Silicon Dragon Eyes Shanghai's New Tech Hub

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!



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.

 

The Promise of Silicon Global

Draper University in San Mateo

Silicon Valley is going global but don’t count on any market to surpass it soon.

Today, just about every market in the world is aiming to capture the Valley’s magic: creativity, optimism, not to mention blue skies, clean air and mild year-round temperatures.

Brazil and Russia are two emerging markets that are vying to get on the tech map and Sand Hill Road investors have arrived. Both follow the lead of China and India, which continue to show the challenges and opportunities of creating world-class tech startups and innovations from developing markets. Read more at Silicon Asia post at Forbes. 

Of course, not every market can copy the Silicon Valley formula. It takes a special blend of talent and funds all clustered together to make it happen.

Where else but Silicon Valley could a venture capitalist open their own entrepreneurial school? See photo I took of Draper University, which VC Tim Draper is opening in the former Benjamin Franklin Hotel currently under renovation in downtown San Mateo.

We'll be exploring the theme of Silicon Global at our next event in the Valley, October 3, at Rosewood Sand Hill. See the program and sign up here: Silicon Dragon Valley 2012.

 

Chengdu Mixes Chips, Bytes, Pandas & iPhones

Chengdu entrepreneur
 Kevin Yang

Best known as a place to see pandas, sample spicy Sichuan food, and trek to Tibet, Chengdu is aiming high, trying to take on a new identity as a tech innovation hub in western China, following the lead of Silicon Valleys in Shanghai and Beijing.  

This surprisingly modern city today sports software parks, incubation labs, science universities, few bicycles, and yes, plenty of young entrepreneurs who still idolize Steve Jobs and are eager to make their mark with a successful IPO of their techie startup. Multinational corporations including Intel, Lenovo and Texas Instruments have landed in Chengdu to do research and development -- not to mention that Apple makes iPhones and iPads here.
 
The rapid growth of Chengdu's software and technology businesses -- revenues were up 64 percent in 2011 to $48 billion -- makes worries about a China economic slowdown seem ridiculous.
So too does the bubbling consumer economy. Work crews and cranes are putting up a theme park and shopping mall in one gigantic complex that is also supposed to house two 7!-star hotels. (Only in China.) Then on another major thoroughfare a brand-new Louis Vuitton store stands out -- one more shopping option for newly minted Chinese millionaires.

In recent years, Chengdu has set out to transform its economy from a manufacturing and logistics base to a tech innovation capital that could hold a candle to Silicon Valley.  It's what every city planner worldwide dreams of today.

Sign at Chengdu construction site:
"The inconvenience today is to
facilitate tomorrow."

From my recent explorations in Chengdu, this formula is beginning to show some results. The startup trend was particularly noticeable among the switched on technopreneurs I recently interviewed in Chengdu.

Take, for example, Kevin Yang, the founder of Tap4Fun, which makes games for iPhones and iPads. It's his third startup and Kevin acts and talks like a Valley boy, even though he's only been outside of China once, to Tokyo for a meeting with big-time venture investor Masayoshi Son of Softbank Capital.

Kevin says he has read all the books about Steve Jobs and has monitored on-line courses from Stanford and MIT. His computer science degrees come from Chengdu's top computer science school (USETC), where he cranked up his first mobile gaming startup while an undergrad. His second startup was a made-in-China Twitter application called TwitBird that proved popular in Korea and Japan but has been sidelined, Kevin says, because there was no revenue model for the ap. Sound familiar?

I got a tip-off that Kevin is now on to a good thing (he wants to take his current startup public) when I happened to run into a leading Shanghai venture capitalist at Tap4Fun's office. So much for Tap4Fun remaining in stealth mode!

Other venture investors including Chengwei, Gobi, Morningside, Matrix and Ceyuan are looking to Chengdu as a next, lower-cost frontier in China as entrepreneurs in China's major cities have gotten greedy about deal terms. Angel investors have arrived too such as Maipu Ventures, a spin-off of Chengdu-based networking equipment company Maipu Communication.

Several other startups caught my attention during my tech tour of Chengdu. Pinguo Digital Entertainment makes a social ap for sharing photos (like Instagram) and claims 30 million users. Then there's a very localized startup named the Institute of Care-Life that makes earthquake detection and protection equipment, a reminder of the massive earthquake that struck nearby in 2008. 

