By Herman Lai, posted Nov 1, 2011 at 2:09 AM, 887 views,

Former Google VP Explains Why China Cannot Produce a Steve Jobs or a Zuckerberg

Chinese people are definitely not stupid, but there are a few factors that makes the former of Google China — Kai-Fu Lee thinks it is difficult to have a China-born Steve Jobs or China born Zuckerberg. That’s also perhaps what he sees the future of his company (Innovation Works) should work on to help out young Chinese entrepreneurs. More info after the break.

Why China cannot produce its own Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg?

In the discussion between Kai-Fu Lee and Sarah Lacy, Lacy brought up that Lee’s belief that China isn’t ready for an entrepreneur with a disruptive, “lightbulb on top of head” type idea — a Zukerberg, Andreeseen or even a Jerry Yang or Steve Chen. Lee explained:

“Chinese society is not as supportive of failures.”

There is only one exception in China, and that’s the co-founder of Tencent Pony Ma.

The question is what happen to most of the startup founders in China. Why can’t they be the next Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg? First of all, the herd mentality is very strong in China, people are more likely to follow instead of being different. Secondly, the current state of intellectual property protections in China is detrimental to innovators, but we can see China is really putting lots of efforts to fix this problem, like killing the Shanzhai market. These restrictions may prevent or limit inventor like Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg to emerge in China.

In terms of Chinese enterprises, many well-known enterprises operate in the way of “following”, where they usually focus on keeping up with the market trend instead of being a pioneer. Being a pioneer in China is often a disadvantage, because your creative work got cloned and make use by your competitors immediately. Furthermore, the state-funded Chinese enterprises cannot produce innovation work due to this kind of administrative monopoly that would have restricted competition and limited enterprise’s authority of decision making.

Now, as Steve Jobs walks into history, many Chinese netizens are eagerly asking where China’s Steve Jobs is. Previously, millions of Chinese Microblogger (Weibo Users) published words mourning of the death of Steve Jobs and also raised a question, “Why is China unable to produce its own Steve Jobs?” Kai-Fu Lee explained on his Sina microblog that there is too great an emphasis on recitation and memory in the Chinese education system, thus discouraging critical thinking. It’s not because Chinese people are not smart enough, or they do not have the potential to become a Steve Jobs-type person.

Who is Kai-Fu Lee?

Kai-Fu Lee got famous after a legal dispute between Google and Microsoft in 2005. He is one of the most prominent figures in the Chinese internet sector who used to be the founding president of Google China. After he resigned from Google China, Lee announced details of a $115m venture capital fund called “Innovation Works” that aims to create five successful Chinese start-ups each year in the cyber-space. Innovation Works has now adopted the Y-Combinator style, providing seed financing for new ideas, provides help in HR, design, and legal resources to new start-ups, and this is what he sees InnovationWorks will eventually become a Chinese IdeaLab in the future.

During the TC Disrupt Beijing, Lee had noted down three key characteristics in startup founders — passion, the desire for success, and strong understanding of the domain they are working on. The Innovation Works fund has attracted several investors, including Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube; Foxconn, the electronics contract manufacturer; Legend Holdings, the parent of PC maker Lenovo; and WI Harper Group.

On last thing, Lee recommends to all Chinese enterprises to expand to Southeast Asia markets and leave U.S. and Europe markets as their last expansion destinations.

Source: TechCrunch, CaiXin