← Back to the club

Dangdang

E-commerceChina
New to Unitard
🤝 Acquired
Peak $3 BillionToday
~-82%
from peak
  1. 🦄
    Became a unicorn
    2010
  2. 📈
    Peak valuation
    $3 Billion ’10
  3. 💔
    Became a Unitard
    2011
  4. 💸
    Last valuation
    ~$540M
Current status
Taken private in 2016 at ~$556M after a long decline; the founders later feuded for control

The rise & fall

6 moments · 1999–2020

The key moments.

1999
Founded as China's online bookstore
Husband-and-wife founders Li Guoqing and Peggy Yu start with books, aiming to be China's Amazon.
Wikipedia
2010
The peak: shares nearly double on NYSE debut$3B
The first Chinese e-commerce company to list in New York is briefly worth about $3B.
Wikipedia
2011
Slips out of the club
The debut pop fades fast; within a year the market value is back below $1B.
Wikipedia
2011–15
Out-muscled by Alibaba and JD.com
Years of weak growth follow, and Dangdang becomes one of the worst-performing Chinese tech stocks on record.
Caixin
2016
Taken private by its founders at ~$556M$556M
Li Guoqing and Peggy Yu buy back the pioneer at roughly a fifth of its debut-day value.
Caixin
2020
The founders go to war
Li Guoqing and Peggy Yu battle very publicly for control of the shrunken company — at one point Li's group raids the office and carts off its official seals.
CGTN

How it happened

Dangdang was China's pioneering online bookseller-turned-marketplace, often called the country's answer to Amazon, and in November 2010 became the first Chinese e-commerce company to list on the New York Stock Exchange — its shares nearly doubling on debut to a market value around $3B.

But it was quickly out-muscled by Alibaba and JD.com, posted years of weak growth, and became one of the worst-performing Chinese tech stocks on record. Co-founders Li Guoqing and Peggy Yu took the company private in 2016 in a deal valuing it at just ~$556M, and later waged a very public battle for control of the shrunken business.

Source: Caixin / CGTN / Wikipedia (China's e-commerce pioneer and first Chinese e-commerce firm to list in the US; Nov 2010 NYSE IPO that surged on its first day to a market value around $3B; among the worst-performing Chinese tech stocks thereafter; taken private in 2016 valuing it at ~$556M)

Founders

  • Li Guoqing
    Co-founder & CEO (until 2019)
    No public profile matched
  • Peggy Yu
    co-founder & executive chairwoman
    No public profile matched

More from the club

Same sector · E-commerce
Farfetch$23BContextLogic (Wish)$14BBukalapak$7.6BSnapdeal$6.5BJumia$5B
Same fate · go-private buyout
Jumei International$2.9BBright Scholar Education$1.54B
🦄