4 ms·

China is no longer a nation of tech copycats

64 points by pmcpinto 11y ago

x5n1 11y ago
"of only" there fixed it for you.
EuAndreh 11y ago
Well, we should all be glad that the exemples from US are spreading to the rest of the world! If only more countries stopped being copycats and started actually copying the US model. God bless America. Humpf The title is also really bad, as if China was at a given time a whole nation of copycats (although the article itself doesn't insist on this point). People reverse engineer your product/company. So what?
ChuckMcM 11y ago
This reads largely true for me, but it is also pretty obviously not true on a serious scale (compare the F-35 fighter to the J-31 fighter). That said, raising a younger generation of people who think outside the box has its own perils for any government where some boxes are not meant to be left (I include the US government in this list as well). I am a strong advocate of critical thinking and independent verification, but I can tell you that it gets me into trouble more often than it gets me accolades :-). The response to such thinking can be harsh. People who think critically are often considered "intellectuals" and China has dealt with such people harshly in the past, even at the expense of the greater country. Here in the US it is used as an insult in circles where the smart choice would dictate a different path than the current policy (yes I'm thinking about the whole global warming "debate"). Bottom line is that this is both good and bad news for China.
- netheril96 11y ago
  > I am a strong advocate of critical thinking and independent verification, but I can tell you that it gets me into trouble more often than it gets me accolades :-). I was discouraged by that fact before, and wondered whether joining the herd thinking was actually better for my own life. Until I avoided the China stock market crash last year, where many others persist in their illusion that the stock market can boom even when the fundamentals are weak. In fact, critical thinking and independent verification only get you into trouble if you publicly speak out. If you just keep the results to yourself, you can find opportunities and escape disasters before others, assuming your thinking gets you closer to the truth rather than further. Why enlighten the fools if you can just exploit them? Especially since they won't listen anyway?
  - oska 11y ago
    I liked your comment until this line: > Why enlighten the fools if you can just exploit them?
  - meric 11y ago
    >> Why enlighten the fools if you can just exploit them? If they're family and you can convince them.
  - rurban 11y ago
    > "stock market crash" The fundamentals lost their annual rise from 6% to 3%, which is still a much better rate than any other major economy. I kept my chinese investments and it's still raising with 3.5%. True rises, not artificial booms. Still more secure than the promised 10-20% interest from monetary gambling by wallstreet, not backed up by economic advantages.
univerio 11y ago
Website usability complaint: trying to highlight a caption under a photo sends you to the gallery, making you lose your spot in the article.
tallerholler 11y ago
from the title I am going to assume this is an April fools prank?
jsn117 11y ago
yeah, why the black turtlenecks then?
zaroth 11y ago
I find this impossible to believe; "In 2000, barely four per cent of China was middle class - meaning with an income ranging from $9,000 (£6,270) to $34,000 - but by 2012, fully two-thirds had climbed into that bracket." They must be counting something as a subsidy which people aren't actually consuming. To think that almost all of US GDP growth is occurring in the top, this would say almost all of China GDP growth is occurring in the bottom. But really saying that 60% of your population.. so the claim is that ~800 million people have moved into "middle class" in 15 years... And "middle class" is defined as "spending less than 50% of income on necessities".
kev6168 11y ago
IMHO, China is still full of tech copycats. What they have done so far is applying western technologies/business models to the Chinese market, maybe some modifications here and there for the local culture and marketing schemes, but hardly innovative. Now, can you name a few things coming out of China in the last twenty years that are relatively innovative and influential? Maybe things like Linux, Java, Netscape, Rails, Jquery, Twitter, Instagram, etc. The definitions for 'innovative' and 'influential' are up to you, I am just genuinely curious.
- yq 11y ago
  Wechat, High-speed train, Taobao's 11.11 sales, DJI Uav, Buses, hikvision, Foxit PDF, SPMC.
  - freyr 11y ago
    These may be great products that have advanced the state-of-the-art, but how is Wechat novel? It appears to be a pretty generic chat app similar to WhatsApp, which debuted a year earlier. Of course, almost all western products (including whatsapp) are derivative of something that came earlier too.
    - Gigablah 11y ago
      Oh Wechat is much more than a "generic chat app" -- it has payments and a third party app platform. Facebook messenger is trying to move in this direction too. http://a16z.com/2015/08/06/wechat-china-mobile-first/ http://a16z.com/2015/08/06/wechat-china-mobile-first/
    - yq 11y ago
      You can transfer money with wechat. Wechat has a eco system that links to your checking account. Therefore, you can pay your bills: Taxi, fresh fruit from street, pre-order movie seat while you are on the way. I had an two weeks no-wallet-challenge last year in china. The 3rd day I gave up, not because it doesn't work, but it sounds like documentary about surfing internet nonstop for 24 back to Y2K years. payment: https://www.techinasia.com/day-with-wechat-payments-in-stores https://www.techinasia.com/day-with-wechat-payments-in-store... movie: http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/smsh/how-to-buy-movie-tickets-with-wechat-alipay-and-gewara http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/smsh/how-to-buy-movie-... whatsapp, snapchat etc still not very close to wechat on these functions.
contingencies 11y ago
So last night I met an interesting fellow who grew up in Germany but is native Chinese. He is an electrical engineer. I said great, I am looking for an electrical engineer to partner with on a project, I handle the software. Bang, we get talking. Meeting later today. I think we are going to do a physical electronic product startup here. We are in southwest China, at the edge of the Himalayas, miles from the megacities of the east. I have been here on and off for 15 years, and it really feels like this is the best time yet to get capital and try things. PS. I am sure I have read this article before, somewhat recently.
known 11y ago
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" --Isaac Newton
cLeEOGPw 11y ago
This it how it always works with everything. You "copycat" your way to the state-of-the-art and only then start innovating. Otherwise you're just reinventing the wheel. Once China completely catches up it will start it's own thing, I am sure.

