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China's Tech Copycats Transformed Into a Hub For Innovation (wired.com)
hackingbear writes: Following similar path of the 19th century America, China has advanced from being copycats to innovators. After its middle class has risen from 4% of population to 2/3 in the last decade, a generation both creative and comfortable with risk-taking are born. "We're seeing people in their early twenties starting companies—people just out of school, and there are even some dropouts," says Kai-Fu Lee, a Chinese venture capitalist and veteran of Apple, Microsoft, and Google, who has spent the past decade crisscrossing the nation, helping youths start firms. Major cities, i.e. Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, are crowded with ambitious inventors and entrepreneurs, flocking into software accelerators and hackerspaces. They no longer want jobs at Google or Apple; like their counterparts in San Francisco, they want to build the next Google or Apple. Venture capitalists pumped a record $15.5 billion into Chinese startups last year, so entrepreneurs are being showered in funding, as well as crucial advice and mentoring from millionaire angels. Even the Chinese government—which has a wary attitude toward online expression and runs a vast digital censorship apparatus—has launched a $6.5 billion fund for startups.
A communist venture capitalist... what'll they think of next?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
China makes cheap copy's / rips off other techs some times on the 3rd shift.
Some of the components are "3rd Shift", where the employees or contractor may be running the production lines for unauthorized capacity off the books.
Trump is right we need to stand up to china and make them do more then the token crack down on ripoffs.
They want to steal from them, and everyone else.
Is china crucial / school system even setup for this? I think a lot of there schools are still big on the TEST parts and not so much on teaching usable skills / have non cramming based tests.
You are all Cows. Cows say Mooo. Meee! Mooo! Meeeeh! Meeeh Cheep Meeeh! Meeeeh! Meeeeh! Meeeh say the Sheep. YOU TRANSFORMED COWS!!!
I think a lot of there schools are still big on the TEST parts and not so much on teaching usable skills
Like the proper use of the word "there"
So US schools?
You say that, but how many people in the West can truly be said to be innovators either? Most people in the West aren't Elon Musk or John Carmack. Then the social media and online games which only innovate new ways to waste people's time and money. And let's not talk about every web startup that disappears after two years.
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
Yaknow, the copycatting hasn't changed. In fact, the endless copycats act as a barrier to entry. Why should you go to all the trouble to create a new product and prove a market exists, when all that's going to happen is 100 people open the same company offering the same product?
This is typical "Wired" journalism - seeing what they want to see, and breathlessly reporting it. Western journalists stick to the major cities. Even a trip to somewhere like Hangzhou is treated as a possibly hazardous excursion to the rural countryside. It's no surprise that they think the way they do, they like their own kind of people and do not like being around people who do not use words like "hackerspace" without cringing.
Chinese people have a very derogatory feeling toward startups. Only huge companies can make anything good, or so it goes. Small companies have a reputation of being poor and shoddy, like all the ones you know in your home town. People like Micheal Dell would have been laughed out of the board room and never gotten his first big contract. The environment is very skewed towards people like Bill Gates and Richard Garriot who came from rich families and used that to get started.
Then there are all the governmental barriers. You can't just start a company out of your garage - you need a registered office in the appropriate kind of office space. If you're a tech company, you need to have an address in a tech park, you can't just find wherever is cheapest. Of course, the tech parks all know this and are ready to offer you high prices and poor management. Try finding enough parking spaces for your employees, for example, it's a nightmare. Taxes are a big pain, the government frequently does not even know its own policies. Call the tax bureau two different days, get two different answers. Oh, and by the way, to even open a tech company requires millions in registered startup capital. It's not just getting a DBA and a tax number from your state government like you do for your garage company. It is a very involved process that takes 6-12 months and is full of bureaus who will happily reject your application for cryptic reasons.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Is it news? Chinese tech followed this general pattern:
1) Knock-off 1.
2) Knock-off 2.
3) Own invention.
It's especially visible in such areas as aerospace or high-speed trains. Now most of the tech has moved well into stage 3. Some products are even becoming iconic - DJI Phantom is now seen as a stereotypical quadcopter, for example.
Growing up as a dirt farmer doesn't mean that you can't be as smart as someone who grew up with xboxes watching transformers on giant plasma tvs. Not only that but growing up in poor conditions really motivates you to get out of them
If you were crossing America helping youth start firms. But you prefer Communism over our way of life.
As does Apple. When you buy these products you to prefer Communism and the first step to American Communism is socialism with the likes of Sanders.
Were really dumb as dirt.
Just make terrible phone apps, filled with ads and backdoors.
So that's the risk of outsourcing then, it starts with those annoyingly expensive western workers, and moves all the way up the chain. :)
Good luck managing a farm in the near future C* level peeps
> After its middle class has risen from 4% of population to 2/3 in the last decade
I was a bit surprised with this - but the first website I searched claims that it is correct.
All the others say about 100 million - so less than 10% ... not 66%
I actually grew up on a farm in a third world country and I couldn't agree more. I was awe struck by all the technology (80's) and that without a doubt got me in to this career. The lust obviously wore off over the many decades but it's still a huge differentiator when I see peers who don't share that sense of wonder and curiosity for new tech.
"After its middle class has risen from 4% of population to 2/3 in the last decade..."
This figure is pure fantasy. Unless by "middle class" you mean just above poor.
Doesn't communism kill all desire to innovate? That's what the capitalists are saying..
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
They aren't doing anything differently, they just love to lie like mofos (Mao invented the telephone! And TV! And penecillin!). They have a lot of money, but they are ill-gotten gains. Don't buy into the hype, they are as corrupt and bereft of ideas as ever.
Only if you define middle class so inclusively as to include what would be considered abject poverty in any other developed country. Sure, there are improvements - not quite so many people forced to eat dirt on a regular basis, but that figure is frankly laughable to anyone who has actually lived in or visited China.
Thats a large part of why the DMCA is such a bad deal for America. It effectively outlaws innovation.
China is still doing what it has always done - coming up with nothing new or original. It's a country of thieves and liars.
Seems to make sense on the surface, right? Japan goes from being known for cheap copies to being known for high quality merchandise. Korea too, to a lesser extent. But for decades people have been expecting this of China yet it remains the place for cheap copies. Maybe there's something different about China?
"In 2000, barely 4 percent of China was middle-class—meaning with an income ranging from $9,000 to $34,000—but by 2012 fully two-thirds had climbed into that bracket."
From the Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/11929794/Chinas-middle-class-overtakes-US-as-largest-in-the-world.html
The Swiss bank said with 109 million adults "this year, the Chinese middle class for the first time outnumbered" that in the United States at 92 million.
109 million is nowhere near two thirds of population
As for the rest of the article
TL;DR, with mistakes like this simply was not worth my time or yours