I'm reading AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee (MS Research China, Google China, Sinovation) now -
https://aisuperpowers.com/His version of the story:
1) China's wild-west, copyright ignoring culture forced Chinese entrepreneurs to out work, out hustle, out spend their competitors because there was no IP moat. 3 decades of that environment allowed China to develop many levels of development, management, etc talent. Now they have a large, well educated, experienced, seasoned technical workforce.
2) China's culture, just 2 generations removed from mass starvation and poverty, is very hungry and chases business and money as opposed to Silicon Valley vision startups.
3) American tech companies want to make a product that can be used in all countries, but Chinese tech companies tailored to the distinct behavior of Chinese internet users, most of whom are a) smartphone only, and b) on the internet for the first time, and therefore have very different behaviors. Also, because of no IP protection, they built moats through deep, expensive, messy integration into cities, shops, physical assets, etc, whatever gives them some defensibility. American companies, less willing to adapt their products, were poorly received and outcompeted.
4) China's government (national, state, city) has a system of incentives that can align lots of money, compliance, resources, and attention very quickly. In 2013, the Chinese government announced "mass entrepreneurship" plans, and after AlphaGo's victory in 2016, they made a similar plan to make China an AI superpower. This led to a nationwide flood of venture capital, office space, social perks, etc. They're willing to tolerate inefficiency in order to capture a huge new industry. Contrast with the US, where Republican beat up on Obama and Dems for years because of Solyndra, even though the overall renewal energy stimulus made money.
5) China is huge - its urban population is larger than the entire USA, while South Korea's population is about the same as the US West Coast. So a portion of their labor force can tip the global scales of man-hours in a field.
Also, I believe WeChat is popular outside of China, but not so much in USA/Europe. Alibaba is globally influential in manufacturing and ecommerce.
I'm going deep into Chinese tech, particularly AI, and I'd love to talk more about it.