How China overtook the US in billionaires – Rupert Hoogewerf

 

Rupert Hoogewerf

China counts more than 1,000 billionaires in US dollar terms, overtaking solidly the US, according to the Hurun Rich List ranking. “We’re currently in the heart of a new industrial revolution, with new technologies including artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud, data and e-commerce creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs and leading to a concentration of wealth and economic power on a scale never seen before,” said Hurun Report Chairman and chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf, according to Shine.

Shine:

China has the world’s most billionaires — more than the United States, India and Germany combined — due to a flurry of new initial public offerings and the booming digital economy over the past year despite the pandemic, according to the latest Hurun rankings.

The combined wealth of billionaires in China is US$4.5 trillion, up 73 percent from last year.

China currently has 1,058 billionaires, up 259 from a year ago and far surpassing America’s 696 billionaires.

According to the Hurun rankings, the number of billionaires in China began to overtake the US in 2016.

“We’re currently in the heart of a new industrial revolution, with new technologies including artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud, data and e-commerce creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs and leading to a concentration of wealth and economic power on a scale never seen before,” said Hurun Report Chairman and Chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf. “Despite the disruption caused by COVID-19, this year has seen the biggest wealth increase in the last decade.”

China is the first country in the world to have more than 1,000 billionaires.

More in Shine.

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China moves from “mobile first” into “data first” – Winston Ma

 

Winston Wenyan Ma

China was the first economy to leapfrog into mobile, skipping hardware technologies from the West. Now it is moving from “mobile first” into “data first”, paving the digital road also for other economies, writes investment analyst Winston Wenyan Ma in Arabian Business.

Winston Wenyan Ma:

Across just about every industry sector, Chinese companies are rushing to learn how new digital technologies, including the internet of things, AI, blockchain, cloud computing and data analytics can be integrated into their businesses to unlock value from non-traditional angles. The transformation of businesses and industries has been more profound than from the mere addition of internet.

Again, taking the logistics issue Singles Day for example. The inventory, distribution and delivery of numerous orders in a short span of time is such a challenge.

And as such, Alibaba’s logistics affiliate, Cainiao, launched big data analytics to empower merchants with demand forecast data and allow them to accurately pre-stock their goods in the right quantity and location.

Moreover, Cainiao used GIS (Geographic Information System) to determine the fastest and most cost-effective delivery routes in a variety of complex road networks, including both rural villages and crowded urban areas. Because of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Cainiao deployed more than 10,000 mobile lockers to allow customers to pick-up parcels without human contact.

All these have profound implications for emerging markets that are looking at China as a reference case when they work on their own digital transformation. That means they need to look beyond mobile phones and the digital wallet; instead, they must start positioning themselves for the next phase – AI and the digital economy – now.

The billion-user messaging service of WeChat, $74 billion e-commerce in 24 hours on Singles Day, and “smile-to-pay” functions creating a cashless society are already screenshots from yesterday.

More in Arabian Business.

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New trends for IT startups – William Bao Bean

 

William Bao Bean

Seasoned Shanghai-based VC William Bao Bean, general partner at SOSV and managing director of Chinaccelerator and MOX, sits down with Asian Pioneers to discuss his background, upbringing, and early career. In this snippet: what are the new trends in his industry, biotech and AI?

Asian Pioneers:

AP: SOSV invests in many verticals through its accelerators so there must be a lot of insights. Where do you see the next big trends? Are VCs transitioning to biotech or deep-tech?

