Shenzhen named as top 5 start-up hub, Hong Kong nowhere in sight
"[It is] a place where accelerators are eager to help you build, test, refine and make a million of something all in the same day," writes Greg Lindsay, author of Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next.
"Shenzhen is increasingly attracting startups that may have previously only outsourced their manufacturing here. It has become a global magnet for hardware companies eager to learn from the world's biggest (and often best) manufacturers of mainstream electronics."
Start-up founders have praised Shenzhen as an ideal base from which to launch their businesses. Gao Lei, chief executive of wearable device maker Betwine, said he prefered the city over its mainland rivals Beijing and Shanghai.
“The biggest help I had from this place was the chance to meet many other people who shared my dreams. They have gone on to become my business partners,” he told the South China Morning Post.
“Giving maker spaces better places to work and making their work easier will facilitate innovation," Gao said. "The government aims to push entrepreneurship, and it is banking on a lot more makers and entrepreneurs to fuel the new growth engine."
Shenzhen has held an important position in the history of China's economic reform for the past three decades. Late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's landmark visit to southern China in 1992 eventually led to a wider opening-up of the mainland market to foreign investors, including launching Shenzhen as a special economic zone on the mainland. In recent years, Shenzhen's rapid success in attracting and fostering start-ups has been in marked contrast to neighbouring Hong Kong.
"Those willing to take the plunge and set up shop in China, however, will discover a vast universe of technical expertise," according to Lindsay. "Shenzhen is ground zero for technological serendipity."
Other world cities filling out the Top 5 were Istanbul, Turkey; Tallinn, Estonia; Santiago, Chile; and Dubai.
Additional reporting by Adrian Wan