Organised by Microsoft BizSpark, this year’s BizSpark Night was held on 28 November at Microsoft Singapore Level 21 Auditorium. Distinguished speakers like Bruce Wang, Gary Gan and James Tan were present to educate startups on introducing their presence into the world’s second largest market, China.
China’s tech landscape: An overview
Bruce Wang, a senior evangelist in Microsoft Singapore, was the Director for RenRen Inc. at Microsoft China for 6 years from 2005 to 2011. He outlined the difficulties of venturing into China such as cost, location, hiring and promoting of business.
Having sufficient financial power and the ability to utilise them to the maximum potential allows startups to survive in the increasingly competitive Chinese landscape. Having abundant capital can allow for a good foundation and an advantageous headstart.
Choosing the right location is crucial as it enables startups to source for their skilled laborers. This is especially so for tech companies which are knowledge-intensive industries. Beijing and Shanghai are favorable locations where skilled talents are in abundance. The 1,106 universities allow new firms to find their skilled manpower more easily in these areas. However, opportunity costs must also be measured as absolute costs are higher due to the poaching of scholars among companies. Due to higher costs of living in cities, employees also anticipate a higher salary compared to those in the inner cities like Chengdu and Wuhan.
Successful examples of startups
Bruce pointed to DouPing and PPTV in Shanghai, and Weibo and RenRen in Beijing, where Bruce happens to be from. Inner cities can also be considered based on the characteristics of the firm – for example, TaoBao, China’s cheapest and largest online marketplace, developed its headquarters in an inner city, Hangzhou, for the pool of cheaper labour.
In China, social media censorship is very heavy due to government backing of local portals. Popular social media platforms such as Google, Facebook and YouTube are banned in China. They are substituted by local online portals such as Baidu, RenRen and Youku respectively. Hence, expanding one’s branding overseas can be taxing due to unfamiliarity with these platforms. However, startups can do mobile advertising in China through approaching channels such as AppFlood, Baidu, and Qihoo.
Networking and yearly events
Annually, tech conferences such as Global Market Internet Conference (GMIC), China Joy and TechEd China bring in prominent speakers from Chinese companies to discuss issues ranging from market entry, mobile trends and internet technologies. International startups will also get to showcase their products to investors and raise funds.
Lastly, Bruce also mentioned Microsoft Ventures in China, a startup initiative aligned with the BizSpark programme that can help startups to acquire free tools, cloud computing resources and global routes to market with mentorships and seed opportunities. Startups entrepreneurs that are interested in the programme can email bruce.wang@microsoft.com for more details.
Link to Bruce’s PowerPoint slides: http://sdrv.ms/1etWKCX
[youtube width=”425″ height=”344″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ2qOqXauuw [/youtube]
Follow