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ZhongGuanCun: The next silicon valley (steveblank.com)
5 points by phdtree 4711 days ago
3 comments

I work in zhongguancun, it's not the next valley. Beijing just has too many problems with traffic and pollution to be the next tech hotspot, not to mention an over emphasis on SOEs. Given protections from the government that favor home grown champions, there is also a distinct lack of innovation, even most of wechat's features were ripped off from somewhere else.
Read this and see Steve Blank get sold a bill of goods. Kai Fu Lee and Innovation Works make money by charging western investors for the privilege of funding Chinese clones. This is why they play up the "copy to China" model as if it is some sort of grand innovation. Most HN teams could run circles around these guys with their eyes closed.

Reality is that their terms for financing are hilariously punitive -- real entrepreneurs with traction and revenue won't touch them unless their businesses are profitless sinkholes. But did I fail to mention China's aggregate growth figures and imply that I have anything to do with them? And do YOU want outsized returns and enjoy lightweight blogging platforms and social/mobile html5 games??? Flip. Flip. Flip!

its a lie, zhongguancun could never be the next silicon valley if it is in beijing

ask anyone who have come to beijing, let them talk about the problem to you