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VC from Asia is skyrocketing
- gcb0 9y agoeveryone already forgot the top story here on HN a few weeks ago? https://www.marketwatch.com/story/finance-documentary-the-china-hustle-revisits-chinese-reverse-mergers-and-activist-short-sellers-2018-03-30 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/finance-documentary-the-ch...
- awat 9y agoI think its prudent here to try to separate out innovation vs state backed and protected interests. Although I do agree there are some eastern sentiments that are driving some interesting innovation. Wired documentary on Shenzens rise: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY
- prodikl 9y agoyeah, some of this is fluff like the "block youtube, make youku" stuff. but there is some genuine innovation, and i'm glad for increased supports for start-ups in asia in general
- thisisit 9y agoThere's one amazing tidbit in the documentary about how China's systems work. Starts around here: https://youtu.be/SGJ5cZnoodY?t=3585 https://youtu.be/SGJ5cZnoodY?t=3585 The system seems so controlled which I don't think is feasible for any other country.
- aylmao 9y agoThought: it might be "state backed and protected interests" there, but it has historically been "vc/wall st backed investor interests" here. Here the big tech business is ads and data collection, but other creative and innovative enterprises trickle through. I don't doubt this could be the case there too.
- vivab0rg 9y agoPaywall
- R3DJOK3R1 9y ago"Paywall"
- kozikow 9y agoI got a random idea: what if sites like HN, Reddit, RSS readers, etc. would have netflix-like subscription for articles? I don't care about WSJ or other paywall publishers. Especially not enough to subscribe. I however do care about occasional story that ends on HN.
- ck_one 9y agoNot a bad idea.
- magduf 9y agoThat's not a bad idea, but it'd mean you'd need to subscribe to HN, Reddit, etc., because WSJ and other paywall publishers are going to want to get their money from somewhere. But I guess it's possible that sites like HN could institute an optional subscription system where you can pay a monthly subscription fee and then that's used to subscribe to these news sites through a special deal for linked articles.
- pascalxus 9y agoI wouldn't mind paying for articles with micropayments of say 10c per article. I guess i'm the only one.
- remir 9y agoThis is a good idea. I don't want to subscribe to 20 different web sites and journals, but on the other hand, I would like to be able to pay for article that are informative and important.
- bypasspaywalls 9y agofirefox addon: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypasspaywalls/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypasspaywall...
- cwperkins 9y agoI think it's always strange that the media frames this as "threatening" to shift power. On the one hand I agree that I would like to keep America investing in R&D to create the next great innovation that revolutionizes the world, on the other hand I do not fear other countries of the world overtaking us. I frankly think it's awesome to see other countries of the world investing and leapfrogging off of American innovation and some day I would only hope that we can do the same. I think instead of using attacking vocabulary like "threatening" it would be more worthwhile for the media to say that the US is not keeping up with it's peers.
- HillaryBriss 9y agoIMHO, our brilliant thought leaders need to "revolutionize" the US economic model into something rather different, something where decent jobs and standards of living are much more easily created. The existing model of the US as the "global leader in intellectual property" (or whatever) is not working well enough for tens of millions of US workers.
- youpassbutter 9y ago> I think it's always strange that the media frames this as "threatening" to shift power. Why is it strange? That's the purpose of a nation's propaganda organizations. The chinese media does the same thing. Every nation's media does it.
- csallen 9y agoYou're not supposed to call our media propaganda. That's a word that can only be used for other nations' media.
- magduf 9y agoOur media isn't propaganda, because it doesn't fit the definition. Propaganda is slanted views that are approved or promulgated by the reigning regime in a country. The news in the US simply isn't like that: just look at how anti-Trump most of it is (not saying this is a bad thing). Propagandized media is where the news media is really nothing more than a mouthpiece for the current regime, as you see in China and Russia, and doesn't air views contradictory to that regime. This isn't to say that our media is completely neutral. No media really is. But it doesn't represent our current government, it represents the interests of its owners, who have different interests than our current leaders, and are frequently at odds with them. And of course, we have multiple media outlets, who frequently disagree with each other, a good example being Fox News.
- abhiminator 9y agoI remember The Economist doing a piece on this fairly recently[0] that talked exclusively about how China's tech VCs and established corporations (referring to the likes of Alibaba/Tencent) are challenging (and to a certain extent dethroning) Silicon Valley "monopoly" when it comes to investing in innovation/R&D in super critical areas like A.I., for example. One huge advantage Chinese corporations and startups have is China's super lax (non-existent, in fact) privacy and data protection laws -- enabling their companies to harvest ENORMOUS amounts of data to hone their A.I. algorithms on -- making them super attractive for investors. Add to this China's culture of scientific inquiry, rampant IP theft from American and European corporations and startups alike, a stable administration that has made technological advancement it's razer sharp focus -- you have the perfect recipe for VCs' fund to start flowing on to the next big thing with relatively fewer barriers. [0] https://www.economist.com/news/business/21737075-silicon-valley-may-not-hold-its-global-superiority-much-longer-how-does-chinese-tech https://www.economist.com/news/business/21737075-silicon-val...
- rdlecler1 9y agoDon’t forget lower wages. Capital can go a lot further in China than in Silicon Valley. Frankly, I also see Chinese VCs being more open minded about what’s investible. Silicon Valley feels a bit like the British Emplire at its sunset.
