If we were to chart the past two decades of the Chinese internet on a timeline, we would find a new era emerging almost every few years.
PC internet, mobile internet, social networks, mobile payments, artificial intelligence, smart hardware...
Each technological revolution has redefined the way people connect with the world and reshaped a generation of entrepreneurs.
Some succeeded by catching a wave, some exited because they missed an era. And another group of entrepreneurs focused on something else — where exactly is the era headed.
When conversing with Zhang Dingwen, he rarely talks about his entrepreneurial journey or uses "success" to define his past.
Compared to topics like financing, valuation, and M&A that draw more external attention, he talks most about two words: The Era.
He said many people like to study what projects are profitable, what industries are hot, what trends are biggest. But what truly determines a company's fate is never the trend, but the era. Trends are temporary; the era moves forward continuously.
A true entrepreneur should not chase trends, but stand in the direction of the era's evolution.
This is perhaps the most distinct characteristic of Zhang Dingwen's entrepreneurial journey over the past decade.
His choices each time seem to have a wide range.
Internet, social, capital, technology, smart hardware...
But if we stretch the timeline, we find they always revolve around the same main thread: the continuous evolution of how people connect with the digital world.
Fortunate to Stand Where the Era Began
In the early 2000s, the Chinese internet entered a phase of rapid development.
Back then, no one knew WeChat would emerge, no one knew mobile internet would completely change life, and certainly no one could accurately predict the speed of today's AI development.
Everything was exploratory. For many young people, the internet was just for chatting, gaming, and entertainment.
For another group, it meant a brand-new mode of production. In college, Zhang Dingwen belonged to the latter. At that time, campus social networking sites were rapidly emerging; many students saw the internet as a platform for communication.
He began pondering another question: Why can people be connected through a set of programs?
While others discussed whether websites looked good, he started researching back-end architecture. While others browsed web pages, he was already trying to develop his own products.
Later, he participated in developing campus internet products in his spare time — attending classes by day, coding at night, debugging programs till dawn.
Back then, there was no concept of startups, no goal of becoming an entrepreneur, and certainly nothing called AI today.
He simply felt: The internet is something magical; it can connect people who originally had no relation. Recalling that period later, he once said: What truly fascinated me was never the code, but the potential to change the world behind the code.
Many years later, when smart hardware and AI gradually became new industrial directions, this thinking about "connection" still ran through his entrepreneurial logic.
Startup Lesson One: Users Don't Naturally Become Commercial Value
After graduating, Zhang Dingwen officially started his entrepreneurial journey.
Like many young entrepreneurs, he initially believed: As long as the product is good enough, users will naturally come. As long as users keep growing, a business model will eventually be built. This belief was not uncommon in the early internet days.
Many startup teams prioritized growth; user numbers became the most important metric. In those years, he co-founded a photography community platform.
As photography culture heated up, many photography enthusiasts gathered on the platform. Registered users grew rapidly, with a large amount of content generated daily.
From a product perspective, everything was heading in a good direction. The team even thought at one point the company was on the path to success. However, reality soon taught everyone a lesson.
Servers became increasingly expensive, bandwidth costs soared, the team kept expanding, and operating expenses continued to rise. The platform had more and more users, but revenue didn't grow accordingly. That period is not unfamiliar to many entrepreneurs.
Checking backend data during the day felt good, but looking at financial statements at night made sleep difficult.
Reflecting on this experience later, Zhang Dingwen didn't define it as failure.
On the contrary, he considered it the most important lesson in his entrepreneurial journey.
Because it made him truly understand for the first time: User value does not equal commercial value.
A product can have many users yet still fail to find a sustainable business model. In the internet world, more traffic doesn't necessarily mean more success. What truly matters is: Have you created genuinely irreplaceable value for users?
He later said: The photography platform didn't make me money, but it taught me something more important than money — the business model determines how far an enterprise can go.
To this day, this statement still influences his product thinking.
What Entrepreneurship Changes is Not the Business, But Cognition
During the interview, the other word Zhang Dingwen mentioned most was cognition. He said: The greatest significance of entrepreneurship is never founding a company, but constantly refreshing one's own cognition through repeated practice.
When young, I always thought the product was most important. Later I realized the business model was equally important.
Then I realized what's truly important isn't the product or the model, but whether one can continuously understand users, the industry, and the era.
