When the book Small is Beautiful by British economist E.F. Schumacher was first published in the 1970s, the world was shocked by his imagination of an ideal society. Back then the resource-intensive industrial civilization was prevailing. 40 years later, when Jack Ma (chairman of Alibaba) delivered his speech under the same title of Schumacher’s book at the APEC summit, the internet industry was inspired by this refreshing concept. Now in 2016, Sapekov Chingiz, a young insightful WHU student from Kazakhstan, is starting his enterprise in accordance with this ambition, with his siblings and like-minded friends.
“All our stories started in Wuhan University”
When Chingiz first came to WHU in 2009, he was astonished by the population and scale of this renowned university, as well as its garden-like campus. “Before I came to Wuhan, I’ve learned Chinese for 2 years in Xi’an, and successfully passed the 6th level of the HSK exam. Equipped with my language skill, I started to look for a place closer to my heart. My classmates chose Beijing and Shanghai for further study, while I apply for WHU. The first time I came to WHU was in May 2009. I found that the city was so green, and teachers from WHU’s admission office were so kind and polite. I knew I made the right decision. Recalling my days at WHU, I could not have asked for a better experience. I remember all the student activities we joined, all the charity events we held, and those priceless student union working experiences; I can say that I am proud to be a WHU student.”
Sapekov Chingiz
“Wuhan is a lively city; she never sleeps. WHU is an amazing university where I can find so many interesting people from all over the world.” Chingiz still remembered the first impression of this city and university. He could hardly speak Chinese at that time, but after several years of interacting with locals, he can now speak Chinese proficiently even with a little bit of a Wuhan accent.”
Having a good command of Chinese, Chingiz now can understand nearly all his classes. He even made Chinese names for himself and his siblings. “My Chinese name is Chen Qiang, which shares the same meaning as my Kazakhstan name. I also named my siblings the same way: I called my sister Chen Lin and younger brother Chen Gang.” Chingiz seems to be proud of his talent. Besides his mother tongue, he speaks three foreign languages fluently.
Right time, right place, and cooperating with the right people
Sapekov Chingiz is now a postgraduate student from the School of Economics and Management. He majors in international economics, and his rich experience in international business practices helps him build a company with a professional team. His startup company has only 7 employees, yet each of whom is quite talented in specific fields. Martirossyan Ararat (Chinese name: Ma Yan) is a Kazakhstan young man who just graduated from a famous Kazakhstan IT university, is the IT department supervisor. He took charge of the whole website and app-development department. Artem Kazakov and Chingiz’s younger brother Sapekov Timur are in charge of iOS and Android development. Meanwhile Chingiz’s sister, Sapekova Aigerim is the company’s visual designer. She made videos and edits pictures for the website, and control maneuver drone to shoot videos and pictures. As tiny as it may seem, this team is quite professional in website design and architecture, their website has just gone live after several months of hard work, and their app is also coming to Android and Apple app stores.
“It’s indeed a much-treasured opportunity to get along with these nice guys, especially in Wuhan. We are both WHU alumni; we speak the same language, and most importantly, we are dedicated to the same goal.” Chingiz said he always put team building ahead of making profits, because the team is the most precious possession and core competitiveness of his company. “Assembling a team to establish websites is not a big deal, but finding an experienced and highly collaborative team is another thing. I really enjoy working and studying with these guys, especially in WHU.”
Chingiz owed his success to the entrepreneur-friendly environment of WHU. In WHU, offices and start-up incubators were set up to help students with great ideas. In addition to Chingiz, hundreds of young entrepreneurs have received professional instructions from the mentors---including successful businessmen, lawyers and other outstanding alumni. This well-received trend has now become a matured process. It guides student entrepreneurs with little experience and high enthusiasm in the right direction. Since Wuhan University attached great importance to student entrepreneur, it has become one of the most innovative universities in China.
“Right time, right place to meet the right people”, this motto describes Chingiz’s original motivation to establish his enterprise and the website, HanNation. Meanwhile it seems that he and his companions have already found their way to a harmonious cooperation, in the golden age of WHU’s entrepreneur environment.
HanNation, discover your city without limitations
“I named our website and mobile application HanNation. Han represents both Wuhan and China; and nation stands for a large group or a collection of people with common values and interests. I can say that I live in HanNation. Some of us have been here for a long time while some of us have just arrived, but we all speak the same language, have the same habits, and the economic situation will also lead us to become more alike in this community. We are living in terms set by globalization, and we can’t divide people who lives in one city by ethnic groups or language; we are all members of this community and we are trying to create a communication platform to help the groups of people who lives in this community, in this HanNation, find interesting activities.”
Having been living in China for ten years, Chingiz has his insight on Chinese society and culture. He is not very satisfied with the current Chinese internet industry. He is worried that the giant moves too fast to remember the initial goals of these companies. “We are actually a service business, so satisfying our clients and users should be our first priority. If we provide good quality services and products, people would come to us naturally. But now in China, internet companies’ first priorities are making profits, finding more investors and expanding aggressively. Meanwhile what is worse is that the young generation in China is working so hard that they don’t even know their neighbors’ name; they are losing the joy of life.” Out of his dissatisfaction towards this situation came the idea to create a website that allows people in Wuhan to communicate, make friends, find people who share same interests, and discover interesting places. After months of tiring preparation, the HanNation website was launched in October 2016, two saloon bars came to Chingiz’s and registered in the first week. Now apart from routine maintenance of the website and app, the HanNation team is dedicated to inviting more friends and clients to the HanNation world.
“Our products like HanNation is strongly aimed to make our customers’ lives easier. HanNation is not just an event planning application and web platform; HanNation will help you to find a place to have fun with your friends or it will help you to find a gallery with your favorite paintings, or a concert of your favorite band. And the best thing about HanNation is that you can share this feeling with your friends.”
Chingiz and his HanNation team on the roof
As the HanNation website’s introduction says: “HanNation is bringing a new breath of air to Wuhaner’s life.” Likewise, Chingiz and his team is bringing a new breath of air to the current impetuous entrepreneur environment.
(Photo by Sapekov Chingiz/ Li Yunzhen, Edited by Tang Yedan, Zheng Xinnian, Edmund Wai Man Lai & Hu Sijia)