64 points by pmcpinto 11y ago

x5n1 11y ago

"of only" there fixed it for you.

Well, we should all be glad that the exemples from US are spreading to the rest of the world! If only more countries stopped being copycats and started actually copying the US model. God bless America. Humpf The title is also really bad, as if China was at a given time a whole nation of copycats (although the article itself doesn't insist on this point). People reverse engineer your product/company. So what?

ChuckMcM 11y ago

This reads largely true for me, but it is also pretty obviously not true on a serious scale (compare the F-35 fighter to the J-31 fighter). That said, raising a younger generation of people who think outside the box has its own perils for any government where some boxes are not meant to be left (I include the US government in this list as well). I am a strong advocate of critical thinking and independent verification, but I can tell you that it gets me into trouble more often than it gets me accolades :-). The response to such thinking can be harsh. People who think critically are often considered "intellectuals" and China has dealt with such people harshly in the past, even at the expense of the greater country. Here in the US it is used as an insult in circles where the smart choice would dictate a different path than the current policy (yes I'm thinking about the whole global warming "debate"). Bottom line is that this is both good and bad news for China.

netheril96 11y ago
> I am a strong advocate of critical thinking and independent verification, but I can tell you that it gets me into trouble more often than it gets me accolades :-). I was discouraged by that fact before, and wondered whether joining the herd thinking was actually better for my own life. Until I avoided the China stock market crash last year, where many others persist in their illusion that the stock market can boom even when the fundamentals are weak. In fact, critical thinking and independent verification only get you into trouble if you publicly speak out. If you just keep the results to yourself, you can find opportunities and escape disasters before others, assuming your thinking gets you closer to the truth rather than further. Why enlighten the fools if you can just exploit them? Especially since they won't listen anyway?
- oska 11y ago
  I liked your comment until this line: > Why enlighten the fools if you can just exploit them?
- meric 11y ago
  >> Why enlighten the fools if you can just exploit them? If they're family and you can convince them.
- rurban 11y ago
  > "stock market crash" The fundamentals lost their annual rise from 6% to 3%, which is still a much better rate than any other major economy. I kept my chinese investments and it's still raising with 3.5%. True rises, not artificial booms. Still more secure than the promised 10-20% interest from monetary gambling by wallstreet, not backed up by economic advantages.

