Li Hao
SHENZHEN is favored by venture capital firms thanks to its concentration of high-end technologies and the active stock market, Patrick J. McGovern, chairman of the board of International Data Group (IDG), told the Shenzhen Daily yesterday.
One of the earliest foreign investment funds to enter the Chinese market, IDG will seek promising projects in the fields of mobile Internet, online payment security, e-commerce and bio-technology at the 12th China Hi-Tech Fair due to open in the city today.
There is a high percentage of Chinese people working in the bio-technology field in the United States, who received education and accumulated working experience there. There has been a trend for these professionals to come back to China to set up their own companies, McGovern said.
Shenzhen provides a place to work with young enterprises, he said.
IDG has been keeping a close eye on innovative enterprises with growth potential in Shenzhen, McGovern said.
Eighty percent of IDG s venture capital investments in Asia are in China, which have generated the highest return, according to McGovern.
IDG has 20 diversified venture capital investments in Shenzhen, covering Internet, software, hotels and music.
This year is an excellent year for venture capital while many big companies with sufficient capital have been active in making acquisitions to accelerate their growth. A wave of acquisitions is coming, McGovern said.
Having cooperated with the Hi-Tech Fair for a long time, McGovern said that the fair provides an irreplaceable platform for face-to-face communications between enterprises.
Enterprises get to know each other through the fair and build sustainable communications, McGovern said.
Since 1992, IDG has invested in over 200 companies such as Ctrip, Home Inns, Baidu, Soufun and Tencent.
Besides venture capital investment, the enterprise s products and services also include online media, events and conferences, print publishing, and global marketing.
