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Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware (Full Documentary) | Future Cities | WIRED

WIRED Investigations · 15.7M views · 2016-07-05 · 1:07:51

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Overview

A WIRED Future Cities documentary on Shenzhen, covering its hardware-prototyping culture and shanzhai copycat manufacturing. It looks at how the city's ecosystem evolved and what the rest of the world can learn.

On Hacker News

Strongly recommended in Shenzhen and hardware threads for its view of fast cycles, loose IP and the maker ecosystem.

Recommended by 8 HN people across 8 months · HN mentions 2016–2022

Topics

Manufacturing & industrial processesEmbedded systems & DIY electronicsStartups & entrepreneurship
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shenzhenshanzhaihardware startupsmanufacturingchina

What people said

lubujackson · 2018-07 · Strong recommendation

For a companion piece I highly recommend this hour long vid by Wired about Shenzhen. It's worth your time: [VIDEO] Things that stood out to me was the maker mindset was so prevalent and competitve that it had filtered down to the buyers. So someone cobbles together some new widget for their phone and starts to sell it. Other people see it selling a nd copy it, but they make modifications. Shoppers see it for the first time and decide they want one with a purple strap, so they shop around until they find it or find someone who will make it that way. This is where the hoverboard fad bubbled up but also how and why it "flamed" out. I think it's a fascinating testbed for technology and creativity and economics.

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smckt · 2017-08 · Strong recommendation

If interested about Shenzhen, I'd highly recommend watching this mesmerizing feature on Wired UK: [VIDEO]

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tmoreton · 2017-04 · Strong recommendation

WIRED UK did a great job going into more detail on Shenzhen, highly recommend watching the documentary. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by WIRED Investigations, played through YouTube.

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