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YC China and Qi Lu

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#111

Post by piggybox »

Analemma_ wrote: post #74
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Qi was actually one of the better SVPs at Microsoft, I think he was even on the list for the CEO spot that Satya got. He was given an almost impossible task in competing with Google basically from scratch. Ya, he didn't completely succeed, but that isn't very surprising. What happened at the end, I'm not really sure. I was pretty surprised when I heard he was gone with Harry Shum taking over most of what he was in ch…

(I worked at Bing when this all went down.) It was a strange departure. He apparently got in some kind of cycling accident and took medical leave from Microsoft for recovery, but then just a few months later he was a senior executive at Baidu. Not sure what was up with that. But contra the GP, the general opinion both during and after Lu's tenure was that he did a good job. It took a while, but Bing is profitable now…

As good as Google is, I'm glad we have alternatives to choose from. Bing is actually pretty good in China where Google is not available.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#112

Post by natch »

fhe wrote: post #105
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandarin isn't strictly necessary to live in China. Plenty of my laowai colleagues only knew a few words and got along just fine in a tier one Beijing, which admittedly is a bit behind Shanghai and Shenzhen. The only thing that really drove us out was the pollution (a huge problem in Beijing that is supposedly finally getting better). Given the US visa policy, as bad as it is, still attracts far more many foreigners…

to live in China, one could get by with little to no mandarin; but to do business in China, mandarin is a must.

Considering that there are over 300 million, yes million, people in China who do not speak Mandarin, I'd say yes one could get by. I'd even venture to say many of these 300 million people also do business in China. But yeah, I know what you meant.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#113

Post by omeid2 »

kaptain wrote: post #107

The political concerns are real. It's too cynical to say that YC just cares about money, though. There would be better ways to create an incubator than to do it like this, if that were the case. One obvious question that hasn't been raised is: "Why not base it in Taiwan?" It's still "China" (for some definition of China), you can still get access to the talent that you want (you just have to try a little harder), and…

> It's too cynical to say that YC just cares about money, though.

YC is not a NFP, it is a VC firm. It does indeed just care about money. Thinking otherwise is naive. Sure, YC wouldn't feed babies to lions to make money, but short of direct-- and that is the key word-- contribution to inhuman acts, everything else is fair game for Venture Capitalism.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#114

Post by angersock »

dang wrote: post #97
friedman23 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have nothing against the people of China but the PRC government and Chinese business is so intertwined that I don't think it's possible to do business with China and not interact or enable the PRC in any way.

The trouble with this is that when people bring grandiose or generic rhetoric, the only place the discussion can go is into flamewar, as others get even more grandiose and generic (or personal). You're not adding any information when you post like this. It's just a strong opinion with a strong feeling attached. When someone else with the opposite opinion comes along and blasts their opposite feeling, no interesting i…

Okay dang, have a link:

http://time.com/5366225/china-uighurs-detention-report/

A million Uyghur and Muslims in camps. That's a sixth of a Holocaust.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#115

Post by angersock »

Leary wrote: post #110
jumelles wrote: post #15

YC's got a very, very fine line to tread if they're serious about China - with its limits on human rights and authoritarian tendencies, the Chinese government is absolutely not to be trusted. I worry about what sort of concessions tech companies have made and will make to gain access to the Chinese market.

Indeed, given the recent news in East Uyghurstan. I had to double check my calendar to see that it was not April 1st. Limits to human rights by a government is intolerable in the modern epoch. Anyone that uses a Chinese product is complicit in cultural genocide. If HN doesn't speak truth to power, who else will?

Their job is to make money. Why people think otherwise is beyond me.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#116

Post by seanmcdirmid »

fhe wrote: post #105
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandarin isn't strictly necessary to live in China. Plenty of my laowai colleagues only knew a few words and got along just fine in a tier one Beijing, which admittedly is a bit behind Shanghai and Shenzhen. The only thing that really drove us out was the pollution (a huge problem in Beijing that is supposedly finally getting better). Given the US visa policy, as bad as it is, still attracts far more many foreigners…

to live in China, one could get by with little to no mandarin; but to do business in China, mandarin is a must.

Even that depends. A (young educated) Chinese can speak better English than a Laowai could probably ever speak Chinese. Plenty of foreigners work exec positions in Chinese companies with only very basic mandarin.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#117

Post by fusiongyro »

dang wrote: post #100
fusiongyro wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comment may be referencing this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17737942

The root comment didn't reference that or anything else. The problem with bringing such links into arguments like this is that no one does so for reasons of intellectual interest. For example, in this case, people aren't actually interested in the plight of the Uighurs. Rather, it's convenient ammunition for justifying pre-existing political and national feelings. Such a move is not part of thoughtful conversation at…

Fair enough.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#118

Post by angersock »

So, how much money is there in PRC contracts for surveillance and social credit software?

For reference, this is the market they're excited about joining:

http://time.com/5366225/china-uighurs-detention-report/

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/ch...

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/13/china-cctv-bbc-reporter/

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#119

Post by dang »

angersock wrote: post #114
dang wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trouble with this is that when people bring grandiose or generic rhetoric, the only place the discussion can go is into flamewar, as others get even more grandiose and generic (or personal). You're not adding any information when you post like this. It's just a strong opinion with a strong feeling attached. When someone else with the opposite opinion comes along and blasts their opposite feeling, no interesting i…

Okay dang, have a link: http://time.com/5366225/china-uighurs-detention-report/ A million Uyghur and Muslims in camps. That's a sixth of a Holocaust.

It's unsurprising that you Godwinned this thread, since where else can monotonic escalation go? By doing that you've cemented the point.

If you guys want to fling furious links around, you need to find another site to do it. It isn't part of thoughtful discussion—it's pure reflex.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#120

Post by Leary »

angersock wrote: post #115
Leary wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, given the recent news in East Uyghurstan. I had to double check my calendar to see that it was not April 1st. Limits to human rights by a government is intolerable in the modern epoch. Anyone that uses a Chinese product is complicit in cultural genocide. If HN doesn't speak truth to power, who else will?

Their job is to make money. Why people think otherwise is beyond me.

First they make money in China, then they'll copy what made them money to India, then to the western world. Sounds like a slippery slope to me. I saw a couple of sci-fi movies that showed this doesn't turn out well. [1]

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856101/

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