businesstraveller.com DECEMBER 2017
HANGZHOU
31ano er screen is a veritable army
ge robots zipping across a post office
warehouse. The fully automated bots are using HD
cameras and QR codes placed on the floor to move
about and sort packages into their correct locations.
“When they run out of electricity, they calculate the
route they have to take to get to the charging stations
and then charge themselves,” my guide explains.
In the middle of the room, sitting atop a white plinth,
is a large remote-controlled drone about a metre wide.
Next to it is a rif le with what can only be described as a
television aerial sticking out from the barrel. According
to my guide (who I’m tempted to call “Q” at this point),
the aerial gun blocks a drone’s remote radio signal – using
jamming equipment used in China’s space technolog y –
thus causing it to fall from the sky.
This is the headquarters of Hikvision, a multinational
technolog y company that has its head office in
Hangzhou, the capital of eastern China’s Zhejiang
province southwest of Shanghai. While its name may
not be as familiar as other tech behemoths like Alibaba
or Huawei, the 16-year-old Chinese company is a giant
in its own right, with a market capitalisation of more than
US$20 billion and a 19.5 per cent market share of the
global video surveillance industry. The company has more
than 20,000 employees worldwide, with its products being
utilised all over the world from the Brazil World Cup
Stadium to Milan’s Malpensa Airport.
Hikvision’s technological prowess is not an unusual
ry in Hangzhou: Net Ease, an internet technolog y
mpany located in the city’s Binjiang district, was
unded in 1997 and helped spearhead the development
internet services in China. Zhejiang Dahua
nolog y – another video surveillance company
also headquartered in Binjiang. Meanwhile,
communications giant Huawei – headquartered in
zhen – has a large research centre in Hangzhou. In
he proliferation of powerful tech companies has
given rise to the moniker “China’s Silicon Valley”. That’s
a title also used in association with Shenzhen
and a few other Chinese cities – yet none of
China’s home-grown tech companies is as
internationally renowned as Alibaba.
Famously founded in Jack Ma’s one-
bedroom Hangzhou apartment in 1999,
the company is now in a head-to-head
with Amazon to achieve a US$500 billion
valuation. Spreading out over 150,000 sqm in
the city’s Yuhang district, its greenery-laden
corporate campus boasts an iconic spider-web
exterior. Inside it’s a hive of innovation, home
to more than 9,000 employees and a beacon for
the spirit of entrepreneurialism that has rippled
throughout the city.
Alibaba’s presence in Hangzhou extends far beyond
its headquarters. Each October, the company hosts The
Computing Conference, which attracts tens of thousands
of attendees from across the globe. At this year’s event, Ma
announced a US$15 billion investment in the company’s
new Alibaba DAMO Academy, an initiative aimed at
tackling research in areas such as data intelligence, Internet
of Things (IoT), financial technolog y (fintech), quantumAlibaba is a beacon
for the spirit of
entrepreneurialism
that has rippled
throughout the cityla d ano
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