Creative juices starting to flow in Zhongguancun coffeehouse

Garages have a special place in the history of Internet giants, with Google, Amazon and Apple all starting in the humble dwellings where vehicles are usually parked. Now young Chinese entrepreneurs have started their own businesses from the Garage Cafe, a coffeehouse in Zhongguancun, Beijing's high-tech business hub.

Unlike other coffeehouses in Beijing, discussions and gossip about fashion and sport are not on the menu. Instead, the talk revolves around projects and angel investors (individuals who provide capital for startups), giving the 800-square-meter cafe a modern buzz.

Su Di, a co-founder of Garage Cafe, said he was inspired by stories of the humble origins of Internet giants, and in homage to those days, he and the other co-founders decided to name the coffeehouse that. Apart from great beverages, it also offers budding entrepreneurs helpful advice on how to get started.

The Garage Cafe, a coffeehouse in the Zhongguancun high-tech business hub in Beijing, is popular among young entrepreneurs. Wang Jing / China Daily

The cafe has plenty of electrical outlets, ample Wi-Fi connections, a meeting room and a job board. More important, the cafe can be used as a daily workstation to avoid high office rent, which is always a formidable obstacle for young entrepreneurs in Beijing.

"More than 70 companies have successfully been incubated here and moved on to their own offices since the cafe opened in 2011," Su said, adding that currently more than 10 teams are stationed in his coffeehouse, working to create opportunities.

In a nod to the Internet's spiritual home, the Garage Cafe opened a branch in Silicon Valley in 2013, providing the same services but with one important difference: the price of a cup of coffee is around $19.

Other coffeehouses have also been set up in the Zhongguancun tech hub, such as 3W Cafe and Binggo Cafe, and are favored destinations for startups and investors in Beijing.

These coffeehouses also host events by inviting successful businesspeople to share their experiences and bring in investors to meet with enterprising young people.

Zhongguancun Science Park has seen more than 6,000 new tech enterprises registered annually.

In the first six months of 2014, the total income of enterprises, with annual revenue exceeding 20 million yuan ($3.24 million), accounted for 25 percent of the total revenue from enterprises in Beijing. And companies based there have filed more than 18,100 patent applications, an increase of 18.2 percent year-on-year.

In June, Zhongguancun invested about 100 million yuan for a new innovation-focused street that helped the area attract more startups and investors, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Already, more than 10 business incubators, including 36 Kr, Garage Cafe and Binggo Cafe, have set up on Inno Way, the first street dedicated to innovation in the country.

"The business environment, including policies and other sectors, is better than that in Silicon Valley," said Xu Dandan, founder of lagou.com, which just celebrated another angel investment worth $5 million.

zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn