Going Global 101: New Strategies and New Challenges — A Conversation with Four Founders | Yunqi Capital's Doers Series

AI, embodied intelligence, going global... in 2024's tech and venture capital circles, few could avoid these buzzwords entirely. As the year drew to a close, the "Yunqi Pragmatists" column launched a year-end special series, where we sat down with Yunqi Capital portfolio founders deeply embedded in these sectors to discuss the year's shifts and emerging opportunities — offering ground-level perspectives and insights.

For the finale of "Yunqi Pragmatists: Year-End Edition," we turn our attention to globalization. (For the second installment in this series, click here 👉🏻 Five Embodied Intelligence Founders on Commercial Logic, Breaking Bottlenecks, and Differentiated Playbooks)

As a manufacturing powerhouse with complete supply chain systems, China has already demonstrated formidable competitiveness and influence across decades of globalization. With going global now a strategic imperative for tech companies, how can legacy advantages help Chinese enterprises expand overseas? And what new challenges does the evolving global landscape present?

Over recent years, numerous Yunqi-backed companies have seized opportunities in this globalization wave, with footprints spanning Europe and the US, Africa, the Middle East, Japan and Korea, and Southeast Asia. In late 2024, we spoke with four founders actively building global businesses about their advantages and challenges under new global conditions. Here are excerpts from those conversations.

• Founders in this conversation (alphabetical order)

Guobiao Deng, Founder & CEO of XTransfer — China's leading B2B foreign trade finance platform, supporting global transfers in 27 currencies, serving 550,000+ clients

Xiaohuang Huang, Co-founder & Chairman of Manycore Tech (Coohom) — a global leading 3D cloud design platform with 65 million registered users, 49,000+ platform partners, 320 million+ 3D models, 77.8 million average monthly active visitors, covering 200+ countries and regions including Europe, the US, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia

Jie Lin, CEO of World Logistics — top 13 global freight forwarder, operations across 100+ countries and regions, ~30 overseas branches, ~20% revenue from third-country markets outside China

Qi Liu, Founder & CEO of PingCAP — in 2023, PingCAP became the fastest-growing vendor in the global database management systems market at 97.9% growth, serving 4,000+ enterprises across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the US, and Southeast Asia

01 Going Global: Playbooks and Advantages

Xiaohuang Huang, Manycore Tech (Coohom)

We first started exploring overseas markets because customer service kept getting feedback that users abroad were using our product through translation software — and the translations were terrible. They'd complain and ask if we could provide a native-language version. Some international clients even came to us directly requesting localized versions. That's when we realized overseas markets represented a real opportunity, and began thinking about global expansion.

We started around 2018–2019. Korea had the most users initially, so we entered there first and landed Hanssem, Korea's largest home furnishing company. In Korea, we grew from a handful of users to roughly 200,000 fairly quickly. Then we expanded to Europe, the US, and Southeast Asia.

Through this international exploration, we discovered that internationalization isn't one market — it's many markets, each with distinct conditions. The software ecosystem, brand perception of Chinese companies, and overall friendliness toward Chinese brands vary enormously by region. For example, we found Asian and American cultures differ significantly. So we developed different approaches.

In the US, we found large enterprise clients particularly challenging. As a Chinese cloud software company, many potential customers assume we can shut everything down at any moment, so they're naturally cautious. In this environment, we adopted a freemium model — online promotion, online payment, online renewal. This approach has worked well in Europe and the US so far, generating roughly $1–2 million annually in direct online payments.

Southeast Asia's industrial model is closer to China's, resembling where China was a few years ago. Many Chinese home furnishing companies have factories there, so from a supply chain perspective, Southeast Asia offers fertile ground where our domestic success stories can be replicated.

Qi Liu, PingCAP

If we view R&D as part of the supply chain, then our supply chain advantages remain significant. Beyond that, we have several other strengths: First, our service quality is generally high; second, our iteration speed is faster; third, we face fewer constraints. For example, when we identify an issue in a meeting this week, by next week's progress review, it's often already resolved. So when we follow up with clients, we can deliver solutions directly.

