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This is a series of articles published by Kai Fu Lee. I did the translation after graduation from university in summer to learn more about the technology trend and practise my translation skill.

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Translation of Kaifu Lee’s post on LinkedIn - Why isn’t There a Mark Zuckerberg in China?

李开复LinkedIn文章翻译之八 - 为什么中国没有马克·扎克伯格？

More specifically, why are there hardly any twenty-year-old wunderkind entrepreneurs in China?

更明确点说，为什么中国几乎很少有二十岁的天才创业者呢？

I pulled the last 10 China IT IPOs in the US, and found that the founders were 33 when they started their companies. At Innovation Works, the average entrepreneur age is also 33. We all know the Y Combinator or Ron Conway are funding younger and younger entrepreneurs in the Valley. What happened in China?

我找出了中国IT业最近10个在美国的IPO，发现这些创始人创立公司的时候都33岁了。在创新工场，创业者的平均年龄也是33。我们都知道Y Combinator或Ron Conway正在硅谷向越来越年轻的创业者投资。那中国到底怎么回事呢？

There are several major reasons why top Chinese entrepreneurs are 10 years older than their counterparts in the Silicon Valley:

关于为什么中国创业者比他们在硅谷对应的人大十岁这个问题有这么几个主要的原因：

1. Chinese education tends to be better for depth than breadth. In other words, when you graduate as a software engineer, you may have very strong fundamentals in math and engineering, but you don’t get as much exposure to user experience, communications, product design, business acumen, team-work, etc. as you would in a typical US university. Moreover, Chinese schools focus more on tests from textbooks, while American schools care more about learning-by-doing. In short, the American education better prepares a student to be an entrepreneur.

   中国的教育往往更注重深度而非宽度。换句话说，当你作为一个软件工程师毕业了，你可能在数学和工程上有很强的基础，但你在用户体验、沟通、产品设计、生意头脑、团队合作等等方面没有太多的接触，而在典型的美国大学中你会有。简单地说，美国教育让学生更容易创业。

2. The top American young entrepreneurs tend to be rebellious and spontaneous – Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry/Sergey, and Mark Zuckerberg all dropped out of school because they wanted to follow their heart and realize their dream. But in China, the environment, culture, and education system care more about discipline, harmony, and conformity. All students follow similar curriculum, and take standardized tests. Grades are considered the primary measure of intelligence and success. As a result, a Jobs-like rebel in China is much more likely to be shamed into oblivion, stifled into submission, or rejected into the dark side.

   顶尖的美国年轻创业者倾向于叛逆和自主 – 比尔·盖茨、史蒂夫·乔布斯，拉里/谢尔盖和马克·扎克伯格都退学了，因为他们想要遵从自己的内心并实现自己的梦想。但在中国，环境、文化和教育系统更关注纪律、和谐和一致性。所以的学生按照相似的课程上课，还参加标准化的考试。分数被认为是智力和成功的基本衡量标准。结果，中国像乔布斯那样的叛逆者更可能会被羞辱到遗忘，被扼杀到服从，或是被拒绝到不为人知。

3. The Chinese Internet market is a very tough environment, described by some as a gladiatorial fight to the death. One company has registered a competitor’s domain name and built an identical service to fool users; companies de-install each other’s software and change user selections without informing the user; Weibo (Chinese twitter) is used as a battleground for name-calling and rumor-mongering; lawsuits and arrests are common competitive escalations. This is too dangerous a “playground” for a young CEO who hasn’t had ten years of experience and a dozen scars from virtual duels.

   中国的互联网市场非常艰难，甚至被某些人形容为一场直至死亡的角斗。某公司注册了一个竞争对手的域名并搭起了一个完全相同的服务来愚弄用户；公司卸载各自的软件并在不通知用户的情况下改变用户的选择；微博（中国的twitter）被用作一个谩骂和造谣的战场；法律诉讼和拘留是常见的竞争升级手段。这个环境对没有十年的经验和从真实决斗中留下点创伤的年轻CEO来说太危险了。

So in China, VCs generally prefer the thirty-something entrepreneur who are more mature, experienced, and adept at execution. They are more resilient and dependable, but perhaps less innovative and passionate. They desire success, but may not “think different”. They are a different breed of entrepreneurs from the Silicon boys.

所以在中国，风投们一般更喜欢三十岁左右，更成熟，经验更丰富，并且擅长执行的创业者。他们更有弹性也更靠谱，但可能创新性和热情不足。他们渴望成功，但可能不会非同凡想（语出苹果广告，故意写成想表达他们不会有另类的思考方式，不是错别字哦）。他们是和硅谷的小伙子们不同类型的创业者。

后记

开复老师作为创新工场的CEO，应该是阅创业者无数。他写下这篇文章，从教育、文化、行业环境三个角度给出了中国没有扎克伯格的理由，很充分。作为一个经历过创业的小伙子，我认同他的观点，但总觉得好像还缺点什么。亲历到创业之中我才发现，我们缺少的不是idea，不是叛逆，更不是不知道互联网水有多深，而是缺少投资人mentor一样的教导和信任。投资人过于短视，总想着怎么C2C，不愿意也不看好创新，我想这也是中国缺少扎克伯格的一点原因吧。