"One-Meter Counters" Created Billionaires—How Does Huaqiangbei's Song Shiqiang Analyze This Wealth-Creation Miracle?

The three great talents of Huaqiangbei, from left to right: Wu Bo, Cheng Yimu, and Song Shiqiang.

Song Shiqiang of Huaqiangbei (Huaqiangbei Song Shiqiang) is the founder and general manager of Kinghelm Electronics (www.kinghelm.net) and Slkor Semiconductor (www.slkoric.com). He is an expert in Huaqiangbei business research. His series of research articles under “Song Shiqiang's Discourses,” including “Why Are There So Many Billionaires in Shenzhen Huaqiangbei?”, “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow of Shenzhen Huaqiangbei,” “Refuting Bloomberg's Article ‘China’s Underground Chip Market Attracts Desperate Automakers’,” and “Research on Shanzhai Mobile Phones in Huaqiangbei,” provide systematic discussions of Huaqiangbei's “one-meter counters” that are remarkable and worth careful reading.

I. Development of Huaqiangbei's "One-Meter Counters"
In Huaqiangbei's “one-meter counters,” the upper glass display case shows samples, while the lower storage compartments and the wall-mounted storage units behind are fully stocked with goods.Numerous small counters have gathered into a huge force, creating Huaqiangbei's abundance of people, money, goods, information, and opportunities, and forming Huaqiangbei's core competitiveness. Electronic components have high value; for example, our Slkor Semiconductor (www.slkoric.com) has three Slkor brand direct-sale stores in Huaqiangbei, each less than 8 square meters and holding RMB 1 million worth of goods. The Huaqiangbei market provides thoughtful and considerate services for “one-meter counters”: they can register as small-scale taxpayers, and at that time 17% VAT invoices were also issued on their behalf. Later, some “one-meter counters” developed into distributors, some moved toward brand building and technology development, and some expanded into room-sized stalls. Mr. Song Shiqiang emphasized that Huaqiangbei's “one-meter counters” gave rise to a number of well-known enterprises, including Han’s Laser, JLC, Longsys, Coship Electronics, Jinzheng, Hasee Computer, Meilong SUP Electronics, and Zhugao Electronics. Of course, when Kinghelm Electronics (www.kinghelm.net) and Slkor Semiconductor (www.slkoric.com) started their businesses, their starting point was somewhat higher, with clean and tidy offices, but they also developed under the influence of Huaqiangbei culture.

II. The Secret Behind Huaqiangbei's "One-Meter Counters" Creating Billionaires

Mr. Song Shiqiang precisely explained the underlying logic and opportunity cost of how Huaqiangbei's “one-meter counters” created billionaires: “At its peak, Huaqiangbei had about 500,000 people working in the industry, mostly small businesses and ‘one-meter counters.’ In addition, there were about 100,000 backpackers flowing through every day. They were all independent economic entities! Because the base was simply too large, more people seized chance opportunities and became tycoons!” Reality is just as Mr. Song Shiqiang said: “Huaqiangbei's ‘one-meter counters’ created many business miracles. Goods turned over rapidly at the counters every day, and money poured in. They mass-produced the earliest millionaires and women worth tens of millions, and produced more than 60 billionaires.” On August 4, 2026, JLC, which started from a Huaqiangbei “one-meter counter,” was listed on the Main Board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Its three founders, Ding Hui, Ding Huixiang, and Yuan Jiangtao, each had a net worth exceeding RMB 10 billion. Mr. Song Shiqiang attended JLC’s Main Board listing appreciation banquet on behalf of Kinghelm (www.kinghelm.net) and Slkor (www.slkoric.com).

Jiang Xiangyang of Ruicai Electronics and Song Shiqiang (right) attend the JLC appreciation banquet.

III. The Significance of the Wealth-Creation Miracle of Huaqiangbei's "One-Meter Counters"

Song Shiqiang of Kinghelm (www.kinghelm.net) and Slkor (www.slkoric.com) believes that small and medium-sized private enterprises are characterized by creativity, flexibility, rapid breakthrough, and strong penetration. Huaqiangbei has more than 50 professional markets of various types, with more than 60,000 enterprises and more than 40,000 individual industrial and commercial households, involving integrated circuit distribution, the Internet, software development, and other fields. Many of them are “Huaqiangbei one-meter counters.” In the process of observing and studying Huaqiangbei, Song Shiqiang, Cheng Yimu of the Electronics Chamber of Commerce, and Wu Bo of LCSC were rated by bosses and proprietresses as the “Three Great Talents of Huaqiangbei.” He also concluded that the Huaqiangbei one-meter counter, delivery pushcart, small boss’s flip-flops, and street pork trotter rice were the early “Four Treasures of Huaqiangbei.” Huaqiangbei's “one-meter counters” continue to provide an entrepreneurial platform for small and medium-sized enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households, contributing to Shenzhen’s development as an innovative city.

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