China will breed a new wave of innovators, industry insiders, investors and government officials said at the 2016 Asia Beat Xiamen, an international competition for start-up projects that ran from March 17 through 19.

“China’s industrial development once relied on labor-intensive sectors, but now must depend on innovation,” said Cai Wensheng, chairman of Longling Capital, which focuses on investment in start-ups.

He said there is a boom in start-ups and investors because of the “massive number of active users, aggressive capital market and hard-working teams” in the country.

He noted two steps in China that led to the emergence of Internet businesses over the past decade — the initial copying of business models from the United States and the current rise of localized innovations that is doing a better job of meeting customer demand.

He said that in the future, more foreign companies will borrow ideas from China as it becomes a global leader in mobile Internet.

A growing number of products and services by Chinese start-ups have gained customers overseas, such as BeautyPlus, a smartphone camera app that has more than 13 million users in Japan.

Cai suggested three sectors that offer opportunities for start-ups: products that optimize daily tasks, along the lines of Uber; specialized tools that handle tasks simply, such as photography app Meitu; and transformations of traditional models, as done by smartphone maker Xiaomi. “Young entrepreneurs in China today should work hard to explore the future… to create products that will surprise the world,” he said.

Li Zhu, co-founder of Innovation Angel Funds, suggested a “lab-to-market” model that called for the more efficient commercialization of innovations from universities and research institutions.

Bernard Moon, co-founder of SparkLabs Global Ventures in South Korea, said products from the world’s start-ups are getting stronger and that the bar for financing…

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