He said: Entrepreneurship is not really about managing a company; it's about managing one's own cognition.
Because how far an enterprise can ultimately go largely depends on the founder's cognitive boundaries. A company cannot exceed its founder's vision.
And vision is not just a slogan; it comes from continuous learning, continuous practice, and continuously overturning yesterday's self.
Many entrepreneurs see failure as an end, but Zhang Dingwen prefers to understand failure as a cognitive upgrade. Because every detour helps him re-understand business.
Re-understand users, and re-understand himself.
Where is the Era Headed?
Looking back today, the Chinese internet has entered a new phase. Artificial intelligence is reshaping productivity.
Smart hardware is gradually becoming a new gateway to the digital world. Technology continues to evolve, and industries keep changing.
But in Zhang Dingwen's view, one thing has never changed: Entrepreneurship is never about chasing hot topics.
It's about continuously answering one question: What will people need in the next ten years?
This is also why he discusses competitors and trends less and less, spending more time thinking about the industry's long-term evolution.
Because truly great companies never exist because they were one step faster than others.
But because they saw an era earlier than others.
Chapter Two: Cognition is More Important Than Opportunity
There's an interesting phenomenon in the business world: In the same era, the same market, the same technology, some see risk, others see opportunity; some merely participate, while others can change the industry.
What determines this difference isn't luck, but cognition.
During the interview, Zhang Dingwen mentioned a memorable statement: "What truly creates gaps between people is never information, but the ability to understand information. People see the same thing, but draw completely different conclusions. What truly determines the future isn't what you know, but how you think."
Over the past two decades, the Chinese internet has experienced technological leaps almost every few years. From PC internet to mobile internet, from mobile payments to AI, each change brought new business opportunities.
Many attribute success to "catching the wave."
Zhang Dingwen doesn't fully agree. In his view, the wave is just the outcome; cognition is the cause.
What's truly important isn't who hears a concept first, but who can judge what this change ultimately means.
The Work of an Entrepreneur is Not Finding Answers, But Asking the Right Questions
Throughout his entrepreneurial years, Zhang Dingwen's biggest change isn't how much knowledge he gained, but how his way of asking questions changed.
When young, he would ask: "Can this product be made?" Later, he started asking: "Why does this product exist?"
Later still, he became more concerned with: "If the future changes, will this product still have value?"
These three questions, seemingly just different expressions, correspond to three completely different ways of thinking.
The first question focuses on execution; the second on value; the third on the future.
Many companies develop rapidly in one stage but cannot sustain growth, not due to lack of execution, but because they asked the wrong questions from the start.
They ask: How to grow faster? How to get more users? How to scale up?
Instead of: What problems do users truly need solved? If the industry changes, what value can we still create? In the next five years, what should be the company's most important capability?
In Zhang Dingwen's view, a company's development trajectory is often not determined by answers, but by questions.
Because answers change with the times, but the right questions continuously guide the company toward new directions.
What Business Truly Competes On is Understanding of "Cause and Effect"
Many entrepreneurs like to study success cases — what others did, what business models they used, why they succeeded.
Zhang Dingwen prefers studying failure. He said: "Success often has elements of chance, but failure usually follows patterns. Understanding failure is more valuable than copying success."
In his view, many people look at business and only see outcomes.
Someone has a high valuation, secures funding, grows rapidly — so everyone starts learning from these outcomes.
But what entrepreneurs should truly study is not outcomes, but cause and effect.
Why was this company able to build its current competitiveness? What investments did it make five years ago that others don't see today? How long has its culture, organization, products, and R&D been accumulating?
These are the true causes that determine a company's fate.
He compares company development to growing a tree.
Many envy the tree's height, but few are willing to study its roots. In fact, a tree reaching twenty meters isn't due to effort in the final year, but because many years ago, it started sinking roots deep into the ground.
It's the same with companies. Brand is the result of product accumulation over many years. Profit is the result of user trust built over many years. Organizational capability is the result of talent development over many years.
True entrepreneurs shouldn't study the "fruit" daily, but the "cause."
Because if the cause is right, the fruit will eventually appear.
From Product Thinking to Systems Thinking
Many entrepreneurs share a common trait: They like solving problems.
But as the company develops, Zhang Dingwen found that what entrepreneurs truly need to solve are no longer single problems, but systemic problems.
If the product isn't good, you can optimize the product. If team efficiency is low, you can optimize processes.
