“China is winning the global tech race”. So began the article published a few weeks ago in the Financial Times, a news item explaining the growth of the top 50 startups (worth at least $1 billion) in the world, including 26 of Chinese origin and 16 from the United States.
But why are Chinese technology companies growing at a faster rate? In the 2018 edition of the Business Confidence Survey, prepared by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, we found that 61% of the companies surveyed considered Chinese companies to be equally or more innovative than European companies . A striking progression if we analyze the previous year’s survey, where the proportion of companies expressing this opinion was 15 percentage points lower.
Looking back, we can see that just 10 years ago, technological innovation in China was conspicuous by its absence. It is true that there were success stories, but they were not as significant as those that are taking place today. One of the causes of this transformation is the social progress that has taken place in the Asian giant. In 2000, only 4% of the population was middle class, while in 2012, two out of every three Chinese inhabitants earned between 9,000 and 34,000 dollars (figures in which this social group is included).
Today, in Chinese cities we find entrepreneurs and investors, demonstrating that the vision for doing business has changed: if a few years ago young Chinese dreamed of working at Google, now they dream of devising the next Google. Technology has undoubtedly become one of the key sectors for job creation in China. Good examples of this are companies such as Xiaomi, the fourth best-selling cell phone manufacturer in the world, or the leading messaging service WeChat.
According to a recent study by the U.S. authorities, South and East Asia will eventually account for 40% of global R&D investment, bringing China’s investment in science and technology even closer to that of the United States.
But the social progress that has taken place in the Asian giant is not the only cause of this technological transformation.. Another key has been its ability to adapt certain products to the specific needs of the Asian market. For example, the creation of Alibaba, which allowed small and medium-sized companies to start selling their products over the Internet (eBay did not allow this) or the creation of Meituan, similar to Groupon but with the difference that small merchants could also publish their offers on the platform.
