# Yue Lihua

> Yue Lihua is a Hunan retailer and founder of Furong Xingsheng and Xingsheng Selected. He turned experience gained in his family's village shop and a township wholesale business into a network of neighborhood stores, then used those stores as pickup points for a pre-order grocery platform. The model attracted billions of dollars from investors and pushed China's largest internet companies into community group buying. After expanding nationally, Xingsheng Selected contracted to its core markets in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi, leaving Yue to prove that regional density can matter more than national reach.

- **Role:** Founder and chairman of Xingsheng Selected
- **Organizations:** Xingsheng Selected, Furong Xingsheng
- **From:** Yiyang, Hunan, China
- **Nationality:** Chinese
- **Known for:** Built Furong Xingsheng into a large community convenience-store network rooted in central and southern China., Helped pioneer the online pre-order and neighborhood pickup model known as community group buying., Expanded Xingsheng Selected to more than 300,000 pickup stores by September 2020, according to a Tsinghua Management Review case study.

## Career timeline

- **c. 1990** — As a teenager, opened a wholesale business in a township after growing up helping in his family's village shop.
- **2001** — Combined retail operations with partners to establish the chain that became Furong Xingsheng.
- **2006-2007** — Moved toward smaller 30-80 square meter community convenience stores and expanded in Changsha and beyond.
- **2014-2016** — Began experimenting with online retail; early home-delivery, self-operated and market-distribution models did not work.
- **2017** — Found the community group-buying formula: online pre-orders, neighborhood store pickup and shopkeepers serving as group leaders.
- **2018** — Hunan Xingsheng Selected E-commerce Co., Ltd. was incorporated and began raising institutional capital.
- **2020** — Accepted a $700 million strategic investment from JD.com as competition in community group buying intensified.
- **2021** — Raised a reported $3 billion round; a later strategic investment reportedly valued the company at $12 billion.
- **2022-2023** — Retreated from much of its national footprint and refocused operations on Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi.
- **2025** — Said he planned market research visits in Jiangxi and Hubei while emphasizing quality, brand building and product development.

## Achievements

- Built Furong Xingsheng into a large community convenience-store network rooted in central and southern China.
- Helped pioneer the online pre-order and neighborhood pickup model known as community group buying.
- Expanded Xingsheng Selected to more than 300,000 pickup stores by September 2020, according to a Tsinghua Management Review case study.
- Attracted more than $5 billion in disclosed and reported financing from investors including JD.com, Tencent, KKR, Sequoia China and others between 2018 and 2021.
- Created a three-tier logistics system connecting central warehouses, local distribution stations and neighborhood stores.

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Yue said Xingsheng Selected would focus on its core business, improve quality and brand building, and that he planned visits to Jiangxi and Hubei to research new ways to unlock consumer demand.
- **2025-08** — A reported assessment of the company found it operating mainly in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi after its national retreat, with regional density and the proposed 'Million Thriving Stores' format central to its next phase.
- **2023-12** — Reporting described a management reset and a return of the founding team after senior hires from large internet companies departed.

## Links

- Website: https://www.xsyxsc.com/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/yue-lihua
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Last updated: 2026-09-26