Shenzhen is a long way from Silicon Valley. Tech companies are housed in gleaming skyscrapers rather than on rolling campuses; there is scarcely a hoodie to be seen and the Communist party influence is never far away.
Just across the border from Hong Kong and lying in the Pearl River Delta, this metropolis of some 12m people is home to some of China’s biggest tech players, including the social media giant Tencent valued at over $500bn and telecoms equipment groups ZTE and Huawei Other big players, such as Alibaba and Baidu, have offices alongside swaths of start-ups. Makers and sellers of electronic goods and components complete the line-up.
Shenzhen has “really come of age”, says Joe Ngai, managing partner of McKinsey’s Greater China operation which opened offices in Shenzhen two years ago. The evolution from sleepy fishing village to factory of the world to tech valley began in 1979 when Deng Xiaoping launched a new economic model with the words “to get rich is glorious.” He designated Shenzhen a special economic zone.