In China’s Silicon Valley: Youku, Sina, Tencent [PICS]

We had an exhausting but fulfilling two days in Beijing, thanks to the star-studded Global Mobile Conference held by our new-found friends at Great Wall Club. We took Friday afternoon to visit Youku, Sina and Tencent at Zhongguancun, often called as China’s silicon valley. The experience was much better than my tour of the actual Silicon Valley in California.

Although it was a Friday the offices were still running busy. Each company has its own unique culture and are very different in office design. As we’ve written before, Youku is making a move to original content and the team is dead serious about it. We were pretty impressed by Youku’s dedicated studio for interviews and original content. Lunch at a nearby restaurant with some of the Youku staff was great. We had a great time tasting authentic Chinese food recommended by the locals.

Sina was just a five-minute walk from Youku’s office. We toured around the office which facilities include a recording studio for news, marketing, sales, and wireless department. From Sina, we headed over to Tencent. Security was tight but we were greeted with smiles once we got in. Through chatting with several Tencent’s staff, we also got to learn a little more about the company’s working style and culture.

Special thanks to all who took time to tour us around.

at Youku

Studio at Youku

at Youku

at Sina

at Sina