How Macau can develop a more connected startup ecosystem

Disclosure: The author’s startup is part of Macau Young Entrepreneur Incubation Centre (MYEIC).

The entrepreneurial community in Macau is still in the early stage.

There are a variety of organizations focused on specific functions, resulting in stakeholders having different interests and goals. Much of Macau’s land area of just 32 sq km is occupied by integrated resorts and casinos, making them the key driver of the local economy. The size of the domestic market is another issue, with a population of only 667,400 people.

Given these limitations, how can Macau build a larger and more connected startup ecosystem?

Ecosystem clusters

Macau ecosystem clusters / Photo credit: Marco Duarte Rizzolio

Incubators and mentorship

Several incubators, accelerators, and co-working spaces operate in Macau, majority of which are directly funded by the government. Others are privately held.

Macau New Technologies Incubator Centre was a pioneer, leading, introducing, and promoting innovative ideas since 2001 with support from the government and a number of local major enterprises. Another pioneer was Macau Design Centre. Established five years ago, it’s focused on supporting startups from the creative industries.

What you can find in Macau nowadays are incubators typically housed in a co-working environment, with month-to-month lease programs, free office services, additional tax and legal advisory, and some connection to the local community. However, there is a lack of mentorship and training programs in all of these places.

Generally, there are several players of the ecosystem promoting events to stimulate startup creation. There are hackatons, pitch events, knowledge sharing, competitions, and conferences (e.g. Web Summit, Rise, Startup Weekend, TechStars).

Startup Weekend has promoted four pitch competitions, Startup Club Macau holds a quarterly gathering for young entrepreneurs, and MYEIC organizes “CEO sharing sessions” weekly. But these kinds of events need to happen more frequently to keep the ecosystem active.

Internet of things

Baidu, Google, Tencent, and Alibaba. The representative offices of these big companies are usually in Hong Kong, and their participation in Macau’s ecosystem is low. It’s a very small market for them.

The only exception is Alibaba Cloud, which has signed a four-year strategic agreement with the Macau government in 2017. According to the deal, Alibaba will build a proprietary cloud computing center based in Macau – supported by big data – that will drive the development of smart transportation, smart tourism, smart health care, smart government, and talent training.

External ecosystems