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How a Nation of Tech Copycats Transformed Into a Hub for Innovation
Article

How a Nation of Tech Copycats Transformed Into a Hub for Innovation

Wired, 2015

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

China’s tech industry has transformed from a “copycat” into the new bastion of technological invention and creative collaboration. In this information-rich article, Wired contributing editor Clive Thomas offers a compelling analysis of how China achieved this technological rise, presents profiles of some of the nation’s main innovators, and explains how and why China managed to, effectively, beat Silicon Valley at its own game. getAbstract recommends this article to entrepreneurs, investors and everyone interested in the latest tech-industry trends.

Summary

The Chinese tech industry was once famous for its ability to create successful clones of American companies: Baidu modeled itself after Google, and JD was China’s answer to Amazon. Likewise, the tech-minded graduates of Chinese universities had incredible skill, but, given the uncertainty of the economy, little appetite for the kind of risk-taking that helped, say, Mark Zuckerberg to create Facebook. China’s recent economic boom, however, helped usher in a new era of innovation, and today, creative start-ups abound.

China’s growing middle...

About the Author

Clive Thompson is a contributing editor at Wired and the author of Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better.