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Beijing is Silicon Valley's only true competitor

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Re: Beijing is Silicon Valley's only true competitor

#21

Post by Hondor »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #7

Spend 3 weeks in China, and maybe it is clear that it is, but spend 8 years in China, and it is overwhelming clear that it is not. > Yes, they clone where they can. But cloning is starting to reach its max — there are just not enough successful ideas to clone. In addition, clones often fail in the local market due to different consumer behavior and needs. China is still fairly closed, startups here in Beijing are 99%…

It's not clear if many of these things are good or bad or if they're any worse than silicon valley. I wouldn't count any of them as serious obstacles for Beijing tech success.

Focused on the local market. I often run into SV companies that I'd like to use as a customer but can't because they only serve America. Either because of IP restrictions, money transfer, shipping, or they just haven't figured out other countries yet.

Having people in it for the money is a sign that something's really happening. It's not just hobbyists doing it for fun. I'm sure most SV startups are in it for the money too. Nobody really things a pick-up laundry service for rich people is altruistic or fun.

Young smart engineers getting management responsibilities. Sounds like every startup with a 25 year old CEO.

Lack of good leadership? Maybe they're effectively doing flatter organization structures. That's a cool trend in SV.

High cost of living. SV is famous for its wildly inflated house prices but that's not stopping it.

Bad internet: Crippling if you're a foreigner and depend on foreign services. Hardly noticeable for locals using Chinese services. American's equally have no access to major Chinese internet services because of the language barrier yet that isolation isn't stopping them.

Underhanded business practices. America has patent lawsuits which a big company can use to stomp out pretty much any small software company they want. Everyone's infringing somebody's patent but they mostly survive because they're too small to matter.

Long hours and no time for family. SpaceX is famous for that and they're doing pretty well.

Re: Beijing is Silicon Valley's only true competitor

#24

Post by jsemrau »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #7

Spend 3 weeks in China, and maybe it is clear that it is, but spend 8 years in China, and it is overwhelming clear that it is not. > Yes, they clone where they can. But cloning is starting to reach its max — there are just not enough successful ideas to clone. In addition, clones often fail in the local market due to different consumer behavior and needs. China is still fairly closed, startups here in Beijing are 99%…

I could not agree more. After being in Beijing for most of 2015 on a project the city has mostly not much going for it. The pollution, the traffic, the noise. Living quality is something else. Working hours generally suck and even the additional income is quickly consumed by buying overpriced imported goods.

Re: Beijing is Silicon Valley's only true competitor

#25

Post by 50CNT »

kyledrake wrote: post #18
50CNT wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's cool to see Cheku mentioned on here, they just celebrated their 5 year anniversary a month or so ago. Does seem like a lot of the cooler projects have left for greener pastures though, and the people that are left, ah well.

There's an endless supply of people to fill in those that leave. Mind you, the greener pasture might just be Shanghai. Shanghai looked a lot more developed than Beijing, but I was only there for the day, so I didn't have time to really explore the city. It reminded me a lot of Hong Kong in many respects. I'd love to spend a month deep diving into the tech scene there.

From what I've heard the more mature startups with interesting end up moving to Shangdi for cheaper office space. That kinda leaves the has-beens and never-will-be's behind, but I guess that's to be expected. Even the founder of the place has started another venture a bit down the street.

We met some interesting people during their anniversary party, but then we met an equal share of idiots, so my guess it's 50/50 right now. The was this one guy drilling us on the market for phone cases in the US/Europe (f..k if we know, you're trying to compete with local retailers or something?), who didn't understand the concept of stealth mode, for example.

Not to say that there aren't promising founders out there, they just don't go to the events. Probably better that way, since the C2C attitude isn't just restricted to copying from abroad.

Re: Beijing is Silicon Valley's only true competitor

#26

Post by 50CNT »

epoxyhockey wrote: post #20
rememberlenny wrote: post #15

I lived in Shanghai and worked in the startup community there from 2012-2013. Im happy to answer any questions people might have. Very interesting space. The government is taking a very active role at developing startup "infrastructure", but it looks incredibly different from anything in the West.

The government is taking a very active role at developing startup "infrastructure" Could you elaborate on this statement? Are you referring to financing of startups, or more? Thank you for the offer to answer questions!

Investment into incubators, co-working spaces, government projects such as tech parks, building office space, streamlining of company registration and visa's, doing official visits (XiJingPing at Cheku, China's finance minister at 3W Cafe), yeah, they're pretty involved in things.

Re: Beijing is Silicon Valley's only true competitor

#27

Post by seanmcdirmid »

50CNT wrote: post #26
epoxyhockey wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government is taking a very active role at developing startup "infrastructure" Could you elaborate on this statement? Are you referring to financing of startups, or more? Thank you for the offer to answer questions!

Investment into incubators, co-working spaces, government projects such as tech parks, building office space, streamlining of company registration and visa's, doing official visits (XiJingPing at Cheku, China's finance minister at 3W Cafe), yeah, they're pretty involved in things.

I've heard about these places from colleagues. Every local government is starting incubators, but many of them are like ghost malls. Which is funny, because they are converting a ghost mall in Beijing Zhongguancun near my office into an incubator space....

Re: Beijing is Silicon Valley's only true competitor

#30

Post by chx »

api wrote: post #8
supster wrote: post #4

It must help Chinese startups that many SV companies are blocked from competing in China. For example no competition from Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube, Gmail, Dropbox, Vimeo, SoundCloud... more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_C...

I've been told that the great firewall is actually more about protectionism than censorship. They know they can't really contain information, but they can block or degrade foreign services to favor their own. Of course this does serve a state censorship and surveillance agenda indirectly since home grown services can be more easily controlled. As much as I can't stand Trump and could never vote for him, I do think he…

Stop right there. Think of what you are doing. You are already trying to find positive values in Trump. Don't. Resist him. The whole world is in deep shit if he gets elected. Check https://twitter.com/ivan_hernandez/status/694388187284795392 as well :)
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