From China to the world: the big situation in the mobile field

Editor's note: Donshau is a GGV Capital management partner, he has invested in projects including Millet, every guest, happy net, MA Honeycomb, a hi car rental, rebate network, and so on.

When I moved to China in 2005, there were 1 billion Internet users worldwide and all were PC-side internet users. Baidu and Alibaba, the most valued Chinese internet company at the time, were valued at $5 billion trillion, but failed to rank the top 10 in the global rankings.

And fast forward to now: Internet users all over the world, the total has reached 3 billion. Alibaba (excluding Alipay), which GGV invested in 2003, now has a market capitalisation of around $300 billion trillion, a full 60 times times its value nine years ago. In the Internet company's market share rankings, there are four companies from China among the world's top ten, they are: Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and Beijing east. It does not include the company that has not yet made public offerings (I am one of its early investors), and now Millet has become the world's third-largest maker of mobile hardware. The occurrence of this great change is attributable to the following three points:

Smarter, cheaper smartphones than computers make it possible for more people around the world to go into the Internet and become Internet users.

With 2 billion new internet users worldwide, China's economy has contributed one-third of its growth.

Chinese entrepreneurs are leading the money innovation, they are proficient in e-commerce and virtual goods sales, they do not rely on advertising.

With one foot on the Silicon Valley and the other foot on the beach, in GGV we have realised that it is easier to achieve a cross-regional development in the mobile phone field than on the PC (PC) side, and to gain the same growth trajectory as Alibaba. That's why we thought it was a great thing to go to the gmic SV last week, and when we look back at the whole process, there are a couple of themes that will keep coming to mind when we think about the big things and the discussions:

Mobile phone first user base is growing

Some mobile phone companies have realised that their biggest opportunities lurk in discovering new users and providing them with a first-hand user experience, rather than trying to convert existing PC-side web users to mobile Web users, and we hear them talk about the theory over and over again. Sam Shank, chief executive of HotelTonight, explained that previously they were looking for partners who could help them with user Switching, making it possible for customers to book hotels online via computers to use mobile phone reservations, but now they are focused on discovering new users, Focus on groups of customers who have never booked a hotel.

Mobile phone first means global priority

My colleague Jeff Richards made it clear that "if you only focus on the American market, you will never be the winner of global domination." "In fact, Quixey's chief Operating Officer (COO) Guru Gowrappan firmly believes that China is the first to be followed for the mobile phone sector. Emerging markets will contribute 1 billion of thousands of users, so companies want to expand and investors look for the next big event, they will focus on China, India, Brazil and other similar emerging markets.

Lost in the translation

Open the international market, not directly "translate", not to the app on every string to translate it so simple. Eric Feng, chief technology officer at Flipboard, points out that the new market is full of challenges in the form of profitability, payment basics, broadband access, local competition, and user-operating habits. The pioneer of mobile phone industry, which is conducting cross-regional expansion, suggests that if you want to enter a new market, you must visit it. That means you have to set up a local team, and often as CEO to inspect the market. They also suggest looking for a partner. This is especially important for American companies that want to enter the Chinese market.

partners with common interests

Recently, people have been discussing the Chinese giants (Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and the recent millet) in the United States to invest in start-up companies. These are not passive investments; they build strategic partnerships. For Chinese companies, the American entrepreneurial team can provide them with new technology and help them to know more about American users. For the American entrepreneurial team, their Chinese partners have opened a door to a highly competitive China market and given them the opportunity to adjust their products, business models and operating models to succeed in the Chinese market.