Over the past few years, it seems that we as a general public has suddenly been fascinated with the possibility of wealth creation through entrepreneurship. The interest can easily be appreciated. After all, just a few years ago, who would have thought that a mainland student who came to Hong Kong to pursue his bachelor degree would in a matter of a few years created a company that would generate a billion U.S. dollar in sales and be worth ten billion dollars. Or that in a span of a few years, another graduate of Hong Kong could create a company that is now valued at US$200M.
Sure, we have come to accept the possibility that technology can create wealth. After all, we have seen this time and again. But, are those only from overseas? Yes, as far back as the 40's, we saw college graduate form Hewlett Packard. Yes, we have also seen in recent days --- and there are even movies about them --- the astonishing rise of Apple a few decades ago, of Google a mere 20 years ago, of Facebook in a matter of 10 years. But, aren't these only happening in the United States, where seeds have been sown long ago. The carefree spirit, the academic rigor at the like of Stanford, and Berkeley; and the momentum --- plus the absence of any serious regional contenders globally, all seem to have said that Silicon Valle is unique and is not replicable.
Our eyes rolled again --- at least in Hong Kong, when Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu all became not just a regional technology power house, but global leaders. Did anyone remember that when Tencent went public in Hong Kong, it was undersubscribed and fell under the HK$2/share price? Of course, if you were that prescient and bought a 1 million of Tencent shares in 2004 and held it till 2015, you would have made 140 times profit. Your HK $2M investment would be worth a whopping HK$280M.
So, are we here to conclude that the era of technology created wealth has finally come? It is not a pure American phenomenon? It is not even just a China phenomenon? Even Hong Kong now can enjoy the real taste of mega wealth created by real Hong Kong originated technologies? If so, is there any secret recipes?