But if the entire organization keeps repeating similar problems, it's not an execution issue — it's a systems issue. What a company truly needs to build is not one capability, but a system capable of continuously generating capabilities.
This system includes product methodology, organizational collaboration mechanisms, talent growth paths, and the transmission of values.
In his view, the true sign of a company's maturity isn't the founder solving problems daily, but the organization's ability to continuously solve problems.
Because the larger the company, the less the founder can be the sole source of answers. A truly excellent organization turns experience into mechanisms, mechanisms into culture, and culture into the company's ability for sustained growth.
True Vision is Accepting an Unfathomable Future
As the interview neared its end, the topic returned to "vision."
Many interpret vision as grand goals and broad perspective.
Zhang Dingwen offered another angle. He said: "Vision isn't thinking you know everything; it's knowing there's still much you don't know. What's truly dangerous isn't lack of ability, but stopping learning."
He believes the most important quality of an entrepreneur isn't predicting the future, but continuously revising oneself.
Technology, industry, and users will change.
The only thing that cannot stop changing is the entrepreneur's own cognition.
Therefore, he maintains a habit — continuously learning about new industries, new technologies, new business models, while also constantly overturning conclusions he once thought were correct.
Because true cognitive upgrading isn't accumulating more knowledge, but being willing to let go of formed prejudices.
There is no eternally correct method in business, only continuously updated methods.
A true entrepreneur doesn't stand today talking about the future, but continuously revises today from the perspective of the future.
Chapter Three: The Product is Not the Endpoint; The Gateway is the Answer
In Zhang Dingwen's entrepreneurial journey, product has always been a key keyword.
But labeling him merely as a "product-focused entrepreneur" would be oversimplifying.
From early internet product exploration, to co-founding mobile social apps like Tan Tan and Jiayuan.com, to later deep integration of technology ecosystems, smart hardware, and financial services, his thinking has undergone a clear shift: From creating a good product, to finding a gateway capable of carrying a future ecosystem.
This is also key to understanding Zhang Dingwen's business logic. Because in today's business world, products themselves are no longer scarce.
What's scarce are gateways. Even scarcer are gateways that can occupy user mindshare long-term, connect multiple services, and continuously generate new value.
A Good Product Becomes a Gateway
One of the most important changes in the Chinese internet over the past decade has been the migration of "gateways."
PC era: Portal websites were gateways. Mobile internet era: Smartphones and super apps became gateways. Short video era: Content feeds became gateways. AI era: Human-computer interaction methods are being redefined.
Each gateway migration brings an industry restructuring.
Zhang Dingwen values smart hardware not just because it's a consumer electronics business, but because it could become the next, more natural human-computer gateway.
A smartwatch, on the surface, is hardware. But what it truly connects is the human body, time, location, payment, health, social interaction, and data.
A phone goes in a pocket; a watch is worn on the body. This change in proximity itself implies new business possibilities.
Zhang Dingwen once mentioned in internal discussions: "The truly valuable hardware of the future doesn't end when sold; it only begins the moment the user puts it on."
Behind this statement lies a typical platform mindset. Traditional hardware sells a one-time transaction; platform-type hardware manages long-term relationships.
Smart Wearables Are Not a "Small Business"
In many people's eyes, a smartwatch is just a phone accessory — for notifications, step counting, heart rate monitoring, telling time.
But Zhang Dingwen sees another direction: When AI, payment, health, social, content, and financial services gradually converge into the same wearable device, smart wearables cease to be just consumer electronics; they become a new carrier of digital identity.
This is also a judgment he repeatedly emphasizes: The future value of smart hardware lies not in the hardware itself, but in the services it connects.
If you only see a watch as hardware, competition becomes a battle over specs, price, supply chain, and design.
But if you see the watch as a gateway, the question becomes: What can it connect? What can it accumulate? What new daily behaviors can it enable for users? Can it foster synergy between different businesses?
These two questions correspond to two completely different types of companies. The former is a hardware company; the latter is a platform company.
Re-understanding User Lifestyles
Truly outstanding tech products are rarely just about functional innovation. More often, they change user behavior.
The smartphone became an epoch-making product not because it could make calls or access the internet, but because it redefined how people access information, socialize, consume, pay, and work.
The potential of smart wearables shouldn't be understood only from hardware functions.
