US VCs: China's tech sector underestimated

Americans underestimate the Chinese tech sector at their own peril, said venture investors Kai-Fu Lee and Jim Breyer at The Wall Street Journal’s global technology conference on Wednesday. “Anyone here who thinks China is a copycat. That’s just wrong,” Lee said, arguing that the US will fall behind China if it takes the country’s technology sector for granted. Breyer, best known for his early investment in Facebook and a longtime investor in Chinese companies, said that American companies historically have been “darn too arrogant” trying to enter the Chinese market and trying to distribute products or services there that were developed for the US market. The market caps of China’s internet giants Tencent and Alibaba are approaching those of their American counterparts Facebook and Amazon.