The Sunday News
CHINA is becoming more and more appealing to US tech companies. Despite the fact that there still hasn’t been a US Internet company that has truly succeeded in China, a new round of US tech companies are attempting to break into this market.
The highest concentration of US tech companies expanding into China happened during the second half of 2013 to the first half of 2014. Among them are companies like social media giant LinkedIn and the rising star of mobile Internet, Uber. Even Tesla started selling cars in China earlier this year.
Moreover, companies such as Airbnb and Duolingo — which haven’t officially announced their market entry into China — have either become very active in the Chinese Internet industry or achieved impressive results. Facebook is also planning to open a sales office in China.
Flipboard, which entered China in 2011, recently announced that it would restart investing in the Chinese market and kicked off its hiring process in China.
The biggest characteristic shared by these US tech companies expanding into China is that their businesses are primarily mobile. In the PC Internet era, none of the US internet companies succeeded in China, but the opportunity arises again in the mobile Internet era.
Opportunities and challenges co-exist in mobile Internet
Mary Meeker, a former analyst and venture capitalist who releases an annual “state of the web” report, singled out China in her 2014 analysis. She pointed out the development in China’s mobile internet usage as well as the corresponding opportunities. China leads the world in mobile internet usage, making up to 80% of total internet. — Business Insider
