Will was born in 1983 in Shangrao, a city located in the southeastern province of Jiangxi. He received a bachelor's degree in administration from Beijing University of Chemical Technology.
Since the company was founded in 2012, under the leadership of Cheng Wei and Jean Liu, DiDi has grown to become one of the world’s highest valued tech start-ups. The company has evolved from a simple taxi-hailing app to become China’s largest one-stop mobile transportation Service platform, offering comprehensive mobility solutions for close to 440 million users across over 400 cities, including taxi hailing, private car hailing, hitch (social ride-sharing), bus, minibus, chauffeur Service, car rental Service, enterprise solutions and bike-sharing Service.
Will is among those advocating that China needs to focus intensely on AI. Speaking to government officials and administrators in May, he said the first half of the internet age—in which companies raced to connect computing machines with people—has finished. "The second half is about artificial intelligence," he said. DiDi has established a big data research center to focus on AI technologies including machine learning and computer vision, which will optimize its dispatch system and route planning. A few hundred Scientists work on the deep-learning technologies. At this stage, Will said that the company is investing a lot of resources in research and is keen to recruit and retain top talent to build its self-driving cars and to make itself become one of the top Technology companies in the world.
He was one of the "Top 10 Economic Influencers of China in 2015" recognized by Sina.com.
Will released his book, "DiDi: the sharing economy is changing China", co-authored by Jean Liu and Zhang Xiaofeng, and published by Posts & Telecom Press in June 2016.
