The Innostars Award 2021 winner：

“There is no shortcut to success; hard work is the only way.”

Hendrick SIN

CMGE is China’s first mobile game company to be listed on an overseas stock exchange. Its founder, Hendrick Sin, is a “Hongkonger”. Hendrick admires Guo Jing, a character in Jin Yong’s novel who works hard to create his own destiny. In fact, Hendrick shares many similarities to Guo. Earlier in his life, Hendrick went to the US to complete three bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree in five years. The knowledge and work experience he acquired had paved the way to the establishment of CMGE, a company valued at around HKD 10 billion today. These extraordinary achievements are the rewards he earned through hard work. 

Childhood Interest Inspired Entrepreneurial Journey in China

Hendrick’s entrepreneurial idea originated from his love of video games when he was a child. In 2009, he gave up his stable investment banking job and headed north to the Mainland to pursue his dream of game making. He capitalised on his investment banking experience and captured opportunities related to intellectual property (IP). CMGE focuses on the development of IP games and has achieved unprecedented success in the market. The company went public in the US within three years of establishment, and became one of the first companies to de-list from the US and re-list in HK in 2019. 

CMGE has become the Chinese game company with the largest IP reserve and the distributor of the highest number of IP mobile games. Hendrick hopes to make China’s IP famous around the world through mobile games, and promote China’s 5,000-year culture as well as folklore globally. “We have enjoyed foreign productions such as Dragon Ball and Star Wars. Why can’t we have our own games with Chinese cultural characteristics?” Hendrick asked.

Investing in Start-ups and Guiding Like-minded Entrepreneurs

Turning himself from an employee to the owner of the first unicorn company in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, Hendrick admitted that he did not depend on luck. He once told himself that there could be no turning back, and he must do everything possible to lead his team to success. He also believes that talents are the most valuable assets of a company; hence CMGE has established branches in cities around mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to attract young people from all over the world and integrate their creative ideas into new games to optimise user experience. 

Knowing how difficult it is to start a business, Hendrick and his partners founded the China Prosperity Capital Fund in Shenzhen in 2015 to invest in potential start-ups. Apart from injecting funds, he believes that it is more important to share their experience and guide fellow entrepreneurs. In the past six years, Hendrick has invested in more than 100 start-ups, many of which have now become unicorns or listed companies. It is his wish to encourage young people in Hong Kong to put their best foot forward in this ideal time for entrepreneurship and boldly pursue their dreams.