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I worked until 10 o'clock in the evening, and suddenly realized that I had not eaten dinner. I grabbed my mobile phone to order takeout, and suddenly realized that this was not China...
Yes, such a tragic story happened to me. I am currently in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. As the largest metropolitan area in Israel, it is the most densely populated area in the country and the economic hub of Israel. However, these titles still cannot solve my food and clothing problem at 10 o'clock in the night. I looked out of the hotel window. It was pitch dark outside and all the shops were closed. It was impossible to order takeout, right? I immediately felt resentful towards this place. Why is Israel, which doesn’t even have takeout, called an “entrepreneurial country”?
Israel: an outlier in the Middle East
Israel is known as the "country of entrepreneurship", and Chinese companies have flocked to it in recent years. Frankly speaking, before setting off, my impression of Israel was still one of religious conflict, war, and the tragic Jewish history. As for the technological inventions and technologies they are proud of, they do not resonate with me as much as the American Iphone and Windows operating system. Perhaps to verify my stereotype of Tel Aviv, the street scene I saw when I first arrived in Tel Aviv was more run-down than I imagined.
Perhaps because of the years of unrest, Israelis do not pay much attention to the beauty of buildings. Tel Aviv has been compared to the "Shanghai of Israel" by locals. Many civil buildings are dilapidated and some can even be described as "ruins." Even in new urban areas or business districts, their prosperity can only be compared to China's second-tier cities. Compared to the shoulder.
The streets of Tel Aviv
Perhaps it is unfair to compare Tel Aviv to Beijing or Shanghai in China. Today, the entire population of Israel is only 8 million, while Beijing’s population is 22 million. The actual jurisdiction of Israel’s entire land area is only 25,000 square kilometers, which is about the same size as Beijing plus surrounding suburbs. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the northwest, Lebanon to the north, Syria and Jordan to the east (close to the extremist organization Islamic State), and Egypt to the southwest. Surrounded by various Arab countries, Israel, the Jewish nation-state, can be said to be an outlier in the Middle East.
Want to buy something online? Naive
Israel’s achievements in the field of civilian mobile applications are not worth showing off. Although an Israeli friend later told me that there are also online food ordering and food delivery apps in Israel, the most famous one is called 10bis, but its users are not many. Most users are local entrepreneurs and office workers. B2C online shopping cannot develop even more because logistics is not developed. They told me that if you buy something online, it can be delivered within an hour and the logistics can even take a week.
According to research from the Cheetah Global Think Tank, it may be that the domestic market is small, and the usage habits of Israelis on mobile apps are obviously biased towards foreign countries. In terms of shopping, China's Alibaba's AliExpress has even surpassed eBay and local shopping software Yad2, becoming the most commonly used shopping software among Israelis. The most commonly used communication software among Israelis is Whatsapp (if an Israeli guy chats with me, he must add me on Whatsapp because I will talk nonsense?) Facebook is used for social networking. There are two types of software that are commonly used by Dege drivers, one is Uber for taking orders, and the other is WAZE for navigation (this is also a legendary app created by Israelis, but unfortunately it was later acquired by Google).
However, if you think that Israel is just a country struggling to survive in turmoil, you are totally wrong.
The power of innovation under dilapidated houses
What changed my impression of Israel was my subsequent visits to Israeli startups. The companies we visited this time all have only a dozen employees, but most of them are engaged in technological innovation in the To B field that serves business, and some technological innovations are even unheard of in China.
If China has only seen the upsurge of "national entrepreneurship and innovation" in the past two years, Israel has already truly launched national entrepreneurship.
According to statistics, there is one entrepreneur for every 1,600 Israelis; the number of Israeli companies listed on Nasdaq almost exceeds the total number of European companies, second only to the United States, China and Canada; Israel's per capita VC investment is It is 2.5 times that of the United States, 30 times that of Europe, 80 times that of China, and more than 300 times that of India. In 2015, Israel attracted US$11.6 billion in foreign direct investment, an increase of 90% from 2014, when overseas investment was US$6.7 billion. The huge growth in investment reflects the world's absolute confidence in the Israeli economy. Despite the global economic slowdown in the past decade, Israel's GDP has not declined but has increased, with the growth rate even exceeding that of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and the United States.
Israel’s achievements in cybersecurity are even comparable to those of the United States. There are currently more than 300 cybersecurity companies in Israel. In 2015, there were as many as 81 newly established security startups in Israel. The scale of the security industry increased by 25% compared with 2014, making it the second largest security industry in the world after the United States. . An Israeli company that is very popular recently is called Cellebrite. When the FBI and Apple in the United States were arguing over whether to crack users' iPhones, Cellebrite, an FBI supplier, promptly cracked the iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist attack shooter Saeed Farook. The FBI dropped its case against Apple, and according to Forbes, Cellebrite only charged $15,278 to crack the iPhone.
