China’s internet entrepreneurs had the world at their feet. What changed?
- Tech and internet start-ups in China seemed to have the full support of the government a few scant years ago, but fortunes have turned
- Regulatory crackdowns and US-led controls on trade have dampened previously rollicking enthusiasm for entrepreneurship
When he was invited to the 2017 World Internet Conference (WIC), China’s largest gathering of web industry luminaries and cyberspace regulators, Zhang Hongjun was sure he’d reached the home straight on the road to success.
The event was held that December in Wuzhen, a picturesque water town 100km (60 miles) west of Shanghai. Those in attendance included Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Tencent founder Pony Ma, JD.com founder Richard Liu, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai.
With so many big-name investors taking part, Zhang expected a hefty sum for his project – a platform for real-time financial risk assessments, vital for what was then a thriving ecosystem of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, online loans and crowdfunding.
His work even received a degree of government endorsement, as it was listed in the conference’s fundraising book. “The project was doing great at the time. We were full of hope,” the 42-year-old entrepreneur from Shanghai recalled.
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China now has nearly 1 billion internet users
For many start-ups, it was a time of plenty.
To encourage what it termed “mass entrepreneurship and innovation”, Beijing was prepared to take action.
