City-sized incubator makes a leap in Hangzhou

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City-sized incubator makes a leap in Hangzhou

HANGZHOU, China – Tim Clancy doesn’t consider himself an expat living in east China’s Hangzhou City.To him, an expat is a foreigner who moves to China while still working for a foreign company.“They don’t need to worry much about their lives here,” Clancy said.To get more Hangzhou City news, you can visit shine news official website.

“To us, even getting our children into preschool is a challenge,” he added.For the past eight years, Clancy and his Chinese wife, Samantha, who is from Zhejiang Province, have been building their startup in the provincial capital Hangzhou, all from scratch.

Tim Studio mainly focuses on film and TV production, and has been nurtured in the most dynamic city in China.“Actually, in the beginning we did not have any intention of starting a company in Hangzhou, we just really like the city’s balance of an ancient royal capital and a modern town,” Samantha said.

“However, the startup culture here is gaining momentum quickly because Hangzhou has set a target of becoming an international city, which brings us a great many opportunities. That is the reason we chose Hangzhou,” she added.

China’s economic miracle started when people began flocking from their villages to industrial zones, commonly known as floating population by urban citizens, to make Nike shoes or assemble tiny components for iPhones.The story China wants to tell today is totally different, and a scenario of smart cities with cashless payment, modern offices and high-quality labour forces has unfolded.

And an incubator called Dream Town is Hangzhou’s answer.Launched in 2014 by Zhejiang Province and Hangzhou’s municipal governments, Dream Town is expected to become a new model for makerspaces, a milestone for the information economy to turn the city into the high ground for technological entrepreneurship in China.

Buildings, styled like Chinese traditional houses, cover a floor area of 213,000sq.m and are divided into Internet Village, Angel Village, Entrepreneurial Fair and Entrepreneurial Avenue. All the services that a common startup may need are there.

What makes Dream Town different from other incubators is that it’s driven by the government.Companies enjoy a huge bunch of benefits including training, rental subsidies and cash handouts.The success of the Hangzhou-based Alibaba, ranked second in the world’s top ecommerce companies in 2017, is one of the reasons many startups have made the city their home.

China’s venture fever arose from Hangzhou, which makes the city a common hub for ambitious entrepreneurs.Booming exports in the 80s following China’s open door policy accelerated the city’s economic growth.