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Chinese companies not non-creative: Kai-Fu Lee

By Song Jingli (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-11-17 17:31

Chinese companies cannot be considered as non-creative just because China does not have its Microsoft or Google, Kai-Fu Lee, former president of Google China, said on Friday at Peking University when introducing his newly-born Innovation Works, a platform with the aim of hiring talents.

Chinese companies boosting qq.com or taobao.com are very creative because they might copy ideas at the beginning but have later found ways to meet Chinese people's needs and have developed successful business models, Lee added.

Lee left Google China in September this year and created Innovation Works, a business creation platform which helps people transfer creative ideas into projects and transfer projects into companies, and finally, into public companies.

He said those with a creative idea can form a project and get financial aid from Innovation Works. He added that Innovation Works plans to create five companies each year.

Related readings:  Lee quits as president of Google China  Kai-Fu Lee floats 800m yuan fund  Google's Greater China chief to step down

According to Lee, Innovation Works is not an incubator, but is like an incubator, because it helps give birth to high-tech companies; it is not a head-hunter, but is like a head-hunter because it helps companies hunt talents; and it is not a software company, but is like one, because it will develop software products in the developmental stage.

Lee said only those who major in software engineering or others who know information technology very well can currently join Innovation Works because they have to develop products first. Eventually more people with different abilities or skills like marketing will be needed.

They will not only develop products from their own ideas but will also draw on the US, Japan or Korea to see whether some technologies, which have been used very well there, can also be used in China, just like what qq.com or taobao.com has done, Lee said.

When asked to comment on Chinese youngsters who want to set up their own business, Lee said they are too eager to succeed, which is an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time. Chinese youngsters have to know that success does not equal fame and money, he added.

He said he expected China to develop a better social environment for entrepreneurship.

Lee declined to comment when asked if the Chinese government gave him more support or more obstacles. He said as for Innovation Works, he cannot imagine a single obstacle and it has been given all the support needed.

"If we can be given a larger quota of Hukou (residency permit) more policy support and some funds, it will be better," Lee said.