In "Records of the Grand Historian: The Basic Annals of Xiang Yu," the Western Chu Overlord Xiang Yu was quoted as saying: "Wealth and honor that do not return to one's hometown are like wearing embroidered clothes and walking at night - who would know?" Xiang Yu was from Xiaxiang, which belongs to today's Suqian in Jiangsu Province. More than two thousand years later, Xiang Yu's fellow townsman from Suqian, JD.com Group founder Liu Qiangdong's recent "return home in wealth and honor" has become known to the world through advanced communication technology.

In the "2025 China's Top 500 Private Enterprises" list released by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce a few days ago, JD.com Group ranked first. As the founder and leader of this "top private enterprise," Liu Qiangdong's words and actions during this "return home in wealth and honor" naturally cannot be viewed as an ordinary person's homecoming journey. It is a comprehensive communication campaign mixed with hometown sentiment, business, traffic, corporate image, and personal brand building - an "optimal choice" after precise calculation of multiple time points and itinerary.

The outdoor barbecue stall for late-night snacks is the most suitable venue for social media dissemination. This is like a reality show version of the short drama "Billionaire CEO Drinks with Me at a Barbecue Stall Late at Night."

This comprehensive communication campaign kicked into high gear on the night of August 29 and early morning of August 30 at outdoor barbecue stalls on Suqian streets. "Suqian's Brother Dong" drained the beer in his plastic cup after toasting with people around him, and after finishing, he turned the plastic cup upside down to show he had not left a drop. Throughout the event, he spoke in his Suqian hometown dialect, occasionally putting his arms around brothers he hadn't seen for a long time, and was extremely approachable to Suqian locals who requested photos, never refusing anyone.

These photos and videos began spreading widely on domestic social media platforms from the early morning of August 30, quickly climbing to trending topics and continuing through the time of writing. The life of a "billionaire CEO" turned out to be so simple and unpretentious. This resembled exactly the scene when we, who have struggled outside for many years, return home and have late-night snacks with our hometown brothers, eating and drinking heartily, with sweat and tears mixed together. The only difference is that when we have late-night snacks, we lack the segment of people around us requesting photos.

Some media outlets view this as part of the entrepreneur's personal character. I acknowledge that Liu Qiangdong's personality has the "Brother Dong" side, but the "traffic communication" implications behind this late-night snack cannot be ignored by us. In the early morning of August 30 on Suqian streets, everyone was a "reporter," using their phones to record the "billionaire CEO's homecoming debut" and immediately uploading it proudly to their social media accounts. Perhaps this was the highest-traffic video or post on their accounts since opening.

JD.com Group didn't even need to actively promote to complete a communication campaign with hundreds of millions of exposures. In March this year on Beijing streets at night, when the JD.com and Meituan food delivery battle was intense, "Brother Dong" wearing JD delivery uniform also raised his beer glass and toasted with delivery workers wearing Meituan and Ele.me uniforms, saying "Welcome brothers to join JD.com." When toasting, "Brother Dong" deliberately lowered his glass rim, just as he did months later on Suqian streets.

**Business**

A "billionaire CEO's" homecoming itinerary must revolve around multiple purposes, with both public and private schedules. Before the hearty late-night drinking, attention still had to be focused on business.

On August 29, Liu Qiangdong appeared in JD.com's soon-to-open discount supermarket in Suqian. This itinerary's "exposure" was obviously not as much as the street late-night snack, but it may have been the more important schedule of this homecoming.

On August 30, JD.com discount supermarkets opened four stores simultaneously in Suqian, each with over 5,000 square meters and more than 5,000 SKUs (stock keeping units), larger than the Zhuozhou store. JD.com discount supermarkets carry JD.com's enormous expectations for "reconstructing sinking market retail strategy." Hometown is always where many people draw strength for new beginnings, and Liu Qiangdong also wants to make Suqian his first choice for "validating" this strategy.

The timeline of this communication is so clear: On August 29 during the day, Liu Qiangdong appeared in the soon-to-open JD.com discount supermarket, generating "medium-level" communication; on the night of August 29, Liu Qiangdong appeared on Suqian streets, eating barbecue and drinking heavily, generating "massive-level" communication; early on August 30, four JD.com discount supermarkets opened simultaneously, with Suqian citizens all coming to attend.

For companies like JD.com, the founder's personal brand and corporate promotion, product communication can basically be integrated and are difficult to separate. When founders directly participate in communication, it saves the company enormous advertising costs.

I wonder if Liu Qiangdong wants to "replicate" Pangdonglai in his hometown Suqian, and whether Yu Donglai's Xuchang is Liu Qiangdong's Suqian? All of this depends on "Brother Dong's" continuous and stable traffic injection.

**Su Super**

The first moment Su Super went viral, JD.com immediately expressed joining the sponsor ranks and quickly became an official strategic partner. This is a "rational" choice: Suqian is one of the 13 participating cities in Su Super, and JD.com couldn't possibly not support an event that the founder's hometown is celebrating together.

In recent years, Liu Qiangdong has also been shaping his "hometown narrative" through repeatedly giving money and goods to villagers and repeatedly responding to "villagers pooling 76 eggs to send him to university." In this narrative, he is widely viewed as someone who doesn't forget his hometown when wealthy and knows how to repay kindness.

Liu Qiangdong, with his sociology background, naturally understands the public's "imagination" of private entrepreneurs: when returning home wealthy, it's time to give back to hometown. He also repeatedly responds to this public "expectation" through donations and makes his image and evaluation trend positive.

Under the current social atmosphere, people's purchasing behavior is often viewed as "voting with their feet" for companies and their founders. On the evening of August 30, at the Su Super match where Suqian hosted Huai'an, Liu Qiangdong "inevitably" attended. As early as August 29, when he appeared on Suqian streets, media speculated he would definitely cheer for Suqian at the next evening's Su Super league.

This is personal hometown sentiment building, JD.com's traffic source, and also fulfilling the commitment made during the Davos Forum period of "go, must go."

Media titled this game attendance as "Liu Qiangdong Takes Wife to Watch Su Super, Shouts Suqian Slogans." Returning home with wife and children - wasn't this the ultimate dream of how many men struggling outside?

When you "encounter" Liu Qiangdong on Suqian streets in the early morning of August 30, you don't need to be surprised. This may be an "optimal choice" after considering multiple time points. JD.com needs him to appear there at that time, his hometown needs him to appear there at that time, and people also need him to appear there at that time.

Returning home wealthy is also for the sake of wealth.