(Yicai) Dec. 19 -- Shanghai’s Lingang Special Area will form 10 One Person Company communities in the next three years to provide structured and ecological support for solo entrepreneurs.

The Lingang Special Area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone introduced for the first time the C⁵ concept for supporting OPC communities, which are a new form of entrepreneurship centered on individuals who use digital technology to carry out high-value innovation, at the OPC Science and Technology Innovation Engine event yesterday.

The framework, outlined in the Action Plan to Promote OPC Development, focuses on the five dimensions of Connect, Cost, Chance, Compliance and Community to provide support for entrepreneurs.

Under the C⁵ framework, Lingang will build a full-cycle empowerment system for OPCs. This includes connecting founders with business resources, cutting start-up costs such as office space, housing and corporate operations, offering both general and specialized platform support, defining the five core industry segments for OPCs, opening up diverse application scenarios and market opportunities, offering streamlined compliance services and fostering a complete entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“Our goal is to turn Lingang into a global Lingang and make it the top destination worldwide for OPC startups,” Weng Wei, deputy chief economist of Lingang Group and chairman of Lingang Science and Technology City, said at the event.

“OPCs will be incorporated into the Lingang Science and Technology Innovation System’s broader framework and positioned as a key link between digital nomads and unicorn companies,” said Wang Liang, an official from the Lingang Special Area Management Committee’s Data Office.

Core Industries

The first batch of five core OPC industries are cross-border data, digital culture, livestreamed marketing, intelligent networking and software information services. “These five sectors, along with 18 leading companies and over 30 application scenarios, were collected in the past month, and the list will continue to grow,” said Lu Sen, director of the Lingang Special Area Management Committee’s Data Office.

For example, the Lingang Special Area can help startups in the cross-border data sector secure overseas orders including data labeling, corpus processing and global operations, Lu said. For digital culture entrepreneurs, Lingang can facilitate orders for digital processing and rendering related to AI music, designer toys, animations and intangible cultural heritage content.

“Building an OPC ecosystem in Lingang is not only about riding the wave of AI-driven growth in solo entrepreneurship, but also about lowering barriers and boosting innovation efficiency through institutional innovation and resource integration,” Wang said, adding that Lingang’s service system will become more comprehensive and its incubation model more innovative.

Zero Cube, Lingang’s first OPC community, has attracted nearly 500 entrepreneurs since it started operations on Aug. 21. More than 180 startup projects have passed the review, and over 100 teams have actually moved in, which is an average of roughly one new startup settling in each day.

“The second phase of Zero Cube is about to kick off,” said Zhu Gang, deputy chief economist of Lingang Science and Technology City. “It will cater to OPC teams of different sizes, offering everything from individual workstations to small offices, as well as professional facilities such as photo studios for product shoots and content creation.”

Financial Support

OPC communities are supported by the Lingang Group’s OPC 288 Initiative for individual entrepreneurs. Eligible OPC teams can apply for up to CNY800,000 (USD113,623) in guaranteed startup loans, a maximum of CNY500,000 in non-repayable grants, as well as up to CNY500,000 each in traffic and computing power vouchers, plus CNY100,000 in network vouchers. There is also additional support such as helping OPC founders and their key assistants to settle as local residents, targeted access to industry resources, discounted logistics and assistance with overseas expansion.

“Lingang’s FTZ institutional advantages also allow OPCs engaged in cross-border business to access cross-border data channels and bonded logistics services,” Zhu said. “This helps bring down logistics costs to the lowest in the Yangtze River Delta region, while offering the best internet speed and computing power.”

Given that OPCs typically have lower risk-bearing capacity, Lingang also rolled out additional support packages, including public corporate operation packages, digital empowerment services, integrated finance and insurance services as well as marketing, training and promotion programs.

In addition, the Lingang Special Area OPC⁵ Development Alliance was formed at the event yesterday. The alliance aims to break down barriers between traditional innovation players and build a high-level innovation ecosystem for local OPCs that encompasses government, industry, academia, research, finance, services and end-users.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor