Hubs of Internet Entrepreneurs: The Emergence of Co-working Offices in Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT

Recently, the Chinese government has announced the “Internet plus” national strategy to encourage the development of Internet industries, particularly “innovations at the grassroots level.” Supportive government policies at the national and local level, and strong market demand have led to the rise of “Internet plus” entrepreneurs. Many of them are not setting up their own offices but are using shared or co-working offices. This study examines the geographical factors, reasons, and processes behind the emergence of co-working offices for these Internet start-up firms through on-site observations and in-depth interviews with the management and users at major co-working offices in Shanghai, China.

KEYWORDS:

• Internet start-ups
• venture capital
• innovation
• locational factors
• co-working office
• Shanghai

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on Contributors

Bo Wang is a PhD candidate at the Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Becky P. Y. Loo is Professor at the Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

ORCID

Becky P. Y. Loo http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0822-5354

Notes

1. Deskmag is one of the most comprehensive websites dedicated to information about the development of co-working spaces worldwide.

2. Baidu.com is the most popular search engine in China.

3. Similar to Google maps, Baidu map records the coordinates of each site which enables Internet users to query the addresses of these sites. A POI is a specific point location that people may find useful or interesting.

4. Mayun, or Jack Ma, is the founder of Alibaba which is the most popular and successful online-shopping website in China.

5. In this agreement, SH will receive an 8 percent share of the entrepreneurial project if it is successful in return for the free use of office and another 200,000 yuan fund.

6. “Fellow traveler” is a keyword in IS’s slogan, (See Table 1.)

7. In this study, “banks” and “venture investment” are selected as POIs; and the latitude and longitude of 46 local headquarters of banks and 59 venture capital firms in Shanghai were eventually identified.

8. The building for IW and IS are managed by Shanghai Yangpu Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and Shanghai Minhang District Government, respectively.