Feng Dagang, CEO of 36Kr, delivered the host's speech at the 2025 Going Global Conference.
On July 25th, guided by the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province, the Secretariat of the China Cooperation Center for Special Economic Zones of BRICS Countries, the Hangzhou Bureau of Commerce, and the Qiantang District Bureau of Commerce, and jointly hosted by 36Kr and Qiantang Construction Group, the 2025 "From 'Ingenuity' to the 'World'" Overseas Expansion Conference will be grandly inaugurated at the Grand Mercure Hangzhou Qiantang. As a brand - new IP event of 36Kr focusing on the fields of globalization and overseas expansion, the conference will set up a main venue and a sub - venue, the "Investing in BRICS" - Country - to - Country Cooperation Matching Meeting. The main venue of the conference will be divided into two chapters: "Finding Certainty in Uncertainty" and "Doing Business Globally", focusing on popular overseas expansion fields such as consumption, technology, e - commerce, finance, and new energy. It will cover more than 10 keynote speeches, 5 round - table discussions, and the release of the East Forward 2025 Overseas Globalization Innovation List, decoding the certain logic of the coordinated growth of "product - technology - ecosystem" and providing a referable global development path for enterprises to navigate through the fog of globalization and build sustainable overseas expansion capabilities.
The following is the transcript of Mr. Feng Dagang's speech, edited by 36Kr:
Distinguished guests, partners, and dreamers:
Good morning, everyone! I'm Feng Dagang from 36Kr. Welcome to the East Forward 2025 Overseas Expansion Conference. Standing here today, I feel a strong sense of pride. More and more Chinese brands are starting to shine in every corner of the world. Just two years ago, the stories in the media about overseas expansion were mainly about how to sell goods overseas. But today, when we talk about overseas expansion, we can see that many enterprises have begun to redefine industry standards with technology, and Chinese cultural IPs also have a large number of overseas fans. The guests we invited today, whether they are brand owners, platform providers, or service providers, have all achieved good results. This gives me a strong feeling that Chinese enterprises are making a leap from "Made in China" to "Created in China" and then to "Believed in China".
East Forward is an independent conference IP we launched this year for our overseas expansion business. In the past, 36Kr's overseas expansion activities were mainly small - scale matching events, as at that time we mainly discussed how to sell goods. Now, we focus more on how to use technology and culture to build international brand competitiveness. However, overseas expansion is an extremely broad topic, and it's difficult to summarize a universal methodology. So what East Forward aims to do is to gather the success codes of individual enterprises together. Each conference will be a good source of inspiration.
Today, I'd like to talk about three things. First, what is the theme?
Today's theme is "From Ingenuity to the World". What is "ingenuity"? The "ingenuity" we are talking about is not only a guarantee of product quality. I'd like to interpret it with three "hearts": patience, determination, and empathy. Facing an international environment where change is the norm, if you want to shine in the international market, you must have patience, which is what we call long - termism. You need to have the determination to develop technologies or services that define industry rules and have the empathy to fully understand overseas users.
Why did DeepSeek shock the world in the battle of hundreds of AI models? If DeepSeek had also used a large amount of money to train large models and used some special calculation methods in the tests to prove that some parameters had exceeded those of OpenAI at that time, would it have succeeded? I don't think it would have been that easy. However, the DeepSeek Rl model uses a special algorithm and can match the performance of the OpenAI GPT - 40 model with less than one - tenth of the cost. Its ingenuity lies in its core energy - saving technology. Cases like "Black Myth: Wukong" and Pop Mart that have disrupted the industry have all found their own ingenuity.
As a technology and business media, when we see a phenomenon - level case, our first reaction is to figure out why it can succeed. After DeepSeek attracted global attention this year, 36Kr immediately sorted out the whole process of the DeepSeek event and summarized a set of strategies for enterprises on how to use technology to build global brands, and shared them with our partners. We are doing the same thing at today's conference.
Second, why Hangzhou and why Qiantang?
This is the first session of East Forward. There are two reasons for choosing Hangzhou and Qiantang. The first reason is that among the several phenomenon - level overseas expansion cases in the past two years, two are from Hangzhou, one is "Black Myth: Wukong" and the other is DeepSeek. Also, from the rise of the "Six Young Talents of Hangzhou" to so many young people. Hangzhou is a city that pursues ingenuity. There are many enthusiastic entrepreneurs who have the courage and wisdom to stand on the world stage. We must find these people and help them go global.
The second reason is that Qiantang has years of experience in foreign investment cooperation, successful overseas expansion cases, and methodologies. It has also gathered a large number of high - quality overseas expansion enterprises and service providers. There are large platforms like Alibaba here, as well as many enterprises with great potential but not yet fully developed.
On March 21st this year, the China Cooperation Center for Special Economic Zones of BRICS Countries was established in Qiantang. The Chinese Enterprises International Service Center jointly built by 36Kr and Qiantang, as an important part of it, started operation. We hope to work with Qiantang to escort enterprises in their overseas expansion.
Third, I'd like to talk about today's agenda. This venue will be a sharing venue for overseas brands throughout the day, and there will be a parallel venue in the afternoon for the UAE matching meeting. We spent a lot of time inviting more brand owners to this overseas expansion conference. They are outstanding representatives in various fields such as consumer overseas expansion, AI overseas expansion, and cultural overseas expansion. Their overseas expansion footprints have spread all over the world. This will be a rich and wonderful content feast.
In addition, we still retain the matching session of 36Kr's overseas expansion, focusing on practical cooperation in the UAE market. Representatives from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone, and the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre will all attend. Brand owners who are interested can participate in this matching meeting in the afternoon.
Finally, I'd like to say that 36Kr is 15 years old this year. In the past 15 years, we have gone through three stages: In the first stage, we were constantly trying to introduce foreign enterprises into China. In the second stage, a large number of excellent domestic start - up enterprises emerged, and we focused on helping them. And today, in the third stage, we are starting to send a large number of enterprises overseas. 36Kr is eager to accompany and serve the new wave of enterprises going global. In this endless journey, let ingenuity be our sail, and continuously create Chinese answers that will amaze the world.
Thank you!