Internet cafes are a huge phenomenon across China. They have a somewhat unsavory reputation as a place to play games or watch porn, but internet cafes serve as a second home or cheap child-care for some Chinese.
This an older slideshare that I somehow missed, but an amazing look into the lives of many Chinese netizens.
50% of top Chinese engineering students want to startup, but only 3% rank it as their top career choice. By comparison, 65% of top American students want to startup, and 22% choose rank it as top.
So what do Chinese students do? More than half (52%) of Chinese engineering students ranked a career in government as their top choice after graduation. In the US, that number was 5%.
If you ever run into an iPhone 4 for 1300 RMB in the streets of China you just have to keep on walking. If something seems too good to be true it usually is.
The devices look like the real thing at first glance but usually you’re dealing with a Shanzhai ji. Some of the devices are made so well that it hard to tell from the outside what you’re dealing with. With Shenzhen being the Shanzhai production capital, it was something worth looking into during my visit.
The Chinese internet has seen a string of failed business networks, both foreign and domestic. When Ushi.cn conducted its market research in 2009, Chinese netizens had no idea what business networking was: “So it’s like Kaixin001 without Happy Farm?” But Ushi has been growing steadily since its launch one year ago and gained buzz following last month’s blockage of LinkedIn in China for a few days. But as LinkedIn prepares to IPO in the U.S., Ushi.cn now faces new competition from JingWei and maybe even LinkedIn itself.
