Ex-Google engineers successfully start-up Jide Technology with Remix Ultra-Tablet creation
Straddling the North and South of China with a head office in Beijing and another office in Shenzhen, Jide Technology is strategically positioned to enjoy the best of both worlds...
Straddling the North and South of China with a head office in Beijing and another office in Shenzhen, Jide Technology is strategically positioned to enjoy the best of both worlds. The two cities have different advantages in the creation of electronic products and serve diverse needs in the production of Jide’s first brainchild, the Remix Ultra-Tablet.
Shanghai native Ben Luk, one of Jide’s three founders who went to college in the United States and worked for Microsoft, Oracle and with Google for 14 years where he transferred to from Google US to Google Beijing in 2007 as part of his job. At the time, he was astounded to see the booming economy of China’s capital city.
“You could feel the start-up spirit. There were a lot of innovative products and unique opportunities,” he says. “There were a lot of talent working in software in Beijing, and that is why we decided to set up a company there.”
The company was the brainchild of Hongkonger Jeremy Chau, who graduated from the Hong Kong University of Technology and Science in electrical engineering, later added a master’s degree from Stanford, and has also worked for Google. The two were joined by David Ko, a Guangdong native who was also educated in the United States (US).
The three ex-Google engineers set up the software and hardware company in 2014 in Beijing and, soon after that, opened an office in Shenzhen.
“In order to make this a success, we needed a lot of talent. Beijing has the most software talent from all over China,” Luk says. “On the other hand, Shenzhen is China’s centre of IT hardware production. It produces almost all the electronic products [coming out of China] and has a maturing supply chain of components manufacturing. Developing the hardware part of the Remix ultra-tablet, we also needed to be close to production. With offices in Beijing and Shenzhen, we managed to combine the two.”
Although China is known for the lax execution of copyright and trademark laws and the excellent knock-offs which by now are not only copies of western products but also successful Chinese ones like Xiaomi mobiles, Luk is confident that this will not affect their success.
“In the Internet age, a lot of information flows freely. Success doesn’t depend on who copies us, and as long as we innovate very fast we are not afraid of competition,” he says.
Like it often happens with successful business ideas, Chau wanted to fill a gap in the market with a product he personally needed. Having found out that his father didn’t find it easy to use Windows 8, the Microsoft computer operating system (OS), he wanted to create an android-based one, which is more user-friendly.
Jide came up with an Android OS optimised for bigger screen devices and tablet compatible. The new OS is familiar to both computer and touch screen users and very easy to learn and operate. Their hardware, the Remix Ultra-Tablet offers the convenience of mobile devices and the practicality and productivity of computers, having taken the best of each. It comes with a magnetically attached full-size keyboard and a kickstand.
“You can use the tablet to read books and play games. But we believe the tablet can do much more than that, you can send emails, write in Word and keep data in Excel ... Tablets [have come] to replace personal computers,” Chau says.
So far, the company with more than 80 employees has been self-financed and has successfully launched the Remix Ultra-Tablet within China. Jide has received Series A Financing, totalling US$16 million, and is now on Kickstarter to give it a final financial push before they start shipping the product to the US.
“We believe Android is very young, it has huge potential – there can be desktops, laptops and other devices on Android. Our focus is the operating system, we are promoting it to other hardware manufacturers too,” Chau says.
“Try to leverage the Shenzhen and Mainland market, visit tradeshows and exchange ideas,” he suggests.
He believes the best way governments can support start-ups is by organising more events, help the flow and exchange of ideas so that local start-ups can have a conversation with start-ups worldwide.
“Focusing on Hong Kong only will be very hard to grow,” he says.
