Chinese tech start-ups feel Elon Musk’s pain as '996' work culture takes a toll

It has been a while since Zhao Xiuwen went jogging in the park near his home in Beijing. He is just not in the mood lately because of worries at work, especially the pressure of trying to raise a new round of funding for his three-year-old start-up ZingFront, an artificial intelligence-driven short video production firm.

Recent comments by US tech billionaire Elon Musk about the “excruciating” impact of long working hours on his personal life have struck a chord among Chinese tech entrepreneurs like Zhao, who are finding it hard to draw a line between work and private life. Tesla’s iconic chief executive said he worked 120 hours every week and sometimes had to take the sedative Ambien to fall asleep.

“It has become harder and harder to raise money recently,” Zhao said in his brightly decorated office located in a fancy Beijing office building. “I’m under a lot of pressure. Sometimes I’m awake from around 2am to dawn and can’t stop thinking about my company’s future.”

Eric Tao, founder and chief executive of Beijing-based random video chat company Holla, feels the same pain as Musk and Zhao. “As CEO of the company, I can’t underperform this week and make it up by outperforming next week. It doesn’t work that way,” he said, adding that he works about 12 hours a day, so not as many as Musk.

“Being a start-up CEO is one of the most demanding jobs in the world,” Tao added.