Wang Yong is a Tenured Professor and PhD supervisor at Tsinghua University, Chief Expert of major projects under the National Social Science Fund, Director of the Tsinghua–BMW China Institute for Sustainable Development and Mobility Innovation, and Director of the Digital Economy Research Center of the School of Social Sciences at Tsinghua University. He also serves as Vice President of the Chinese Society of Business History and President of its Enterprise History Branch, and is a Research Fellow at the Network Economy Research Center of Peking University. He received his PhD from the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, and was a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford.

His main research areas include game theory, the digital economy, platform economy, and the theory of the firm. He has published more than 70 academic papers in leading journals in China and internationally, including Economic Research Journal and Management World, with several papers reprinted in full in Xinhua Digest, and has been listed among the top 1% most-cited scholars on CNKI for consecutive years. He has authored influential academic works such as Fusion and Innovation (Springer) and Platform Governance. He has led numerous research projects, including major projects of the National Social Science Fund, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Ministry of Education, and has served as an expert advisor to several government bodies including the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation, providing policy advice on platform economy regulation and mixed-ownership reform of state-owned enterprises.

He has received numerous honours, including the Second Prize of the Ninth Outstanding Achievement Award in Scientific Research (Humanities and Social Sciences) from the Ministry of Education, National First-Class Undergraduate Course recognition, First Prize of the Beijing Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award, Second Prize in the Beijing Young Faculty Teaching Competition, the Tsinghua University Press Best Book Award, and recognition for Tsinghua精品课程 and General Education Honour Courses.