The rising tide of angel investors - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Raising your first capital was a major challenge when serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs started Tudou, one of China's largest video hosting firms. He works now as angel investor and is happy to see startups have it much easier to get first funding, he tells Gary Yau-Chan of Renselaer in China. 

Marc van der Chijs:

The biggest challenge in the early days was funding the [Tudou] project. It was very difficult to raise money in the very beginning. First year, we were busy with the site, and we didn’t raise any money. The first money we raise was in fact in December 2005. We started in October 2004, so basically 14 months later we raised our first small round. So we had to self-fund the project till then and that was the big challenge. 

Of course, there were many technical challenges. We were the very first company in the world to do online videos and basically we had to really reinvent the wheel. 

Next to that, it was finding a team and make sure these people are happy and stay with the company. The biggest challenge was really to get the funding to get it going. We were lucky enough find IDG Venture Capitals and in the first round they invested $500,000 US dollars but it took quite some time... 

Gary: Do you see more angel investors in China? How about seed programs, or incubators? 

Marc: Yeah a lot more than before. A few years ago, there were very few angel investors. There was AngelVest, which was angel group here in Shanghai and also in Beijing but they were not active at that point. They did some deals but not that many. These angel funds and angel groups have become much more active over the years. There are more companies like Sina.net that are investing now; almost like a trend. I know at least 15 to 20 different angels that I regularly speak to, and a few years ago I only know 3 or 4 of them. It’s really growing. 

However most investors are still risk advise. The average angel investor probably invest $10,000 to $15,000 US dollars per investment, at least the people I know of. It is still different from what you see in the US. It might change over time. 

I am happy to see that it’s changing the whole infrastructure for startups. A few years ago, you had to get VC money because there were no investors.  Now you can raise angel money, and build a company into a bigger scale than you can start raising VC money. A lot more companies are getting funded, that also means more companies would eventually become successful.

Much more in Renselaer in China.

 Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Anti-foreigner sentiment on the rise - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Personally, he is not worried, serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs writes on his weblog, but the anti-foreigner sentiment in China has become stronger than ever during his 12-year stay in the country. Social media and political changes are moving faster than ever.

Marc van der Chijs:

On top of that the anti-foreigner sentiment is on the rise once again. Over the years I have seen a few instances in which it was safer to avoid certain places for foreigners (the Hainan spy plane incident, anti-French tensions, the attacks on Japanese people and property (twice!)). But what’s happening now seems to target a much broader range of foreigners. Likely the government is just using it to direct attention away from the internal political problems and to make people more patriotic, but it’s scary to see what’s happening and how quickly social media can spread the moods of people. 

Even big Chinese Internet companies like Baidu and Sina joined the party to crack down on ‘misbehaving foreigners’, according to an article in yesterday’s People’s Daily. And a well-known English speaking CCTV anchor put a tirade against foreigners on his Weibo, stirring up things even further. 

A New York Times blog post gives a good overview of how the xenophobia started and about everything that happened over the past 10 days, give it a read if you want to understand what’s going on: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/sentiment-against-foreigners-flares-in-china/ Personally I am not too worried yet, but it’s important to keep an eye on what’s happening.

More at Marc van der Chijs' weblog.

Shanghai-based entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Foreign entrepreneurs: avoid China - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs might be a serial entrepreneur in Shanghai, the co-founder of the successful video hosting firm Tudou, but China is nowadays not offering the climate a start-up company needs, he tells in SGentrepreneurs.com. “If I set up a business today, it won’t be in China,” he says. SGentrepreneurs:

Firmly entrenched in the Avoid China camp is Marc van der Chijs, who, ironically enough, is the founder of Tudou, the second most popular video sharing site in China. It was recently bought over by Youku. 

“There are less opportunities in China these days; the environment is not so positive anymore,” he says at the sidelines of DEMO Asia in Singapore, “I’ve been there for 12 years, had a great time. I still love the country. But doing business as a foreigner has become more difficult.” 

He reached this conclusion after starting a new business called unitedstyles, a site that allow users to design, share and buy their own fashion. 

They needed to hire a lot of foreign designers, but it was getting hard to woo these people and bring them into China. 

“Getting a visa was impossible,” he says. There’s a maximum number of visas a startup can apply for, as the government wants more local talent to be hired. 

But getting competent local staff who know social media and can speak excellent English is hard. Marc couldn’t find them. 

Another challenge was finding Venture Capitalists with a global outlook. If you’re an entrepreneur based in China who wants to serve a global market, securing funding might be a challenge. 

“When I talk to Chinese VCs, they want to focus on the Chinese market. That’s the only market they know” he says. 

