PCWorld - There's no guarantee the ongoing global economic downturn won't get worse before things start to get better. But some entrepreneurs who've set up shop in China see plenty of potential for growth and say the current environment actually helps them by reducing costs and weeding out would-be competitors.
"In terms of the economic outlook, we think it's a time of huge opportunity," said William Bao Bean, a partner at venture capital firm Softbank China & India Holdings and a director at language-learning startup iTalki.
Based in Shanghai, iTalki has users living in 200 countries who take language lessons and do language exchanges with other users in more than 100 languages. Recently, the company started to generate revenue by allowing users to sell language lessons online, collecting a commission from each transaction.
"The good thing about this market is that it is a really bad economy and people are looking for ways to work. We've had 1,100 teachers sign up on our platform in the first month," Bean said.
In addition, operating from China gives iTalki a significant cost advantage over rivals based in other countries.
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