"a high percentage of young entrepreneurs there are just opportunists. They are not interested in sitting down and building something useful. Instead, they just want to quickly raise/burn money and go public."

I worked for several SF startups and most are the same. So I don't agree there are way more Theranos' in China. I would say they are probably around the same level in terms of many people claiming they are for something when they are not.

This doesn't just happen in tech though. I have seen it in banking as well when it was booming. When there is a booming industry, it tends to attract a lot of posers that exasperates the hype.

I agree, although China is worse by few levels I think.

I see this phenomena everywhere in China. I can't tell where Chinese silicon valley and wall street are. running start-ups has become a all-people movement.

I would like to see more of this kind of "Here's how I see it in the positive and negative" discussion on HN. Kudos for sharing the opposing sides of your own opinion.

Same here. I think startups everywhere are a jungle, but in China it's a lot deeper, much deeper. Tricks, politics, family, all of that plays a much bigger role and luck can change much more quickly. I don't know how it is in Shanghai but in the countryside it's also still possible that you need to deal with mob like groups that will simply put you in the hospital if they feel you are disturbing their business.

Where do you live?

To be fair, you can get success more easily in US if you have connections which is the same as China. Maybe Bill Gate and his mother's background is a similar example to what you referred about DiDi.

Don't be ridiculous. If it were actually the same, then Bill Gates could have used his influence to get Netscape's site blocked from the internet or depending on the depth of his connections with Bill Clinton at the time, get Marc Andreessen thrown in prison.

For those who do manage to become billionaires, the game often becomes even rougher: http://www.forbes.com/sites/raykwong/2011/07/25/friends-dont...

That's true.

But on the other hand, you seldom see people in Silicon Valley are actually from the valley. They are immigrants from different states and countries. They abandoned their connections (especially family connections) from home to start over here. Many of them became successful.

China simply doesn't have the same soil for this kind of success.

I find it funny, what you describe looks like Silicon Valley

Social connections to government officials matter a bit less in SV, and family connections much less.

not the same level tough.

at least, SV is the birth place of many hardcore tech companies like intel.

"...a high percentage of young entrepreneurs there are just opportunists." sounds like Wall Street, the same difference.