Budding businesses of the digital age(2)

Wang, two co-founders, and eight employees, all undergraduates at Peking University, are "part-time studying and full-time working" in a rented apartment in Beijing's Zhongguancun, China's equivalent of Silicon Valley.

Wearing jeans and tapping on a laptop, Wang said he hopes his office can one day feature a slide and free snack bar like Google.

Besides the lower upfront costs, the Internet also means fast growth and making fortunes in a short time.

"We measure time with hours," said the fast-talking CEO. "We insanely pursue efficiency."

Wang said if a glitch appeared at 4 am, they would notice it before 4:10 am and solve the problem by 5 am.

"We don't want to build a company over 20 years," he said. "It's not our style."

As China has achieved great economic progress, people who are under 25 mostly grow up in an environment that is financially secure.

A stable salary, insurance, academic certificate and hukou, or household registration, things which are important for people who were born before 1990, are not so important for members of the younger generation.

"For people who were born after 1990, the most important thing is to have fun; the second would be to have something with meaning," Wang said.

"The Internet brings with it the spirit of being free and independent. For people who speak digital as their first language, we were born with those characteristics."

The Internet industry is crammed with examples of CEOs who dropped out of school and were barely out of their teens when they got on the IT route to success - Microsoft's Bill Gates and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg come to mind.

Yang Baotong, 23, said he was so excited after watching The Social Network, a movie about Zuckerberg, that he wanted to start up a company immediately.

This year, Yang and Luo Yun, who dropped out of college, founded a mobile game company.

Because of the lack of investment, Luo once resorted to an online post to find a part-time job so that he could earn money for his meals.

"Any job, even hard labor, is fine," wrote the 24-year-old designer and programmer. "As long as I can have money to make the games I like."

"I had tears in my eyes when I saw my co-founder's post," Yang said.

"I have to be successful."

Young people can start businesses even if they have little or no money and experience. But whether those startups last is another matter, according to Lu Wei, co-founder of Magic Entrepreneur College, a business training agency for owners of startups.

Lu said the lack of experience can still be a major disadvantage for young business owners.

"Being young is their advantage and also disadvantage. They don't have enough connections and resources to keep their business running," Lu said.

"They are too young to understand what users need and they don't know how to find people who can help them."

Bad teamwork can also be fatal for new businesses, Lu said.

"Most of them are the only child in the family and quite self-centered. They can be very proud. Sometimes it is good, but sometimes it means they can be difficult to communicate and work with," Lu said.

Passion for what they do is a must for entrepreneurs, but many passionate young people seem to lack the know-how, Lu said.

"I can't remember how many of them have come to me directly and told me that their websites are going to be the next Facebook, Google or Taobao," Lu said, referring to the giant Chinese online shopping portal.

"But they stumbled when I asked them why, and most important, how they wanted to be another Facebook, Google or Taobao."

Zhang Yichi, the Peking University professor, said studies showed that about two-thirds of startups fail within the first five years. According to his personal experience working in the school's entrepreneurship center, the situation could be worse.

"I always tell my students that the first company is meant to fail, but it is still worth trying. We can learn from the failures," he said.

"I encourage my students to start with very small businesses, so they can start over again. After all, they are young and they can always start all over again."

Although many Chinese universities now have business incubators to teach students to realize their business plans and help them find investment, starting a business in school is not encouraged, Yang Baotong said.

"When I made 2,000 yuan ($326) by selling digital video players in high school, my father beat me," he said.

"They were still not very supportive even after I graduated from college.

"My father is a military officer, my mother works in a public hospital and my sister is a civil servant. They all expect me to find a real job, the one that comes with an office, a boss and a stable salary."

Yang said most of his schoolmates went to graduate school or found "real" jobs. But they do not know what venture capital is.

"I was born in a normal family. It would take decades to live the life I want if I followed the traditional path," he said.

"But the Internet gives grassroots people like me a chance to get on top, and at the same time, contribute to society.

"I don't just want to do some business. I am going to build a great company that can make changes."