Seeing the Unseen

CHAPTER 3Everyone Is Going Global

The companies that have been hardened in the Chinese market, even those who are not that outstanding, should now enter and practice themselves in the global arena. They already have the skills to go global.

—Luo Zhenyu, Chinese online talk show host, 2017

FROM THE MID-2010S, CHINESE entrepreneurs and companies, buoyed by the experiences, capital, and talent accumulated through rapid advances in domestic markets, started exploring global markets. One theory behind this global expansion is “time machine management,” which was described in SoftBank's annual report of 2020.

Masayoshi Son, the bold founder of Japan's SoftBank, is now a household name. His Vision Fund, with more than half its money coming from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, had made a splash in the late 2010s, backing high-profile companies including WeWork, Uber, DoorDash, and Opendoor.

To the Chinese, Son is a familiar figure as an early backer of Alibaba Group, which still counts SoftBank as its largest shareholder. Oddly, most Chinese tech entrepreneurs, executives, and investors are very familiar with Son's theory of time machine management, which seems little known outside China.

The theory was actually not a fable, but was discussed extensively in SoftBank's annual report. In the extensive document, time machine management is described as “fostering the global incubation of superior internet business models developed in the United States.”

The rationale behind this ...