Young Power

By+Yuan+Yuan

‘I encourage my employees to argue and even physically fight it out if they hold different ideas，” said Yu Jiawen， a 24-year-old entrepreneur with a hoodie and black-rimmed glasses， on China Central Televisions program Voice of Youth.

Right before Yu was invited to deliver a lecture on behalf of young business startups， his company got an investment of $10 million from Alibaba， the leading e-commerce company in China. It was the fourth round of investment that his company has received since 2012， when his team released their smartphone-app Super Curriculum.

“I let employees decide how much they earn. Maybe I am the only boss that can do this，” said Yu， who also revealed that he was thinking of handing out 100 million yuan （$16.4 million） in bonuses to his staff in 2015.

His lecture and the success of his business created a flurry of attention from the audience and netizens. Yu has been called a representative of Chinas youngest Internet tycoons and entrepreneurs.

Audacious age

“To be young means to be brave enough to take risks and never be afraid of failures，” said Yu， who has acted on his words in running his own business.

In 2012， Yu started his business of developing and promoting the app Super Curriculum in his third year of studying software development at the South China Institute of Software Engineering. The app targets college students who can import their curriculum schedule to their mobile phones and help students share their class notes， homework， review schedules and ideas. Students can also send secret letters to the ones that they have crush on. “I am too shy to speak to girls and my motivation was to create an app that can help solve this problem，” said Yu.

While everything was going well， the investor all of a sudden refused to put money in. The team couldnt afford an office， choosing instead to move into a shabby apartment. They didnt even have money to buy chairs and desks and for a time were forced to survive on a diet of instant noodles.

At the same time， Yu was diagnosed with cancer. “I told myself that I couldnt die before I finish everything. I calmed down and made a list of things to do and dealt with them one by one，” said Yu. “After I finished everything and went back to the hospital for treatment， the doctor told me the diagnosis was a mistake.”

“I wanted to encourage more people my age，” said Yu. “We also can succeed without a strong family background.” Yus parents are pork sellers in Chaozhou， south Chinas Guangdong Province. “My father kept telling me that if I dont study hard I will end up working as a pork seller， too.”

Yus business talents were shown during high school when he started his own business by setting up an online social platform for local students. Two years later he sold the website for 1 million yuan （$164，000）.

It was already a big success for a high school student， but Yu said he couldnt allow himself to sit on that and get satisfied.

“What if you lose everything again？” asked an audience member during the show.

“Id get a job to support myself，” said Yu. “No matter how much you have， you can lose it. It is not a big deal， just start again.”

Now， Super Curriculum has more than 10 million followers.

Guo Lie， a 25-year-old man from Hubei Province， also caused a sensation with his app MYOTee Lian Meng.

The app allows users to select from a wide variety of built-in templates for different parts of the face， and the completed images can be shared directly from the app to social networks. The number of users surpassed 20 million.

Guos inspiration comes from the animation One Piece. In the cartoon series， there are snail phones that can imitate the characters facial motions. Guo thought it was a good idea and wanted to make an app that could do the same.

“Young netizens are seeking a unique way of expressing themselves， as social networks are already integrated into their daily lives. The personalized comic avatars just meet their demands，” said Guo. The overwhelming response has excited his team， which mainly consists of people born after 1990.

Business fever

In 2004， the top three bestselling books among college students were all novels while in 2012， the top three were the biography of Steve Jobs； Currency Wars， a book describing the global financial and economic situation； and Tiny Times， a novel about the life of young people from rich families.

On September 19， Jack Mas Alibaba was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Ma has become the wealthiest man in China.

“What has made Ma so successful？ It is his understanding of business trends that allowed him to act at the right time. It is an era of ideas. No matter how novel or bold your ideas are， just create an opportunity to make your ideas come true，” said a young entrepreneur developing cellphone games in Beijing who declined to reveal his name.

Sheng Xitai， a renowned investor in China， saw the difference of the modern era when he almost decided to retire. “These young people are unexpected and impressive，” said Sheng.“Their ideas are so different to the people of my generation.”

After meeting with some young business startups， 44-year-old Sheng decided to set up an angel investing company. The co-founder is Yu Minhong， CEO of New Oriental School， a giant language training institute in China. They named the company Angel Plus.

Xu Xiaoping， a cofounder of New Oriental School， left the school to start his own angel investment business in 2006. In recent years， Xu saw the surge in young business startups and quite a few of the cases that he invested in have been in the spotlight.

“These young people will change the picture of Chinas business in the future，”said Xu. “Many are well educated and they are passionate， confident and smart. It is an exciting time.” “These young people undoubtedly have their own problems， such as lacking marketing and management experience and sometimes are too young and na？ve but we need to give them time to grow up，” said Sheng， after attending many business startup competitions in many colleges all over the country. “They seem to know by nature how to promote themselves and this is what people of my generation are not good at.”