Internet firm's CEO named top entrepreneurial talent

Wang Dong, founder of zhaogang.com and CEO of the ZG Group, has been named the 2021 Eastern Talent Program’s entrepreneurial talent. In more than a decade of entrepreneurship, he has consistently challenged himself and seized opportunities in the face of fierce market competition.

Li Huacheng

The founder of an industrial online platform company with 1,200 employees after starting with just 11 employees, Wang often tells his team that he chose to start here because he loves Shanghai and Jiading District. He wants to help traditional manufacturers adopt the “zhaogang model.”

“As long as steel is used on this planet, there will always be a need for zhaogang.com,” says the statement on the company’s website.

Wang and his team launched zhaogang.com in 2012. The company is committed to using a retail approach to assist steel enterprises dealing with overcapacity and declining earnings to “deplete inventory, reduce costs and fill the gaps.”

“I vividly recall our preliminary team’s formation on December 23, 2011. The Internet industry was thriving, but what we wanted to do was to “integrate Internet thinking with the industry, transforming and influencing both the production and distribution aspects of the sector.”

Wang introduced the new model of a “full industry chain steel e-commerce.”

This model centers around “matchmaking + self-operated” transactions and extends across the entire industry chain, including logistics, warehousing, processing, finance, big data and international e-commerce, providing customers with “one-stop services.”

Traditional manufacturing enterprises were able to see a new path and direction for transformation and upgrading as a result of the thinking that the “zhaogang model” brought about.

Li Huacheng

Under Wang’s leadership, the ZG Group achieved rapid development, attracting investments from several well-known fund companies and state-owned capital investors, with a total financing amount exceeding 2 billion yuan (US$278 million). On August 31 last year, zhaogang.com submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The market has validated the “zhaogang model” in recent years as the first domestically established steel e-commerce platform and the first to transform into a solely third-party digital trading platform for steel. Transaction volume has rapidly increased, making it a leading industrial Internet platform in China.

The company has developed a mature talent structure, continuously optimized its management system and built a high-quality, capable team.

The company has also obtained 45 patents and holds 288 software copyrights, with many technologies reaching international levels.

It has been ranked among the top 500 Chinese private enterprises and top 100 Chinese private service enterprises on three occasions.

“In these many years in Jiading, I have truly experienced the pragmatic nature of government services. Not only have I felt the livable and business-friendly environment, but I have also experienced the ‘close and clear’ government-business relationship and meticulous government services,” Wang said.

In recent years, Jiading’s continuously optimized settlement policies have become a crucial resource for attracting high-quality and high-end talent. Jiading’s ongoing improvements to projects, such as residential arrangements, medical services and cultural facilities, provide an opportunity for these talented individuals to experience the city’s attractive features.

This is also the confidence behind the decision of zhaogang.com to settle its headquarters in Jiading.

“I have been living in Jiading for over a decade, and I can visibly see the tremendous changes in Jiading. The area has become more beautiful, the facilities are more complete, and both hardware and software capabilities are rapidly improving.

“I can feel the warmth and vitality of this district in every detail. The favorable urban and business environment fills us with hope and motivation for the future,” Wang said.