In the last lecture of the entrepreneurship short course, another three MCL interns presented their case studies on typical business startups.

Yifang Chen presented Zhihu, a Chinese Q & A website launched in 2011. Zhihu was similar to Quora at its initial stage but later developed its own specialty. She mainly discussed Zhihu’s (as a Social Network Service (SNS) Website) focus on knowledge and intelligence sharing. Her presentation started with how “Cognitive Surplus” phenomena laid the foundation for the Q&A platforms. Then she specifically analyzed the different requirements of techniques to meet the changes in Zhihu’s business strategy, which also changed: useful content, people and core values. Through her presentation, audience did not only learn about how Zhihu accumulated resource, built up its own brand and stepped into expansion but also realize the gradual topic change, or even the deviation off the website’s initial purposes. Her presentation was interactive and interesting to all audiences.

Melody Zhou presented Airbnb which created an excellent solution for home renters and providers worldwide. Since its inception in 2008, Airbnb had started an innovative community marketplace for people to post, discover, and book a wide variety of accommodations around the world. Airbnb has pioneered a new industry of “collaborative consumption” and peer-to-peer accommodation rentals, which leaves room for the company’s potential growth and worldwide adoption. Melody mainly talked about the history of Airbnb, how it was established and several key ingredients of its rapid expansion among many start-ups. Also, she shared some personal experience as a customer. Finally Melody pointed several current challenges for Airbnb, its reaction and future plan. Melody made an objective assessment. Her view was highly valued by the audiences.

Shanglin Yang presented Tesla Motors. The Tesla Motors is the leading company in electric cars, electricvehicle powertrain components, and battery products. Nowadays, Tesla has attracted more and more attention for its success of Model S product, especially in the area of electric vehicle, which is in general hard for new company to be involved in because the high technical threshold as well as the dominants of the big companies. In Shanglin’s presentation, he at first introduced the timeline and achievement of Tesla Motors. Then, he analyzed the reasons behind the success, including the product advantage and market strategy. He also compared the Tesla Motors with the Apple. At last, He concluded what we can learn from the Tesla Motors. His presentation was impressive in the sense of deep studies on the well-known company.

After their impressive presentations, Prof. Kuo summarized their highlights, provided precious advice and concluded their studies.

Congratulations to the interns’ and students’ achievement and well-done works in the course!