The Black Friday in the USA was a commercial success never seen before. A one day Thanksgiving shopping event sold over $4,5 billion in GMV last year. Another top American shopping date, Cyber Monday, broke a record of 3 billion in 2015.

 

Massive numbers. Massive successes.

 

On the other side of the world, in Hangzhou China, emerged another e-commerce revolution, the November 11th Single’s Day, “Double Eleven” （双十一） campaign. In one day the e-commerce giant, Alibaba, sold more than $17 billion, which is over two times more than the top two American shopping festivals combined. The sales increased 32% this year, and doubled since 2014. The first billion margin was broken in less than 5 minutes.

 

China is though not only about big numbers, but also about quality, new visions and ideas, locally-born innovation. The era of copy-paste and cheap manufacturing labour is over in most of these new local hubs and a blossoming wave of youth innovation is stepping up and changing whole China. This offers interesting opportunities and new views for all of us.

 

I’ve had a privilege to spend the last 4 years in four Chinese financial and startup centres, Shenzhen, Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. During the last 6 months in Hangzhou and Shanghai I’ve had a luck to cooperate with some awesome entrepreneurs and shapers of China’s future, Alibaba’s builders from top down, from the vice presidents to the HR assistants, PR consultants to their filmmakers, event organisers, Taobao sales guys, tech heads and newest recruits. This has been added with cooperating with one of the rising cool coworking spaces, WE+ and their revolutionaries, game-industry visionaries, governmental startup-enthusiasts, and a bunch of community organisers.

 

A vivid picture is being drawn: new visionaries, most of them born after 1990s or 1980s, think totally different from their parents or grandparents. The new youth talk about “borderless” world, about the fusion of humanity and tech, the blending of Chinese and foreign cultures, about the need to innovate truly from the grassroots, about opening up gates. They admire the coolest startup entrepreneurs, both outside China in the U.S. and Europe, China.

 

“We need to truly build a new way of thinking, a new way of dealing things. We need to build a culture of sharing, of trust. The future belongs to those who are able to break the boundaries between old and look to the future”, tells Leo, who’s running the WE+ startup co-working space in Hangzhou.

 

Internationalisation everywhere among the small and big pioneers is also changing the way how things are done in China. It’s been proactively pushed by many small and big players. Chinese government started the noted “Innovation Campaign” (大众创业万众创新) in summer 2015 and launched the “Silk Road Initiative” (一带一路), which aims to build bridges across Eurasia and the world, including the Nordics. For Alibaba, besides big data and rural focus, the main goal of the year is also internationalisation. The company has built over 10 local offices around the world and started new global leadership programs. The local startup hubs talk broadly about the need to internationalise. A few of them plan to cooperate closely with the Nordics and Europe.

 

Slush also opened last year its first Asia editions in Tokyo and Beijing, followed with this year’s successful events in Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore. More foreign entrepreneurs consider China as an option for Silicon Valley. Peter Vesterbacka, the Angry Birds co-founder, and ambassador of education, entrepreneurship and entertainment, even moved to China for over 2 months to intensify his language and culture studies. Nokia Chairman Risto Siilasmaa reads almost daily Chinese characters and holds speeches partly in Chinese. Supercell this year just made a historical deal with Tencent. The student volumes have increased on both sides. European startup delegations and programs make more trips than ever to China.

 

Chinese innovation wave is now also starting to reach out to the world.

 

For many the best working mobile payment system is now run by Alibaba’s Alipay in China. WeChat and other social media tools have become more inclusive, interesting and useful the ever before and close to a billion people use it already.

 

I also pay 70% of my daily life transactions with Alipay, 90% of the messages I send are done through WeChat, which offers clearly the best tool of networking in China. Foreigners not only use it in China, but also outside. Instead of eBay I buy most of my stuff in Taobao, instead of Periscope, I mainly use Yi Zhibo for live streaming, and instead of Spotify I turn to QQ Music for high quality free music. Instead of Uber, I order my ride through Didi. Instead of awesome Wolt I find similar services from Meituan or Baidu. In China these apps are a necessity, the new basic pile on your Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The question is, with the speed of innovation and development, when are these apps and their newest versions so much better, that a Western consumer starts turning in to these Chinese options? For some apps you can already see that happening.

 

And if so many pioneers are willing to go to China to build this new wave of innovation – how about you?

 

I believe it has never been a better time to go to China than now.

 

The environment is opening up, becoming more international and innovative. There is still a desperate need for foreign experts and pioneers who can bridge the cultural gap between the existing and emerging centres of innovation. The new fusion of foreigners and Chinese will offer a cultural and technological melting pot that the world may have never seen before. Personal growth is guaranteed, as two eyes always see better than one. China’s newest technological innovations combined with a millennia old wisdom offer a mindset that is going to impact you and the globalization in an unprecedented way. Each of us has the choice, which side of the history we want to position ourselves.

 

There is still almost a year to get prepared to the next Alibaba’s “double-eleven”, which will ultimately break the records again and set up the new standard for the world to follow. And the best part is that in China’s scale and changing environment it’s just the top of an iceberg. For a clever, forward-minded entrepreneur China offers opportunities that seek comparison in history. Add the awesome neighbouring Asian countries and you’ll realise that you are at one of the global epicentres of innovation.

 

I warmly encourage you to take the leap and go to China. I can promise you that you will not be left alone, the foreign and Chinese communities with other forward-minded entrepreneurs will make sure you will feel right at home, and there are people when you are in need. No one will be left alone. Everyone deserves the chance to try and achieve their potential in both sides of the new digital Silk Road.

 

中国热烈欢迎你！