#NordicMade visit to Shanghai
Insights into the Chinese market
I have always been up for fun adventures and love getting to know the world we live in. When Salóme asked me to represent Icelandic Startups with the #NordicMade delegation to Slush Shanghai I didn’t even give it a second thought – Yes of course! The goal of the trip was to gain insights into the Chinese market and receive some advice for startups that are thinking about entering it.
The trip took 24 hours and I arrived in Shanghai in the afternoon. I felt good at first, quickly checked in to my hotel room and then went out to experience the city. Jet lag hit me hard as time passed and on my way back home to Iceland my sleep cycle was still a mess.
I experienced some language barriers from the first minute in the city. I thank my organizing skills for printing everything out, for example the hotel booking that had the location written in Chinese characters! It is kind of amazing that almost no taxi drivers or hotel staff I met spoke english. Instead they used an app that translates spoken or written Chinese into English. That’s how I communicated with the hotel staff, and sometimes the translations were hilarious — but in the end it always worked out. Technology rules!
Traveling around Shanghai takes time. I used taxis and getting one could be a hassle, much more so if it was raining. So you need more time for everything and for a control freak like myself it was good practice. It meant letting go and admitting that you can´t be entirely in charge of the situation. Showing up late quickly became acceptable by everybody involved for example.
I found the city very exciting and clean, more than I had imagined. And the best part was the food! I recommend to go to the local restaurants, they have menus with pictures and just go nuts — everything I had tasted amazing!
Slush Shanghai
5.000 attendees from 50 countries gathered for the first Slush Shanghai conference on Monday 31st of October. Add 600 volunteers that answered all your questions — they were managed by a 19 year old super girl from Beijing. The conference hall was huge. I felt as if I was on a stairway to heaven riding the second biggest escalator I have ever been on (the biggest was in Hong Kong). Guards were everywhere standing straight with white gloves and making sure that everybody was safe and at the right place.
The conference started with a cool light show that got everyone in the right mood and soon the organizers came on stage. They told the crowd that they wanted to revolutionize the way events are run in the world — have them run by young people! They shouted out “We dare, we dream, we do” and I got all fired up. The program was filled with interesting speakers and the Nordic Showcase was very good, the founders all nailed their pitches.
PwC & #NordicMade workshop
The delegation, containing Nordic startups, investors and community-builders met in Caohejing Hi-Tech Park for a joint PwC & #NordicMade workshop. The event had great value for those who had no experience with the market. We meet Jing Li, Beijing Shougang Fund Managing Partner and Jingxi Capital CEO, she is running a fund bigger than the total expense of the Icelandic government! Her main advise to startups coming to china where to find a Chinese partner, join an incubator and then search for investors! She also added that they were looking for investments opportunities in VR/AR/Ai, IoT, and the next generation outside of China.
Steven Wang, founder of Smart Team Global agreed with her and talked about his startup story. His advise to other startups was to find a Chinese partner, localize smart and fast and believe in your value! Kasper Suomalainen from Startup Sauna put things in perspective for the participants — There are 25 million people living in Shanghai. That’s the same amount of people as in all the Nordic countries combined! He said that the reason for the rise of the Nordics, for example many unicorns originating there, is the cooperation between the countries.
Alibaba HQ
The delegation visited Alibaba HQ later that day. We heard the story of the founder Jack Ma and the first years of building the company. His dream was to make Chinese products available on the web and he founded Alibaba with the mission to make it easy to do business anywhere. He started with 18 employees in 1999 and has 36.450 employees in 126 offices, 29 of them outside of China. Alibaba is now the worlds largest online mobile commerce company. It was truly inspirational to hear about the Alibaba adventure and it really shows that the Chinese market is indeed huge and full of possibilities for new products and services.
For those startups thinking about entering the Chinese market, Shanghai seems like a good place to start and you should definitely follow the advise from Jing Li and Steven Wang listed here above. For my self, I got insights into incubators, accelerators and some VC funds and contacts who are ready to have a conversation with Icelandic startups thinking about entering the market. So reach out to us if you are interested!
Thanks to the whole Slush team, and especially Jessica Blechingberg, who organized the #NordicMade delegation to Shanghai, her energy, positivity and enthusiasm for the Nordic startup scene always inspires me!
Looking forward to next time!
