ZhongGuanCun, an area located in the northwestern part of Beijing city, is always referred as the technology hub in China, the China’s Silicon Valley. You might debate that it is lacking of innovation there compared with Silican Valley, but still it is doing quite well year by year. In 2010, 39 companies from ZhongGuanCun have been listed, 13 of them were listed on foreign stock market (4 in Nasdaq, and 9 in NYSE). The total capital thus raised is around rmb 44.5 billions.
ZhongGuanCun is important, so is Beijing. If you want to set up a tech company in China, especially a web/mobile company, Beijing must be your first option to consider. According to Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, there are 12.18 millions netizens in Beijing and the internet penetration rate has reached 69.4%; 1.76 millions netizens are able to surf the net with the 20mb bandwidth broadband and the number of 3G subscribers have exceeded 2.54 millions; With the booming of e-commerce market in China, From Jan 2010 to Oct 2010, the total amount of e-commerce transaction is around rmb 300 billions. And, of course, in Beijing and ZhongGuanCun, you can find almost every key player is there, which is good for exchanging ideas, building partnership etc.
So is ZhongGuanCun in Beijing the China’s Silicon Valley? Probably it is still not. Innovation is one thing, and the ecosystem for the startups might take years to be built-up, we have to be more patient to wait for good angel investors, mentorship, geek culture and an more open environment.
[photo from colori.cn]