A startup company with “no ambition”
This is a middle-aged man in his 40s, with a typical Israeli face, thin and tall. Sitting on my right side, he leaned back in his chair, crossed his hands on his chest, and slowly introduced us to their company's business and situation. This is the fifth Israeli technology company we visited during this trip. This big data technology company has just raised more than 40 million US dollars in Series B financing from Cisco and Intel in the United States. Obviously, at this time, the CEO is very interested in coming from the United States. Chinese investors are not interested. Although when we arrived, he still politely handed his business card to everyone present. But believe me, they are definitely the most special company among the companies we visited in Israel this time, not only because of their attitude towards us, but also because they are the only Israeli startup company that declared to us that its future goal is to go public.
Most Israeli companies have no ambitions. Most entrepreneurs do not have the idea of ??changing the world, nor do they want to turn their companies into BATs. They are just doing down-to-earth innovations. Among the companies we visited, most of their founders were over 40 years old and had many entrepreneurial experiences. After the company grew to a certain stage, they sold their companies to larger companies. For them, serial entrepreneurship is as normal as us jumping from one company to another.
Interestingly, when we said that the last company we visited had been invested by our competitors and might no longer be able to cooperate, their founder blurted out: You can buy us. ! High enthusiasm for financing and selling companies is a common attitude among Israeli entrepreneurs towards investors.
As for the reasons, Michelle Tzhori, an Israeli who settled in Shanghai, China ten years ago, analyzed for us: "Israel is a small country and the market is not broad. The neighbors around us do not treat us well. Especially friendly, the regional situation is also unstable, so Israelis have a sense of insecurity that it may not be the best choice to build a sustainable business, so they usually sell to American or European companies when the company reaches a certain stage of development. There is a broader market there.” Michelle is a partner in a law firm between China and Israel. They not only provide legal services for trade between China and Israel, but also screen reliable Israeli startups for Chinese investors. companies, this need has become more and more urgent in recent years. She also gave herself a nice Chinese name: Cui Michelle.
Visit Israeli startups
But similar to the situation in China, the "mortality rate" of Israeli startups is also quite high.
Peggy from the Israel Export Association told me that perhaps a quarter of the Israeli companies that participate in the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona every year have disappeared by the time they participate again the next year. To sum up, there may be three reasons. Peggy said: "First, the founders are from companies with a technical background. They usually resigned from world-renowned Internet companies such as Google and Facebook to start a business. However, they lack financing, operation and other capabilities, making the company unsustainable. The possibility of development; secondly, the Israeli market is small and the overseas market has not been effectively expanded, so the company’s growth has become very limited; thirdly, of course, there are cases where the founders are not very skilled and only have good ideas.”
I met a “fan of Chinese mobile phones” in a taxi
According to data from Pew Research, a world-renowned survey organization, the penetration rate of mobile phones in Israel reached 132%, and 74% of people have it. Smartphone penetration rate ranks third in the world, second only to South Korea and Australia. Korean mobile phone brands occupy a very high market share in Israel, especially Samsung, which can be seen from the Samsung advertisements all over the streets of Tel Aviv. Although there is no existing survey data to corroborate this finding, this finding has been confirmed among the local population.
“Indeed, in China, Apple is definitely the dominant mobile phone brand, but in Israel, people may prefer Korean mobile phones.” Cui Michelle told us. "Many people like to use Samsung, but I think LG is better to use." A colleague who works in the same office as Choi Michelle added, and the mobile phone she is holding is an LG. Indeed, LG, a mobile phone brand that is not widely used in China, is also used by company executives and drivers in Israel.
However, Chinese mobile phones are not without their presence in Israel. During one of our taxi rides, a taxi driver brought up this topic with me.
"You are from China, why don't you use a Chinese mobile phone?" He looked at the Iphone 6 in my hand.
"Uh...good question" I shook the phone in my hand awkwardly and was speechless.
"I like Chinese mobile phones very much. They are cheap and of good quality. And I think they run faster than Apple phones." The driver was a guy under 30 years old. He seemed to see my uneasiness. He took over the topic again, "In China, which domestic mobile phone brands do Chinese people use?"
"Huawei, Xiaomi." He asked about my strengths.
“Huawei and Xiaomi, well, I know them all. But I think there are definitely not as many people using them as Samsung, right?”
“No, Huawei may have surpassed Samsung in China. "I quickly regained my confidence.
"Really? Have you heard of Meizu and OnePlus?"
"Meizu and OnePlus?" Thank God I understood his pronunciation, "Of course, They may be very useful, but not as many people use them as Huawei and Xiaomi.”
“I plan to buy a Meizu and use it instead of a Chinese phone.”
I just decided to use it at this time. I remembered looking at the smartphone he hung in front of the car console for taking Uber orders. It was an Asus phone made in Taiwan, China. At this time, our destination has arrived. After collecting the fare, the boy still enthusiastically said Goodbye: "I hope I can see you using a Chinese mobile phone next time I see you!" Maybe, I thought to myself.