Zhang Dingwen's judgment on this point is: Future users won't be satisfied with just "using an app"; they'll need digital services that are lighter, faster, and more natural.
People can't easily hold phones while exercising; complex pages can't be opened during meetings; instant notifications and lightweight interaction are needed while traveling; in social settings, wearable devices themselves can become part of identity expression.
This means the commercial value of smart wearables isn't just functional; it's contextual.
Whoever enters more real-life scenarios gets closer to users.
And the closer to users, the greater the chance to become a new gateway.
From Selling Goods to Building Relationships
Many hardware companies focus on sales volume as their core metric — how many units sold, revenue, gross margin. These are important, of course.
But Zhang Dingwen cares more about another question: After selling, will users stay within the ecosystem? This is also the biggest difference between consumer hardware and platform-type hardware. Consumer hardware focuses on delivery; platform-type hardware focuses on connection.
The former pursues transactions; the latter pursues relationships.
If a watch is merely sold, its value is largely realized at the moment of payment.
But if it can connect to payment, social, health, content, membership, AI services, and more ecosystem applications, then its value extends with each daily use.
This is also the most fundamental logic behind Zhang Dingwen's shift from internet entrepreneurship to smart hardware: Truly viable products shouldn't generate income just once; they should form ongoing relationships.
In the internet industry, this is called user retention. In branding, it's user mindshare. But in platform ecosystems, it's long-term connection.
Behind these different terms lies the same idea: Companies shouldn't just pursue one-time transactions; they should build long-term trust.
The Superposition of Financial, Social, and Fashion Attributes
If traditional smart hardware emphasizes function, then Zhang Dingwen attempts to imbue smart wearables with more composite attributes.
In his vision, a watch is not just tech hardware; it can also be a platform gateway. Not just a tool, but also a social symbol. Not just a consumer product, but also a carrier for richer application scenarios like payment, asset management, and membership services.
This means the watch possesses several rare, superimposed attributes: It has a tech attribute, as it relies on hardware, software, systems, and AI capabilities. It has a financial attribute, because services like payment, transactions, and asset alerts can be delivered more lightly via wearables. It has a social attribute, because wearable devices are inherently expressive and can become conversation topics and expressions of identity.
Lastly, it also has a fashion attribute, because a product worn on the wrist inherently participates in the user's style and aesthetics.
This is also where smart wearables differ from ordinary apps. An app hides in a phone; a watch is worn on the body — it's a tool, a symbol, and a gateway.
Precisely because of this, Zhang Dingwen believes that watches are not in conflict with many projects and user groups; on the contrary, they have stronger compatibility.
They can connect tech users and consumer users. They can enter social scenarios and health scenarios. They can be sold as products and serve as platform gateways.
When a product can adapt to more user groups, its market boundaries are continuously widened.
The Essence of a Platform is Enabling More People to Participate in Creation
In Zhang Dingwen's thinking, a platform is not an abstract concept.
The true value of a platform isn't doing everything itself, but enabling more partners to generate value through the same gateway.
This differs from traditional business logic. Traditional companies emphasize control; platform-type companies emphasize connection.
Traditional companies focus on how many resources they own; platform-type companies focus on how many resources they can mobilize.
An open platform doesn't just serve its own users; it serves partners' users too. It doesn't just create its own revenue; it helps other participants in the ecosystem create revenue.
Therefore, Zhang Dingwen hopes smart hardware can become a "collaborative gateway" in the future, where more industry partners can also build their own application scenarios around the hardware terminal.
If this logic holds, then smart wearables are not just a product line, but an ecosystem container.
And once an ecosystem container forms, a company's value boundary is no longer determined by a single product, but by the entire ecosystem's creative capacity.
Why "Annual Iteration" is More Important Than "One Hit Product"
Zhang Dingwen once proposed a significant idea: Smart wearable products should iterate continuously like phones, releasing new models annually and continuously improving the experience.
This isn't simply mimicking the phone industry's rhythm. More importantly, it means companies cannot treat products as one-off projects from the start; they must manage them as long-term brands and long-term ecosystems.
One hit product can bring traffic; continuous iteration builds a brand.
One success can come from opportunity; continuous success requires a system.
For a truly mature tech company, the hardest part isn't making the first-generation product, but ensuring the second, third, fourth generations continue to be chosen by users.
What's tested underneath is supply chain, R&D, design, channels, service, and organizational capabilities. In other words, hardware is just the surface; the underlying battle is about systems.
