Road to business success passes through mainland

Born in Kaohsiung in 1985, Cheng, founded a mobile application development company in Xiamen. He believes his new product will tap in to the Confucian spirit of sharing and value for money in Chinese culture.

Coming to the Chinese mainland just seven months ago with a team of three, Cheng is now working on a barter platform that enables people to exchange used items online.

"The sharing economy is a trend right now," Cheng said. "And I think this could be best implemented in a place like China where the spirit of sharing is deeply rooted in culture."

Cheng said Chinese people are familiar with lyrics like "She throws a peach to me, I give her white jade" from the Book of Odes, the collection of ancient Chinese poetry compiled around 600 BC.

"My barter platform is a perfect explanation and implementation of this sharing spirit, and I am optimistic that it will be understood and accepted by mainland people."

Cheng believes another factor in his product's favor is the huge mainland market opportunity.

"In Taiwan we had an online price comparison app that had over 500,000 users. We thought it was something to brag about," Cheng said. "Then I came to the mainland, and I realized how shortsighted I was. So this time, I made a goal to garner at least 10 million users."

However, entrepreneur Huang Li-min notes that market size alone is no guarantee of success. The 46-year-old founder and CEO of Liujing Mountain House, which sells top-quality handmade soap and cleansing products, points out that huge markets bring not only potentially more customers but also greater competition.

"When I first set up my company in 2009, barely anyone had heard of handmade soap, much less used it. But when it started to become well-known, many other companies started to make handmade soap," he said.

One bar of Huang's soap costs nearly 300 yuan ($46), one of the highest prices on the market. But when the top-grade ingredients used, as well as the long production time, are taken into consideration, it is a good value, he said.

Huang said his soap also evokes a Buddhist state of consciousness, which is shared across the Straits.

"Liujing in Chinese means the six roots of sensation are pure and clean. It is our company name and more important a Buddhist term to describe people in a state free from human desires and passions," he said.

"Many Chinese people use this term to cultivate themselves to reach inner peace, and I hope my soap can be used to help these people."

Yu Qiang, a leading Taiwan expert at the University of International Relations in Beijing, said the cultural and creative sector is a key emerging area selected by authorities on Taiwan for future development, but the strategy is doomed to fail without the Chinese mainland market.

"The common cultural background makes people understand products from the cultural and creative industry. But the small size of the market imposed a ceiling for the industry's development; thus investors from Taiwan have to make inroads into the Chinese mainland market," Yu said.

"Meanwhile, the mainland has been boosting mass innovation and entrepreneurship by providing easier market entry, less red tape and greater tax breaks. That's why an increasing number of Taiwan startups are coming," he said.

"This amicable environment for entrepreneurship doesn't exist in Taiwan, and I think there is still room for the mainland startup boom to continue in the coming years, as there are only 16 companies for every 1,000 people in China, much lower than 44 in Germany, 43 in Japan and 26 in the United States."

Contact the writers at humeidong@chinadaily.com.cn