Cheng Wei

Cheng Wei (simplified Chinese: 程维; traditional Chinese: 程維, born 1983) is a Chinese business executive. His English nickname is Will. Will is the Founder and CEO of Didi Chuxing ("DiDi", formerly known as Didi Kuaidi), China's largest comprehensive one-stop mobile transportation platform. In 2012, after 8 years at Alibaba Group's regional and Alipay's operations, at age 29 Will founded Beijing Orange Technology Co Ltd. in Zhongguancun, known as China’s Silicon Valley, and soon launched Didi Dache, a taxi-hailing app. In February 2015, the company merged with Kuaidi Dache, another key market player to become Didi Kuaidi (later renamed Didi Chuxing). In August 2016, Didi Chuxing acquired the Chinese division of Uber.

Will was born in 1983 in Shangrao, a city located in the southeastern province of Jiangxi. He received a bachelor's degree in administration from Beijing University of Chemical Technology.

After graduation, Will served as an assistant to a chairman at a foot massage company. He soon found that the job was not quite what he had expected, and, about one year later, applied to join Alibaba as a sales person for its business-to-business e-commerce service in 2005.

In his six years at Alibaba, Will rose to being a sales manager for the northern region of China. Then, he moved to China's largest third-party online payment platform, Alipay, where he quickly gained a reputation as a talented manager despite his age and rose through the ranks to become the company's youngest regional manager.

In 2012, Will left Alibaba and founded Beijing Orange Technology Co and launched Didi Dache - meaning "Beep Beep Call a Taxi" - the initial incarnation of his ride-hailing service. In 2014, he hired Jean Liu(Liu Qing), a former Goldman Sachs Asia managing director as the COO of his company. In February 2015, the company merged with its rival Kuaidi Dache to become Didi Kuaidi (later renamed Didi Chuxing). In August 2016, Didi Chuxing acquired all assets of the Chinese division of Uber, including its brand, business operations and data for operation within mainland China. Under the terms of the deal, Will is set to become a board member of Uber and Travis Kalanick will get a seat on DiDi's board.

Since the company was founded in 2012, under the leadership of Cheng Wei and Jean Liu, DiDi has grown to become one of the world’s highest valued tech start-ups. The company has evolved from a simple taxi-hailing app to become China’s largest one-stop mobile transportation service platform, offering comprehensive mobility solutions for close to 300 million users across over 400 Chinese cities, including taxi hailing, private car hailing, hitch (social ride-sharing), test drive, chauffeur service, bus, car rental service and enterprise solutions.

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