With the support of China's "Go west" strategy, many inland cities have been developing at a high speed in recent years.

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, is among the fastest growing cities in China. With its sound infrastructure, preferential policies, abundant human resources and quality services, the city has become a global IT industrial hub.

While foreign IT giants are entering Chengdu, small local IT companies are also blossoming in the industry.

Young team dreams big

Pinguo Technology, headquartered in Chengdu, is a local IT company that focuses on developing mobile Internet products. Photo by Lai Li/ Chinadaily

Pinguo Technology, located in Chengdu Tianfu Software Park, is a local IT company in Chengdu.

The team is famous for its Camera360, which is a globally famous photography application for Android and iPhone systems.

Camera360 has nearly 40 million users, and it's downloads figure once exceeded the number of Angry Birds downloads, a popular mobile phone game, in iPhone's App store.

It ranks at the top of China's photographic applications on both platforms.

"The product's influence is much more than we expected," said Gu Rui, CMO of Pinguo Technology, "we just want to throw a stone first."

Gu said the company had only three people at the beginning. But it now has 50 employees, and is expected to expand to 70 employees by the end of this year.

The turning point for Pinguo Technology was when they entered into the Tianfu Software Park Business Incubator Platform at the end of 2010, Gu told China Daily.

The Tianfu Software Park Business Incubator Platform is a professional incubator platform for the IT industry, which provides both hardware and software facilities for early-stage start-ups in the IT sector.

"Thanks to the preferential policies provided by the local government and excellent services and opportunities from the incubator platform, our team is expanding fast.

"The facilities are free for us in the first year, including the rent and even computers," he added.

Forums between small IT companies and leading enterprises are held frequently in the incubator, providing opportunities for new-comers to learn from large and experienced companies.

The incubator platform also helps young teams acquire investment from investment companies. Camera360 has acquired millions in investment from Matrix Partners just four months after the product's release.

"We will focus on what we are doing,?" said Gu. "We aim to become a giant in the mobile phone photography section, just like Conon in the area of imaging and optical products manufacturing."

Growing hand in global mobile Internet market

Li Wanpeng, general manager of Goodteam Studio, a local mobile games developer. Photo by Lai Li/ Chinadaily

Li Wanpeng is the general manager of Goodteam Studio, a Chengdu-based mobile games development company.

Goodteam Studio is one of the first game developers in China that focuses on game development for the Android platform.

Its product "Empire Defense" is a popular mobile game that was awarded he first prize in a Chinese game developer competition sponsored by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

The game's downloads once exceeded "Angry Birds" in the Android market. The upgraded version, "Empire Defense II", also performed well with one million downloads in Google Play Store (previous Android Market) three months after it was released.

Li quit his job from a game developing company in 2008, and immediately started a new career with four friends.

"Goodteam Studio was lacking funds at the beginning, but we entered the Tianfu Software Park Business Incubator Platform in 2009. They provided us with free offices and computers, which is really helpful," said Li.

"We want to become a global well-known game development company," he added. "Chengdu does not lack talents and excellent policies, and we will make good use of these advantages to expand our business and gain respect from all the game players."

Local company draws investor's attention

iKamobile, a fast growing mobile Internet company, brings users popular travel applications. Photo by Lai Li/ Chinadaily

"Hotel Finder" is one of the top favorite mobile applications on the iPhone platform. It was ranked No.1 travel application on the App Store one week after its release.

The popular mobile application is made by iKamobile, a small business focusing on developing travel applications. The Chengdu-based company has developed a series of products such as "Movie Finder", "Taxi Finder" and "Train Ticket Finder".

The company was established by three people, and has now expanded to 30 employees.

"Hotel Finder" helps users search and book hotels in 700 cities in China, including budget hotels and high-end hotels such as the Sheraton, Shangri-La, and Hilton.

iKamobile became the only company that received investment from Innovation Works in Chengdu due to its outstanding business performance.

Innovation Works is one of the most influential investment companies in China. It was founded by Dr Kai-Fu Lee to help young Chinese people create successful start-up companies.

Liu Zhangbo, founder and CEO of iKamobile, said they will continue to develop travel software to create more products as a gratitude to its users.