Why Shanghai is a hub for lifestyle tech start-ups, and how quickly ideas can reach scale there when the stars align
Shanghai has seen a huge growth in start-ups in the last few years, with many capitalising on the city’s cosmopolitan nature. Here we look at three that characterise its unique scene: MeWXH, FLX Bike and BottlesXO
Erik Walenza-Slabe, director of the Shanghai chapter of start-up community Start Up Grind, says the pace of growth in recent years of Shanghai’s start-up scene is frightening.
“China is unlike any other country – including the USA – in its ability to rapidly scale when both market forces and the government are aligned,” he says.
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When the Shanghai chapter of Start Up Grind opened four years ago, the city’s start-up scene was still small. Today, Walenza-Slabe says, it is “one of the largest and most active regions of entrepreneurial activity in the world”.
More than 70,000 new businesses were set up in the city in the first five months of last year alone, Shanghai vice-mayor Zhou Bo told the press at the time, a 20 per cent increase over the same period the year before.
Beijing, Shenzhen and Hangzhou can lay claim to being straight-up tech hubs, a tag for which the new proclaimed “Greater Bay Area” – Hong Kong, Macau and cities in Guangdong province – is also vying. But in cosmopolitan Shanghai, it is start-ups that cleverly combine tech, e-commerce and lifestyle that are carving out a niche. Many sell exclusively online, capitalising on the global surge in e-commerce and China’s mobile digital explosion. Here are three start-ups that characterise this boom.
MeWXH