More Chinese kids dropping out, starting businesses

(Ecns.cn) -- Ten years ago, nobody would have believed that Chinese students would be following the example of Bill Gates, who dropped out of Harvard when he was 19.

But in recent years, the number of Chinese college students choosing to quit school has been on the rise, reports the China Economic Weekly. Most of them make the dramatic decision because of the allure of starting their own businesses.

Some students are not bothering to enter college at all. The majority were born after 1990, and have grown up in an era of technological innovation that has created new opportunities, particularly for computer savvy youth.

China's Zuckerberg?

This month is graduation season in China, and many kids who have just left high school now dream of entering high-ranking universities, escaping their nagging parents and starting new lives. But there are exceptions.

Xu Dechen, 18, is one of them. He decided this year not to sit for the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, but to start his own business instead, according to the China Economic Weekly.

Xu has found several partners, all younger than 20, and launched an English tutoring platform called "Talkways," where Chinese students can communicate with native speakers at top universities for reasonable prices.

According to Xu, one of his partners started two US-based businesses when he was only 15, and that both of the companies have shown very good financial performance. Xu says he is encouraged by such people, and has confidence that he will one day become the Chinese Mark Zuckerberg.

Zhao Wei, founder and CEO of KnownSec, a Beijing-based online security company, says young people are sometimes better at focusing on building businesses because they are more passionate, fearless and creative.

The future of TMT (technology, media and telecom) is in their hands, he adds, citing the advantages young people have in regard to cyberspace. For example, what do seniors know about things like Facebook and Angry Birds?

We don't need no education

Many people claim that students drop out to start businesses mostly because they can't graduate and don't want to waste any more time on academics.

Yet this can't be said of Xu Dechen, who did well in school and was admitted to several top universities abroad before making the decision to drop out, says the China Economic Weekly.

In the US, some chief executives of the most successful companies never graduated college or even bothered to apply, but they still made it to the top. And as a dropout, one can learn skills that can never be obtained in school, Xu says.

Youth is definitely an advantage for entrepreneurs, Xu continues, and if the start up doesn't work, you can always go back to school.

Young entrepreneurs drop out because they can't build businesses and meet academic burdens at the same time, experts say.

More importantly, time is money. Starting up a business earlier can mean more opportunities than for those who wait.

Worth the risk?

According to a January 2012 article in Forbes, nearly 16 percent of the 400 most affluent Americans do not have college degrees. When one looks at the 400 richest people on the entire planet, the percentage of non-college graduates doubles.

This may be encouraging for keen Chinese dropouts, but they must be aware that the market environment and start-up policy in China are not as mature as in countries like the United States.

The market environment is more important than the technology factor when starting up a business, says Wang Shutong, whose career has seen her go from Microsoft to Cisco to Joyo and finally to DHgate.

Steve Jobs won a place for Apple with his innovative and unparalleled technology, but the same thing could hardly happen in China, because the country's mainstream business model is not favorable to technology-driven enterprises, adds Wang.

Experts say they support young people to start businesses early, but also advise would-be dropouts to think carefully before making the decision, as college is still a great investment for most people.