Kliuless #18: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order

Entrepreneurs in the Valley are often the children of successful professionals[.] Growing up they were constantly told that they— yes, they in particular—could change the world. Their undergraduate years were spent learning the art of coding from the world’s leading researchers but also basking in the philosophical debates of a liberal arts education. When they arrived in Silicon Valley, their commutes to and from work took them through the gently curving, tree-lined streets of suburban California

In stark contrast, China’s startup culture is the yin to Silicon Valley’s yang: instead of being mission-driven, Chinese companies are first and foremost market-driven. Their ultimate goal is to make money, and they’re willing to create any product, adopt any model, or go into any business that will accomplish that objective. That mentality leads to incredible flexibility in business models and execution, a perfect distillation of the 'lean startup' model often praised in Silicon Valley. It doesn’t matter where an idea came from or who came up with it. All that matters is whether you can execute it to make a financial profit. The core motivation for China’s market- driven entrepreneurs is not fame, glory, or changing the world. Those things are all nice side benefits, but the grand prize is getting rich, and it doesn’t matter how you get there"

Chinese companies don’t have this kind of luxury. Surrounded by competitors ready to reverse-engineer their digital products, they must use their scale, spending, and efficiency at the grunt work as a differentiating factor. They burn cash like crazy and rely on armies of low-wage delivery workers to make their business models work. It’s a defining trait of China’s alternate internet universe that leaves American analysts entrenched in Silicon Valley orthodoxy scratching their heads"

"A growing number of software companies are looking to bypass the dominant app store gatekeepers at Apple and Google — selling their services directly to consumers and undercutting the tech giants that for years have controlled how most of iPhone and Android users discover, download and pay for their apps"

"I believe that there’s a strong chance that in 2019, a major social platform — Youtube, Instagram/Facebook, Twitch, or Snapchat — fully embraces influencer marketing, by providing influencers / sponsors full access to the tools available to advertisers on their native ad platforms today. This includes tools such as attribution (particularly view-through attribution), native CTA buttons, audience data, and retargeting capabilities"

[KL: Project Horseshoe is a game design think tank that includes Spry Fox's Daniel Cook]

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