Have you ever wondered why a country would want to host the Olympics? They are expensive to host, hard to bid for, and, in general, extremely pesky to pull off. Yet, everyone wants to host one. Beyond the general tourist buzz, the Olympics are a great opportunity to showcase a country to the rest of the world. China wants the world to view it as bold, high-tech, creative and international.

Chinese entrepreneurs are using the Olympics as an opportunity to create global Chinese brands. “We want to be another Samsung, another Sony,” said Feng Jun, CEO of Aigo, a Chinese electronics company. Feng, who started the company with $26 from his mother in 1993, is one of the Chinese entrepreneurs who are striving to break with the current image of China as a cheap place to mass manufacture goods. These entrepreneurs are trying to make their enterprises into one of the global elite consumer brands, just like Samsung and Sony. (more…)