But while the golden age for foreign entrepreneurs in China has long past, Marc believes that businesses focusing solely on China still have a decent shot at success. Given how large the market is, startups don’t have to look outwards to succeed. 

For now, Marc has decided to relocate part of unitedstyles elsewhere. He cites Singapore as a possible location. 

“If I set up a business today, it won’t be in China,” he says.

More in SGentrepreneurs.com Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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The pros and cons of Asian locations for start-ups - Marc van der Chijs

Shanghai-based serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs discusses with the Bangkok Post the pros and cons of different Asian locations for start-ups. Koh Samui is one of his possible bets for the future.

 The Bangkok Post:

Marc van der Chijs, a co-founder of Tudou.com, said doing business in Asia is difficult due to regulations. 

"For any foreign entrepreneur in China, for instance, you need a partner to become successful and you need to network," he said. 

While companies in Singapore make a headstart in this area due to heavy government promotion, their regional counterparts including those in Thailand are lagging behind due to the lack of infrastructure and flexible regulations, such as how easy it is to set up and close a business or get money from banks. 

"Thai people can be very good entrepreneurs but [the country has] no infrastructure. There are investors but they are more than individuals," he said, adding that he has an idea to set up an incubator company on Koh Samui for startups. 

The best opportunity, he said, lies in social and mobile e-commerce. 

"Over the next five years, almost everyone will have a smartphone as the prices will be cheaper, while internet access will go down to zero [domestically]. If they [mobile operators] want to stay in business, they will have to do it. It will be something like electricity," he said. "There will be companies that drive the cost down, and if the market doesn't do it, the government will."

More in The Bangkok Post.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Life start-ups tougher in China than in Silicon Valley - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Compared to Silicon Valley, foreign entrepreneurs setting up start-ups have a tougher life in China, says Shanghai-based serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs in ZDNetasia.  Having good partners and network connections is key, he adds.

ZDNetasia:

"China is like a jungle without a lot of laws [in terms of] business ethics. It is survival of the fittest," van der Chijs told ZDNet Asia in an interview, as he elaborated on the intense competition. "People really fight [and] there's no cooperation between companies."... 

van der Chijs observed that the difference in the competitive spirits of Silicon Valley and Chinese is cultural. In the U.S., it is more a "team sports", he described, noting that entrepreneurs there help each other out as they believe more heads are better than one. 

In China, however, they do not think that more people equals better results. Having grown up in a tough environment, local entrepreneurs have had to learn to fend for themselves, he explained, adding that there is also a culture to always be number one... 

He also emphasized that these expats will need to spend sufficient time in China to know the ground well and identify the right business partners. "People think of China as the holy grail," van der Chijs said. 

"They come fresh out of the plane [thinking] they can make it, but then they all fail. "If you know the right people and know how to work your way around, you can succeed, but these are things you can only learn if you're there a long enough time." 

He said [video hosting firm] Tudou was successful because it was based on a local partnership and focused only on the domestic Chinese market.

More in ZDNetasia. Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form. More on Marc van der Chijs and doing online business in China at Storify.  

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UnitedStyles: 3rd most innovative China company - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Consumer-based fashion designer UnitedStyles from Shanghai has become the no.3 most innovative company in China, according to Fastcompany. Yet another success for co-founder and serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs.

From the jury report:

For giving the consumer all the power. The Shanghai-based company lets users design, order, share, and preview their own clothing through a Facebook Connect-enabled service. The clothing is remarkably desirable, wearable, and affordable. The service offers a wide away of basic style options; the user can choose and edit prints, both in scale and color (or create their own) before seeing it modeled on a 3D figure. Pieces go for $50 to $100, on average. All garments are produced by Chinese digital textile printers, and will ship toconsumers within a month of ordering. And don't worry, fellas: UnitedStyles plans on expanding into men's wear.

More winners (including Tencent) in the FastCompany.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Leaving Shanghai pollution behind me - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

I will never set up a company in Shanghai again, promises serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs, after he had a look at the polluted Shanghai sky from his apartment. Van der Chijs can move his online ventures, but where should he go to, he wonders on his weblog.

Shanghai Sky (@marcvanderchijs)

Marc van der Chijs:

If you live in Shanghai you know that this is not one of the healthiest cities in the world to live in. Not only does work go on 24/7 here (well, at least when you run your own business), but also the air quality is quite bad. It’s actually so bad that it’s very likely that unitedstyles will be the last company that I set up in China, and that I will eventually move somewhere else. I am sure I will be in China regularly for my investments and other business related issues, but at least I want my family out of here. 

