Executives share views on China's Web future

Reid Hoffman, Executive chairman and co-founder of LinkedIn.[Photo/IC]

A1 Under the circumstance that the China government is advocating the spirit of entrepreneurship, many more people will become entrepreneurial, if not entrepreneurs. The keeper of your career will be not your employer but your personal network－so you'd better put a lot of effort into making it as extensive and as vital as possible.

The Internet is a critical and an effective vehicle for individuals and enterprises to gather information and resources, talent and technology improvements are also vital elements to help enterprises come through a low accelerating economy situation. I'm sure this vehicle will absolutely play an important role in the next five years in China.

A2 China has great engineering schools and many great engineers. Some of the Chinese Internet entrepreneurship has been world-leading－whether it's WeChat as a communications platform, a truly global marketplace with Alibaba, or the massive number of startups in offline to online. China's culture of working fast and trying many options will create great companies here. I believe readiness to embrace the new era is vital, including individuals and companies.

Every once in a while, a great opportunity comes along that might help you leapfrog up the career ladder. Such breakout opportunities may seem like blind luck, but a talent can always develop thinking and behaviors that help you recognize when such "luck" appears. One habit is to remain curious about events that happen in your everyday life. Stay focused, keep self-developing and be vigilant to opportunities.

A3 I definitely see cross-border e-commerce.

A4 I also see the intersection of hardware and Internet services doing very well, for example Xiaomi or other companies that combine hardware with digital services. I also think that some of the experiments on business models for software, both in games and in security, will teach great things to entrepreneurs around the world.

A5 Given the volume of competition in China, it may be very useful to start with an idea that initially seems crazy then once you get to scale is very valuable. Linkedin was one of these ideas.