Asian E-Commerce and Startup Success by Mr. Chien-Fu Li

Edgewater Hotel
2411 Alaskan Way, Seattle WA

report

Per the invitation of NWCHP, Chien-fu Li, director of Yahoo! Business Development Asia came to Seattle and attended a dinner seminar at Hotel Edgewater in the evening of April 14, 2000. Turnout was overwhelming, more than 150 people showed up at the event and made the magnificent waterfront Olympic Ballroom full of life and steam. The demographics of attendees are as diverse and representative as what NWCHP has hoped for. Besides Chinese hi-tech professionals who consisted the bulk of the crowds, at the meeting were also its advisors/sponsors Mr. Sidney Rittenberg, a legendary with 55 years friendship with China, Mr. Joe Borich, Executive Director of Washington State China Relations Council, Mr. Gordon Chanen, Principal of Chanen & Co. and Mr. Jim Rohrbach., Regional Manager of ResourcePhoenix company. Other VIPs include former Washington State Governor Mr. Mike Lowry (he accepted our invitation to sit on NWCHP’s Advisory Board right after the meeting), Ms. Kimberly Tryhorn, representative from Congressman Jay Inslee’s office. Many local Chinese community leaders also showed up at the party, including Ms. Siaoyan Wu, President of Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Shianyu Lee, President of Society of Chinese Engineers-Seattle and Mr. Denis Hsu, President of China Tomorrow Education Foundation. Other local Chinese communities such as Seattle’s Hong Kong Club, CAAP, NAAAP also sent representatives to the meeting. Interestingly, this event also attracted many other ethnic group people like the Vietnamese, Japanese and Koreans. The founders of SeattleNetwork, the largest Internet community in town, Ms. Kristine Asin and Mr. Dan Sundgren showed up at the gathering, a sign that NWCHP has already gained the attention of local hi-tech communities.

In his welcoming remarks, Frazer Xia, President of the newly found organization introduced NWCHP’s nature and missions. He stressed the need to encourage entrepreneurship in the region and called for initiatives taken by its members to build a platform and network for all. He also took the chance to introduce to the audience NWCHP’s Advisory Board members and its Board of Directors.

After a short introduction about the keynote speaker by NWCHP’s Vice Chairman Ms. Carol Lin, Mr. Cheinfu Li spent the next 40 minutes speaking on his interesting startup experiences and e-commerce opportunities in Asia. He said that great opportunities existed in the areas of vertical market application development, as the general portal markets have already been dominated by quite a few first movers in literally every country. He also pointed out that the current 15 million Chinese speaking Internet users are ranked number two in the world and the trend still growing at an astonishing speed. A very noteworthy point he made was that most purchase decisions are made locally, so that a site should pay enough attention to this feature when it tries to attract local advertisers. He later shared with the audience the tips with regard to raising venture capital. Oftentimes, neither the startup nor the VCs are perfect, he said. As a startup, he/she should not be just too obsessed with his/her own ideas while overlooking the importance of implementation. The VCs might just fail to provide any significant strategic values beside the money. In his Q&A session, when responding to a question about the difference between an entrepreneur and an inventor, he said that what sets entrepreneur apart from the rest is his determination and drive to get things done. Mr. Chienfu Li’s speech was informative, engaging, light, witty, as well as humorous. The audience liked the way that the speech was delivered.

At the end of the seminar, Mr. Richard Xu, Chairman of NWCHP, presented a Thank-You Certificate and gift of King Salmon to Mr. Li in appreciation of his support of NWCHP by taking a special trip to Seattle and having delivered such a wonderful speech. This event was covered by major local Chinese medias such as World Journal, Asia Weekly, Asia Today and ATT Television Company.

Mr. Li and all the borad members of NWCHP (click the photo to see the full-size picture)

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