silicon valley china
China’s Silicon Valley
Vocabulary
| brain | bourough | prestigeous |
| campus | incubator | a mind of its own |
| massive | founder | charismatic |
| cubicles | feature | gain insight |
| slick | promotion | in touch with |
| forecast | handset | a long way off |
Video
Transcript
You might call the Beijing bourough of Zhong Guan Cun, China’s Silicon Valley. Tens of thousands of start-ups have set up shop here, in the north of the capital city.
A lot of the brain power comes from a pretigeous school here, the University of Tsinghua.
There is an incubator right on campus, the home of a company called Purple Q.
It makes 3-D printers, and has already sold a thousand of them online.
A new style Chinese company, with a mind of its own.
Wang Shidong, Entreprenuer: “China is slowly moving away from production towards creativity. We make what we want to. We realize our own ideas.
Companies like Xioami, have an unbelievably massive imagination.”
Xioami is China’s top maker of smart-phones.
It’s charismatic CEO, Lei Jun is sometimes compared to Apple founder, Steve Jobs.
Lei Jun, CEO Xioami: “China’s internet industry is the world’s number two, after the US. We decided what is what as far as creative thinking, technology and production is concerned.”
The atmosphere in Xioami is similiar to what you might find at a tech company anywhere: thousands of workers in cubicles, many of them social media managers, helping to market the company’s products, and gain insight to users’ needs.
Li Lei, Xioami Marketing Director: “We notice changes in the market, know what our customers want because we’re always in touch with them.
This makes it easy to design smart-phones, and the features they want.
That’s why Xioami is so big.”
Xioami uses slick promotions. And is forecast to sell 100 million smart-phones around the world this year: in Asia, India and even South America.
Customers can test the Mi-phone in the shops. But they have to buy the handsets online.
That saves costs: just one reason the fashion-conscious company is valued at $45 billion.
Back at Tsinghua University, Germany’s CeBit seems a long way off. Students here are too busy creating the next big thing.
Questions
1. The Beijing bourough of Zhong Guan Cun is China’s Silicon Valley. What does this mean? Give examples.
2. Why have many companies started up there?
3. Purple Q makes software programs. Is this correct or wrong?
4. What does Wang Shidong, the entreprenuer say?
5. Xiaomi is an electronics compay. Yes or no?
6. Who is Lei Jun’s role model?
7. Does Xiaomi only design and manufacture devices? Is customer feedback important to them?
8. Can customers buy Xioami phones in shops? Why does Xioami only sell online?
A. Is there a “Silicon Valley” in your country? What happens there?
B. I have seen a 3-D printer. Yes or no? What did it “print”?
C. Have you or someone you know worked in a call center or in marketing?
D. What features would you like to see on new devices?
