Silicon Dragon
Beijing 2019
April 25
Featuring
He Xiaopeng, founder of China electric, self-driving car maker
Xpeng Motors (and Tesla killer?) He sold his first startup UCWeb to Alibaba for $4 billion!
VC Speakers
William Bao Bean
Hurst Lin, DCM
Wei Zhou, CCV
Ticket
Program, Reception,
VIP Dinner
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NEXT EVENT!
Silicon Dragon
Hong Kong 2019
VC Champions
on the
Frontier:
Yuan Liu, ZhenFund
Ming Yeh, CSC UpShot
Chibo Tang
Gobi Partners/
HK Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund
Rebecca Fannin
Tech Titans of China
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KPMG
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VIP Invitations
Special Event Discounts
Introductions
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on Amazon
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| Tech Titans of China - Author interview |
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Facebook Changes Sure Look A Lot Like China's WeChat Super-app
Facebook's plans to integrate private messaging, groups and payments look a lot like innovations that
WeChat pioneered years ago. It's the latest example of China tech being copied in the West - a trend that has evolved from 15 years ago when China tech copied Silicon Valley, when China's
Renren copied
Facebook.
Tencent's
WeChat is way more functional than
Facebook, and makes it easy to shop, pay and connect.
WeChat has 1 billion users.
Its
WeChat Pay, an instant mobile wallet that bypasses banking and credit card fees to pay for items via a mobile app scan, counts 900 million users.
Its
WeChat mini-shops, used by 200 million shoppers, blends content with commerce seamlessly with links to sales products that can be accessed only within
WeChat. This is a China-first monetization approach for mobile apps.
Tesla and
Walmart even got on board and launched mini-shops on the Chinese app.
This is not the first time that Facebook has imitated a Chinese model. Short video app
Lasso
is another.
Fallen Bikes Catch VCs in China
China's bike-sharing craze and the demise of Chinese startup
Ofo has left several prominent venture investors on the hook. As much as $2.2 billion in venture money was poured into
Ofo within three years. Now
Ofo bikes are going away.
Alibaba was the biggest investor in
Ofo, leading a $866 million round a year ago with
Hony Capital and
CITIC. Several experienced venture capital players also were backers --
Matrix Partners China, ZhenFund and
GSR Ventures.
Yuri Milner's DST Global had funded
Ofo too.
China's bike-sharing sector developed overnight as an
Uber-like model for bikes with a technology twist of QR codes and mobile payments to unlock dockless bikes. Bike-sharing was the largest startup fad, flooded with venture money and startups expanding too quickly.
The young Chinese founder of
Ofo, Dai Wei, had little managerial experience. Although
Ofo retrenched from several markets overseas, it is too little, too late.
Ofo is seeking to transition to an e-commerce model and is converting customer deposits for discounts.
It's a different scenario for
Mobike in China.
Read more at
Silicon Dragon column,
Forbes:
Fallen bikes
Venture-As-A-Service
Corporate venturing meets a venture-as-a-service model, with a new initiative developed by former Intel Capital investment director
Sanjit Singh Dang. His recently launched
U First Capital works with corporations as an outsourced service on identifying and funding cutting-edge technologies externally that can foster growth and realize investment returns.
U First Capital is working with its first client,
DuPont Electronics & Imaging, to hone in on opportunities for corporate investment in artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and connectivity technologies -- strategic growth areas for the specialty products division of the merged
DowDuPont.
Co-founder and chairman
Dang
brings to
U First Capital
a good track record of investments during his nine-year tenure at
Intel Capital
. He has a good grasp on trends in emerging markets, too.
Read about the new model:
VaaS
Venture News
Qiming Venture is reportedly about to fund an Indian content platform,
Pratilipi, the Chinese venture firm's first deal in India.
GGV Capital has set up a branch office in Singapore -- part of the China venturing out to Asia story.
IPOs
Chinese drone maker
eHang, invested in by
GGV Capital, is reportedly preparing for an IPO that could raise $400 million to $500 million. The company underwent a technical filing for bankruptcy last year to close US operations and focus on the China market.
eHang has innovated a flying taxi drone.
FUNDS
Fund of funds
Magic Stone Alternatives reaches $197 million toward a second China fund.
500 Startups' Japan team is debuting a new fund,
Coral Capital, for early bets on technology startups.
NOTEWORTHY
Southeast Asian super-apps
Go-Jek and Grab race
to be region's leader in food, fintech, in ride-hailing.
Sound familiar? This follows a China pattern.
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