Exploring innovation in Hong Kong & China! – TheVentury

香港

Hong Kong – one country, two systems

We spent most of our time in Hong Kong and truly fell in love with the high energy of the place. What we heard almost every day during our time there was people referring to their constitutional principle “one country, two systems“. Within the People’s Republic of China, socialism is maintained, while Hong Kong can retain the capitalist system after peaceful unification.

If you look at the start-up ecosystem and take a closer look at the corporate innovation projects of established companies in Hong Kong, this difference to China becomes very clear.

Many projects revolve around Blockchain, Fintech and other fields that require much more liberal conditions which are available in Hong Kong, more than in other parts of the world. Not without good reason, Hong Kong has been ranked number one among the economically most liberal cities in the world for several years.

Starting a business there Is very easy and only costs ONE obligatory Hong Kong dollar. Yes, we completely understand If you are now considering opening an office In Hong Kong. We were constantly playing with the same thought. They make managed to make It very tempting for entrepreneurs.

This is probably also the reason for the booming start-up ecosystem in Hong Kong. Last year alone +150% more startups settled in Hong Kong, over the last 5 years 300% more jobs were created in startup related companies.

Shenzhen – A full end to end ecosystem

Now let’s look at one of the most interesting cities I have ever been to. Seriously!

Back in the 70s Shenzhen was a tiny fishing village with a population of around 30.000.

Around 10 years later Shenzhen became China’s first special economic zone, which made Shenzhen grow on an astounding rate year per year. Latest estimates count about 12,500,000 people living in the urban area of Shenzhen.

Basically, Shenzhen became the number one hub for serving the world with electronic consumer goods, the biggest hub for hardware startups and the gadget factory of the world.

Although there is good reason to skeptically question the development of Shenzhen, the growth miracle “made in China” produces the highest per capita income in whole China, lifted (together with the whole economic development of China) around 800 million people out of poverty.

But Shenzhen is not only about economic growth!

Maker Spaces in Shenzhen

The advantage for start-ups from all over the world that drives them to Shenzhen becomes clear when talking to entrepreneurs in one of the in the city located Maker Spaces.

A hardware entrepreneur (start-up still in stealth mode) from California told us: “Compared to the US, we can make our products four times as fast with a tenth of the costs. The time of the ‘copycat stereotype’ approach is over – the Chinese ecosystem understands quality more and more as an advantage and focuses on increasing in this area.”

Learn more about Shenzhen in a nutshell here: