Potential fields - Consumption upgrade, frontier technologies
The other two forces Deng mentioned were consumption upgrade and technology innovation.
The focus on comsumption was echoed by Sheng Xitai, co-founder of Angel Plus. "Consumption upgrade is the biggest wave over the past seven or eight years," Sheng said.
On frontier technologies, Deng said, "For the past few years, the opportunities for business success have become scarce in the innovation of business modes. But the chances in technology innovation are bigger."
Deng mentioned two aspects in technology: the IT revolution such as machine learning, artificial intelligence; the development of life science that will produce new potentials in precision medicine (personalized medicine) and biopharmaceutics.
"I believe that the biomedicine will be a big opportunity in the healthcare field for venture capital in the future."
Yan is also a keen supporter of technology innovation. He said it will bring some new opportunities, such as battery tech that could increase stand-by time, healthcare and gene tech, AR/VR, and internet of things.
Richard Liu, partner of Morningside Venture Capital, one of China's earliest early-stage venture investors, eyed technology innovation that combines artificial intelligence with internet of things.
Liu said opportunities for the future also lie in services that could enhance corporate efficiency.
The enthusiams for corporate service is especially obvious for Wang Donghui, the co-founder of Ameba Capital, who said they would allocate 40 percent of the second fund under their management totaling 700 million yuan ($105 million) to invest in the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry, which could help enterprises improve their efficiency.
Business modes increasingly globalized
For Xu Xiaoping, the innovation and entrepreneurship is being globalized.
"In the past we talked a lot about Copy to China, or C2C. Now it is Copy to the World...During the Demo Day organized by Y Combinator in the Silicon Valley, I found projects undergoing road show there include the equivalent of China’s AliPay in Africa, the equivalent of Uber and WeWork in India. All kinds of innovation modes that are proved successful are spreading across the world," said Xu.
The globalization notion was supported by Annabelle Long, founding and managing partner of Bertelsmann Asia Investments, an investment arm of Bertelsmann AG, who said that "It it highly likely for popular apps in China to become vogue in other countries."
She said Chinese entrepreneurs could find plenty of chances of starting a new business in India, which bears many similarities with China.
"Over the past 10 years, every time you went to New Delhi in India, it would remind you of Beijing of 20 or 30 years ago. You could see many opportunities to start new businesses there." Long said, "In India, you could have breakthrough in diverse fields such as online payment, instant communication, social network, entertainment, e-commerce."
But she warned against selling backward technology to India. "What we give India today should not be low end, but something that is light, handy and easy to use."
"We should provide the best service and charge the most expensive fee," said Long.
Liu of Morningside also finds interest in startups that focus on overseas market, believing that they could not only succeed in the southeast Asian countries or developing countries, but also in the United States and Europe.
