Just got back from China and ready to share my thoughts with you.
Yours truly,
Captain Hoff (a.k.a. Steve Hoffman)
Running Fast in China
China
I just returned from a marathon business trip to China, and here are some thoughts…
▪ Chinese food in America sucks!
▪ Traffic in Beijing makes Hwy 101 look like the Autobahn
▪ Smog is out of control, so the government is making cleantech a top priority
▪ Stock market reacts like a yoyo with each new government policy
▪ Big city Chinese need to own real estate to get into the right school districts
▪ Home prices in major cities are sky high, but if you don’t own property, no mother will let her daughter marry you!
▪ Many Chinese own 3 or more condos, and they don’t even rent them out because rental prices are so low
▪ Real estate prices have peaked and are falling, so owners are cashing out and investing in startups
▪ This has precipitated a startup boom
▪ The government is fueling the boom by laying out big subsidies for startups and incubators
▪ If you want free space for your startup, China has plenty of it
▪ Valuations are sky high, as investors compete to get into the hottest startups
▪ Chinese investors prefer startup founders 30+ years old – they don’t trust the kids with their cash
▪ High tech wages now rival those in the US – the days of cheap labor are gone!
▪ Traditional businesses are on the decline
▪ Factories that were once off-shored to China are moving to Southeast Asia in search of cheaper labor
▪ The buzz word in China is “innovation” and the entire country feels they must move up the value chain to compete
▪ Copying has become a dirty word, as China pushes to develop its own intellectual property
▪ Intellectual property rights will be enforced more strictly moving forward because China needs to reward innovation
▪ The Chinese government is focused on bringing the best technologies from around the world to China
▪ Chinese work harder than anyone I know: even government officials come to work on weekends (imagine that!)
Blog of Intellectual Capital 
Leave a Reply