Shenzhen Then and Now: A Tale of Transformation
Shenzhen’s massive evolution is the symbol of China’s market reformation and economic growth. From phones to drones, village to megalopolis, see how Shenzhen has changed over the years.
In the beginning of 2019, there’s a social media challenge that went viral on the internet. From celebrities to influencers to your friendly neighborhood internet users, it appears that everyone with social media accounts is partaking in the “10-Year Challenge” campaign. The goal of the challenge is pretty straight forward: to see how much you have transformed in the past ten years. Naturally, as time passed, people change, not just in their appearances but mind alike.
Similarly, a change in a country or a city is also inevitable, along with the passing time. As one of the most famous cities in China, Shenzhen’s transformation throughout the years quickly found its fame, putting its name out on the world atlas as the heart of Chinese businesses, along with metropolitan cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. This transformational tale pretty soon attracts entrepreneurs and investors from around the world to come knocking at its doorstep.
Let’s take a look of what exactly happened to the Silicon Valley of China in the last 5 years.
A Brief Look on the Development of Shenzhen
Shenzhen has come a long way from a small fishing village in China to one of the most populous cities in China. The population of the burgeoning city has grown with incredible speed from 5 million to 20 million people in the last 20 years.
What triggers the growth? It all began with the migration of many outsourcing companies such as Foxconn to the city. The move was initially seen as an alternative method to cut cost of running a factory. With considerably low labor cost and capitals, Shenzhen became the hotspot for factories from around the world. As of 2013, Shenzhen is the world’s biggest consumer electronics manufacturing base. Seeing the trend, Chinese government is quick in its action to transform Shenzhen into something more than just “manufacturing city”.
As the capital of hardware, Shenzhen easily attracts China’s local companies to invest in technology. Notoriously known as the birthplace of some of China’s most famous tech companies such as Huawei, Tencent, ZTE, and DJI, Shenzhen quickly became the main destination for engineers and talents from across the world to come and make conscious effort to work there.
As a result, the average age of the population fell in between 20 to 30 years old. The relatively young age and diversity of its population almost naturally drive the city to the path of technology. Many passionate citizens led Shenzhen’s hunger for innovation. With Shenzhen’s high school education popularizing hardware robots and programming, the city stepped up as the initiator to provide foundation for future programmers and technology. Not only that, companies that operate in the region also demonstrate the impetus on innovation that defines Shenzhen. In addition, beyond these giant tech companies, there is an incredible infrastructure development across the city, which is built with technology as its core.
Truly, it’s almost inevitable to say that Shenzhen has transformed from “World’s Factory” to “World’s Innovation Factory”. With export to global hardware market skyrocketing to USD 29 billion in 2015, Shenzhen easily positions itself as the gateway for foreign tech companies to do business in China. Before long, media started to call the city as “China’s Silicon Valley”.
What Comes Next for Shenzhen
It is almost unerring to say that Shenzhen is currently the most innovative city in the world. Nevertheless, venture capitalists and advocates argued and wondered whether the city has unleashed its full potential. What other possible prospects can the city offer to the world and technology in the future?
Well, it’s a fact that nowadays, Shenzhen keeps attracting aspiring entrepreneurs from around the world. A lot of engineering graduates chose to settle in the city to actively pursue and establish their own start-up companies. Why? The reason is because the city boasts the highest production efficiency in the world with relatively low cost. What’s more, the incentive policies for entrepreneurs offered by Shenzhen’s government, in regards to loans and taxes, are far better compared to the other cities in China.
Additionally, with the rapid development of hardware, obviously capital is flowing into Shenzhen. The city’s opened stock market is often seen as a potential threat to edge out Hong Kong in welcoming foreign investors. Shenzhen is seen as a more inviting option due of its mature ecosystem and hardware startups. In other words, experts believe that it is much easier to connect to the world and make foreign trade in Shenzhen.
However, perhaps the most appealing factor of Shenzhen lies in the existence of “Plan Company”. Shenzhen is nota bene home to numerous factories that manufacture electronic parts and circuit boards. These so-called Plan Companies are fully aware of the product information of almost every tech company in the world since most of them have offices in Shenzhen. This way, these Plan Companies can easily provide assistance based on the needs of entrepreneurs, hence offering a considerably short lead time for these entrepreneurs to launch their finished products to the market simply based on idea, despite the lack of factory, design, tools, or R&D department.
Shenzhen: Open for Business
It is obvious that Shenzhen government has taken tremendous measures to propel the city’s transition from the factory of the world to an entrepreneurial powerhouse. But government policy alone cannot drive the city’s growth without a commercially viable plan.
From the view of modern economic growth, a region’s prosperity lies in public’s participation in innovation. Therefore, it’s safe to say that Shenzhen’s future is highly dependent on its ability to continue producing new knowledge, the resources and mechanism used. Looking at the development of the city so far, the possibility of Shenzhen to overthrow Silicon Valley as the Capital of Technology seems to be worth the excitement.