Nobody really knows how bad the pollution is, because the government data seems to be “adjusted” and data for PM2.5 (the smallest, most dangerous, particles) are not released. For sure downtown it’s much worse than out in the suburbs where I live and where unitedstyles has its office. But also there it can’t be too good. I hardly ever run outside where I live, for example, because I feel the air does more harm than sports does good. And if I do, like during the Shanghai marathon, I normally feel it in my throat for several days after the run.

More at Marc van der Chijs' weblog.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

More on Marc van der Chijs and his online businesses at Storify.

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Recreating fashion design from Shanghai - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs, co-founder of video hosting firm Tudou, launched this week UnitedStyles, a new website to let you design your own clothes online. He tells in TechCrunch how he is going to recreate fashion design.

Based in Shanghai, UnitedStyles is a Facebook Connect-enabled service that lets any user create customized women’s apparel, allowing them sketch out, adjust and share a design via an online interface and customized 3D preview (Note: Chinese users will have to use a VPN to login through Facebook). 

Co-founder Marc van der Chijs tells me that his objective is to recreate the entire fashion design experience for Internet users, “It’s very strange that you cannot [already] design your own clothes online.” 

The dominant business strategy in fashion is to guess months in advance what a customer will want and UnitedStyles wants to reverse this; “We change the fashion industry from a ‘push’ into a customer ‘pull’ model,” van der Chijs, who also founded the “Chinese YouTube” Tudou, explains, “Because of mass production, clothes have become cheaper but also less personalized. Tailors hardly exist anymore, or are considered too expensive.” 

With UnitedStyles a user can replicate their own “tailored” experience, choosing from a variety of styles, prints, colors and shapes (There are several charts to check sizing). The company launches today with five styles, mainly tops and dresses but will be adding more variety asap.

More in TechCrunch

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Yahoo: Alibaba's gateway into the US market? - Marc van der Chijs

Jack Ma: looking a US gateway? via WikipediaAlibaba's CEO Jack Ma, the leading e-commerce site in China, made some waves by suggesting he might be buying the struggling US-site Yahoo. Serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs discusses on his weblog how Alibaba could use Yahoo to get into the US market.

Marc van de Chijs:

By buying Yahoo or taking a big stake in it, Alibaba can enter the US market. I think Alibaba wants to grow outside of its homebase of China, and this may be a great way to kickstart that. Alibaba was the reason that Ebay never succeeded in China, despite investing tons of resources. Now Alibaba wants to fight with Ebay on Ebay’s home turf. Jack Ma even announced that he plans to live in the US for a year, I don’t think he would do that just to buy a share in Yahoo.

But Alibaba likely can’t do it alone, even if it wants to buy Yahoo completely they probably can’t finance it. So they will need partners, and it seems both Silver Lake (a PE fund) and the Russian DST fund are joining Alibaba in a consortium. Seems like a good combination to get Yahoo back on track to me... 

I think there will be a problem: The US government. I don’t think they will like a Chinese company to take control of one of America’s biggest online properties, with a huge database of emails and credit card details, plus one of the biggest search engines. It won’t be the first time they block a deal (think Huawei trying to buy 3Com), and I would not be surprised if a Alibaba/Yahoo deal would be blocked in the same way.

 More at Marc van de Chijs' weblog

Marc van de Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Flexibility: key for China start-ups - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Changing a business plan happens almost every three months in fast-growing China, and sometimes very drastic. Serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs describes on his weblog how his new start-up United Styles, relaunched after six months for a different target group and with different technology.

In April/May we realized that we made our lives, and especially that of the technical team, too difficult by letting kids and their moms design clothes in 3D. After doing more market research we found out that if you want to do it in 3D the quality has to be much better than what we had. And that was impossible with the funding we had… But we also found out that people actually prefer to design in 2D, using sketches that look like real fashion design sketches. That was good news, because that is something we could change without spending too much time and money.

What we also did realize is that kids love to design, but that they don’t necessarily buy. Originally we had expected that they would convince their parents to pay for them, but it turned out that that was a bit too optimistic. It did happen of course, but most kids that designed never got to the point that they would order a garment. We had ideas on how to improve this, but it would take too much time to implement to make it feasible. Even though kids fashion is huge online, it doesn’t work (yet) in the way we did it.

More at Marc van der Chijs' weblog

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Most popular stories for September 2011

Counting numbers online is becoming easier by the day and today we want to introduce a new section: the most popular stories from our speakers. We already have the popular monthly section "most sought-after speakers", and readers to appreciate this kind of bench marking. So today our first selection of most popular stories:

1. How does Sina weibo fits into China’s media landscape? – Sam Flemming
2. “Midnight in Beijing” – Paul French
3. China’s right to undervalue its exchange rate – Arthur Kroeber
4. The economic damage of internet filters – Marc van der Chijs
5. Inflation undermines consumer confidence – Shaun Rein

Keep in mind this is an overview made today: recently published stories might still be building up momentum and good-scoring stories in August might already have fizzled out. Do expect, depending on the feedback, the next installment at the beginning of November.