In Zhang Dingwen's view, the truly worthwhile companies of the future aren't those constantly switching projects, but those continuously upgrading the same platform.
Today it's the first-generation watch; tomorrow the second; in the future, perhaps smart glasses and more wearables.
The product form may change, but user relationships, brand recognition, and ecosystem gateways can be continuously accumulated.
This is the concrete manifestation of long-termism at the product level.
The Battle for Gateways Ultimately is a Battle for Trust
However, a gateway isn't something you can just decide to create. Why would users entrust more services to you? Why would partners integrate with you? Why would the market believe you'll exist long-term?
The answer ultimately is two words: Trust.
Without stable delivery, a hardware brand won't gain user trust. Without clear rules, a platform won't gain partner trust. Without continuously creating value, an ecosystem won't gain market trust.
So, the battle for gateways appears to be product competition, but at a deeper level, it's trust competition.
Whoever can continuously keep promises can remain by the user's side long-term.
This is also the most realistic aspect of Zhang Dingwen's understanding of "product as gateway."
A gateway isn't a traffic slogan; it's a long-term responsibility.
The closer a company gets to users, the higher the trust cost it must bear. When a product is worn on the user's body, it's no longer just a commercial tool; it's a form of long-term companionship.
Chapter Four: From Entrepreneur to Industry Thinker: Zhang Dingwen Studies "Civilization"
When the interview reached the two-hour mark, Zhang Dingwen stood up and drew a timeline on the office whiteboard. On the left he wrote four words: Agricultural Civilization, then in sequence: Industrial Civilization, Information Civilization, Intelligent Civilization.
Finally, he paused for a few seconds at the far right end of the timeline and wrote two more words: The Future.
The reporter originally thought this would be an interview about entrepreneurship, financing, products, or business models.
But the further we talked, the more it became clear that what Zhang Dingwen truly cares about is no longer a specific company or industry, but a larger proposition: How will human society operate in the next twenty years?
He said something profoundly memorable: "When a company reaches a certain stage, what it truly competes on is no longer the product or the business model, but who understands the future better."
Over the past decade, the Chinese internet has experienced rapid development. From portals and search engines to mobile internet, short video, and AI, each technological shift created a batch of new companies.
But in Zhang Dingwen's view, most companies merely caught a wave, while a very few truly participated in shaping the era. "Truly great companies don't just adapt to the times; they propel the times forward."
This is his understanding of the word "entrepreneur."
Why Many Companies Can Succeed, But Find It Hard to Be Great
In the business world, many companies succeed, but truly great ones are always a minority.
During the interview, the reporter posed a question: Why can some companies reach tens of billions, while others can influence the entire world?
Zhang Dingwen didn't answer immediately.
He drew two circles on paper. The first circle said "Product"; the second said "Civilization."
He said: "Many companies spend their whole lives studying products. Truly great companies start studying civilization."
The reporter pressed: "Civilization?"
He said: "Products can only solve today's problems; civilization determines lifestyles for decades to come."
He gave several examples.
Ford Motor didn't just change the car; it changed mass production via the assembly line. Apple didn't just change the phone; it changed how people interact with the digital world. Google didn't just change search; it changed global knowledge access. Amazon didn't just change shopping; it changed global supply chains and cloud computing infrastructure. OpenAI captures global attention today not just because of a chatbot, but because it's promoting a new mode of knowledge production.
Truly great companies aren't great because they made a product. They're great because they changed how a civilization operates."
From Product Competition, to Rule Competition, to Civilization Competition
Zhang Dingwen believes that a company's development actually goes through three stages.
Stage One: Product competition. Whose product is better wins the market.
Stage Two: Platform competition. Whoever can connect more users, developers, partners wins the ecosystem.
Stage Three: Civilization competition. This term sounds grand.
But he says it's actually very concrete.
Civilization competition isn't about who has better ads or more funding; it's about who sets the rules for how the future operates. Why did Windows influence decades? Because it defined PC software standards. Why does Android have global reach? Because it established open standards for the mobile ecosystem. Why are Visa and Mastercard important? Not because they issue cards, but because they participate in global payment rules. Truly great companies ultimately establish rules. Once rules form, they influence the entire industry.
He says this is also why, the further a company progresses, the more it must look beyond the product itself.
Because products can be copied; rules are hard to copy.
