ShenZhen startup scene

Shenzhen is the manufacturing hub of China. A fishing village with 200,000 population 30 years ago, it has been turned by the government into a special economic zone, attracting millions of migrants.

Today, it’s a 15m metropolis, surrounded by Hong-Kong on the south, and Guangzhou on the north, creating a huge 50m economic hub for the exports of what is now the world’s first economic power.

More interestingly, Shenzhen is evolving fast. What was yesterday the place to build and ship cheap, low-quality products is turning into a high-quality, fast-prototyping hub for makers and the hardware renaissance.

Shenzhen is also home to Tencent, the company behind WeChat and its 640m users (as of 2014), and at the heart of the shanzhai culture, which copies and “augments” existing products with a Chinese, counterfeit touch, a symbol of the Chinese industrious and entrepreneurial mindset.

The city is now known for its hardware expertise, thanks to the huge number of factories and resellers, but also more digital ventures such as Haxlr8r, one of the most reputed hardware startup accelerators, and Seeed Studio, an agency and shop helping makers to curate the maze of Shenzhen.

Any visit to Shenzhen must spare a day to visit the Huaqiang district and its hundreds of resellers of electronic components.

Caution though, the visa policies can vary very fast, as we learned it the hard way by being rejected on our very first attempt to enter the area.

SHENZHEN (CHINA)

GDP (in billions USD):	237
GDP per capita (in USD):	22,113
Population:	10,358,381
Population in 2050 (est.):	11,500,000
Internet Penetration:	76.8 %
Mobile Penetration:	46.9 %
Banking Penetration:	52.2 %
Credit Card Penetration:	27 %

PROS

A paradise for hardware people, with all the possible components at hand, for one purchase or on wholesale
Higher quality and speed of execution than before. Cheap “made in China” is not in Shenzhen!
Human-size community of people within local-accelerators, interface with factories
Maker Faire Shenzhen gains traction and become both a giant showroom and a conference with good networking opportunities
Home of Tencent, a Chinese giant tech software and social media company, good synergies can be found with engineers

CONS

Speak Chinese or ask for help (typically with companies like Seeed Studio
Not a market for consumption as such: you will need to market elsewhere (broader China, US, Europe)
Visa policy is not yet adapted to hardware startups
Big Chinese city which can be polluted, not the best conditions of living, especially with family (though still better than Shanghai or Beijing)
Hardware is by no means the same thing as software; a startup takes more cash, more time

TOP STARTUPS IN SHENZHEN

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TENCENT

Tencent is now one of the largest internet company in the world. It’s a Chinese internet service portal offering value-added internet, mobile, telecom, and online advertising services.

ONEPLUS

OnePlus is a technology startup trying to disrupt the smartphone market with an affordable still high quality smartphone. The startup’s mantra is “Never Settle”.

DJI

DJI Innovations is a Chinese company that produces commercial and recreational unmanned aerial systems. It’s the leader in commercialisation of drones.

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SEEEDSTUDIO

Seeed is an open hardware innovation platform helping you go from scale from prototype to mass production.

MAKEBLOCK

Makeblock is an open source construction platform providing various kits, mechanical parts and electronic modules to construct robots or anything else.