Background
In 1994, Stanford University and the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing initiated the first connection of the public internet for China. Now China boasts nearly half a billion internet users, twice the online population in the US. Already home to two of the world’s top five internet firms with the highest valuation, China is giving birth to innovative start-ups and powerhouse billion-dollar firms in social networking, games, media, music and e-commerce. These companies thriving in China are increasingly impacting the global digital economy, by their sheer scale at home or through new developments, investments, or mergers and acquisitions abroad. Over the past decade and a half, flows of people, technology and capital across the Pacific have tied Silicon Valley and China together in the internet industry, re-defining the global landscape for collaboration and competition.

China 2.0 is the pre-eminent new media forum about the dynamic PRC digital landscape that combines the right mix of strategic thinking, practical application and networking.
-- Fritz Demopoulos, CEO, Qunar.com and speaker at SPRIE’s China 2.0 events in 2010 (In June 2011, Baidu became the largest shareholder in Qunar with a $306 million investment.)

Research Objectives
SPRIE’s “China 2.0” is a research initiative at the Stanford Graduate School of Business that focuses on the dynamics, drivers and implications of the rise of China’s internet industry. Research topics include:

• China’s internet firms and leaders, from start-ups to billion dollar global players
• China 2.0 firms’ emerging innovations - in technologies, processes and business models
• Impact of the internet on China’s political economy including media and commerce
• Patterns of domestic and global venture capital/private equity investment in China
• Strategies, performance, and outlook for US internet companies in China
• Comparisons, collaboration and competition of firms from China and Silicon Valley

For example, one SPRIE project by an interdisciplinary team at Stanford focuses on the evolution of the venture capital industry in China - who are the more than 600 venture capitalists and their firms (both domestic and foreign) that have invested in over 2600 firms in China during the past 15 years? How are they linked? What are the patterns for investment by sector, geography, financial ties, start-up team, etc.? And how do these factors relate to firm activity, such as in partnerships and firm performance?

Activities and Impact

• Research: interdisciplinary and international research at Stanford and in China
• Conferences: series of events at Stanford and in China - 250 industry executives, government leaders, investors and academics attended two events in 2010
• Media coverage: 40+ international media representatives at China 2.0 Beijing: The Economist, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, The New York Times, etc.
• Online and documentary videos: creation of online videos available on Youtube/Chinese video sites; video documentary (under development)
• Case studies of Chinese internet firms to use in classes at Stanford (under development)
• Book: China 2.0 and the Rise of China’s Internet (to be completed Winter 2012)

Pioneers and Trailblazers

China 2.0 features internet pioneers, executives and trailblazers. Past speakers include:

• Joel Budd, Media Editor, The Economist
• David Chao, Co-founder and General Partner, DCM
• Joe Chen, Chairman and CEO, Renren Inc.
• James Ding, MD, GSR Ventures
• Hakan Ericksson, CTO, Ericsson
• Bill Huang, GM, China Mobile
• Graham Kill, CTO, Naspers
• Victor Koo (right), CEO, YouKu (MBA '94)
• James Liang, Co-Founder, Ctrip
• Richard Lim, Managing Director and Co-founder, GSR Ventures
• John Liu, VP, Google
• Jack Ma, Chairman and CEO, Alibaba Group
• Shen Haoyu, SVP, Baidu
• Nick Yang, Founder and CEO, Wukong.com; Co-founder, ChinaRen.com and KongZhong
• Brian Wong, Global Head Sales, Alibaba

Contact
Marguerite Gong Hancock