Members of the Brand Promotion campaign visited headquarter of Comlent in Shanghai on June 26. Prof Chen Kai, founder and CEO of Comlent introduced his company and made an exciting speech in front of officials from the Ministry of Commerce, journalists and industrial experts at its office.

Comlent, founded by returning overseas Chinese students, is competing in the 3G chip industry on the global technology. Based-in Zhangjiang High-Tech Garden, Shanghai, the company started from 500,000 yuan (US$62,500) attracted venture capital such as Intel Capital and has invested US$100 million in fables radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) designing. Its TD-SCDMA internet wireless communications chips are the first RFIC solution in the world with independent intellectual property right obtained by a Chinese company. It may fulfill 3G communications requirements for a potential of 400 million mobile phone users in China.

¡°Chips are different from internet, although both fall in the IT industry. For internet, localized services may set aside some space for local portals. Competition is fierce but not as much as in chip industry. For instance, the United States have Yahoo!, we may have Sohu; they have Amazon, we may focus on Dangdang. However, on chip, you compete on the global platform. You compete with Intel, AMD, IBM. You lose if you are not the best. You lose at 90 percent odd even if you are indeed the best,¡± said Chen. ¡°We¡¯ve invested millions on our design and products and are still expecting for returns. If invested elsewhere such as the real estate market, we may have gained huge profits. But local made 3G chips for wireless communications have to be done by someone,¡± he added.

The company is aiming to be listed on Nasdaq at proper time. Chen said all the company asset has been distributed in stock option forms to the 80 employees of the company, including himself, eight PhD holders and 25% returning Chinese who ever worked overseas for IBM, Intel and Microsoft etc, as well as administrative staff such as receptionists.

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