The Biggest Tech Revolution Since the Internet

A silent yet very real tech revolution is taking place and it is not in Silicon Valley. Where can you find 40 percent of the five largest Internet companies in the world? Where can you find a microblogging site already eight times bigger than Twitter and growing much faster? The answer is China and this trend is not new.

Indeed, seven years ago, after the company I co-founded (TripleHop Technologies) was acquired by Oracle, I left Silicon Valley and spent some time in China. There, I got the same kind of shock I had back in 1991 when, still a student at the Institut National des Telecommunications in Paris, I discovered the Internet. Indeed, I realized that China was fast catching up with Silicon Valley -- both in terms of giving birth to innovation of global impact and as a magnet to attract world-class entrepreneurs.

Based on this vision, I decided to create CHINICT -- an annual conference which has become the largest conference on China tech innovation and entrepreneurship. Beyond being a hub for world-class tech players, investors and entrepreneurs, the CHINICT conference has been destroying one by one so many negative clichés regarding the China tech ecosystem (such as the alleged lack of world-class entrepreneurs, respect of intellectual property, innovation, acceptance of foreign entrepreneurs...).

The eigth annual edition of CHINICT takes place next May 24th & 25th 2012 in Beijing at the legendary Tsinghua University Science Park (sort of a MIT-Stanford-Harvard combined entity) and includes some of the most recognized visionaries and leaders both from China and the West -- such as Facebook's co-founder Eduardo Saverin, Israeli legendary investor Yossi Vardi -- as well as leaders from top-tier Chinese companies such as Tencent, Baidu, Sina, Alibaba, RenRen.

 

Comments

[Mirame Emor]

10:40 AM on 04/03/2012

I am glad to see this kind of conference happening. While some may think that China is incapable of innovation, I figure with the amount of engineers and scientists that they graduate per year, and all the graduates from Western universities who return home, it is inevitable that they will generate new thinking and breakthroughs to benefit their country. The government of China has created the conditions that should allow new technology companies to thrive even if some people consider the support they get as 'unfair'. These kind conferences help spread these ideas to the rest of the world as well. Our world needs new tech in order to sustain the environment and lifestyles of everybody - I don't care where this technology gets developed as long as we can all reap the benefit.

[rojcar]

11:32 PM on 04/02/2012

How can you claim Chinese innovation when every one of these social sites is a a copy of a Western (almost all american) business model that was NOT created in China, and is protected by the Great Firewall of China? Maybe someday things will change, but what I see is a massive ripoff of other's ideas, combined with anti-market protection of a huge natural market, which combined allows CHinese companies to be protected and incubated in their home market. That is not innovation.

[franckn5]

10:13 PM on 04/05/2012

Have you ever spent time in China and do you have a clear understanding of the Chinese language to be so affirmative? I suggest you come and spend some time in China to see things by yourself - instead of echoing basic anti-China propaganda arguing there is no innovation in China...

[rojcar]

12:23 AM on 04/06/2012

I think that it is pretty easy to read about what is happening in China and reach a conclusion that almost every enterprise is based on ideas that did not start there. The article is about a business idea that is based on an American business model that is shut out of the Chinese market. This is true of Twitter, Facebook, and youTube. Numerous sources on the internet confirm this including mainstream news sources like this one, ABC, NBC etc. I do not think that the great Firewall of China is a big secret - is it? So why would I need to go to China to confirm this? Many people who have gone there have reported on this - are they lying? Also, these same news sources report over and over again about how the business that are being started over there are starting CHinese versions of business models that are essentially protected.. again by the great firewall of China.. and by the Chinese government's policies. Why do I need to go to China when there are so many sources of information that are independent of government ownership (people in CHina)... reporting the same thing. I think I will choose to believe all these sources, rather than you.. thank you.. and this is not anti-china propaganda... it is a statement of fact. There is a great firewall of China. THere is heavy handedness in CHina that does not allow free press (witness the shutting down of several web sites

[rojcar]

12:33 AM on 04/06/2012

Oh.. and I just notices that you are the author, with a vested interest in promoting Chinese sites that have copied western business markets and are being protected from Western competition in that market by the great firewall of china, and the Chinese government. You are essentially trying to promote a market that is based on protectionism and copied business models. I guess we shall see if the CHinese people are ever given the chance to freely choose - probably not - in which case you will probably do ok. However, if they are ever allowed to freely choose Twitter, Facebook, youtube and other business from "outside" of China, with no interference from big brother, your CHINICT is in trouble... It is not hard to find many, many examples of rampant Intellectual theft etc in many other parts of the market in china.. This great plan on how to fight back against the trade war that I believe already exists with China...(we just have not yet realized it) is a great start.
http://content.thirdway.org/publications/483/Third_Way_Report_-_China_s_Trade_Barrier_Playbook.pdf