3 Types of Entrepreneurs Found in China
Here are 3 examples of the typical types of entrepreneurs found in China.
1- The expat who wins big
Meet Fritz Domopoulos, who moved to China from LA in the early 90’s as an employee with News Corp. He later founded Shawai.com, a sports portal he sold in 2000 for around $20 million. He then went on to found an online travel company, Qunar.com.
2- The copycat
Some in Sillicon Valley believe that Chinese companies tend to ‘rip off’ their product ideas. Due to the large practice of the Chinese government blocking many US sites such as facebook and twitter, many ‘clones’ emerge. Sina.com is an example. This site is very much like twitter.
Another site is taobao, a rival to ebay. Over 50% of the population are registered with taoboa, according to the company as well as statistics. The upper hand it holds is that customers are allowed to pay cash on delivery for items, in the case where credit cards are not available.
3- The opportunist
There is a huge population of westerners who move to China knowing little about the place, or any company they might want to open up there. However, survival of the fittest holds true here, and most people leave within a year of opening up a business. A few however, remain and thrive. Take the example of Richard Robinson, co-founder of Kooky Panda,a company that taps into the local developer talent and creates low cost social games for cell phones, which has proven to be quite the success story. He is also married to a Chinese woman, and has two kids he claims are ‘made in china’.
Richard Robinson, like many others, will remain in China indefinitely.