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This is my biggest fear starting in China besides the pollution and cultural mismatch: A dozen local Chinese startups bootstrapping by copying you with the gove

This is my biggest fear starting in China besides the pollution and cultural mismatch: A dozen local Chinese startups bootstrapping by copying you with the government and market heavily favoring domestic solution vs Western solution. It puzzles me why so many people in the West are trying to chase after the elusive dream of making it big in China. I can't name any white person that made it in Chinese startup scene in the way immigrants have IPO'd in the US. I use race as an important metric to compare the two cultures. One, where anyone regardless of race can make it and have made it (even if it's extra harder for a non-white person depending on the industry) and the other, where only Chinese speakers and ethnic Chinese have a far higher advantage and restrict outsiders. In addition, I don't know a single American using Weibo instead of Twitter. Made in China just isn't good for branding and China isn't "cool' yet. Hell, even Chinese buyers will pay premium for western names and avoid locally produced good, if they have the money to spend.

inlandrookie 10y ago
I agree that Chinese startups start copying the product if it is a good product, but it also happens anywhere. In US, Europe, Southeast Asia... name any place. People has been copying each other for the entire civilization. China is an unique example. The truth is China is in a totally different world with totally different culture(maybe not as different as before) and purchase habits, so localization is hell important in China! That's probably why software tends to be compete less well than hardware like Apple and General Moto, since it needs more localization to gain popularity. Immigrants... Every citizen in USA was an immigrant 300 years ago... if you are talking about new immigrants, most of them had higher education in USA before they built a startup, which definitely makes it easier to have success since they know they country more. Also English is a more well-accepted language, that's probably the biggest reason why not so many Americans willing to study in China. I am a Chinese so my opinion is likely to be biased.

inlandrookie 10y ago

I agree that Chinese startups start copying the product if it is a good product, but it also happens anywhere. In US, Europe, Southeast Asia... name any place. People has been copying each other for the entire civilization. China is an unique example. The truth is China is in a totally different world with totally different culture(maybe not as different as before) and purchase habits, so localization is hell important in China! That's probably why software tends to be compete less well than hardware like Apple and General Moto, since it needs more localization to gain popularity. Immigrants... Every citizen in USA was an immigrant 300 years ago... if you are talking about new immigrants, most of them had higher education in USA before they built a startup, which definitely makes it easier to have success since they know they country more. Also English is a more well-accepted language, that's probably the biggest reason why not so many Americans willing to study in China. I am a Chinese so my opinion is likely to be biased.