WBB: Bio is deep-tech, hardware is deeptech, internet software is deep-tech. Deep-tech is leveraging cutting edge technology to drive a change. Technology can also be in a vat. Most of the cellular agriculture looks like brewing beer. You put culture and microbes in, you take something that’s like goo and turn it into something that changes the world. That’s what my partners are doing at IndieBio, our biotech platform. It’s extremely technical and I don’t understand most of it. One area where I’m very focused on is artificial intelligence.
Almost every one of our companies is leveraging AI. They leverage data and algorithms to solve problems, improve services, personalize marketing and increase efficiency. Startups can do things now that 3-4 years ago would have required an army of people and months of time.
How much does a candy bar phone cost right now? $5 USD. Android phones are like $50 USD. We’ve recently invested in a company that refurbishes Android phones. They’re selling them for $25 USD with a warranty and a certificate, bringing the cost down and the entry barrier down. We are also investing in blockchain to improve security, transparency and trust in areas like agriculture through our portfolio companies Scantrust and UNL. Coffee Exchange is helping the 20 million coffee farmers out there to make more money and enabling coffee drinkers to know who grew the beans.
I think the next biggest trend is the next 4 billion people who don’t have the internet. That’s our tagline for the last five years at MOX. The amazing thing about the next 4 billion is that they’re now the next 3 billion people. Since we started MOX, almost 1 billion new people have connected to the internet and are using it regularly. That’s going to be one of the biggest revolutions — bringing technology, services, information and education to people who didn’t have it before.
People think it’s strange when Google focuses on people who make about $1000-$1500 USD a month. When we first started, we focused on people who were making $250-$500 USD a month. Now, we focus on people who earn about $150 a month. Those are very different economic strategies. We’re helping people lease their own smartphones, change their lives through services like microloans even though their total monthly wage is only about $125-$150 USD. Is it going to get us superrich? Probably not. A lot of it is cliche but we are in a very lucky position to be improving lives day-to-day.

More at Asian Pioneers.

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Costs for censorship are rising - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

Content-providers have been trying to lower costs for the notorious censorship in China, for example by introducing more AI-driven tools. But the government if fearing too much unwanted content if falling through the cracks, asks for tougher censorship, adding dramatically to the costs, says business analyst Ben Cavender to MSN.

MSN:

In January, a government-appointed body released guidelines for short video platforms, requiring them to bulk up censorship and vet all content before it is posted. In November, the government released rules that ban online-video platform operators from using deep-learning to create fake news, an effort to address so-called deepfake technology and disinformation. 

“The government feels that maybe too much unapproved content is sliding through the cracks” and is trying to address that, said Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based managing director at China Market Research Group. 

For companies, it may mean rising costs to beef up its content-monitoring operations. “We should expect to see greater investment both in automated solutions as well as in content-management teams,” Mr. Cavender said. 

The government also has toughened its stance on how companies deal with data privacy. Earlier this week, it said some of the country’s biggest tech companies—including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Xiaomi Corp.—weren’t sufficiently protecting user data.

More at MSN.

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Artificial intelligence rises in China – Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

Vision, robotics and language are key areas where China is worldwide leading the AI, says Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of the Hurun report on artificial intelligence. The number of patent applications has been rising sharply over the past five years, he adds in the South China Morning Post. Huawei holds a top position.

The South China Morning Post:

Tencent is one of the main champions of AI technology in China’s medical industry while Baidu is a key AI player in smart homes and smart driving, said the report.

E-commerce powerhouse Alibaba, leading Chinese surveillance camera maker Hikvision, voice-recognition developer iFlytek and state-owned power company State Grid also made it to the top 10... 

“The number of AI patent applications has risen rapidly in the past five years, and China is the world leader especially in the fields of vision, robotics and language,” said Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf, also known by his Chinese name Hu Run. 

Unlike many leading Chinese technology firms that primarily focus on software development, Huawei and Hikvision are also major chip designers. 

Both were included in the US trade blacklist, officially called the Entity List, earlier this year. Their inclusion in the list effectively bars them from purchasing US goods, as the world’s two largest economies extend their trade competition into technology.

More in the South China Morning Post.

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Retail: the mirror of China's AI revolution - Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Dudarenok

China's retailers, with Alibaba's Hema at the helm, are leading the AI revolution in online and offline space. Consumer expert Ashley Dudarenok explains how AI, online and offline retail combine at a dazzling pace, at CFOinnovation.

CFOinnovation:

Shoppers at (Alibaba's) Hema experience a seamless integration of its online and offline stores. Customers ordering groceries online for home delivery will have a staff member going through the supermarket’s aisles, bagging groceries, and passing the orders onto a conveyor belt to the deliverers. To date, it has opened more than 100 stores in China. Retail experience is taking on a new form in China. 

