Action is needed to prepare for our next reality now AI and XR technologies mature, argues Alvin Wang Graylin at the introduction of his book Our Next Reality: Preparing for the AI-powered Metaverse at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
Alvin Wang Graylin 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 innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.
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| Arnold Ma |
Arnold Ma, chief executive of creative digital agency Qumin, suggests players should move up the influencer funnel, partnering with individuals or other brands who truly live the lifestyle and can tell an authentic story, rather than blindly paying popular more generic influencers to promote their products...
“People [in Asia] don’t hold onto legacy behaviours such as using Facebook or sticking with credit cards instead of mobile payment,” says Arnold Ma, founder and chief executive of Chinese digital marketing agency Qumin. “When something new comes out, people welcome it with open arms.”
This explains why tech currents increasingly flow from the east.
“The west is just seeing successful examples and copying it,” Ma says. “They’re using Asia as a guinea pig.”
Staying on top of Asian social platform developments is not only important to better reach consumers in Asia. Brands can also apply learnings from social media trends in Asia to their business elsewhere, giving them an edge over competitors in non-Asian markets. So, what do Asia’s next-gen social media foretell?More in the McKinsey Report.
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| Kaiser Kuo |
In India, the impression that China can produce only cheap imitations is widespread. If anything, China's story warns of the dangers of complacency in such assumptions. "I don't think anyone would have foreseen 15 years ago that four of the 10 biggest internet companies would be Chinese," says Kaiser Kuo, who worked with Baidu until 2016. Kuo says there is a misplaced perception that only China is blocking foreign competition to enable the rise of its giants. "Twitter was blocked in 2009, Google didn't pull out until March 2010, but even by then these companies were far behind their competitors," he says.
There are lessons from China's digital economy that question conventional wisdom on innovation, Kuo says. Even America's story shows the importance of government in creating the right conditions. "The mythology of Silicon Valley forgets the extent to which defence department expenditures played a role. The internet is a primary example. The state has been smart in China in knowing when to get out of the way, in setting the tax policies, in encouraging recruitment, in putting in place the infrastructure and in bringing back the Chinese entrepreneurs."...
It is clear that the rise of digital China is changing conventional wisdom on what it takes to innovate. As Kuo puts it, "Indians, like Americans, have this idea that freedom of expression is a necessary condition for innovation to happen. What's dangerous is if you think it's a sufficient condition to make people innovate." China is rewriting the rulebook, and India will ignore this transformation at its peril.
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| Shaun Rein |
For most of the past four decades, China’s economy has grown solidly with a model based on heavy investment and cheap production. But that model is broken, says Shanghai-based researcher Shaun Rein, and the environment in China is ripe for innovation.
China already has successful innovation stories to tell – digital giants Tencent and Alibaba among them – as the country leads the world in its mobile-first approach to the digital economy.
But for innovation to really take hold and for businesses and entrepreneurs to feel confident enough to invest, Rein says China needs to focus on IP protection, regulation and education.
He cites US sandwich chain Subway as an example of a business where IP protection went wrong. Entrepreneurs copied the idea and established near-identical franchises across China, making millions off a name to which they have no legal or financial right.
Rein says a lack of certainty around regulation and a fear that state-owned enterprises will be given priority have made potential investors wary.
“China’s version of Uber got hit with new regulations because the state-owned taxi fleets didn’t like the killing they were getting in the marketplace,” he says.
Rein says boosting the education offering in China should also be a priority to grow homegrown talent that Chinese companies can recruit to build their businesses. What they can’t build or create themselves, Rein says they will buy.
“The Chinese will become the bank roller,” he says. “They are buying technology.”More winners InTheBlack,com Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference?
