Adapted from talk delivered January 9, 2012 at General Assembly (www.generalassemb.ly) in New York City.

1. STARTING UP IN CHINA
ELI BILDNER
PRESENTATION DELIVERED AT GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN NEW YORK CITY, JANUARY 9, 2012

2. Introductions
Why start-up in China?
1 system, 2, 3, 4 countries
Why 联 ≠ the Internet
HW: A clicking tour
CONTENTS
Starting-up in China
Why start-up in China? (2)
Discussion/Q&A

3. WHO AM I AND WHAT
AM I DOING HERE?
grow up in
Fulbright Montclair, NJ
research on Co-found (go Cougars)
SMEs in rural Transi.st in
China Shanghai
Work for this
foundation in
Hong Kong

4. WHAT WE DO
Tech meets impact Growing China’s top SEs
Seed investments and incubation A fellowship program for seed-stage
of social enterprises, with focus Chinese social entrepreneurs, offering
on intersection of technology and training, mentorship and investment
social innovation opportunities

5. WHO WE ARE
Bill Scott
Calvin Chin Schoenfeld Ballantyne
Hi.
Simon
David Chen Huang Eli Bildner
!

6. FRONT MATTER
The Chinese start-up scene...has a frenetic feel similar to those
early dot-com boom days. “I’ve worked in Tokyo and in Silicon
Valley during the dot-com bubble, and that was intense,” he said.
“But it’s not even close.”
-NY Times Dealbook

7. “The pressure to take a job with a large prestigious
company, or even the government, remains a big
hurdle for startups by young Chinese professionals
born as the only child of their aging parents.
Americans, in contrast, live with the epic stories of
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg
dropping out of college to chase their dreams and
become billionaires of companies that literally
changed the world.”
- Frank Yu

8. “China’s users are too busy enjoying the Internet they have,
rather than lamenting the one they don’t.”
- Andrew Lih

9. “There are three kinds of lies:
lies, damned lies, and Chinese statistics.”
- Unknown

10. “WHAT CAN SAVE OUR
COUNTRY?”
Public poll posted on Kaixin (social
network) after Wenzhou train crash
in July 2011. Respondents could
select up to five options, ranging from
“equality” to “science & technology”.
Just 1% of respondents select “the
economy.” The response of 73% of
those polled:
There is no hope. I don’t want
to save it anymore.
(Source: Kaixin/Sinosplice/John Pasden)

11. Why start-up in China?
LARGEST
Internet user base in the
1 system, 2, 3, 4 countries
world
Why 联 ≠ the Internet The same rules
HW: A clicking tour
DO NOT APPLY
Starting-up in China
IT’S
Like it or not
Why start-up in China? (2)
COMING
Discussion/Q&A We’ve got
PROBLEMS

12. Why start-up in China?
MEET CHINA
1 system, 2, 3, 4 countries
Why 联 ≠ the Internet
HW: A clicking tour
Starting-up in China
Why start-up in China? (2)
Discussion/Q&A
(Eli Bildner 1/9/12)

13. THREE DIVIDERS

14. URBAN RURAL
Beijing & Shanghai: Rural China
15-20% of jobs; 2001: 64% of population
~2.5% of population 2011: <50% of population
(Source: McKinsey)

15. PRE-R&O* POST-R&O
Came of age during Came of age in a
cultural revolution new era
Prize stability; the The “Post-80s” vs.
“iron rice bowl” The “Post-90s”
Parents of the 1- Children of the 1-
child policy child policy
4-2-1 generational structure
*”Reform & Openness”

16. HAVES HAVE-NOTS
The real divider is
not where you live,
but how you live.
China is one of the
most economically
inequitable places in
the world.
And in a connected
world, everyone is
Guo mei mei. striving for the same “After I watch TV I have a lot of
thoughts, but no way to realize
them.”
Stuff.
(Source: Adrian Fisk/Chinasmack)

17. Why start-up in China?
1 system, 2, 3, 4 countries
Why 联 ≠ the Internet
联 ≠ Internet
HW: A clicking tour
Starting-up in China
Why start-up in China? (2)
Discussion/Q&A

18. 联 is a giant intranet

20. World average: 5.6 MBS
China: 1.8 MBS
(and often much slower on foreign sites)
(Source:Technode)

21. 联 is booming
600 M users
500
400
300
200
2007 100
2008
2009 0
2010
2011
(Source: China Internet Watch)

22. Less than 10% of urban
Chinese shopped online in
2006. In two years, nearly half will
Q2 web revenue = 62.2B RMB
77.5% YoY surge
And yet, web users comprise less than
1/2 of the population
(Source: China Internet Watch)

23. 联 is young & active
of Chinese internet users are
80% between the age of 10-40
of Chinese social network users
80% are between the age of 20-34
average number of hours spent per
18.7 day...and then there are the

24. 联 is mobile
of Chinese internet users
66% access the mobile web

25. 联 was always 2.0
100%
75%
50%
25%
Ecommerce
0% Blog
Gaming
IM
Music
Email
News
Search USA China
(Sources: Google, CNNIC, iResearch, Calvin Chin)

26. 联 was always 2.0
100%
75%
50% We b 2.0
25%
Ecommerce
0% Blog
Gaming
IM
Music
Email
News
Search USA China
(Sources: Google, CNNIC, iResearch, Calvin Chin)

27. It’s just...different
Activity US China
Send or read email 92% 55%
Use a search engine 92% 84%
Get news 76% 79%
Use a social networking site 65% 50%
Do online banking 61% 33%
Play online games 36% 68%
Send instant messages 46% 84%
(Sources: China internet watch,Tech Rice, Pew)

28. Why start-up in China?
1 system, 2, 3, 4 countries
联
Why 联 ≠ the Internet
HW: A clicking tour
Starting-up in China A Clicking Tour
Why start-up in China? (2)
Discussion/Q&A

29. Search is where the internet begins for many in China,
where some users have trouble typing due to a
bothersome input method (“pinyin”).
Baidu: 78% of China’s search market

30. 78% market
share in Chinese
search
BIDU 42.2B
market cap
(Source:Tech Rice)

31. TAOBAO
Taobao is one of China’s e-
commerce kings, holding
31% of the country’s B2C
market.
It also provides an example
of how foreign companies
can screw up royally in
China: In 2003, EBay held
90% of China’s online
auction market. Today,
almost all of that belongs to
Taobao.
An ugly website? To
American eyes, perhaps. But
most Chinese would demur.
In China, the mouse click is
king.

32. 360Buy.com
10% of China’s B2C market.
...And a good example of
how different a market
China really is.
Where else would a huge e-
commerce site send you a
confirmation email with the
cell phone number and name
of the deliveryman?
Or allow you to pay by cash
on delivery?

33. 7 steps to becoming a
“netizen”)

34. 1

35. 2

36. 3

37. 4
(Eli Bildner 1/9/12)

38. 5

39. 6

40. 7

41. ...or you could just use the Tencent weibo English UI

42. “China only has one firm that is capable of becoming China's
Facebook: Tencent. The two (Facebook and Tencent) may be
dissimilar in outward appearance, but the core of each is
closely related: the social graph.”
- Keso

43. Shanzhai culture
One of China’s
highest-profile internet
radio apps. Available
only on “jail-broken”
IPhones.

44. Space to breathe.
Space to vent.
Space to laugh.

45. (Click)

46. “WK” = “Wukan”. “535” = “Tiananmen”

47. (Click)

48. Why start-up in China?
You should startup in
1 system, 2, 3, 4 countries China if you want to
Why 联 ≠ the Internet
SOLVE
HW: A clicking tour
Starting-up in China
Why start-up in China? (2)
Discussion/Q&A
PROBLEMS

49. 1)
the environment

50. 2)
food & product safety

51. 3)
economic & social inclusion

52. 4)
education

53. @ECSELfellows
Tech Rice
Technode
China Internet Watch
FURTHER iChinaStocks
Twitter
READING Sinica podcast
Michael Pettis/
Seeking Alpha
the 5-year plan
(KPMG series)
Startup digests

54. Why start-up in China?
1 system, 2, 3, 4 countries
Why 联 ≠ the Internet
HW: A clicking tour
Starting-up in China
Eli Bildner
Why start-up in China? (2) eli@transi.st
Discussion/Q&A