univerio 11y ago

Website usability complaint: trying to highlight a caption under a photo sends you to the gallery, making you lose your spot in the article.

tallerholler 11y ago

from the title I am going to assume this is an April fools prank?

jsn117 11y ago

yeah, why the black turtlenecks then?

zaroth 11y ago

I find this impossible to believe; "In 2000, barely four per cent of China was middle class - meaning with an income ranging from $9,000 (£6,270) to $34,000 - but by 2012, fully two-thirds had climbed into that bracket." They must be counting something as a subsidy which people aren't actually consuming. To think that almost all of US GDP growth is occurring in the top, this would say almost all of China GDP growth is occurring in the bottom. But really saying that 60% of your population.. so the claim is that ~800 million people have moved into "middle class" in 15 years... And "middle class" is defined as "spending less than 50% of income on necessities".

kev6168 11y ago

IMHO, China is still full of tech copycats. What they have done so far is applying western technologies/business models to the Chinese market, maybe some modifications here and there for the local culture and marketing schemes, but hardly innovative. Now, can you name a few things coming out of China in the last twenty years that are relatively innovative and influential? Maybe things like Linux, Java, Netscape, Rails, Jquery, Twitter, Instagram, etc. The definitions for 'innovative' and 'influential' are up to you, I am just genuinely curious.

yq 11y ago
Wechat, High-speed train, Taobao's 11.11 sales, DJI Uav, Buses, hikvision, Foxit PDF, SPMC.
- freyr 11y ago
  These may be great products that have advanced the state-of-the-art, but how is Wechat novel? It appears to be a pretty generic chat app similar to WhatsApp, which debuted a year earlier. Of course, almost all western products (including whatsapp) are derivative of something that came earlier too.
  - Gigablah 11y ago
    Oh Wechat is much more than a "generic chat app" -- it has payments and a third party app platform. Facebook messenger is trying to move in this direction too. http://a16z.com/2015/08/06/wechat-china-mobile-first/ http://a16z.com/2015/08/06/wechat-china-mobile-first/
  - yq 11y ago
    You can transfer money with wechat. Wechat has a eco system that links to your checking account. Therefore, you can pay your bills: Taxi, fresh fruit from street, pre-order movie seat while you are on the way. I had an two weeks no-wallet-challenge last year in china. The 3rd day I gave up, not because it doesn't work, but it sounds like documentary about surfing internet nonstop for 24 back to Y2K years. payment: https://www.techinasia.com/day-with-wechat-payments-in-stores https://www.techinasia.com/day-with-wechat-payments-in-store... movie: http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/smsh/how-to-buy-movie-tickets-with-wechat-alipay-and-gewara http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/smsh/how-to-buy-movie-... whatsapp, snapchat etc still not very close to wechat on these functions.

contingencies 11y ago

So last night I met an interesting fellow who grew up in Germany but is native Chinese. He is an electrical engineer. I said great, I am looking for an electrical engineer to partner with on a project, I handle the software. Bang, we get talking. Meeting later today. I think we are going to do a physical electronic product startup here. We are in southwest China, at the edge of the Himalayas, miles from the megacities of the east. I have been here on and off for 15 years, and it really feels like this is the best time yet to get capital and try things. PS. I am sure I have read this article before, somewhat recently.

known 11y ago

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" --Isaac Newton

cLeEOGPw 11y ago

This it how it always works with everything. You "copycat" your way to the state-of-the-art and only then start innovating. Otherwise you're just reinventing the wheel. Once China completely catches up it will start it's own thing, I am sure.