Page 139 - How China Is Winning the Tech Race

CHAPTER NINE

Chinese entrepreneur Liu Yingkui has tapped into China’s booming mobile phone market and
its ferociously capitalist youth by inventing software for selling insurance, mutual funds, and
bank accounts—all delivered to a tiny cell phone window. It’s a uniquely Chinese idea that
combines the best of Verizon and Charles Schwab, and it might become one of China’s first
tech exports. It all depends on whether Liu can learn to be a manager overnight.

Oriental Wisdom—
Confucian Capitalism

iu Yingkui, who goes by the
Lname “King,” has not mastered
English yet. That doesn’t stop him
from hightailing it across town to meet
me at my hotel in Beijing and explain,
haltingly but passionately, how he
spends nearly all his waking hours
powering up his Chinese tech
company, Beijing Oriental Wisdom
Technology Development Co., Ltd. “It
is my dream,” he says. “I have nothing,
only a dream. I forget to sleep, to eat. My dream is my energy.”
As this emotionally charged entrepreneur tells me how he works a 16-
hour, six-day shift, I am struck by his determination to realize his business
vision. Mature for his 31 years, Liu is proud to be Chinese and committed to
helping China make a great leap forward through his wits and ability. He is
among the first generation of homegrown Chinese entrepreneurs to emerge
since the communist nation opened up to capitalism within the last 25 years.
Liu is on to a big future tech trend: marketing, distribution, and customer
service—all by mobile phone. This isn’t something that might change the

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