Page 124 - How China Is Winning the Tech Race

As the decade unfolds, Western venture capitalists will discover how sus-
tainable their China strategies are.
Certainly, China offers far more challenges and risks than does the
Sunshine State, and it is still unclear if this surge of investment into China will
produce more gems than duds. It takes five years or more to ripen a newly
financed start-up for an exit through an acquisition or an IPO. This latest
China wave began to swell only in 2005, and so far few fish have been caught.
Capital will flow where returns are the greatest and the risks are real but man-
ageable.
The question for venture capitalists and investors is whether China will
continue to produce huge growth and the potential for huge profits or
whether investors will get tangled in Chinese red tape and a downward
economic spiral.
I am betting that a few of the entrepreneurs I’ve met and interviewed will
offer the gold standard of disruptive technology and transform their start-ups
into world-class winners. Read the following chapters to meet these inno-
vators, from digital mapmakers to mobile marketers to inventors of a new,
efficient light source—all with made-in-China technology. Watch out. The
tech leadership race is underway.

98 SILICON DRAGON