<story><title>China, Not Silicon Valley, Is Cutting Edge in Mobile Tech</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/technology/china-mobile-tech-innovation-silicon-valley.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>billconan</author><text>guess I should also write the other side of the story -- things I don&amp;#x27;t like about China.&lt;p&gt;Overall, I feel that China is like the U.S. in its early days (1920s). Or the 1999 Silicon Valley&lt;p&gt;There are a lot of opportunities, but less rules. It&amp;#x27;s a jungle basically. For people with tech depth and want to build something steadily, China is not the best place.&lt;p&gt;a high percentage of young entrepreneurs there are just opportunists. They are not interested in sitting down and building something useful. Instead, they just want to quickly raise&amp;#x2F;burn money and go public.&lt;p&gt;There are way more theranos&amp;#x27; there in China.&lt;p&gt;And you need to have connections to success in China. This is a historical and cultural thing.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know how many of you noticed the recent news of didi acquiring uber China. The leaders of the two companies are actually from the same family. One is the daughter of the Lenovo CEO. The other is the niece of him. Probably coincidence，but you see coincidences more often in China.&lt;p&gt;My attitude towards China is that I take it seriously. I admit what it does better. But I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;m strong enough to fight in the jungle.</text></item><item><author>billconan</author><text>I grew up in China, and I&amp;#x27;m now living in the bay area. I just went back for a month for vacation. I too saw a more living mobile ecosystem.&lt;p&gt;and wechat is indeed in the center of this system. For example, a fruit stand would now accept mobile payment via wechat. those who run fruit stands are usually farmers.&lt;p&gt;I think it makes a lot of sense to build mobile payment into a a social app. because any currency would require a social network. and transferring money is a key social activity.&lt;p&gt;building independent mobile payment without the support from a mature social network is a bad idea, for example square and apple pay (only useable in the apple ecosystem, a partial mobile ecosystem).&lt;p&gt;China never seemed to have a credit card era, it jumped directly from paying cash to paying with mobile. whereas in the U.S., credit card is so convenient, people don&amp;#x27;t want to change.&lt;p&gt;for many years, wechat has been combining new features with its social network, whereas whatsapp wanted to be a pure chatting app and missed many opportunities.&lt;p&gt;you can use wechat to order food at restaurants, you can log into public wifi with wechat ....&lt;p&gt;This is just one example. Another thing I noticed is online shopping. At the gate of our apartment, each day, there are many deliver guys on tricycles. They have a more efficient and cheap delivering system.&lt;p&gt;For example, in the yard of our apartment we have storage cabinets with password locks. The deliver guys won&amp;#x27;t deliver each package to your door, as it is inefficient, especially because apartment buildings are tall in China, you have to take elevator. Instead, they put packages into one of the cabinet doors. And you will receive a password on your phone. Put the code in, the cabinet door will open. you can then get the package.&lt;p&gt;This is not a complex idea, but hard to implement in the U.S., because we don&amp;#x27;t have the same population density here. When you build an infrastructure like this, you want to serve as many people as possible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>20andup</author><text>&amp;quot;a high percentage of young entrepreneurs there are just opportunists. They are not interested in sitting down and building something useful. Instead, they just want to quickly raise&amp;#x2F;burn money and go public.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I worked for several SF startups and most are the same.  So I don&amp;#x27;t agree there are way more Theranos&amp;#x27; in China.  I would say they are probably around the same level in terms of many people claiming they are for something when they are not.&lt;p&gt;This doesn&amp;#x27;t just happen in tech though.  I have seen it in banking as well when it was booming.  When there is a booming industry, it tends to attract a lot of posers that exasperates the hype.</text></comment>
<story><title>China, Not Silicon Valley, Is Cutting Edge in Mobile Tech</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/technology/china-mobile-tech-innovation-silicon-valley.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>billconan</author><text>guess I should also write the other side of the story -- things I don&amp;#x27;t like about China.&lt;p&gt;Overall, I feel that China is like the U.S. in its early days (1920s). Or the 1999 Silicon Valley&lt;p&gt;There are a lot of opportunities, but less rules. It&amp;#x27;s a jungle basically. For people with tech depth and want to build something steadily, China is not the best place.&lt;p&gt;a high percentage of young entrepreneurs there are just opportunists. They are not interested in sitting down and building something useful. Instead, they just want to quickly raise&amp;#x2F;burn money and go public.&lt;p&gt;There are way more theranos&amp;#x27; there in China.&lt;p&gt;And you need to have connections to success in China. This is a historical and cultural thing.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know how many of you noticed the recent news of didi acquiring uber China. The leaders of the two companies are actually from the same family. One is the daughter of the Lenovo CEO. The other is the niece of him. Probably coincidence，but you see coincidences more often in China.&lt;p&gt;My attitude towards China is that I take it seriously. I admit what it does better. But I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;m strong enough to fight in the jungle.</text></item><item><author>billconan</author><text>I grew up in China, and I&amp;#x27;m now living in the bay area. I just went back for a month for vacation. I too saw a more living mobile ecosystem.&lt;p&gt;and wechat is indeed in the center of this system. For example, a fruit stand would now accept mobile payment via wechat. those who run fruit stands are usually farmers.&lt;p&gt;I think it makes a lot of sense to build mobile payment into a a social app. because any currency would require a social network. and transferring money is a key social activity.&lt;p&gt;building independent mobile payment without the support from a mature social network is a bad idea, for example square and apple pay (only useable in the apple ecosystem, a partial mobile ecosystem).&lt;p&gt;China never seemed to have a credit card era, it jumped directly from paying cash to paying with mobile. whereas in the U.S., credit card is so convenient, people don&amp;#x27;t want to change.&lt;p&gt;for many years, wechat has been combining new features with its social network, whereas whatsapp wanted to be a pure chatting app and missed many opportunities.&lt;p&gt;you can use wechat to order food at restaurants, you can log into public wifi with wechat ....&lt;p&gt;This is just one example. Another thing I noticed is online shopping. At the gate of our apartment, each day, there are many deliver guys on tricycles. They have a more efficient and cheap delivering system.&lt;p&gt;For example, in the yard of our apartment we have storage cabinets with password locks. The deliver guys won&amp;#x27;t deliver each package to your door, as it is inefficient, especially because apartment buildings are tall in China, you have to take elevator. Instead, they put packages into one of the cabinet doors. And you will receive a password on your phone. Put the code in, the cabinet door will open. you can then get the package.&lt;p&gt;This is not a complex idea, but hard to implement in the U.S., because we don&amp;#x27;t have the same population density here. When you build an infrastructure like this, you want to serve as many people as possible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>erikb</author><text>Same here. I think startups everywhere are a jungle, but in China it&amp;#x27;s a lot deeper, much deeper. Tricks, politics, family, all of that plays a much bigger role and luck can change much more quickly. I don&amp;#x27;t know how it is in Shanghai but in the countryside it&amp;#x27;s also still possible that you need to deal with mob like groups that will simply put you in the hospital if they feel you are disturbing their business.</text></comment>