- adventured 9y ago> Silicon Valley feels a bit like the British Emplire at its sunset. That general premise has been widely forecast at least three or four different prominent times across the last 40 years in Silicon Valley. There was a time in the 1980s that it was supposedly dying. In the early 1990s it was supposedly dead. In 2001 it was supposedly dead. The sun isn't setting this time either. There is no competition for Silicon Valley anywhere on earth on the horizon. China does not directly compete with Silicon Valley. The notion that they do, is entirely a myth. China's tech companies are trapped inside of China (that's why Baidu never actually proceeded to challenge Google globally, which used to be widely expected). US tech companies get the rest of the world to play in. Talent that is drawn to Silicon Valley, isn't going to China instead (plenty of it that is local to China may be staying home in China rather than moving to the US). China is dramatically less welcoming to foreigners than the US is. The US hands out a million green cards per year. It's almost impossible to become a citizen in China as a foreigner. Not to mention that little problem of China having few human rights, near total state censorship and an aggressive dictatorship that has been rapidly revoking the few rights they acquired. It's so bad, they're banning joke apps in China now, because apparently, according to the Communist Party, jokes are contrary to Socialism. [1] [1] https://advox.globalvoices.org/2018/04/11/no-laughing-matter-china-shuts-down-popular-joke-sharing-app/ https://advox.globalvoices.org/2018/04/11/no-laughing-matter...
- taesu 9y agofreaking hate this paywall crap content on hacker news.
- aclsid 9y agoSame here. This should not be allowed.
- dang 9y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html Users usually post workarounds in the threads.
- bypasspaywalls 9y agoworkaround: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypasspaywalls/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypasspaywall...
- contingencies 9y agohttp://lmgtfy.com/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fsilicon-valley-long-dominated-startup-fundingnow-it-has-a-challenger-1523544804 http://lmgtfy.com/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2F...
- workleg 9y agopaywall-less: http://badblue.bitnamiapp.com/sources.php?to=https://t.co/2AF5zdtloU?sid=11393785 http://badblue.bitnamiapp.com/sources.php?to=https://t.co/2A...
- abhiminator 9y agoThank you for the link. Appreciate it.
- bypasspaywalls 9y agoor https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypasspaywalls/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypasspaywall...
- codeisawesome 9y agoHi, thanks! What does this script do?
- kingraoul3 9y agoChina?? I heard they were bad though?
- bassman9000 9y agoGood if true. Competition is always welcome.
- jorblumesea 9y agoVC is China is complex, where many VC investment firms are just arms of the Chinese government. I don't think it's fair to compare our VC system to theirs. While the US does some VC investment (In-Q-Tel) they are far more separated.
- contingencies 9y agomany VC investment firms are just arms of the Chinese government As a serial entrepreneur in China I am really interested in your source here. Care to share? IMHO based on experience to date I would say there is usually a very clear distinction between government and VC firms.
- coldtea 9y ago>VC from Asia is skyrocketing, threatening to shift power over innovation "Threatening" to whom? Not to Asians. This is an offending us/euro-centric title in a global age...
- t1o5 9y ago>VC from Asia is skyrocketing, threatening to shift power over innovation Thats what the OP thinks it is. The actual title of the article is " Silicon Valley Powered American Tech Dominance—Now It Has a Challenger " Perhaps the western world sees challenges from Asia as threats now.
- refurb 9y agoYou're assuming the wrong definition of threatening. It's meant as "to announce as intended or possible". That's true whether you're Asian or not.
- coldtea 9y ago>It's meant as "to announce as intended or possible". In a negative way. See my response below, and the lemmas for 3 major dictionaries...
- refurb 9y agoNot necessarily. One could say that a rider in a bike race is threatening to overtake another. That's not necessarily bad. One could say it's used to say it's unexpected, as I assumed for the quote we're discussing.
- forapurpose 9y ago> "Threatening" to whom? Not to Asians. As others have said, the parent misinterprets the meaning if 'threatening'. It also has no basis for the opinions of Asians, an incredibly large and diverse group of billions of human beings from Turkey to India to Japan to Kazakhstan to Russia to Indonesia to the Philippines to etc etc. To suggest all these people share the same opinion is absurd.
- csomar 9y agoEveryone is ignoring the fact that China is a massive closed market. Most western services do not care about China. China culture is different and it doesn't seem that the "world" is willing to translate and adapt its services to it. This means a huge opportunity for local ventures.
- marcell 9y ago> the "world" is willing to translate and adapt its services to it This is a pretty gross mischaracterization. China intentionally blocks foreign tech companies for protectionism.
- pcr0 9y agoI'd argue China is actually one of the easiest markets to adapt for, given its size. We're talking 1.3 billion people with the same national language, 92% of which share the same ethnicity (Han). Most Chinese cities are quite consistent in terms of culture and regulations. It's a very homogeneous country with a large middle class Indian or South-East Asia markets are much more difficult to adapt for. You've got a smaller population with less buying power divided up into more than dozens of major languages, cultures, ethnicities, laws, etc. Protectionism is the real barrier in China, not Western ignorance. This is what I experienced at a Chinese startup, where a large majority of the strategy/ops efforts were dedicated to localizing products for SEA, compared to the domestic market.
- chenster 9y agoYou need connections in China to do anything as a unfair advantages or you will never succeed.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- neonate 9y agohttp://archive.is/94TdJ http://archive.is/94TdJ