China Herald: Need mobile-first startups? Go to China

William Bao Bean

With 700 million mobile internet users China is a fertile ground for mobile-first startups, says William Bao Bean, managing director of the ChinaAccelerator in the Korean Herald. And “In China, there is always a way,” Bean said.

The Korean Herald:

China is the second-biggest start-up market and the leading “mobile-first” (first encounter with Internet via mobile) market in the world, said William Bao Bean, partner at global accelerator program SOS Ventures in Beijing.

“There’s a lot of innovation coming up in China, which is particularly useful in (introducing products to) other emerging mobile-first markets,” he added.

There are foreign start-ups across many different industries, such as games, education, business-to-business and hardware.

Bean said foreign start-ups in China are mostly concentrated in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, although there is a small number of start-ups for gaming in Chengdu and for hardware in Shenzhen.

Foreigners do not need a visa to set up and can later obtain work visas through their own company.

However, setting up in China is heavily dependent on hiring agents, which is not legally required but “you’d be an idiot not to use one,” due to their ability to circumvent many start-up restrictions.

“In China, there is always a way,” Bean said.

More in the Korean Herald.

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