Riding China’s tech wave: After +5 years in China, here’s what i’ve learned
I first visited China in 2003 and have been a regular visitor ever since. Even then, it was clear that China would become a geopolitical and economic leader. However at that time, Beijing was not the equal of Silicon Valley, Shanghai was not as sophisticated as it is today, and Hong Kong was the main hub from which to do China-related business, and attracted millions of Mainland tourists every year. Chinese customers were already deeply connected to technology in the form of desktop messaging applications (QQ, launched in 2009). A group called Alibaba was launching the Taobao marketplace (May 2003) allowing individual entrepreneurs to open online stores across the country.
2011–2013: Working for a tech giant and observing the rise of the mobile marketplace
I finally moved to China at the end of 2010, originally to work for a european law firm in China (law was my profession and previous occupation in France). I was contacted by a joint-venture between Groupon and Tencent which was opening headquarters in Beijing. I knew Groupon quite well but had to admit I didn’t know much about Tencent at that time. However, after several interviews and two days of personal reflection, I decided to change career, embrace the field of digital, e-commerce and social media, and join what was the hottest ticket in the market at that time. My job was to work closely with those international companies willing to dive into the China e-commerce eco-system and drive them to the e-commerce platforms of the group. It was the bubble of the “Tuango” business (Group Buying) with massive investments coming from overseas and Mainland China. We were told to open 60 offices across the country in eight months and we did, hiring over 3000 people within the same period. The job was physically and psychologically intense, and we were on the edge from Monday to Sunday with few hours’ sleep. However it was amazingly rewarding, especially with all the talented people from all over the world whom I became friends with — I was even lucky to meet the one who would become my wife few years later.
As every “foreigner” entering a large Chinese tech company, I attended a significant number of “Chinese” meetings. The highlight was probably a visit to one of the biggest baijiu distilleries in Guiyang. We arrived for a two-day visit during which a deal was to be signed to celebrate the arrival of Andrew Mason (Groupon CEO) in China. As the only foreigner, I was naturally chosen to drink on behalf of the company and did my best to survive the baijiu shots during dinner (while the company owners seemed to drink water). My tears were basically baijiu but I managed to remain professional and everyone was happy. The deal didn’t go through in the end but I have amazing memories of that trip, which convinced me to stick to wine!
Over two-and-a-half years, I observed the rise of mobile usage and the impressive maturity of Chinese consumers. From their online purchase behaviour to their content interest, you could clearly see the change in the country and the diversity between places such as Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan and Guiyang.
2013 — Today: Working for myself and the emergence of “HENRYs”
Launched in 2013, Weibo was the main social media platform in China and Taobao was the only e-commerce leader alongside a number of parallel and grey products websites. At that time, users were still focusing on one-to-many communication platforms (QQ, Weibo) rather than one-to-one communication tools and messaging apps (WeChat). Marketers were still focusing on “exposure — followers quantity” rather than “targeting — members quality” and the all media buying market was still very blurry. China is now a 1 billion internet-user country and most of the purchases during the last 11/11 (11th of November, the Chinese’ “Single Day” where Alibaba or Tmall does massive promotion) came from mobile achieving the shift from desktop consumption to smartphones.
Seeing a market opportunity and the unique positioning we had, and encouraged by my former boss and mentor in the company, I decided to create my own company, Curiosity China. We saw the market had good social media agencies and good IT companies, but no one had bridged the gap between technology and digital communications. So we built Curiosity with two partners (our COO and our CTO) and rapidly gained attention from the market both on brand development sites and media press releases. We expanded our staff of three to more than 35 without any investment and we opened offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Paris. We built our tech platform (CURIO) offering social, CRM and e-commerce capabilities to more than 40 luxury brands, hospitality groups, lifestyle, bank, media and agency groups who are willing to engage, retain and manage Chinese consumers. Currently, we are rapidly extending our development and continuing our journey with the same core team we had three years ago.
Today, the company is a melting pot of several nationalities including Chinese, French, Canadian, American, British, and Singaporean. If I were to list the most challenging aspects, it would be related to hiring talent and building a strong and consistent company culture. It’s daily work and you need to find the right balance between people’s development (offering them space to grow), creativity and short- to mid-term targets. In a digital and tech company, you don’t think in “years or months” but in “days or weeks”. Teamwork, speed and innovation are your best partners, besides all the sacrifices you need to make.
What’s Next?
China has evolved in an amazing way over the past five years, becoming an economic giant and a rising political influencer. We can observe two main aspects: economic and social.
On one side, digital and tech industries are booming and three of the most valuable tech companies in the world are Chinese (Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, also called the “BAT” group), China is Apple’s biggest market, and the American giant now sees competition from large local companies such as Xiaomi, LeEco or Oppo. Chinese students dream of becoming entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs or Lei Jun and several overseas-born Chinese are returning to take advantage of China’s rapid development.
On the other side, traditional industries such as automotive and real estate markets are contracting, giving the impression that China is “slowing down”. It depends on which sector you observe and it is part of a natural evolution and country development phase from cheap mass consumer products to high tech technology and services.
From a social point of view, we see the emergence of the “HENRYs” (High Earners Not Rich Yet). What happened in the USA in the 1990s is happening in China as we speak. The combination of increased salaries and rising cost of living changes people’s priorities, especially in the tier-one cities. Owning a car or an apartment is no longer a top priority for tier-one cities’ young citizens. They prefer experience, travel and new products, and this is one of the reasons which could explain Hong Kong’s (relative) decline in terms of tourism. Rather than “shopping only”, HENRYs prefer to rely on “shopping with experience”. Cities such Tokyo, Seoul and Bangkok offer this mix of history, shopping and culture, while Hong Kong is thus far only able to offer shopping. However, Hong Kong is changing rapidly and is remaining a strong main hub when it comes to financial, travel retail or China-related business.