“So essentially in China these giants are actively merging offline spaces into the online environment. It’s not like offline to online or online to offline. It’s more like [both] becoming one experience. So it’s much deeper than omnichannel and all these other concepts that we’ve been aware of and trying to implement for the past 15 years in the West,” said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of Alarice, a digital marketing agency in Hong Kong. 

Alibaba’s grocery stores are an example of digitizing and integrating inventory, supply chains, logistics, payments, delivery, and order fulfilment of retail. 

In the bigger scheme of things, what’s happening in the retail landscape is another manifestation of technological changes, especially due to development in AI. “This ‘new retail’ is the integration of the technological advancements that has been happening for the past 20 years. Retail is just one aspect very close to businesses — we all understand we buy services and products,” Dudarenok said.

More at CFOinnovation.

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What the heck is Bytedance - Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Dudarenok

The unicorn Bytedance is worth US$750 billion, an international big hit on news distribution, exploiting AI in a sensational way, but hardly known to many. China veteran Ashley Dudarenok explains why is not owned by Alibaba, Tencent but independent on the market, and making a blast.

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Why AI works better on WeChat than on Facebook - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Chinese companies are making great strides in using machine learning or AI. One of the reasons is that  China's WeChat is better fit than Facebook to integrate this disruptive tool, says William Bao Bean, director or the  Chinaccelerator to eMarketer about influencer marketing in China.

EMarketer:

Bean: One of our companies, OCheng, is applying AI to WeChat commerce. WeChat service accounts are allowed to send a message to their followers once a week. OCheng can take customer relationship management data, look at the content people are engaging with, their purchase history, etc., and use machine learning to personalize these weekly messages. Instead of sending one message to a million people, you can send a million messages that are unique to each user every week. 

eMarketer: Is this process entirely automated? 

Bean: The content has to be written around the products the marketer is pushing that week. But the way the messages are written and the offers that are being shown to each person are personalized through automation. And when users write back, an AI-assisted chatbot can answer their questions. You not only have personalized content going to each user, but you can also have one-on-one conversations with WeChat users without a human, or you can have a chatbot and human working together. 

eMarketer: What types of brands are working with the tech? 

Bean: The Richemont Group, Dunhill, Macallan and Sephora are some of the brands that are leveraging this type of technology to drive higher sales. It’s not some pie-in-the-sky platform for them—it’s about dollars and cents, and there’s real ROI [return on investment]. 

eMarketer: Is it easier to achieve this on WeChat than Facebook? 

Bean: You can do a lot more within WeChat because it’s a more open platform than Facebook. A lot of the techniques you use on WeChat you can also use on Facebook. Facebook should start catching up, but the difference is how the two platforms make money. WeChat makes money on transactions, whereas Facebook makes money on ads. Facebook wants to capture ad revenues, whereas [WeChat parent company] Tencent wants to capture the commerce aspect. Marketing is important, but the opportunity to capture a percentage of the transaction as opposed to a percentage of the marketing budget is a bigger opportunity over time. 

eMarketer: In what other areas is machine learning being deployed to improve marketing outcomes? 

Bean: Influencer marketing is big in China. Influencer platform Robin8 uses machine learning and natural language processing to analyze the content that key opinion leaders [KOLs] push out, and then analyze the impact—who’s engaging with that content. Robin8 can do end-to-end attribution from KOLs all the way through to purchases on WeChat. This gives marketers an idea of what kind of content from which KOL works with different types of users, and they can optimize their KOL buy.

More in eMarketer.

William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form. Are you looking for more experts on innovation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

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How China becomes a global leader in AI and driverless cars - Mark Greeven

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China's high-tech companies like Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi and Baidu are pushing the country to become a global leader by developing new business models, says Zhejiang University professor Mark Greeven, author of Business Ecosystems in China: Alibaba and Competing Baidu, Tencent, Xiaomi and LeEco to the South China Morning Post.

The South China Morning Post:

Greeven, who co-wrote Business Ecosystem in China: Alibaba and Competing Baidu, Tencent, Xiaomi and LeEco with Wei Wei, said Chinese companies have found a new method of organisation that will help it become a global innovation leader. 

