Kai-fu Lee, a former Google Vice President and Greater China Chief who launched his own venture called Innovation Works, talks about China's Internet opportunities at a forum at Columbia University in New York on October 4 (CHEN WEN)

Dr. Kai-fu Lee, who recently resigned as Google Vice President and President of Google Greater China to start his own venture called Innovation Works, encouraged Chinese students to go back to China to take advantage of vast Internet opportunities when he gave a speech at Columbia University in New York on October 4.

With 338 million Internet users now in China, the Chinese Internet market is "clearly growing very rapidly," Lee told the audience as he talked about China's Internet opportunities and Innovation Works at Columbia University, where he studied computer programming some 30 years ago.

The event was organized by the Columbia University Asia-Pacific Development Society (CUASIA) and the students and scholars associations.

"There are great chances to build great companies," Lee said. That's what his new venture is trying to do. According to Lee, Innovation Works is a new business platform aimed at mentoring and nurturing new Chinese entrepreneurs, especially in mobile computing, e-commerce, and cloud computing. It will seek out entrepreneurs, help them brainstorm ideas and provide seed funding.

Lee announced the launching of Innovation Works shortly after he resigned from Google in early September.

Lee told Beijing Review during a sideline press conference that he came up with the idea of establishing such a company in June. He wrote the business plan in August and finally launched it in September.

When Lee joined Google in 2005, he had a four-year commitment with the search engine giant. He has helped Google gain market ground in China, a key market where native search engine Baidu has a large lead over Google.

"It was time to make a choice," he said. Instead of signing on for another four years with Google, Lee chose to start his own company, one that he believes will fill a void in China today.

"If I don't do it now, it will be too late," Lee said. He pointed out that there are now three trends in China that have created the perfect environment for his new venture: the explosive growth of e-commerce and mobile Internet, the emergence of potential start-up initiators, and the lack of venture capital for start-ups.

"The Chinese entrepreneurial environment is still in its formative stage, with significant barriers for the early-stage entrepreneur: the lack of management experience and coaching, the reluctance of venture capitalists to invest in companies in the formation stage, and the lack of networking and experience to pull a company together," Lee said at the launching ceremony for Innovation Works in Beijing in September.

Lee's company will be funded with $115 million from venture capital groups and investors including Steve Chen (co-founder of YouTube), Foxconn Technology Group, Legend Group and New Oriental Education & Technology Group. WI Harper Group is the lead venture capital investor.

Innovation Works received more than 7,000 resumes on the day it launched. The job positions posted online are mainly for engineers, not for entrepreneurs, Lee said. He called for those who are interested in starting their own business in China to learn more about the domestic environment and go back to China to seek opportunities now. "Otherwise it will be too late," he said.

(Reporting from New York)