
Who is Jia Yueting, the Chinese billionaire linked to Faraday? - thaifdotme
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jia-yueting-explainer-20151106-htmlstory.html
======
eCa
> Jia has one of those improbable-sounding but strangely common rags-to-riches
> stories of modern China. Born to modest means in Shanxi province in 1973,
> the third child of a teacher and a housewife, he landed a job in the local
> tax bureau in the mid-1990s, according to profiles of him published in the
> Chinese media.

> He quickly left to start a string of his own businesses, in sectors from
> coal to mobile phones.

Not necessarily improbable. But incomplete.

1\. Low paying clerk job

2\. ?

3\. Billionaire

~~~
rdtsc
2\. Corruption

Really, that is the default pattern for explaining how clerks with government
jobs end up with such riches.

Have seen it happen many times in corrupt countries.

Judge or prosecutor on a $10k yearly salary builds a mansion house costing
$2m+.

Even in my own extended family have an uncle who was in the Soviet military,
relatively high rank. A few years after fall of the empire ends up with large
duffel bags full of $100 bills. Rumor has it, he was implicated in selling
SAMs to Syria and other ME countries. There was a trial but you see if you
have duffel bags full of $100 bills you don't convicted.

~~~
analyst74
While corruption is rampant in China, a low level clerk at a local tax office
can't really leverage his position to do much.

Also, getting into business in China a couple decades ago (upto mid 90s) were
quite easy, and coal business is one of the more lucrative ones, thanks to the
lack of regulations and local competition.

~~~
rdtsc
> While corruption is rampant in China, a low level clerk at a local tax
> office can't really leverage his position to do much.

It depends, sometimes a low level clerk is a gatekeeper to higher level
corruption, like a doorman if you wish. If there is not pre-existent
relationship you need someone like that to make the initial contact. There is
also nepotism, he could be low level, but because his uncle is high up the
chain, he is a good conduit for those wanting to pay a bribe to contact, etc,
etc.

More examples from a corrupt country. Long time ago, neighbor had a friend at
a forensics and paternity testing clinic. He was a low level grunt but was
corrupt as heck and was raking in tens of thousands per year both from
criminal paying him to "not find evidence" and deadbeat dads and rapists for
not finding "paternity" evidence. Talk about scum of the earth...

So sometimes rank is not proportional to profit from corruption.

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nulldereference
I think this is great, I hope more entrepreneurs follow in Musk's steps.

Having a electric car revolution of a mass scale would be great thing. China
has a much higher population density compared to most parts of the world, an
affordable electric car starting from China will attack the problem from the
other end. The high-end being Tesla, the low-end being Faraday or any other
manufacturer.

I look forward to what this Chinese billionaire does in this space.

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lzhou
I find it amusing that there seems to be a cargo cult going on with respect to
Steve Job's fashion.

~~~
eps
You must be easily amused, and by random false conjectures no less.

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vinceyuan
This company does not do well in film production, “smart” TVs, video
streaming, mobile phones, bicycles. But now it wants to make electric cars.
It's really ridiculous.

~~~
JonLim
Just curious: are you saying this because the article states that they have
thin profit margins, or because you know how they perform in the market?

~~~
vinceyuan
Because I am from China. Smart TVs are their best products. But LeTV is still
not a very famous brand. The quality is not good. I heard some LeTV died after
a year. Its market share is still tiny. But this company just released android
phones. I don't think LeTV phones are better than HTC, not to mention iPhone.
I can't believe this company also produce bicycles, and now it wants to build
cars. If a company wants to do everything, it can't do anything well.

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saisi
It seems his plan of operation is to expand into as many possibly
nouveau/profitable industries as possible. If successful, he might end up with
something akin to a Samsung conglomeration of diverse product lines.
Interested in how the established tech giants like Alibaba will respond to
this. He certainly has an uphill battle

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lakeeffect
Does anyone have any figures on using coal to generate electricity to power a
car for a day verse a days use of gasoline in terms of pollution? It's always
been a wonder for me. Now given the idea of electric cars in china it seems
more relevant.

~~~
DoctorZeus
This article has some interesting figures on pollution from gasoline vs
electric cars: "There Are Places Where Electric Cars Pollute More Than Gas
Guzzlers" [http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/07/where-
electri...](http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/07/where-electric-
vehicles-actually-cause-more-pollution-gas-cars-0)

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ucaetano
Sounds like just every other conglomerate that popped riding the huge grow in
the past decade while relying on government connections, but fails to deliver.

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angdis
"Faraday", come on, can't they have chosen a more original name than yet
another dead scientist, Musk used up that one already.

~~~
samstave
[https://www.faradaybikes.com/](https://www.faradaybikes.com/)

plus its already used for an electric vehicle.

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haosdent
Chinese Tesla