It's still early days for Chengdu but the potential is there. Chengdu is home to 1,400 IT companies, including 200 of those in the Fortune 500 big leagues. The ultra-modern and sprawling Tianfu Software Park aims to be a second city rival to Beijing's Zhonguancun district, the heart of tech in China. Christine Du, the president of the software park, talks up the city's Silicon Valley culture and spirit and its carefree style.   

Chengdu does have a friendly and relaxed culture. But it reminds me more of the U.S. Midwest than the San Francisco Bay Area. Chengdu's flat open plains and largely nondescript buildings signal big city Chicago to me but without the lake, extreme temperatures and the wind.

Promoters of Chengdu struggle to get the right message to tourists and to corporate investors alike about its attractions beyond pandas and assembly lines. Chengdu has put a major ad agency to work on crafting its brand and the city has hired a savvy social media strategist who tweets out chirpy messages on Twitter and China's Twitter-like Weibo. 

Getting people to think of Chengdu for chips and bytes could really begin to happen as more and more tech majors move west in China and deal makers find the gems here.

Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur of Beijing Award Goes to Borqs CEO Pat Chan

Congratulations to Pat Chan (left) of Borqs for winning this year's Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur of Beijing Award. News of the award was retweeted by Intel Capital to its more than 7,000 followers on Twitter.
Here's the press release, from PR Newswire:
Borqs International Holding Corp (Borqs), a leading global end-to-end Android+ and Cloud software solutions provider, recently announced that company CEO and President Mr. Pat Chan was honored as the recipient of the 2012 Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur OF BEIJING Award. Speaking at the awards ceremony on May 31 in Beijing, Mr. Chan shared his entrepreneurial experiences and Borqs' development story with other entrepreneurs from well-known mobile internet enterprises including Renren, Innovation Works, Dangdang and Yesky. Mr. Chan also highlighted Borqs' expanded global market development strategy. The award not only acknowledges Mr. Chan's personal entrepreneurship, but also reflects Borqs' numerous achievements in mobile internet Android+ software and services platform solutions in recent years.
Accepting the award, Mr. Chan said: "I want to express my thanks to Silicon Dragon for awarding this honor to me and my team. This is proof of Borqs' successes in the five years since we began in 2007 and the recognition we have received from the Silicon Dragon judges and some of the technology industry's most senior and respected individuals. Through five years of active exploration and practice in the mobile internet field, Borqs has accumulated a great deal of experience in providing Android+ software platform and service platform solutions for mobile internet while maintaining a healthy growth rate. Looking to the future, Borqs will continue to uphold its commitment to its customers around the world. We mean to become a representative for creativity and openness in the mobile internet industry, and Borqs will continue to leverage the innovative abilities of our outstanding staff of technical professionals to spur development throughout the industry."
We are very pleased to see Mr. Chan and his dynamic team continue with great strides in developing innovative solutions to further drive growth and openness in this industry," said David Xu (center, photo), Partner, KPMG China, the audit, tax and advisory services firm that sponsors the Silicon Dragon award series.
Mr. Chan, one of Borqs' founding members, has also been honored to receive the High-Caliber Talent from Overseas Award from both the national and the Beijing governments. Mr. Chan has brought over 20 years of executive-level experience in wireless communication and the information and ICT sector to Borqs. With Mr. Chan's guidance, Borqs has leveraged its strength in innovation and R&D to make a series of landmark achievements in the Chinese market. Internationally Borqs has established partnerships with operators in the US, the Asia Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Borqs has entered into strategic alliances with the world's leading OEM manufacturers and chip vendors to provide commercialized Android+ software solutions. Under the guidance of its richly experienced management team, Borqs will continue to provide its customers with superior user experiences supported by scalable, stable and advanced back-end technologies.
About the Silicon Dragon Entrepreneurs Award
Winners of the Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur Award must meet the following criteria for selection:
"Must haves"

• An innovative product or service in a tech or related area: mobile communications, e-commerce, social networking, Internet, online games, cloud computing, outsourcing, cleantech and healthcare
• A dynamic, passionate CEO/founder with some international company experience and/or education at a top university
• A high-caliber management team with fully staffed positions for CTO, CFO, Sales and other top executive posts
• Raised at least one round of venture capital from a prominent firm
• Reported fast growth at least two years in a row for startup or emerging company
• A market leader, with sizeable market share that can be documented by an outside industry source
• Profitable or on a quick path to profitability
• A highly qualified board of directors from the industry
• English-language fluency
• A surprise factor such as a major milestone or accomplishment that seemed impossible