The economic damage of internet filters - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

The slowdown of China's internet filters is costing internet entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs the equivalent of three working weeks per year, he estimates on his weblog. It hurts the country's international competitiveness.

Marc van der Chijs:

Tonight I was particularly frustrated when I was trying to test a website hosted on Amazon, and each time I was trying to check something the connection timed out. I got so upset that I even tweeted about it. Fellow entrepreneur Alex Duncan then replied with a blog post that he had written out of similar frustration 2 months ago. 

In this post he calculated that at the US multinational he used to work for, the staff spent an average of 30-45 minutes extra per day because of the slow Internet. That means a full 3 weeks of lost productivity (plus added stress and frustration) per year! Can you imagine the macro impact of this in a country like China? Of course only a relatively small number of people regularly uses the foreign Internet, but still the total effect must be huge. 

Alex mentioned that he might eventually consider to leave China because of this. Naturally I have pondered about that as well, but for me the advantages of China generally (still) outweigh the disadvantages of the terrible Internet. But at times I am so frustrated that I can’t wait until my next trip outside the Great Firewall.

More on Marc van der Chijs' weblog


Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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The internet as my second brain - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

The internet has become an extension of my real brain, serial online entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs told last weekend a group of future corporate leaders in Switzerland. On his weblog he discusses how business changes because of the internet.

Marc van der Chijs:

Don’t underestimate what this could mean for businesses – whether good or bad, fact is that the management is no longer in charge of the conversation. If top management does not embrace social media they may be in for an unpleasant surprise. But don’t see it as a threat, if management is entrepreneurial (which should be the case, right?) they should see it as an opportunity that their business can profit from. 

New very profitable businesses suddenly emerged (social games anyone?) because of the changing role of online media. It’s forcing many traditional companies to quickly adapt their business models. I discussed the book, music, newspaper and TV industry in more detail with my ideas about what they did right and wrong and what their future will look like. In my opinion this is just the beginning – we ain’t seen nothing yet.

More on Marc van der Chijs' weblog.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Europe's lagging internet culture - Marc van der Chijs

Shanghai-based serial internet entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs tells on his weblog how the internet culture in Europe is lagging, as he talks to a conference of future corporate leaders, who still have to find out the world has changed behind their backs. Unsettling, when you are used to China.

Marc van der Chijs:

This morning I was surprised by two of the speakers when they among others discussed the use of Twitter and Facebook. English politician Lord Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick (Global Head of Citizenship at KPMG) and Prof. Joachim Bitterlich (former foreign policy advisor to Helmut Kohl and currently a.o. board member at Veolia) both argued that Twitter and Facebook lead to a focus on short term decision making and don’t allow you to step back and take a longer term view. Having that opinion is fine of course, but not when you first announce that you don’t use Twitter and Facebook! It’s so typical that people who don’t use social media seem to be the biggest critics of it.

More from a shocked Marc van der Chijs at his weblog

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Google Streetview gets a local competitor - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Google might still be hoping to get another foot into the China market, but internet entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs reports now on his weblog that a local company is successfully filling the void for Google Streetview, already covering 41 cities.

A few weeks ago Joop Dorresteijn pinged me about a service he had found that does something similar for cities in China: city8.com. You select the city you want to look at and then you get a streetview-like interface. It works pretty well, but because it’s hosted inside the Great Firewall it is quite slow outside China or when using a VPN.

I tried it out for Shanghai and Beijing and like the functionality and the quality of the pictures. Not only the city center has been covered, but also the suburbs. Even some of the expat compounds are part of the database (ours did not let the camera car in though, so I can’t see my own house), so you can check out most addresses in the city. Just type in the address in Chinese in the search bar and you get to the location right away. You can then move around with the cursor just like in Google Streetview.

More at Marc van der Chijs' weblog.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Disrupted in New York - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs in New York

Shanghai-based erial internet entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs reports on his weblog about the slightly disappointing Techcrunch Disrupt conference in New York.

I found the emphasis on AOL (TechCrunch new mother company) a bit annoying, Arrianna Huffington’s panel was typical old media (“If I would tweet I would tweet this” etc.).

Compared to TC Disrupt in San Francisco this version was not as good. The event has gotten too big and the location was not optimal (too cold and too noisy). Also I felt that the audience was not as interesting as the one on the West coast, I hardly knew anybody and also I didn’t meet a lot of interesting new people. In SF that was very different, so likely I won’t go to the New York conference again next year.