The business ecosystems of Chinese companies differ sharply from those of US juggernauts such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, according to Greeven, whose book came out in September. 

In the US, one company usually creates a platform which outside companies either plug into or use. In China, an outside company does not plug in, but becomes part of the business as one of hundreds of players in an ecosystem, Greeven argues. 

A distinct trait of a Chinese innovation ecosystem is the “glue” that exists between all the participants. For example, in the case of Alibaba – the owner of the South China Morning Post – the payment function is shared in its ecosystem. 

The five companies in the book’s title are all digital driven, but they mix hardware and software, online and offline and old and new industries. They include relatively old companies such as Tencent, which was set up in the 1990s, and younger companies. 

What they have in common is an aversion to adopting the standard metrics structures used by most multinationals. Greeven found. Their unique ecosystem, under which suppliers, distributors or customers become partners, helps them achieve early success in a highly uncertain business environment.

More in the South China Morning Post.

Mark Greeven is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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IT-investments: moving from solving basic problems to AI - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

A major shift is taking place in financial IT investments, tells William Bao Bean, managing director of the Chinaccelerator at CNBC. In the past 15 years VC's helped to solve basic problems, he says. That's done and we move now to AI.

CNBC:

William Bao Bean, general partner at early stage venture capital firm SOSV, said at a panel at the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology that significant sums of money were flowing into AI. 

"So the last 15 years, entrepreneurs and [venture capitalists], like us, have been investing in companies that solve basic problems," he said, adding most of the problems today are solved "pretty well" in the country. 

Currently, China is a "lot more like the U.S., where, in order to make an impact, you have to have a revolution in tech," Bao Bean said. "So you're seeing massive amounts of money going into AI."... 

China not only has a vast population but a majority of the people have some form of access to the internet. 

Some of the companies to watch out for in China's drive for AI, according to Goldman, are the big three internet giants — Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. Others include ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing, on-demand services provider Meituan-Dianping and speech and language recognition firm iFlytek. 

At SOSV, Bao Bean is also the managing director of a Shanghai-based accelerator program called Chinaccelerator that helps global start-ups enter the Chinese market and Chinese firms go abroad. 

The big problem Chinese start-ups face at the moment, he said, is user acquisition due to the fact that so much of the market is dominated by a very small number of companies. 

"Unless you ally yourself with one of the big players, no one will ever see your product," Bao Bean said. 

Experts have previously told CNBC that, in most tech sectors in China, investors tend to bet on two-to-three dominant players. Often, some of those start-ups merge to capture the majority of the market. For example, in the ride-hailing sector, the merger between two of the top start-ups resulted in the creation of Didi Chuxing, which currently dominates the market. 

Bao Bean also said at a CNBC panel on Monday afternoon that start-ups planning to enter the Chinese market needed to rethink their products and services.

More at CNBC.

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China is a source of business models, not an easy market - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

China is, as the second largest economy, becoming an attractive source of new business ideas, says Shanghai-based VC William Bao Bean. Although the China market itself is a hard one to crack, for startups and larger companies, he tells in WebinTravel.

WebinTravel:

William Bao Bean, who runs SOSV Accelarator which runs China Accelerator and MOX Accelerator, said that Facebook is copying WeChat and the question is, who can crack the global market first? “Chinese companies have gone to the US and failed, WeChat tried – spent US$120,000 a day on marketing,” he said. 

Chinese companies are now turning to Southeast Asia which he said “is turning into a Chinese colony. Leaders by sectors are being taken out by the Chinese. If you’re building a business, say a family-owned bank, you have to ask what’s the future because Alibaba and Tencent are coming. Riches to rags in three generations?” 

“In China, the big got bigger and the small got crushed"... 

As for startups who want to enter China, Bao Bean said, “99% of you should not go to China. Look at all the big boys – how many of them have been successful? Uber spent $2b, Didi shut them down. Uber was a company that broke the rules and that works in China but still …” 

His thinking is you need an unfair advantage to compete. “We focus on fintech, AI, machine learning and education.”

More in WebinTravel.

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