How Shenzhen's French connection created a more intimate kind of social media platform

After living on the mainland for several years Homeric de Sarthe, 27, launched his tech venture, an app called Shosha. It's a more intimate way to stay connected with faraway friends and family than other social media, he said, which have turned into tools for self-promotion. Sarthe is part of a small but growing group of foreigners coming to the mainland to start tech businesses amid an official push to foster entrepreneurship and innovation.

I arrived here in February, 2012. Before that I worked for a headhunting firm in France. They had several offices in China and they asked me to open a new one in Shenzhen.

We are three French expatriates who had been living in China for more than six years. During a long chat, we realised how much we missed our families and friends back in France. The idea came naturally. Social media platforms do help but they are time-consuming, and there are trust issues regarding privacy and confidentiality. Sometimes they are too complicated for our parents to use. Because of these issues, we saw an opportunity for something new. Shosha is not my first start-up. I launched my first two years ago, which was focused more on product design and development.