Firms claim innovation and training key to their success

By Zhuan Ti (China Daily) Updated: 2014-09-10 07:38

Hujiang.com's office at the park. CHINA DAILY

Culture creativity

The park has attracted a cluster of companies in the creative industry after several years of relentless effort. Hujiang.com and Hippo Animation took the lead.

Hujiang.com reported that it gained $20 million worth of risk investment and its brand was valued at $200 million last year.

Statistics showed that the company's revenue hit more than 100 million yuan ($16.3 million) in 2012 and is expected to surpass 300 million yuan this year.

Hujiang.com opened its first experience store at Jinke Road Station, on the city's Metro No 2, in June and 10 more stores are expected to operate on the subway in the future, said Fu Cairui, CEO of the dotcom.

The firm's expansion scheme aims to promote 80 kinds of apps on iOS, Android and WP8 platforms to attract 50 million mobile users, Fu said.

"We believe the mobile business will become the most important part of Hujiang.com in the next three years," Fu said. He added that the company planned to invest less than 1 billion yuan to create an online education ecosystem in the next five years.

Hujiang's success was echoed by Hippo Animation, which made 30 million yuan from its animated movie Farm House 81.

Xu Ke, chairman of Shanghai Hippo Animation Design Inc Ltd, said the box office was a main income source for his company. "China now has few original animation films and I feel very sorry for it," Xu said.

He said Hippo Animation was negotiating at home and abroad for cooperation projects. American Lions Gate Entertainment Corp bought sole distribution rights in North America for its animated movie Jungle Master and Vimeo and the world's first charging video website also purchased its copyright in April.

"Our company insists on producing original animated movies and tries to be China's Pixar Animation Studios," Xu said.

Internet financing

Internet financing has undergone several development phases, from online banking to the third party payment, personal loans and enterprise financing by means of information communication technologies, such as the Internet of Things, social networks, cloud computing and mobile Internet.

Many IT enterprises, such as the Orient Electronic Payment, 2345.com and yMatou.com, have entered the Shanghai software park to develop Internet, big data and software technologies for its service outsourcing, mobile Internet and e-commerce industries.

E-commerce has become a strong stimulus to the development of Internet financing, meeting the growing needs of a large number of customers.

Statistics from the iResearch Consulting Group showed that China earned revenue of 9.9 trillion yuan from the e-commerce market in 2013, up 21.3 percent over 2012.

The Shanghai PPDAI Financial Information Service Co Ltd, China's first people-to-people pure credit unsecured borrowing network platform, reached a total trading volume of more than 1 billion yuan last year with each employee dealing with more than 10 million yuan.

"Our efficiency is much higher than the traditional credit," said Zhou Hao, executive vice president of the company, adding that PPDAI now handles loans mainly for small and micro businesses, e-commerce firms and individuals.

The first two share two-thirds of the loans, while individuals account for half of its customers. "Our business orientation will not change and we still extend loans to individuals through Internet," he said.