Venture Capital Trends in China

China Venture Capital Forum organized by Zero2IPO made its Silicon Valley debut on April 24th – 25th at Crown Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto. More than 500 people attended the conference. Among them were venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and others who see the China market as the next big thing not to be missed.

With $4 billion raised and $1 billion invested last year, China’s venture capital industry has experienced exponential growth. The conference provided a platform for people to network as well as to discuss topics such as the capital market, regulation issues, opportunities, and strategies for deployment, etc.

A new message that highlights the conference is that China is moving away from its "world factory" image to "wealth-pursuing consumers" in world economy. Here are some key take-aways regarding opportunities:

1. Internet is powered by mobile phones and remains the most promising area
2. New wireless applications are evolving because of 3G rollout
3. e-Commerce is picking up with great momentum
4. Under-invested clean-tech creates new opportunities
5. Multi-media advertising for consumer brands is yet to come

One of the top issues discussed is whether the market is over-heated. We have heard that there is too much money chasing too few deals. However, according to Andy Yan of Softbank Asia Investment Fund, the overall capital supply and demand environment is still in favor of investors, although some “hot” deals are getting increased valuations. Hearst Lin, partner of DCM, made it very clear that there is no bubble in China.

Another issue is intellectual property. Surprising to many people in the audience (but not surprising to me), the panelists don’t consider IP as a big problem. The reason is most technology companies in China are in application rather than invention. In China, it’s not always the technology play, but more the execution play. The most successful barriers for comepitition are not technology barriers but business barriers.

It’s a very interesting time for China. As someone described it in Chinese: 乱世出英雄 – “the real heroes arise in chaotic time.” Gavin Ni, the founder of Zero2IPO, used a picture of the tip of an iceberg to end his presentation for VC industry trends. He didn’t give any explanation except saying “a picture is worth thousands of words.” It could mean the mass of the market is still yet to emerge, or it could mean there is danger for The Titanic. It’s up to individuals to interpret.

China, venture capital, China business, emerging market

Valley's Song - Google in Chinese

Google adopted a new Chinese name “谷歌”，pronouncing “gu3 ge1” in pinyin. Literally, it means “valley’s song.” It’s very poetic and cheerful. The first thing that came to my mind was “a song from Silicon Valley,” or “a song flying from the valley to the sky.” Whatever it could be meaning, it’s really cool!

Whoever came up this name did a good job. I was very troubled by Google’s old Chinese name “顾够”, which is pronounced “gu4 gou4”. Although it sounds like google, literally it could mean “wandering and enough,” or “taking care but enough.” It really doesn’t mean anything, but whatever it could be meaning, it was really terrible.

Chinese believe names have potential influence on the fortune of business and its people. If you have a name that means “wandering and enough,” you probably don’t know what you are doing. If you have a name that flies and symbolizes triumph, you will probably fly and triumph.

Update: Some people do not like Google's new Chinese name “谷歌”。However, the alternatives they came up are much worse, such as “狗狗”, which is pronounced "gou3 gou3". It means "doggie doggie" in Chinese. Apparently, it's a rediculous joke. No one on earth can see Google use a name like that. 谷歌 is still by far the best name.

China, Google, Silicon Valley, business culture, China business

China's Internet Users

According to some estimation, China has about 150 – 200 million Internet users, contradicting with the official number of 111 millions. That means China’s Internet users may have very well surpassed the United States (154 million). While this may be a shocking news to some people, it’s not shocking to me. Overtime, I have heard from many of my friends that official data is under-estimated and actual numbers are much higher.

However, what’s real shocking is the amount of time Chinese spent online. Chinese Internet users spend on average15.9 hours per week, while Yahoo!, with the largest user community in this country, can only get its users stick around less than one hour per week. That's 1.765 billion hours per week online in China, compared with 129 million hours per week online in the U.S.

So, what are Chinese doing by spending so much time online? Apparently, people log onto the Internet surfing the news, chatting with friends and families, etc. Although there is certain degree of censorship, the Internet is still a place where the media is relatively free. According to the CNNIC, 67.9% of online use in China is spent devouring news. By contrast, only 3% of Yahoo!'s U.S. traffic clicks over to news.

Another important fact is that there are 400 million cell phone users in China, and 80% of them have the mobile phones with the capacity connecting to the Internet. With the roll-out of 3G, there will be more mobile Internet access. I would expect China will lead the innovations in mobile search, which includes search for news, local business listings, entertainment, shopping, etc.

Update: eMarketer has more detailed analysis about China's Internet users with comparison of the data from several sources. However, I do believe the under-estimation of China's Internet users.

China, Internet, China business, emerging market, technology