Silicon Dragon (above) recently interviewed Charles Chan, the executive director of Shuion Land, about the company's new tech hub in Shanghai, Knowledge and Innovation Community or KIC.
It's the site of our
Silicon Dragon Shanghai 2012 event, held on September 13 with the city's leading venture investors and tech entrepreneurs. See you there!
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| Charles Chan |
l What
is the vision for KIC and is it a kind of Sand Hill Road for Shanghai?
Compared to Sand Hill Road, Sand Hill Road is notable
for its concentration of venture capital firms, and
easy access to Stanford University and Silicon Valley. KIC is
dedicated to become a platform to align with different resources from “Campus”
, “Community” , “Tech
Park” to cultivate
and incubate start-ups and help them grow to a greater scale. But KIC
not only integrated the scientific innovation spirit of US Silicon
Valley, but also absorbed the creative culture of Paris Left Bank. It has
become a place for communication, information exchange, negotiation and
cooperation, and even relaxation. It's a cradle for entrepreneurship and innovation in China, and accelerating it through international best practices.
l Why
was KIC located close to Fudan
University? Is this
because of the cluster effect, such as Silicon Valley with Stanford University？
Of
course. KIC is located in the Wujiaochang sub-center in the Yangpu district of
Shanghai, clustering within 14 major universities and colleges, including
Fudan and Tongji. The abundant resources of universities and research
institutions nearby cannot be found anywhere else in Shanghai. Those nearby universities provide
talent support and bring continuous energy to those MNCs in KIC. For example,
both ebaoTech & EMC signed a strategic partnership with surrounding
universities including internship program/training course/lab research, etc. The
key concept for KIC is “three zones integration:” “Campus” , “Community” ,
“Tech Park.” We believe that our “Knowledge and Innovation Community” will
eventually become a platform for information exchange and communication based
on the resources and talents from “Campus”, supported by the domestic and
international high-tech corporations in “Tech Park”,
venture capital firms and the government services, inspired by the atmosphere
and lifestyle in “Community”.
l Will
Shui On Group develop other tech centers like this in other locations in China, in addition to Shanghai
and Dalian?
KIC (Knowledge and Innovation Community) is a new business model, and we are still exploring possiblilities to make our vision come true. Now Shuion Land has a similar project, Dalian Tiandi in northern China, with GFA 3 million sqm, and focused on the global software and outsourcing industries to provide an integrated community. While we are extending our reach in the Chinese property market, we have stepped up our effort to set the trend and contribute to the creation of large-scale, multi-faceted knowledge communities to provide a total "work-live-learn-play" environment. I think KIC sets a model for us to introduce similar projects in other key cities in China.
l How
did Shui On Group get the idea for KIC? How long was the idea in development?
how does this project compare to Xintiandi?
The story traces back
to Shui On Group founder – Vincent Lo. Mr. Lo himself is a successful
entrepreneur, and he has the strong passion to help young people. When he
visited Silicon Valley over eight years ago, he was inspired and dedicated
to create a “Silicon Valley” in Shanghai, which
was quite forward looking in China.
In his vision, KIC will be a think tank to assemble world famous enterprises
and top class elite talents in scientific research, finance, and business
consulting, and also become a platform for cultural exchange regularly
for organizing various cultural activities, promoting communication, and
enriching community life.
Both XINTIANDI and KIC have a full range of modern
facilities for residential, office, retail, entertainment and leisure. Shui On
projects provide a unique environment enabling life enrichment of
"Live-Work-Play".
In terms of difference,
XINTIANDI is the “city’s living room”, a Shanghai landmark, a trendy place for
people from all over the world to play, entertain, live, work and enjoy. It
blends the architecture charm of "shikumen" with modern features and
facilities. While KIC is a knowledge community, it aims to create an
environment where innovators and entrepreneurs can share knowledge, communicate,
negotiate, cooperate, and relax.
l How
is KIC encouraging startups in Shanghai?
Part of KIC’s core offering
is an enterprise ecosystem where companies, foreign and local, big and small,
can interact and work together for mutual benefits. While big companies and
technology leaders would be a major anchor to this ecosystem, innovation and
entrepreneurship would provide the talent and creativity needed to sustain the
long-term vibrancy and growth of the Community.
Towards this goal, KIC has been
actively promoting and nurturing entrepreneurial culture and spirit since its
inception. It cooperated with Dragon TV in 2005 to launch a TV
entrepreneurship competition named Winner in Shanghai,
which set off a surge of entrepreneurial activity. Impressed with KIC's offerings,
the winning players have subsequently hosted their operations in KIC.
Learning from the successful
experience of Silicon Valley, KIC also founded
the IPO Club where dozens of innovative entrepreneurial activities are held
every year. As Shanghai’s
first entrepreneurship club, IPO rolled out KIC Star incubation program, for
prominent and successful businessmen and industry leaders to share their
knowledge and experiences, as well as mentor aspiring entrepreneurs. More than
10 aspiring entrepreneurs have been successfully matched and coached by KIC
mentors in the past two years.
KIC has nurtured technology startups since its inception. Some of these companies are now market leaders in their own right. Some have successfully obtained funding and even listed in overseas bourses. KIC now seeks to further enhance its incubator platform. Apart from the usual provision of plug-and-play venue for entrepreneurs, this incubator will offer a whole suite of services to help support and nurture the growth of startups from business match-making to technology partnership and licensing to fund raising to even international expansion.
l How
many companies are now located at KIC -- both startups and SMEs, plus tech
companies?
KIC is home to now more than 300 enterprises, with more than 6,000 talents working here. Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and technology startups make up more than 80% of this Community. Fortune 500 companies like EMC, Oracle, IBM and Deloitte are some of the MNC member companies of our Community.
l How
important are Silicon Valley Bank, Bay Area Council and Innovation Works to the
success of KIC?
As part of its holistic
enterprise ecosystem, KIC works very closely with key players like government
bodies, universities and research institutions, professional bodies and so on,
to help companies to grow and expand. Silicon Valley Bank, Bay Area Council and
Innovation Works are some of our partners in this ecosystem. In particular
Silicon Valley Bank and Bay Area Council work closely with us to provide an
effective landing pad for American companies to expand and grow in China and in turn, for our Community members to expand and grow in US as well. In fact, we have a Joint Venture with
TUSPark, Silicon Valley Bank and Northern Light Venture Capital in the form of an
incubator in Santa Clara, USA to do just that. We launched this incubator
called InnoSpring in mid-April this year, and demand for its services has been
encouraging; with some 30 companies being hosted in InnoSpring.
KIC also works closely with partners in other major technology hubs such as
Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, to actively link our Community members with
potential partners for market and technology access, as well as funding. Through
our networks, our Community companies could also have access to launches in these overseas markets. For example, our Japanese partner has
made available its incubating space and services to KIC Community members for
free. Through its strategic
partnership with key players both domestically and internationally, KIC constantly
seeks to improve its enterprise ecosystem to better support its
Community.
