Jia Yueting's life experience
Jia Yueting, born on February 6, 1973 in an ordinary peasant family in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province, is the third oldest in the family, with an older sister and an older brother. His academic performance was average, and he later studied accounting at Shanxi Finance and Taxation College.
Jia Yueting in its former glory
After graduation, he worked at the Yuanqu County Tax Bureau as a network technical administrator. In 1998, he quit his job to start Excellence Industries, a company that sells computer accessories and software.
In 2002, he transformed into a video website LeTV, and in 2010, he was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM). He has built the LeEco ecosystem with the model of "platform + content + terminal + application", and has been involved in many fields, such as mobile phones, TV, sports, film and television, automobiles, etc.
In 2014, he announced an investment in Faraday Future, an American electric vehicle company, and served as its founder and global chairman. He argues that traditional institutions and rules limit innovation.
Since 2016, LeEco has been mired in a funding crisis and a debt crisis, with several projects stalled or failed. Jia Yueting was listed as a dishonest executor and restricted from leaving the country. In July 2017, he traveled to the United States to deal with Faraday's future and has never returned.
In May 2020, Jia Yueting announced the completion of his personal bankruptcy restructuring plan and said that he would repay his debts as soon as possible.
In September 2021, Faraday Future was listed on NASDAQ and became the hope for Jia Yueting's return to the business world.
The development process of LeTV can be divided into the following stages
- In November 2004, Jia Yueting founded LeTV, which mainly provides video-on-demand services.
- In August 2010, LeTV was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), becoming the first video website listed in China.
- From 2012 to 2014, LeTV began to expand its film and television production, sports copyright, smart TV and other businesses, and launched a membership model³.
- From 2015 to 2016, LeTV further expanded into mobile phones, automobiles, finance and other fields, and proposed the ecosystem concept of "platform + content + terminal + application"⁵.
- Since 2017, LeTV has fallen into a broken capital chain and debt crisis, and many projects have stalled or failed. Jia Yueting was listed as a dishonest executor and restricted from leaving the country¹⁴⁶.
- In May 2020, LeTV terminated its listing and became the first company to be delisted on the Growth Enterprise Market¹⁴.
LeTV's tragic end
Jia Yueting and LeTV's peak
- LeTV film and television production
In 2012, LeEco invested in and produced its own film and television dramas, such as "The Legend of Zhen Huan", "The Legend of Miyue", "The Vertical and Horizontal of the Great Qin Empire", etc., to improve the exclusivity and attractiveness of the content.
LeEco cooperated with Hollywood to introduce blockbusters such as "Transformers" and "Fast and Furious".
- LeEco Sports copyright
In 2012, LeEco began to acquire the copyright of domestic and foreign sports events, such as the Chinese Super League, Premier League, NBA, Champions League, etc., to meet the sports needs of users. LeEco also runs its own sports events, such as marathons and football leagues.
LeEco Super TV
In 2013, LeEco released the first smart TV super TV, and launched the Xinle City Cloud Platform and Xinle City Smart Home System to realize the interconnection of TVs with mobile phones, tablets and other devices. LeEco Smart TV also integrates video content and application services to provide users with more entertainment options.
LeEco Super TV
These businesses are all aimed at enhancing LeTV's content advantages and user stickiness, and have launched a membership model that allows users to pay to watch more high-definition ad-free content. This also laid the foundation for the subsequent ecosystem concept.
- LeEco phone
LeEco released its first smartphone, the Le1, in April 2015, which attracted consumers with its cost-effective and bezel-less design. LeEco mobile phone sales once exceeded 20 million units, but due to supply chain problems and funding crisis, subsequent product updates and after-sales services have been affected.
LeEco mobile phone release site
- LeEco Automotive
In November 2015, LeEco announced its entry into the automotive field and its investment in Faraday Future, an American electric vehicle company. LeEco Auto's goal was to build a smart internet-connected electric vehicle, but the project was never delivered due to funding gaps and technical difficulties.
- LeEco Financial
LeEco established LeEco Financial Holding Group in March 2016, covering Internet payment, Internet insurance, Internet securities, Internet funds and other businesses. However, due to regulatory risks and debt crises, several subsidiaries of the group were closed or closed.
The demise of LeEco
These businesses are all measures taken by Jia Yueting to realize the ecosystem concept of "platform + content + terminal + application", and he hopes to create an ecosystem covering the all-round needs of users through cross-border integration. But this also led to his problems of overreach, blind investment, and high leverage.
Jia Yueting's FF (Faraday Future) past and present life
Jia Yueting founded LeEco's new energy vehicle project in 2014 to build smart internet-connected electric vehicles.
In 2015, Jia Yueting invested in an American new energy vehicle company - FF (Faraday Future), whose flagship product is FF91, a high-end intelligent electric SUV.
FF91
In 2017, Jia Yueting resigned because LeTV fell into a huge debt crisis and moved to the United States to focus on FF. Faraday Future received hundreds of millions of dollars from Jia Yueting and other investors to develop the FF91 and build the plant.
From 2018 to 2020, Faraday Future encountered several financing difficulties and litigation disputes, resulting in factory shutdowns, employee layoffs, and supplier arrears. During this period, Faraday Future had cooperated or negotiated with companies such as Evergrande Health and Baidu, but no final agreement was reached.
In January 2021, Faraday Future announced its merger with Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. and plans to close the transaction in the first half of 2021. The deal will provide Faraday Future with about $1 billion in new funding.
On July 22, 2021, Faraday Future was listed on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "FFIE". The day closed at $13.32, with a market capitalization of about $3.5 billion.
Official picture of FF91
On September 30, 2021, Faraday Future announced more than $52 million in new funding and said it is working to complete the funding process to raise enough new capital to launch FF91.
On April 15, 2022, Faraday Future was facing the crisis of delisting due to the failure to release its financial results for the third quarter of 2021 on time. Faraday Future announced that it had concluded an internal investigation and taken some disciplinary action, including the removal of its founder and former CEO Jia Yueting as an executive officer, but he will remain chief product and user officer.
On April 16, 2022, Faraday Future filed its third-quarter 2021 earnings report and said it had resumed compliance with Nasdaq.
On February 6, 2023, Faraday Future announced a US$135 million financing of convertible guaranteed notes, which it said will provide sufficient foundation for the mass production of FF91 Futurist.
On February 26, 2023, Faraday Future said that if the financing agreement is successfully executed, mass production of the FF91 Futurist will begin in March and deliveries will begin in April.
FF91
On February 27, 2023, Faraday Future founder Jia Yueting said that the company will continue to raise funds to ensure that FF91 is expected to reach 6,000 to 8,000 units next year, and plans to achieve localization in 2025.
On March 2, 2023, Faraday Future reinstated Jia Yueting as an executive officer and will report directly to the Board of Directors along with Global CEO Chen Xuefeng.
To be continued...