEO if he did not take the matter to court. He took SF Express public in February 2017, becoming the fourth richest man in China, and rewarded all employees with gift money, including those with less than a year of service.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Wang Wei's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (7 segments)
N
Narrator0:10
Episode 214. There are three reasons why we study Wang Wei. First, he's only 46 years old and one of the richest men in China. Second, he started SF Express in 1993 with a hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars borrowed from his dad. Third, SF Express is now one of the biggest global delivery companies with presence in more than 200 countries. Let us meet Wang Wei, one of the most secretive billionaires in China.
His father was in the China Air Force. His mother was a professor in Jiangsu province. In 1978, at the age of seven, he immigrated to Hong Kong with his parents. As immigrants, his parents were poor. He went to high school in Hong Kong. This is a picture of the high school he went to. He was not a particularly good student. After graduation from high school, his first job was in printing. He worked under his uncle. In 1993, he founded SF Express in Shunde, China, by borrowing $100,000 Hong Kong dollars from his father.
His first strategy was to cut prices. He is famous now for when others charged $70, he charged $40. This attracted customers. His next strategy was to allow locals to join his franchise. Within five years, he had monopolized the delivery business in the Pearl River Delta. In 1999, trouble began. His local franchisees began to steal from him. He realized he needed centralized control to grow his company.
He made enemies. It was rumored that his enemies were trying to hire thugs to kill him. Wang Wei hired a team of bodyguards, kept a very low profile, and would not speak to the public for the next 15 years while his delivery business continued to thrive. Then came the SARS crisis of 2002 in China. SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. During the SARS crisis, when everyone was afraid to travel, the airlines suffered overcapacity and stagnation. Wang Wei took advantage and negotiated low rates with the airlines, becoming the first Chinese delivery company to buy his own fleet of airplanes. By 2017, his SF Airlines fleet numbered 41.
Wang Wei fought back. In 2016, one of his delivery employees got slapped and beaten by a local big boss. Wang Wei took the matter to heart and said he would be unworthy of being CEO if he did not take this matter to court. Most of China cheered him for fighting for the rights of his employees. He broke his silence in February 2017.
In 1993, the first thing he did was to reward every one of his employees with gift money, even for those who had joined his company less than a year.
What have I learned today? First, with very little education and very little capital, Wang Wei built the biggest delivery empire in the world, and he did it in 24 years, half the time of Federal Express and a quarter of the time of UPS. Thank you for watching.