In my recent visit to China I was invited to be a presenter at 5G Shanghai. ‘5G’ is a weekly meetup of Shanghai technology professionals (primarily web entrepreneurs). For this blog entry, I will write about the founders of 5G Shanghai, the organizers and attendees, my presentation, and some random thoughts and findings about the Internet in China.
The Founders:
Co-founders of 5G include Jiang Mingliang, Henry (华宏伟), and Jian Shuo. Mingliang is the founder of EasyTVC, a Chinese marketplace for TV ads (similar to Spot Runner), and HSL, probably the largest TV home shopping network in China. Henry is in charge of a start-up focusing on outdoor digital media. They have built a media network of big LED screens throughout the city metro system in Shanghai and Beijing. I got to experience the subway system in both cities and watch the LED screens. When compared to similar efforts in the US, Henry is further ahead. Jian Shuo is the CEO of baixing.com (eBay’s venture in China formerly known as Kijiji) and a famous Chinese blogger.
The Organizers and Attendees:
As with NY Tech Meetup and BogoTech, 5G Shanghai has many people helping and many more attending. Around 40 people attended my presentation. I met dozens of them: Michael Meng, from Xinhua PR Newswire (the Chinese version of PR Newswire); Kenny Zhou, Technical Director of Real Networks Asia; Charles Shen, former strategist for eBay China; Stephen Tsing, from FU16 (a startup similar to iminlikewithyou); and many others. There were also government officials wanting to learn about startups and, I guess, how to help them.
My Presentation:
I was asked to tell my story as a serial web entrepreneur. Similarly to NY Tech Meetup and BogoTech, attendees of 5G get inspired by learning about other entrepreneurs, their stories, and their inventions. The presentation lasted around 90 minutes. Mingliang and Michael helped as translators. Most attendees, though, understood English fairly well. The presentation was followed by a Q&A session. I was impressed by the quality and rich complexity of the questions. Some of the questions where highly technical, while others showed a deep understanding of online marketplaces.
Right after that, I was invited to have dinner with most of the attendees. We went to a traditional Chinese restaurant. I was really happy! As all of my friends know, if there is something that I like as much as traveling, is trying new and exotic foods wherever I go. I had the chance of tasting at least ten flavors I had never tried before. I kept answering questions all night long. It was obvious for me that many of them were eager to innovate at any cost as we do here in the US.
The slide show of my presentation can be found here.
Random Thoughts and Findings:
Attending 5G Shanghai was an eye-opening experience. These are just some of the many things that I discover through observation and conversations:
- There is venture capital in China from both Chinese and American sources. I learned about several companies that have raised Chinese venture capital.
- There are more English-speaking people in China than in the US. However, Chinese only use English-based web sites when forced into it. Successful websites in China must be in Chinese. For example, I found out that 5G probably will not use Meetup.com to organize their meetings unless it has a Chinese (Simplified) version. Why? Because they don’t want to alienate anybody.
- For most Chinese, Google is still a second thought after Baidu (even among tech-savvy people). It seems that Baidu offers results good enough, that there is no value in switching over to Google.
- Many Chinese are open to partner with American companies to launch their products and ideas in the Chinese market. There are many people already interested in being our partners to bring Voice123 and LetMeGo to China.
- Companies in China have PR (public relations) personnel as well as GR (government relations) personnel. Of course, relations with the government are very important for Chinese companies.
- Chinese and American capitalism and consumers are very similar. Nevertheless, the cultures, transactional methods, laws, and languages are very different. If you could graph in a chart the different ways in which e-commerce is done everywhere in the world, China and the US would be on the opposite extremes. As such, I am 100% positive that any successful venture in China should be managed by a Chinese native.
Frank Sinatra used to sing about New York “And if I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere”. I must rephrase this for Internet companies: “And if I can make in New York and Shanghai, I’m gonna make it anywhere.”
Alexander Torrenegra
P.S. I am highly grateful for the warm welcome and plenty of attention given to me while in Shanghai. Thank you Henry, Mike, Jason, Royal, and specially Mingliang! Without your help I would have only learned a small fraction of what I actually learned about e-China.
P.P.S. If you want to learn more about the [huge] Internet market in China, I strongly recommend you to see the presentation “Google in China” by Kai-Fu Lee (in English). You can download it for free from iTunes at http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/cmu.edu.1493991494?i=1587417220
P.P.P.S. Thank you Mike for the pics and Steven for the proofreading of this article!
Alexander is LetMeGo's co-founder and jefe. Here is his LetMeGo 
I´m really convinced that networking is the the force behind an industry, we must learn here in Colombia how to make not only social-networking the one made in parties, clubs, etc., we have a long way to learn in how to make business networking. Hopefully Bogotech, Web 2.0 Encounters and Momo begin to fill this gap. But unfortunately is not only a wish of a few people, it must be a cultural attitude, that for sure will take a long time. More business means more people creating and thinking. Let´s see what 2009 bring us