Chinese tech companies, led by the likes of Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, are huge presences in the global tech industry, well known to investors and global tech rivals. But despite their high global profile, China’s tech giants have one thing in common: they like to stay at home.
Between 2005 and 2015, Chinese tech companies launched just 291 investments in the software & IT and consumer electronics sectors overseas, according to data from fDi Markets, a cross-border investment tracker owned by the FT.
This puts China in a lowly 14th place worldwide in terms of outbound tech investment, not only behind powerhouses such as the US, the UK and Germany, but also behind India, Switzerland and Australia that launched 723, 445 and 315 projects in the same period, respectively.