Foreign incubators thrive in Beijing amid development tide

As the innovation tide sweeps across China, leading foreign companies are rushing to establish business incubators in Zhongguancun, Beijing, to help nurture local startups.

Microsoft Corp, for instance, has been serving local entrepreneurs since 2012 when the US tech giant established an accelerator here. So far, it has incubated more than 120 startups with 70 percent of them focused on cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, which are widely seen as the next generation of world-changing technologies.

"Zhongguancun is home to China's best universities and talent. Local entrepreneurs not only master cutting-edge technologies, but also have many disruptive innovation ideas. I believe the region will give birth to a group of leading innovative firms as great as internet giants Facebook and Uber," said Luo Bin, CEO of the Microsoft Accelerator.