| I lived in China in 2008 and while I'm no expert on China, you will learn quite quickly that some of your perceptions about China are not true: - In china, you can pay a programmer 600€ a month Sure, for average programmers. For good ones, you are going to be paying the same as elsewhere. A friend of mine there told me her brother was earning nearly $500 US/day working as a programmer for a company and they even gave him one week off per month. That would be a monthly salary of $500 x 5 days x 3 weeks = $7500 - you have a wide pool of qualified people leaving university which you can always pick from. True but the Chinese educational system is very different from the "West". Their educational system focuses more on memorization. Creativity and problem solving are not taught very much. This is going to be a huge problem when hiring programmers right out of university. They will be looking to you to tell them everything they should be doing. - Also, in china people are more willing to travel around to find an appropriate job than in Europe Yes, I would say this is generally true amongst all classes. - Quite apart from the chinese programmers, it’s also easier to get foreign programmers to work for you in china than in europe Are you talking legally or just by the candidate's motivation? When I was looking for a job as an English teacher, I went to one place and they told me they were only one of two officially registered English schools in the city. They told me that I would need a TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) degree, which I did not have, in order for them to arrange the work visa. At the place I was hired, I still did not have a TESL degree but they arranged the work visa for me no problem. Yes, it is more of the wild, wild west but as a foreigner, you are not going to be able to figure out the system very fast and it will cause you a lot of frustration and wasted energy. - Important is that there are very low additional costs paid to the government. In Europe, you could pay 1/3 – 1/2 of your profits as a small company just servicing the goverment, China does not require this. To be blunt, this is a very naive statement. Official costs might be low but you're not factoring bribes and other unofficial costs into the mix. While teaching English, most of my students were in their 20s and 30s so I would often try to bring up topics of conversation for me to understand the way business works there. Many students would tell me that they would hate when government inspectors would come by as that would mean they would need to pay bribes to them. It is also expected that companies need to lavishly entertain these visitors, so in addition to the bribes, you are expected to drop hundreds/thousands of dollars on dinners and drinks. Many students would also tell me that their dream job was to be a purchaser for a company. Some explicitly told me that this is because then they could receive kickbacks. I also heard quite a few stories about people stealing from their own companies. In fact, one story came from a guy who was just hired at a company and the manager encouraged him to "take a little for himself." The guy was uncomfortable doing this but he later found out that pretty much everyone in the company was doing this and only the owners were unaware of it. This is the mindset that you need to adjust to. Many people do not think there is anything wrong with bribes and stealing from the company. If you are going to pay them low salaries, they will find a way to make it up from you. Anyways, I wish you the best of luck. You'll sure learn a lot. It would be great to see a follow-up post from you in 6 months with your experiences. |
I moved my startup from the US to Hong Kong in 2007. I've spent the last three years there and in Southern China doing business. At the moment, I've moved back to the US (to LA) for a new venture, though I still have things running in Hong Kong (I'll be back next month).
For anyone interested in running a startup in Southern China, I'd be happy to answer questions. Getting things going in China is not easy. It's much easier to bootstrap in Hong Kong or Singapore while you get your bearings and then moving into mainland China later. And this comes from someone fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
If you are interested in doing things in that area, I recommend getting in touch with the Hong Kong Startup Association and introducing yourself there. The community is small and very supportive. Also the Hong Kong BarCamp is coming up soon, make sure to attend that if you can.