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Archive for the 'China' Category

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Introduction to WOFEs in China

Published on 26 July, 2006 in China and Entrepreneur. 4 Comments

Kenneth Wong made a very good introduction to WFOE (or is it WOFE?) at SGentrepreneurs.

For many foreigners seeking to setup business in China, the Wholly-Owned Foreign Enterprise model is the the de facto model to go for.

However like another writer Gabriel Yong mentioned, there is “a large grey area when you want to do business in Shanghai“.

My opinion is that WOFE is only for companies that is established, stable and growing. It is the proper channel and safeguard the legal rights of the company.

However if the company is new or startup, there is no point in bringing a wad of cash and start a WOFE.

Sending CD via post banned in China

Published on 11 July, 2006 in China. 0 Comments

Do you laugh or do you cry?

Last week, I sent a water-proof camera sample and its software driver in a CD. Today the courier company that the package was stopped at the custom and returned because sending CD via post or courier is banned.

What?! Wait till you hear the reason.

It is a measure against piracy.

Oh well, I will just ask the client to download the driver from the website.

Another business day in China.

Bridging the culture gap with local partner

Published on 7 July, 2006 in China, Day to Day and Startup. 0 Comments

Despite being Chinese by race, Singaporean Chinese still have a hard time understanding and adapting to the culture differences of the China Chinese.

An example is the roundabout relationship-authority-money interplay. For someone used to a culture that is direct and systematic, the Chinese way can be a rude shock.

What is this roundabout relationship-authority-money interplay you may ask. It is hard to define, but let’s do an example.

Say you want some permit done so that you could do something. (BTW, if you think Singapore has too may permit, you have not seen anything yet.) So you ask around and maybe surf the Internet for the procedure. So you went ahead to get it done. So far so good.

At the whichever authority that approve your permit, you find that you need to have this information and that information. Maybe you don’t fit certain criteria. The officer points you to other officers and they direct you to even more officers. Hence starts the roundabout.

Eventually you realise that it is getting nowhere and you seek help. Then you discover that who knows who knows someone that have some relationship with the autority. If you are lucky enough, you find this someone and the person get your permit done in a blink of the eyes.

Sure you certainly pay more, in cash or in kind, but aren’t you glad it is done.

If you are doing business in China, expect to deal with that daily. It helps to have plenty fo cash. If you are bootstrapping like me, my advice is to find a good local partner.

In my case, I am very fortunate to have a local partner to help me cushion the differences. He dealt with all these day to day annoyances that could drive one crazy.

As I type this, he just dealt with another. Thank God.

Revenue Lost from Piracy Overrated?

Published on 19 June, 2006 in Business Models and China. 1 Comment

Arn’t you tired of such headlines already?

China piracy costs film industry $2.7 bln in 2005

You could easily change “film” to “software” or anything that the Chinese copies - furniture, apparel, shoes, bags…

Without revealing how the figures are arrived at, one can only read such report as propaganda at best.

Sure, I brought bootleg videos along the road. Did the original company lost revenue? Not in my case. I never would buy the real thing anyway. What then is the number of people who would have buy the real thing but ended up buying the pirated version? Between 0 and $2.7b?

To state plainly, I am not for piracy. On the other hand, I’m not for lamenting priacy lost as well.

It has been presented and argued that the solution is on another dimension, a paradigm shift, a different business model.

The same thing with software.

But then, China is not ready yet. It will not for the next 5 years at least.

Choices: Continue lamenting or craveout a piece of the future pie?

Focus on recuitment and people

Published on 16 June, 2006 in China, Entrepreneur and Startup. 0 Comments

Browsing through ChinaTechNews’s story on Sam Flemming, this particular comment caught my attention.

For anybody else looking to open a technology-related business in China, what sort of advice would you have for them?
Focus on recruitment and people. There is significant competition for a limited pool of experienced, educated professionals.

Well, Sam hit it squarely on the head. Despite the huge population, the number of talent is extremely limited. Couple that with rapid growth, influx of foreign capital and the people’s insatiable appetite to move up the social strata. What do you get?

A situation where companies are paying more and more and workers move around at next better opportunity.

What can a startup with neither money nor resource do?

Let me tell you. NOTHING.

It’s a constant struggle. The only choice seems to be running fast enough with whatever people you can get hold and then take them to the next level with you.

For more than a year I had been struggling with that. (Read this, this, this and this.)

A month’s worth of dinner

Published on 7 June, 2006 in China and Day to Day. 2 Comments

Last evening I met my former boss for dinner. His responsibility had increased tremendously since we last worked together. He is now taking care of technology for international sites outside of US. Naturally, China is one of the focal point.

We chatted the usual. From business to online ideas, friends and former colleagues, life here and back home.

At the end of dinner, he picked up the bill. And this was what blown me away.

We ate through a month’s pay worth of dinner! ï¿¥1200 That’s how much we had eaten. A month’s pay for me and some of those working for me. Imagine that.

I felt a little depressed. If only I’m still working… I shook it off.

By the way, if you are conversant with Chinese and English, he is looking for an MIS director to be based in Beijing. The company is a major online company. Drop me a note and I can make the intro.

Visit to supplier in Fengxian

Published on 2 June, 2006 in China and Day to Day. 0 Comments

We (me and my business partner) went to visit a supplier in the outskirt of Fengxian district (奉贤区).

This supplier had been with us for a while and we have had a good working relationship. He just moved to a new factory and we wanted to give him a visit.

In typical Chinese fashion, he led us on a tour and then we adjourned to a restaurant for lunch.

I’m very please with the relationship built and hopeful of more good things in this partnership.

This is the first time I visit this part of Shanghai. Of course there are many places that I had not been. My mind is boggled also by what I see along the way.

Coming from a small country that is Singapore, I can only start to imagine the scale of China’s development. Shanghai is but a dot yet already bigger than Singapore.

We are moving. Again.

Published on 14 January, 2006 in China and Entrepreneur. 0 Comments

This is the fourth time in close to 2 years we are moving.

The good news is that we are moving to a better (or rather more formal) office. The not so good news is that the hidden cost in all these movings is much more than we had anticipated.

More good news, more people are joining. So in a way we are expanding in the desired direction.

More not so good news, we are still having difficulties collecting payment and supplier quality problem.

All these and the fact that my online time is now spent mostly on my 2006 project, means that SimpleBusiness.org gets updated less frequently.

All in all 2006 is headed for a good start.

New Staff, No staff

Published on 4 January, 2006 in China and Entrepreneur. 0 Comments

Not sure whether to rejoice or to despair. After prolong period of searching we finally found someone to join us. Then after one day at work, he decided to call it quit. Still I thank him because I would have a harder time firing him.

Well, back to the search.

China internet regulation for non-dealing website

Published on 27 December, 2005 in China and Online. 0 Comments

Full text of the regulation. All websites in China are now required to be registered with the authority. This had been enacted since mid of this year. Enforcement had been coming down and it is common to see site closure notice for non-compliance.

If you can read chinese, follow on to see the text. I might make clarification in future post.

It is of note to distinguish this from previous requirement of “dealing” (经营性) websites to register. This new regulation covers ALL other sites (非经营性)).

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