What Companies Truly Need to Transcend is Not Technology, But Definition Capability
Over the past decades, many companies' greatest advantages were learning ability, manufacturing ability, execution ability, commercialization ability. These abilities made China a global manufacturing hub and birthed many excellent companies.
But in the future, merely doing these well is no longer enough.
He said: "What truly determines a company's height in the future is not execution, but definition."
Define what? Define products, define standards, define new interaction modes, define new industrial logic.
He believes many companies in the past mostly optimized within existing tracks. In the future, they need to build original capabilities in more foundational areas.
"We cannot forever answer questions others pose." "We should also start posing new questions."
This was one of Zhang Dingwen's most memorable statements during the interview.
Because what lies behind this statement isn't really about a single company.
But about the direction of a nation's industrial upgrading.
Why He Increasingly Focuses on "Gateway"
If in past years, Zhang Dingwen talked most about "product," then in recent years, his most frequent term has become "gateway."
He said: "Every industrial revolution is essentially a gateway revolution."
PC era: Keyboard and mouse were gateways. Internet era: Browser was the gateway. Mobile internet era: Smartphone was the gateway. AI era: Gateways will certainly continue to change.
In the future, it might be a watch, or glasses.
Perhaps even a new form not yet seen today. But no matter how the form changes, the essence remains unchanged. What's truly important isn't the device, but the way people establish contact with the digital world.
So, in his thinking, a gateway is never just a hardware product.
A gateway is a capability — a capability to continuously connect users, services, ecosystems, and the future.
He said: "What's truly valuable isn't who sells a product, but who becomes an indispensable part of the user's daily life."
The reporter later realized this statement actually runs through much of his entrepreneurial logic over the years, whether in internet, platforms, or smart hardware.
What he truly seeks is never a specific industry, but the next-generation way people connect with the digital world.
$1 Trillion Market Cap Is Not a Goal, But an Outcome
As the interview neared its end, the reporter asked a final question: "Many companies talk about vision. If you must describe the future, where do you hope your company goes?"
Zhang Dingwen was silent for a moment.
He said: "If a company studies market cap daily, what it ultimately gets will likely only be market cap. If a company studies the future daily, what it gets might be far more than market cap."
He said numbers are never the dream. What's truly worth pursuing is creating a kind of value that can continuously impact society. "Wealth is merely the unit of measurement for value, not value itself."
This statement, more than a business viewpoint, is a corporate philosophy.
In Zhang Dingwen's view, a company's greatest significance isn't how many assets it possesses, but how much innovation it can drive; not how much market it occupies, but how many new possibilities it can create; not how much money it makes today, but whether, ten years from now, it still holds value for society.
"If one day a Chinese tech company can truly influence the world, it won't be because of its size, but because it makes the world more efficient, more open, more intelligent."
"That is my understanding of a great company."
Chapter Five: Truly Great Companies Ultimately Leave Behind Not Wealth, But Civilization
After the interview, it was already dark. The city lights shone brightly outside the window; the office was quiet.
The interview outline on the desk still had many unanswered questions, because later on, the conversation rarely centered on the company itself. More often, we discussed the future.
We discussed technology, industry, civilization.
At the interview's end, I asked Zhang Dingwen one last question: If one day you retire...
What do you most hope people remember you for?
He was silent for a long time. He didn't answer financing, or IPO, or wealth.
He said: "If one day, because of our efforts, the world can operate a bit more efficiently, a bit more fairly, a bit more intelligently, I think that's enough."
These words are light.
Yet they reminded me of many entrepreneurs in business history. What truly great entrepreneurs ultimately leave behind is almost never wealth. Ford left behind the modern industrial system. Jobs left behind the mobile computing era. Bezos left behind digital commerce infrastructure. Jensen Huang is driving the AI computing revolution.
What they truly changed wasn't a company, but a generation's lifestyle. And precisely because of this, they later discussed business less and the future more.
A Company's Greatest Mission Is Not Making Money, But Solving the Era's Problems
In the business world, profit is always important because profit means the company can survive. But profit is never the end goal of a company's existence. Profit is merely the natural result after a company continuously creates value.
Truly great companies never make profit their mission.
What they truly care about is: What problems remain unsolved today? Which industry efficiencies can be improved? Which ordinary lives can be made better because of technology?
Business history continually proves that all truly great companies are almost born from a common starting point —
They didn't emerge because the market needed a product.