For a report on his other efforts to links between entrepreneurial activities in the US, China and Europe please switch to his weblog.

March van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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10 misconceptions on casual gaming - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

"Girls are no real gamers". This and nine other misconceptions on social and casual games are addressed by Marc van der Chijs, serial internet entrepreneur and angel investor in Shanghai, published in the Business Insider.

1. Gaming is a waste of time and is bad for kids
This is something I hear often but that I totally disagree with. I believe there is a creative and educational layer in many games. But of course it doesn't mean that kids should play all the time. I have two kids myself and find that online games can be an addition to their development. It's important that children also play outside and do sports. Next to that they can also play online games, but they should only play for short lengths of time. Research shows that kids of 3 years old should play maximum 10 minutes per day and 6 year olds should not be online more than 30 minutes per day. If children do that games can be very beneficial. They can learn a lot in games, for example learning to work together, but also getting more self confidence when you achieve something in a game.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-misconceptions-about-online-casual-and-social-gaming-2011-5#ixzz1LvaTI5M9

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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The booming value of online game firms - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

Online gaming has developed in the past five years from a niche market into a booming industry, writes former Spil Games Asia CEO Marc van der Chijs in his weblog. Valuation for gaming companies like Zynga and Playdom have gone up dramatically and valuations will continue to rise.

Times have changed though, nowadays online games are everywhere. Especially social games like Farmville managed to get a lot of new people to start playing games. In the early days social networks helped the growth as well: if your friends invite you to play a game the chance that you will try out the game is a lot higher...

Companies like Zynga (7bn USD) and Playdom (750ml USD) are exceptions, but others see their value also go up:

But for non-social game companies valuations so far where a bit lower. It seems that may be changing though and that investors are starting to realize the potential of these companies. This week it was announced that Bigpoint raised a USD 350 million round at a USD 600 million valuation. The company is not a social game company but focuses on browser based MMO (=massive multiplayer online) games, that are free to play. Bigpoint earns its money with virtual items as well, just like Zynga and Playdom. The big difference is that Bigpoint owns most of its users and is not dependent on a site like Facebook.
I expect that valuations for many other online game properties will go up in the near future, especially for those companies that get a large part of their revenues from virtual goods and that are not dependent on Facebook for their traffic. It will be interesting to see at which valuation these companies are able to raise rounds – or are snapped up by players like Zynga looking to have their own traffic! Based on what I am hearing in the market the revenues of many of these players are doubling every year because of virtual items (just like Bigpoint) and I won’t be surprised to see a billion dollar IPO for one of them within the next 18 months.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Why Weibo will surpass Twitter - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

China's twitter eauquivalent Sina's Weibo might very soon pass Twitter in popularity, writes Tudou.com co-founder  Marc van der Chijs on his weblog, although the rest of the world is still largely ignorant about this internet service.

Weibo is certainly already miles ahead in terms of functionality. But most people outside China have no idea about the service and its functionality. Beijing-based blogger Bill Bishop therefore put a post on his blog today with an embedded presentation of Weibo’s history and main functions, including lots of screenshots.
Silicon Valley pay attention: this product is much better than Twitter, and Twitter (or other clones or even social network sites) can probably learn a lot just by looking at some of Weibo’s functions. It’s so good that I wonder if it might actually one day be able to take on Twitter.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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If I were Groupon - Marc van der Chijs

Image via Wikipedia

China Internet veteran Marc van der Chijs has a thorough look at the already sorrow state of Groupon's effort to enter the China market, together with the domestic giant Tencent. Things go from bad to worse. After Van der Chijs describes what has happened till now, he concludes:

If I were Groupon, I would seriously reconsider their current China market entry. If they want to enter fast they need Tencent, there is no way around it. But if they give themselves a bit more time there are other ways. They made the mistake of mainly hiring foreign managers and focusing in their recruitment drive on consultants and investment bankers with MBAs. That may work in the US, but that’s not what you need to be successful in China.

Marc van der Chijs by Fantake via Flickr

The article was original written for the Silcon Valley Insider. Last night Van der Chijs wrote is last update, and things look even worse now:

Last night an article on the Marbridge Daily named the 2 managing directors for Groupon in Beijing and Shanghai. From their LinkedIn resumes (see here for Mads Faurholt and Raphael Strauch) it looks like they both got their first real jobs in 2007 and have zero operations or China experience. They seem to be very smart, ambitious and aggressive guys, which is perfect for the European or US market, but less so for cooperation with a leading Chinese Internet company. 

More background in his original article.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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