Page 131 - How China Is Winning the Tech Race

son of engineers, Tang grew up in Hunan province. He was an obedient child
but an impatient student who either excelled at or failed in a subject; it all
depended on what interested him. Geography is what he liked best and what
he was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to pursue.
Tang has devoted his entire life’s work and studies to navigation tech-
nology in China. He earned an undergraduate degree from Dalian Maritime
University in 1994 and then had a job for four years monitoring seagoing
vessels for a maritime security unit in Tianjin. Before starting up Lingtu, he
was a map technology research fellow at the prestigious Chinese Academy of
Science. He credits an inspirational book by Apple Computer founder Steve
Jobs that he read in the late 1990s for giving him the entrepreneurial urge.
“My dream was to make life more convenient for customers, to make my
products and see customers using them,” Tang says. “This is exciting.”
Knowing his love for maps, I take out my folded paper map of Beijing.
He lights up when I ask him to point out where Lingtu is. It turns out it’s too
far outside central Beijing to be on the map.
Tang brightens as he recalls the early days of Lingtu. It was a tough
period but nothing out of the ordinary for any start-up. He and his
cofounders practically lived in the office. They went without pay for two
months in 2001 when customers didn’t pay their bills on time.
As Tang is warming to the topic, venture backer Tse arrives in a rush,
unshaved and dressed in jeans, with his briefcase and luggage in tow for a
dash to the airport after our meeting. They urge me to view a PowerPoint
presentation of the company’s mapmaking skills. I take notes madly during
the demo as Tse elaborates on the finer details.
Lingtu started out making a few paper maps, but today its entire lineup
consists of digital maps of all sorts for a cyber-crazed China. Most of Lingtu’s
revenues come from the Chinese government and corporations, including
Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and Ericsson, which typically license Lingtu map
software for an annual fee. But Lingtu is moving to the dynamic, fast-growth
consumer market—a trend for most mapmakers globally.
A CD database of its China maps costs $6. A free map portal called
51ditu.com (“I want maps” in English) offers directions and guides to sights,
similar to the familiar Mapquest in the United States, and counts more than
3.5 million users, plus 10,000 Web sites in China that use it as a map
interface. Launched in January 2005, 51ditu.com claims to be the first Web

Lingtu—China’ s Navigator 105