They emerged because the era needed an answer. Truly excellent companies don't wait for the era to pose questions; they proactively seek questions, even redefine them.
Zhang Dingwen believes an entrepreneur's value lies not in being better at running a company than others, but in seeing unmet needs earlier than others.
These needs sometimes come from users, sometimes from the industry, but most often, from the era itself.
A Company's True Moat Is Not Technology, But Values
One view during the interview left a deep impression.
Zhang Dingwen said: "Technology constantly updates, products constantly iterate, business models constantly change. What truly doesn't change easily is why a company exists."
He said many companies today like discussing core competitiveness.
Some say it's technology, channels, brand. These aren't wrong.
But if we stretch the timeline twenty years, what can truly traverse cycles often isn't technology, but values.
Because technology can be learned, talent can be hired, products can be imitated, capital can be copied.
What truly cannot be copied is a company's principles when facing temptation. The biggest risk in business isn't competition, but losing one's original intent during rapid growth.
So, the larger the company, the more it needs to know: What can change, and what must never change.
The mission can keep expanding, strategy can keep adjusting, products can keep upgrading.
But underlying principles like creating value, respecting users, long-termism, and integrity in operations should not change with market shifts.
This is also a company's deepest moat.
What a Company Ultimately Manages Is Trust
The business world has many assets — cash, technology, patents, brand, talent...
But behind these assets lies a common foundation: trust. Without user trust, even the best product cannot exist long-term. Without societal trust, even the highest market cap cannot truly traverse cycles.
So, when a company reaches a certain stage, what it truly manages is no longer just products, but trust.
Trust isn't built by ads. Trust comes from keeping promises again and again, from stably creating value long-term, from willingness to take responsibility. The greatest compound interest in business isn't profit, but trust. Because profit can increase in a year, but trust takes many years to build and can be lost with a single breach.
Truly mature companies regard trust as more important than growth.
Because growth is about today; trust determines the future.
The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs Needs Not Just Ability, But Worldview
Today's young entrepreneurs have more resources than any previous generation. They have AI, global markets, digital tools, and open knowledge.
But simultaneously, they face more complex uncertainty.
Technology changes faster, industry boundaries blur more, competition becomes more global.
Therefore, future entrepreneurial competition isn't just ability competition; it's worldview competition.
A person's worldview determines how they understand technology and wealth, how they understand the relationship between people and society.
It also determines where the company will ultimately go.
Zhang Dingwen believes truly outstanding entrepreneurs shouldn't just learn how to run a business; they should also study history, technology, economics, philosophy, and the laws of civilizational development.
Because in the end, a company doesn't just manage an organization; it manages long-term relationships between people and society.
The True Future Does Not Belong to the Fastest Runner
Many believe entrepreneurship is about constant acceleration. Actually, truly excellent companies are rarely the fastest; they're the ones with the most correct direction. The business world is never a sprint; it's a marathon with no finish line.
Leading short-term doesn't mean leading long-term. Companies that can traverse decades all share a common ability: They can continuously learn, adjust, and negate yesterday's self.
Truly great companies don't stop evolving because they succeed today, nor do they abandon the future because of today's difficulties.
Because they know.
The future never rewards the smartest person.
It rewards those who keep growing.
Afterword:
After the interview ended, reflecting on the deep conversation with this 90s-born tech entrepreneur, I felt quite impacted; the aftertaste was strong. Reviewing the full day's interview notes,
they rarely contained "making money" or "competition."
More frequent were: future, long-term, value, trust, industry, era.
Perhaps this is a common trait among more and more excellent entrepreneurs today. They are starting to think about their companies on a larger timescale.
No longer focusing just on the next quarter, but starting to think about the next decade.
They no longer just discuss products, but start discussing people and technology.
They no longer just manage a company, but start thinking about how the company can become part of society.
Many years from now, people might not remember how much a company earned in a year, how many users it had, or even what its market cap reached.
But people will remember: Did it make the world a bit more efficient, a bit more open, a bit more trustworthy?
This is perhaps what a company can truly leave behind.
Because commerce eventually passes, wealth eventually changes, technology eventually iterates. What can truly traverse time isn't numbers, but value.
What can remain isn't a company.
But a spirit, a belief in creating value, and an era's answer to the future.
This article is from WeChat public account "Thought and Strategy Think Tank"
