Once a field with the highest ROI, TMT is long past its prime
China’s venture capitalists once focusing on the field of Technology, Media, and Telecom (TMT) have mostly shifted to new directions like intelligent chips, automobiles, and healthcare since 2019.
Domestic investment in TMT, or internet and mobile internet, went viral in 2014. Most market leaders were created during that period, including Naspers-backed Tencent, SoftBank-backed Alibaba, Hillhouse-supported JD.com, Sequoia-invested Meituan, and SIG-backed ByteDance.
VC’s invesment in TMT accounted for around 70% of the overall cases and amount of money in 2014 Q1, according to Zero2IPO Research (Chinese: 清科研究中心).
The turning point comes in 2016, as most of the top internet companies have been listed and the industry started to display a downward tendency.
The advertising revenue of China’s internet companies in 2021 was up 9.32% in 2021, falling under 10% for the first time in five years, App Growing said. Lay-off also grows common in TMT industry.
Now, investors formerly backing TMT firms are all eyeing opportunities in budding startups, like smart chip company Biren Technology (Chinese: 壁仞科技), autonomous driving service provider Horizen Robotics (Chinese: 地平线), and bio firm NUWA Life Technology (Chinese: 女娲生命).