A hotbed for entrepreneurship

Following in the footsteps of cities such as Hangzhou and Beijing, Shanghai has now become a vibrant cluster for talents in the internet industry, according to a report by business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn.

The China entrepreneurship map, which is based on data provided by LinkedIn, that was showed at the World INS Conference on Sept 10, ranked Shanghai as the most attractive city for people in the internet sector to start their businesses.

It was revealed at the conference that among these young internet entrepreneurs, 54 percent of them indicated that they have big dreams to change the world through their innovative thoughts, while 2 percent admit that they just enjoy being the boss.

LinkedIn’s findings also showed that high technology is the sector where most entrepreneurs are willing to venture into (28 percent), followed by finance and manufacturing. In addition, young people who were born after 1990 are more inclined to run their own companies in sectors such as internet, E-commerce, technology and O2O.

Albert Zhang, 26, is one such person. The greenhorn in the internet industry, who used to be a fashion buyer, had little to no experience or knowledge in this highly technical industry when he decided to set up his own technology company in late 2014 developing a product similar to Google Glass. His products were sold mainly to corporate clients for as little as $400.

Zhang said that he is also exploring to branch out into the application or software market for augmented reality technology which is still quite underdeveloped in China. He believes that his company, Join Technology Co Ltd, can become a total solutions provider of augmented reality technology when he combines these two businesses.

“As I am still quite young, it would be fine if I fail and lose some money. I can pick up again one year later or go back to business school after that. As long as I am young, I can still pick up the pieces if I fail,” said Zhang.

The internet industry aside, the top two cities in China with the most number of people starting their businesses are Beijing and Shenzhen, Guangdong province. This is followed by Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing. According to LinkedIn, three cities from the Yangtze River Delta are listed in the top five, making the region a hotbed for entrepreneurship.

“The region connecting Hangzhou, Shanghai and Nanjing is a gathering place for advanced global resources and talents from all over the world, and it enjoys good policy support from the government, which enables us to put our thoughts into practice,” said Chai Jie, who runs Hangzhou Jiepai Cultural Creative Co Ltd.

An animated advertising company in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Chai’s company currently hires about 20 people and is now aiming to create a resource platform for animated commercial advertisements in the near future.

Despite the longing for success, entrepreneurs will face failure, which cannot be avoided, industry experts said. According to the LinkedIn report, the success rate of startups in China is 1 percent, with 63 percent of aspiring entrepreneurs eventually giving up on their start-ups and returning to their previous jobs. Only 20 percent have made a comeback after failure while 11 percent said they would consider to do so.

“In this modern era that is full of opportunities for startups, there is no loser as an entrepreneur, who is definitely able to learn from running a business whether it is successful or not,” said Shen Boyang, vice president of LinkedIn.