I intended to share my thoughts about Chinese entrepreneurs on the forum when I was in Beijing. However, the thread is postponed till today because of our packed schedule. And just a statement here: below is my own opinion, please feel free to exchange ideas with me J

It is an interesting discovery that over 90% entrepreneurs we met in Beijing are Chinese returnees from famouse universities in developed countries. As Chinese, they are influenced by the eastern culture from their birth; at the same time, they receive westernized education which help open their mindsets. Therefore, they have some unique characteristics which distinguish them from foreign entrepreneurs and domestic entrepreneurs.

1.      They take better advantage of opportunities.

Companies in Beijing are more IT focused; and usually famouse IT companies here are founded by returnees. I think this is because of the good business environment for them. Firstly, they can hire talents from many local universities, especially Tsinghua and Pecking University. Secondly, they can make good use of IT network here and communicate with their partners easily and frequently. However, above two reasons are not sufficient to differenciate them with foreign competitors. The most important reason comes from Chinese government. As we know, Beijing is the political centre of China. Thus, the regulations and rules are more restricted here and the control from government is more intensive. Foreign companies are usually not fully aware of Chinese regulations, or their principles have contradiction with the regulations, thus they may be banned by the government shortly after they enter Chinese market. Facebook and Twitter are the examples of big foreign players fail to enter China in face of the pressure from Chinese government. However, the situation is totally different for returnees. They have political advantage in approaching the government, thus they are more likely to be supported. Besides, they know Chinese market, Chinese consumers and Chinese style of networking better than those foreigners. Thus, it is relatively easy for them to grow the business in Beijing. Since their major competitors face difficulties in adapting to Chinese environment, they dare to use C2C model (Copy to China) and create out successful Chinese customized IT solutions. For instance, Youku copies Youtube and HULU; and Hudong copies wikipedia.

2.      Most of them do not have global views.

Compared to local entrepreneurs, returnees have greater visions and foresights. I still remembered that Chinese entrepreneur Xu Hui (founder of HiPihi) shared with us about his previous entrepreneurial experience. When he first set up a company, he just wanted to make money. This kind of thinking is pretty common among local entrepreneurs. The reason for them to set up a company is not because of passion or social responsibility, but because of pride and dream to become rich. They work for short-term profit and cash in hand. Different from them, returnees talked more about their interests and passion when they were asked about the reason to found the companies. In addition, they all set the goal to become No.1 in their industries in China or for Chinese-spoken users. However, few of them have the plan to expand globally. To them, China is such a big market that tackling it solely is good enough. The shortage of global views compared to foreign entrepreneurs place these Chinese companies in a disadvanged position for strategic development and global competition in the future.

3.      They are not open enough.

Most of the time, foreign entrepreneurs are very open to each other, and to students. They are willing to help others and share the information they know. However, maybe because of Chinese tradition, some of these returnees are not that open. Their answers to some questions related to strategies and future plans did not hit the point.

Above is my personal short summary of Beijing trip. Till today, half of Shanghai trip has passed and I experienced a different group of entrepreneurs here. Many of them are foreigners. Maybe because of the culture and environment difference between Beijing and Shanghai, the thinking style of these two groups are very apart from each other. I would rather leave this topic to you guys. What do you think of Shanghai entrepreneurs? What are the differences between Beijing and Shanghai entrepreneurs? And what causes the difference?