There are quite a number of century-old shops that have survived against the odds, even after going through multiple wars. An example is the Liubiju Pickle and Sauce Shop that has been in existence since 1530. This shop is 489 years old, making it one of the oldest shops in Beijing. Another century-old shop is the jewelry brand Lao Feng Xiang, first started its business in 1848; now it has branches all over China. The renown pharmaceutical company Tong Ren Tang too is rather old. Founded in 1663, it is more than three centuries old now.

These old companies, however, will face tough challenges in this modern age. According to the estimation of Anbound's Chief Researcher Chan Kung, they might not be able to survive our time.

The biggest impact on the current development of the business environment is the problem of changes in the market, which makes "old practices" less useful, leaving Chinese companies facing great uncertainty.

In the past, adhering to the products and striving to make them better can make a company last for a long time. Century-old companies were formed under such conditions. Yet, it will be very difficult to do so in the future. In this internet era there are too many alternative products coming in externally, and internally there are intense product competitions. Even if one wishes to adhere to the industry, with the support of the internet, the external shocks will emerge in the near future. The internet allows us to access to all kinds of products and information, and this actually intensifies business competition and seriously damages the operations and future prospects of century-old companies.

Another point is that a major issue China is facing now is the industrial shift. The upstream and downstream industries are leaving, and the market is shrinking. At the same time the customer base is getting smaller and smaller, while their requirements are getting higher and higher, which has caused the market space to get relatively smaller. The impact of industrial shift is that even unrelated industry groups will be greatly affected and impacted. For instance, catering and electronics are two industries that are not related to each other. However, if there is an industrial shift in the electronics industry, the customer base of the catering industry will be affected. Therefore, the impact of industrial shift cannot be estimated merely through that industry alone. One should focus their viewpoint to the perspective of market space in order to correctly evaluate the situation, otherwise one would greatly underestimate the impact of industrial shift.

Then there is also issue concerning cost. Century-old companies often require cost stability and control. However, in the current period and foreseeable future, the cost is becoming uncontrollable, and has risen sharply, as it is still not subjected to policy restriction. This kind of cost increase is not caused by taxation. The cost of businesses is caused by the combination of various factors, and tax reduction has little impact to many businesses and industries. The combined factors, on the other hand, are harder to resolve. For example, the more prosperous the financial industry, the higher the cost of capital. Population and labor too, are other factors that affect the businesses.

The risks and difficulties of technological innovation will increase significantly in the future. When a technological innovation is introduced, it will soon be imitated and competed. The cost of technological purchases has also risen sharply. This is inevitable in this age of intellectual property and patents. If a business wishes to rely on technology to run a century-old company, it will be more difficult in the future.

From the perspective of the enterprisal development of century-old company, capital is also an unfavorable factor. The current capital environment is very different from the past. There are pitfalls in places where capital is present, which could very well cause the end of any century-old company.

Final analysis conclusion:

In general, the era of century-old companies is over. Judging from Chan Kung's observation and thinking, the life cycle of enterprises in the future will be greatly shortened. Except for a few far-sighted companies, most entrepreneurs cannot hope for running long-term businesses.