Rebecca A. Fannin, the well-known journalist and author of "Silicon Dragon", established the award in 2010 through the news, events and thought leadership group she leads, Silicon Dragon Ventures. "The award aims to showcase the latest developments in Asian entrepreneurship and encourage the continued growth of an innovation ecosystem in the region through sharing best practices," Ms. Fannin said At Silicon Dragon events held in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and key innovation hubs, founders, investors and leaders of companies from key industries such as venture capital, IT and social networking are invited to share their experiences and entrepreneurial spirit.

The Facebook Effect on China's Renren

It was little more than a year ago that China’s Facebook, Renren, went public on the NYSE. Now the spotlight is on Facebook and its debut on NASDAQ.

There’s debate over Renren really is a China Facebook, like Baidu is a Chinese version of Google. Certainly there is a world of difference. Facebook has not entered China while Baidu competed with Google for several years in China.

Renren is the top social networking site in China, while Facebook is a leader is just about every market globally except China. With a market as huge as China’s and with so much market potential for games, social networking and social commerce, Renren’s turf is China.

Facebook likely faces a challenging time if it does enter China. Keep reading this post at Forbes.

Startup Asia Deals Count in 1/4 of Forbes Midas List of 100 Top 100 VCs

What a difference it makes to have China and India included in the Forbes’ Midas List 2012.

Of the top 100 venture capitalists who scored in this annual ranking, 12 who have funded startups in China are new on the 2012 list from last year. Two VCs active in India emerged on the 2012 ranks.

DCM and IDG Accel were among those firms that excelled with the expansion of China to the mix in 2012. The inclusion of India this year propelled Accel India and Mayfield Fund in the 2012 rankings.

The list reflects the importance of China and India as emerging hotspots of technology innovation, as well it should! China and India accounted for 17% of the total venture capital invested in 2011. Overall, the 2012 rankings highlight the growing range of dealmakers globally who have become active in China and India over the past five years.

What the dealmaker rankings also factor in is the fast increase among their funded Chinese startups that have gone public in the U.S. over the past five years. Prominent on the list of the VCs portfolios are recently listed Chinese companies Renren, Tudou, HiSoft Tech, Dangdang, Bitauto, VanceInfo and Qihoo 360.

China’s Facebook-plus site, Renren, appears on four of the VCs’ portfolio of deals. Other Chinese deals that repeat on the deal list are outsourcing company HiSoft Tech and video sharing site Tudou. From India, travel sevice MakeMyTrip was notable among the deals made by the top-100 ranked VCs.

Perhaps next year’s list can take into account the post-IPO performance of the deals! Many of those recently listed companies noted above are trading below their IPO price.

Privately held companies in China and India mattered in the rankings of the top 100 as well. From China, among the prominently cited deals are GroupOn-like Lashou and gaming portal Duowan. From India, medical device maker Perfint and online retailer Flipkart from India are notably recognized.

Here’s my tally of the 12 VC newcomers in 2012 doing deals in China, in order of their rank.
See Startup Asia tally at Forbes.

Silicon Dragon Beijing 2012: Serial Entrepreneurs Set up Shop in China

If at first you do succeed, try, try again! That must be the motto of a growing group of startup founders in China who just won’t quit! More and more young entrepreneurs are racing to do their second or third startup in China’s highly energized markets — before this opportunity to catch the wave is gone.

The first generation who made it with Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Sina and Renren are moving on to do their second or third startup in China. It’s one more sign that China’s Silicon Valley is growing up fast! and becoming more and more like the original.

In the Valley, I often meet entrepreneurs who are on to their next new venture. Ask them their track record and most will admit that they have at least one failure among the bunch. The culture of moving on, despite failure, is one reason why Silicon Valley has thrived. Now, this same mindset is catching on in China, and as the fear of failure goes away, we may see another golden era for startups in China that outdoes the first wave from 2004-2008.

Read more at my Forbes post.

Silicon Dragon Beijing 2012 will spotlight these trends at our May 31 program featuring venture investors Hurst Lin of DCM, Neil Shen of Sequoia Capital and CEOs Joe Chen of Renren and Andy Tian of Zynga China – all examples of serial success.