However, strengths often come with corresponding challenges. Our fewer constraints, for instance, mean we lack some mature best practices and don't always adhere to local standards or conventions. And while China's R&D efficiency is high, timezone differences create disadvantages on the support side — what we call "day-night reversal" in service coverage. Every advantage tends to have a matching weakness.

Given this, I believe that since we're advocating for globalization, we shouldn't limit ourselves to a single region. Instead, we should leverage global talent and resource allocation to maximize advantages everywhere. Our team comes from across the globe, operating on a "Follow the Sun" model to ensure 7×24 coverage with team members theoretically working around the clock, improving efficiency and service capability.

Guobiao Deng, XTransfer

Strategically speaking, Chinese companies going global are extremely competitive — I'd call it "crushing" dominance. Tactically, we face many challenges, down to details like integrating with local SMS distribution providers or choosing translation platforms. But these tactical issues mostly have mature solutions and can typically be resolved within a month or two. Strategically, Chinese companies remain very competitive.

For our own globalization specifically, two things stand out as different.

First, we didn't prioritize Europe and the US from the start — instead, we've performed quite well in emerging markets like Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. Because regardless of which country China exports to, China is that country's top import source. That's our unique angle.

Second, we serve B2B goods trade, where buyers know sellers — meaning Chinese and overseas markets are inherently connected. All resources and advantages from the China market directly help us expand overseas. Today, we're leveraging sellers to introduce buyers, while overseas buyers also introduce sellers. So the stronger our advantages in China, the better our overseas performance; conversely, the better we do overseas, the more it boosts our domestic business. I think this is what makes our globalization approach distinct — every step remains connected to China.

02 Challenges and Changes Keep Coming

How to Respond?

Jie Lin, World Logistics

We focus on international ocean freight, so we've been global from day one. These past two years, with China's supply-side overflow, everyone's been seeking new markets overseas. From our vantage point, traditional European and US markets still show fairly healthy growth, just not dramatic growth. Over the past five years, we've observed clear incremental growth in Latin America and the Middle East — growth we can't simply attribute to so-called deglobalization or anti-globalization. It's fundamentally a restructuring of global supply chains, driven by the rise of both raw material sources and finished goods demand.

Current geopolitical conflicts and shifting international political-economic dynamics introduce many new variables and intense uncertainty, which has led to some rethinking of our globalization path. For any company, Europe and the US represent massive markets. But these emerging countries, and more neutral nations, I believe will ultimately determine long-term success or failure.

To navigate this global restructuring and accompanying uncertainty, you must have an overseas foothold — there's no choice in the matter. For instance, whether you possess localized operational capabilities will determine whether you emerge victorious. For us, supply chain transformation and the inherently global nature of logistics services are immovable macro trends. So executing localized operations across global networks is critical.

Xiaohuang Huang, Manycore Tech (Coohom)

In going global to Europe and the US, landing large enterprise clients is a major challenge for many software companies. I feel that to win large clients, your product must be truly unique. If we can't establish clear, dominant leadership in our category, it's easy to be overlooked in European and US markets. Product strength is the fundamental prerequisite.

The other factor is localization. Even if you're priced lower, even if you've restructured yourself as an overseas company through a VIE arrangement, competitors will still label you a Chinese company and warn clients to be careful. So building local teams requires deep understanding of local customs, culture, and employment practices — particularly culture. You can't crudely apply domestic management styles. We also adapt product experiences based on cultural differences.

Guobiao Deng, XTransfer

We're actually quite confident about globalization. From a bird's-eye view, globalization can only deepen — though its specific shape will evolve. And supply chains will become more robust through this.

So regardless of how US-China relations shift, globalization will ultimately advance further. The most obvious evidence: go to Europe today and you'll find unmanned convenience stores — their digital development has reached the next level. This means the cost of global handshake has dropped dramatically, convenience has improved. With this economic infrastructure as a tailwind, globalization is irreversible. If we keep building out our global network, we'll be positioned to capture opportunities wherever hotspots emerge and weather whatever negative developments arise. So I'm relatively optimistic.