It&#x27;s not clear if many of these things are good or bad or if they&#x27;re any worse than silicon valley. I wouldn&#x27;t count any of them as serious obstacles for Beijing tech success.<p>Focused on the local market. I often run into SV companies that I&#x27;d like to use as a customer but can&#x27;t because they only serve America. Either because of IP restrictions, money transfer, shipping, or they just haven&#x27;t figured out other countries yet.<p>Having people in it for the money is a sign that something&#x27;s really happening. It&#x27;s not just hobbyists doing it for fun. I&#x27;m sure most SV startups are in it for the money too. Nobody really things a pick-up laundry service for rich people is altruistic or fun.<p>Young smart engineers getting management responsibilities. Sounds like every startup with a 25 year old CEO.<p>Lack of good leadership? Maybe they&#x27;re effectively doing flatter organization structures. That&#x27;s a cool trend in SV.<p>High cost of living. SV is famous for its wildly inflated house prices but that&#x27;s not stopping it.<p>Bad internet: Crippling if you&#x27;re a foreigner and depend on foreign services. Hardly noticeable for locals using Chinese services. American&#x27;s equally have no access to major Chinese internet services because of the language barrier yet that isolation isn&#x27;t stopping them.<p>Underhanded business practices. America has patent lawsuits which a big company can use to stomp out pretty much any small software company they want. Everyone&#x27;s infringing somebody&#x27;s patent but they mostly survive because they&#x27;re too small to matter.<p>Long hours and no time for family. SpaceX is famous for that and they&#x27;re doing pretty well.