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What made Songdo and Forest City fail, but Shenzhen succeed? I think it's because Shenzhen put business first, and grew iteratively as people arrived. People wa
by peterburkimsher 7y ago
What made Songdo and Forest City fail, but Shenzhen succeed? I think it's because Shenzhen put business first, and grew iteratively as people arrived. People want to move where the jobs are, not just to a fancy new IoT city.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoSZ wasn’t really planned as a smart city, and it rose on its connection to HK at first in the 80s. Perhaps a more apt comparison would be Ordos New Town (Kangbashi)?
- peterburkimsher 7y agoI guess that's my point: Shenzhen isn't a "smart city", it's an Special Economic Zone that happened to specialise in tech, for now. People will put up with whatever living conditions they can survive if it means they have a job. If the tech industry collapses, Shenzhen will probably just pivot to some other industry.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoSEZ didn’t start out in tech (more about making cheap things for HK exporters), and it still has a lot outside of tech, it would be like the tech industry collapsing in SF, bad, but not fatal. China also has many artificial obscure tech industry city efforts, all as successful as you would image (ie, not st all).
- pcr910303 7y ago> What made Songdo and Forest City fail Nah, it didn't fail (unlike the impression that the article tries to give), please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20476405 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20476405.
- Mengkudulangsat 7y agoForest City is a disaster politically. The current Malaysian government (who won the latest election) turned it into a land-grab / immigration issue. Without support at the federal level, I find it hard to imagine the project will succeed.