“Add WeChat”
In 2014, Internet Queen Mary Meeker specifically listed China separately in her annual Internet report and introduced China The development of mobile Internet and the opportunities therein. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, the number of mobile Internet users in China in 2015 was nearly 900 million. With such a large market, China is the greatest attraction to mobile Internet companies around the world. The same goes for Israeli internet companies.
The mutual attraction between the Chinese and Israeli Internet communities may come from the general trend of economic and trade exchanges between the two sides. When China and Israel established diplomatic relations more than 20 years ago, the bilateral trade volume between China and Israel was US$60 million in 1992. According to the Israeli Prime Minister's Information Office, the current trade volume between the two parties is approximately US$8 billion per year (some figures say it reached US$110 million in 2014). billion, double that of 2010).
Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned to power last year, has been actively pursuing policies in recent years to shift Israel's trading relations away from Europe, still Israel's largest commercial partner by a wide margin, and towards emerging markets.
But most Israelis are full of curiosity and desire for the Chinese market, but also know very little about it. However, the humble, positive and diligent character of the Israelis is particularly evident in the process of doing business with the Chinese. In order to deal with Chinese people and Chinese companies, "Add a WeChat account" has become a common refrain among Israelis and Chinese people when they meet for the first time. If you are a Chinese in an Israeli business situation, you do not need so many social skills. Many Israelis will actively and enthusiastically greet you and introduce themselves and their companies. Of course, exchanging business cards and WeChat messages is also necessary.
At the same time, Chinese companies are becoming more and more interested in Israeli innovative technologies and startups. An Israeli VR technology company we visited told us that they had received a 30-year-old customer this week. The sales director of another Israeli technology company that has been listed in the United States complained to me that his current work has been occupied by various visit requests, and these visit requests usually come from Chinese companies . But at the same time, he also privately sent text messages to officials from the Commercial Section of the Israeli Embassy in China, saying that even though they had already IPOed and were not short of money, they welcomed Chinese companies or investors to visit, because maybe a Chinese company could help them develop. Chinese market. His pragmatism is very representative of the general attitude of Israeli companies towards the Chinese market.
Postscript
When I was a child, I once read an American proverb: The wisdom of the world is in the heads of the Chinese, and the wealth of the world is in the pockets of the Jews. The original meaning of this sentence is that the Chinese are smart and the Jews are good at doing business. There is no doubt about the wealth of the Jews. According to World Bank data in 2014, Israel's per capita GDP has reached US$37,000, nearly five times that of China. But if we look at the development of science and technology in recent decades, the wisdom in Jewish heads is also among the best.
At the exit of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, there is a corridor filled with huge photos and text introductions. The photos are all technological inventions that the Israelis are proud of. Everyone who is about to leave Foreigners at Israeli customs can’t help but linger here. To name just a few, you will know that Israelis are proud of their science and technology for good reason:
The computer USB flash drives that almost everyone cannot live without today are Israelis AmirBan, Dov Moran and OronOgdan Invented, they all come from the Israeli company M-Systems. They registered the patent in the United States in April 1999.
Today's instant messaging tool QQ in China was born out of ICQ invented by the Israeli company Mirabillis in 1996. ICQ means: I seek you.
Cherry tomatoes: The wild varieties of this cute little tomato come from South America. There are currently three varieties cultivated artificially. Among them, the most important and particularly sweet variety, Tomaccio, is a professor at the Hebrew University of Israel, Prof. It took twelve years of crossbreeding under the leadership of Nahum Keidar and Prof. Chaim Rabinovitch.
Also, to put it a little further, Zuckerberg, the well-known founder of Facebook, is an American Jew.
Why are there so many innovations and inventions in such a small country? Where does their motivation come from? Former Israeli President Shimon Peres, a 93-year-old "evergreen" figure in Israeli politics, has a very deep understanding of this issue:
"The Jews are a little special, because the Jews are never satisfied. Because once you are satisfied, you will be lazy.
We have too little land, Israel accounts for one thousandth of the entire Middle East, and we have malaria-carrying mosquitoes in the north, and deserts and all kinds of wind and sand in the south. , this land is barren. We also have no water, one is dead and one is dying (the Dead Sea).
We have a particularly famous river (the Jordan River). Its reputation is greater than its water content. We have no gold and no oil. Our neighbors are not very friendly to us.
There was no one in the world to encourage us, no weapons, no food, no help from anyone.
But we discovered that we have a particularly great resource, and the only resource is your dreams and your brain. How do we use water and how do we increase the amount of water? I thought about reuse, and then I thought about desalination, and how we wanted to save water. We invented drip irrigation technology, which on the one hand creates water and on the other hand saves water. When we have nothing, we create ideas. ”
Perhaps, it is precisely because of this desperate situation that the ingenuity of the Israelis can be fully stimulated. People have become the most precious resource of this country, and the innovation of the Israelis Spirit has become an important factor supporting the survival and prosperity of this country.