Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Fortune's Brainstorm Tech International in Guangzhou

(see links in the article)



‘DEFINITELY NOT A BUBBLE:' China's digital revolution was bankrolled with dollars, and it has emerged as the world's second-largest destination for venture capital with more than 3,000 funds. But things have changed. These days, leading investors are as likely to hail from inside China as overseas. Among them are Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, which are not only global investor darlings but also powerful investors themselves. This has created an ecosystem in which two of the world's richest and fastest-growing companies are bidding against one another for hot investments.


Here's an excerpt from my story on what China-focused VCs had to say about Alibaba and Tencent pouring money into more and more tech companies:


The scale and speed at play in China's VC scene have prompted "bubble" accusations in Silicon Valley and New York, Tung said. "Everyone knows that the first three years decide who will win," he said. "It is definitely not a bubble. There's a science to how this works."
Nevertheless, recent media reports about the apparent boom-bust of some Chinese bike-sharing companies, for instance, have fueled bubble speculation. The companies have attracted a whopping $2 billion in venture capital collectively in the past 18 months. Flush with cash, some have attempted to go global, only to burn through their money and shutter operations. That's a ‘bubbly' narrative, but one panelist was careful to draw a distinction.
"I don't think there's a bubble, but I think there's this herd mentality that is a little big dangerous," said Anna Fang, CEO of ZhenFund. "There's this herd mentality in our field where investors run to two or three themes a year, so it could develop into a bubble in that particular sector."


THE KING OF E-COMMERCE: In less than a decade, China has emerged as the world leader in e-commerce. It claims more online shoppers than any other nation. The numbers speak for themselves. China is home to 730 million Internet users, it accounts for 40% (!) of global retail e-commerce, and its mobile payment market is a whopping 11 times the size of the U.S. market. This is only the beginning for China's astronomical growth in the e-commerce space. Read more.


CONQUERING CHINA: The Chinese market is tough to crack — just ask Facebook and Twitter. Home-sharing company Airbnb has been working on its expansion in China since 2014, and it most certainly hasn't been easy. Airbnb co-founder and chief strategy officer Nathan Blecharczyk said the team wasn't sure if their model would even work in China. "We had heard the stories about other tech companies and how hard it is to succeed in China, so we weren't sure whether to make it a priority or focus on other things that were more straightforward," he said. After three years, the company has seen some pretty impressive growth, but there's a lot left to prove in order to call this a success story. Read more.
Find all coverage from Guangzhou here.

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