Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur • Hacker News Board

Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

#21

Post by beachstartup » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 5:06 AM UTC

chvid wrote: post #15

walrus01 wrote: post #5

" All we had to do was download an app and click on some mysterious Chinese advertisements to top up our data. " This is the sort of shit that keeps network security people awake at night. I bet they enabled third-party app downloads on their Android phones and uninstalled some unknown .apk The future business leaders of America... fuck...

Why does this have to be a scam? Financing a public wifi hotspot by running advertisement is common thru-out the world. Hong Kong has some of the cheapest and fastest internet/mobile network on the planet. Using the same business model with mobile data is a logical evolution.

well, it doesn't have to be a scam, but when chinese people do it, it just makes it so much more obvious than when white people do it.

they should probably hire some[0] to run these kiosks.

[0] http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/06/29/china.rent.white.peop...

Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

#22

Post by dilemma » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 5:29 AM UTC

beachstartup wrote: post #21

chvid wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does this have to be a scam? Financing a public wifi hotspot by running advertisement is common thru-out the world. Hong Kong has some of the cheapest and fastest internet/mobile network on the planet. Using the same business model with mobile data is a logical evolution.

well, it doesn't have to be a scam, but when chinese people do it, it just makes it so much more obvious than when white people do it. they should probably hire some[0] to run these kiosks. [0] http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/06/29/china.rent.white.peop...

Can someone flag this comment?

Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

#23

Post by ethbro » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 5:37 AM UTC

lazzlazzlazz wrote: post #9

Why is the author seemingly afraid of every new experience? Is this normal?

I thought authors' account was fairly genuine, instead of trying to pretend that Americans on average consider heads, feet, and cartilage desirable portions of an animal.

That said, from a food perspective I could have done with a bit more detail on interesting things they ate and a bit less on the differences between American and foreign McDonald's.

Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

#24

Post by mdorazio » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 6:19 AM UTC

I have to wonder if there's a market for people who specialize in helping foreigners do factory tours like this more efficiently. For a few hundred dollars, someone who actually knows China could have easily paid for themselves by preventing ripoffs like the taxi to the border (as others have pointed out, the train is dirt cheap) and the rush visas (you can get them done in HK within 24 hours for way less than $200), and made the whole trip smoother and less stressful. As someone who lived in China, this seems like it would be pretty fun.

Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

#25

Post by ePierre » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 6:41 AM UTC

My goodness. Their website is made exactly after this article:

https://medium.com/slackjaw/template-for-tech-product-announ...

As for their story... Well, it's great that they wrote up a summary of their adventures, but I'm appalled at the fact that these three 25-something year old Americans are amazed that in China, people speak Chinese and nothing is written in English... Welcome to the World, I guess!

Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

#26

Post by imron » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 6:42 AM UTC

mdorazio wrote: post #24

I have to wonder if there's a market for people who specialize in helping foreigners do factory tours like this more efficiently. For a few hundred dollars, someone who actually knows China could have easily paid for themselves by preventing ripoffs like the taxi to the border (as others have pointed out, the train is dirt cheap) and the rush visas (you can get them done in HK within 24 hours for way less than $200),…

This was my first thought on reading the article also.

Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

#27

Post by garrettgrimsley » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 6:57 AM UTC

ePierre wrote: post #25

My goodness. Their website is made exactly after this article: https://medium.com/slackjaw/template-for-tech-product-announ... As for their story... Well, it's great that they wrote up a summary of their adventures, but I'm appalled at the fact that these three 25-something year old Americans are amazed that in China, people speak Chinese and nothing is written in English... Welcome to the World, I guess!

>three 25-something year old Americans

It says that they departed from St. Louis, but I don't think that they're American. For one, their English isn't at a native level. Also, at one point in the article they referred to what the vast majority of Americans would call a "soccer ball" a "football." There are many other terms and phrases that I wouldn't expect an American to use, like "China border." Assuming you are American, think about it, do you hear anyone calling it the "Canada border?" No, we say "Canadian border." Maybe Western or Northern European.

Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

#28

Post by idra » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 7:02 AM UTC

mdorazio wrote: post #24

I have to wonder if there's a market for people who specialize in helping foreigners do factory tours like this more efficiently. For a few hundred dollars, someone who actually knows China could have easily paid for themselves by preventing ripoffs like the taxi to the border (as others have pointed out, the train is dirt cheap) and the rush visas (you can get them done in HK within 24 hours for way less than $200),…

This market not only exists, but is quite saturated already with plenty of foreigners based in China making a living out of it. I've done this kind of work before and it's only fun the first time, then when it's time to actually deal with the suppliers it becomes stressful on a whole another level.

Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

#29

Post by coupdejarnac » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 7:29 AM UTC

ePierre wrote: post #25

My goodness. Their website is made exactly after this article: https://medium.com/slackjaw/template-for-tech-product-announ... As for their story... Well, it's great that they wrote up a summary of their adventures, but I'm appalled at the fact that these three 25-something year old Americans are amazed that in China, people speak Chinese and nothing is written in English... Welcome to the World, I guess!

Seriously, these guys should have spent the plane ride over learning Chinese phrases. Might have made their adventures more adventurous.

Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

#30

Post by Nr7 » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 7:29 AM UTC

garrettgrimsley wrote: post #27

ePierre wrote: post #25

My goodness. Their website is made exactly after this article: https://medium.com/slackjaw/template-for-tech-product-announ... As for their story... Well, it's great that they wrote up a summary of their adventures, but I'm appalled at the fact that these three 25-something year old Americans are amazed that in China, people speak Chinese and nothing is written in English... Welcome to the World, I guess!

>three 25-something year old Americans It says that they departed from St. Louis, but I don't think that they're American. For one, their English isn't at a native level. Also, at one point in the article they referred to what the vast majority of Americans would call a "soccer ball" a "football." There are many other terms and phrases that I wouldn't expect an American to use, like "China border." Assuming you are A…

There is a caption on one image that mentions that at least one of them is from the UK: "There are lots of things in Hong Kong that Jon remembers from the UK, like Lucazade!"