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.

Winston Wenyan Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) 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.

How India can use the China-experience - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Startups from India can profit from previous experiences in China, says startup guru William Bao Bean, managing director of the Shanghai-based Chinaccelator to Livemint. “I’m not saying China is the same as India, but the challenges people face in Tier-2+ cities in China were similar to those that people outside Indian metros face. So the approaches that worked in China are more likely to work in India than the approaches that worked in the US," he says.

Livemint:

William Bao Bean has been hands-on with the expansion as a general partner at SOSV and MD of Chinaccelerator and MOX (Mobile Only Accelerator)since 2014. One of his new focus areas is India, where SOSV stepped up activity last year. Six of the 10 startups in the eighth MOX batch demonstrating their innovations in Taipei on 25 February are Indian.
Cheaper smartphones, lower cost of mobile data, and an expanding digital payments infrastructure are a trinity of factors sweetening the India story for Bao Bean. It also explains why he’s more interested in the Tier-2+ or Bharat demographic than the “top 30 million" well-off urban Indians. A monthly income of around ₹20,000 and growing use of Android phones in everyday life creates new possibilities.
“This little thing that they carry around in their pockets, which is maybe among the three most valuable assets they own, has the potential to really change their lives," he says. “It’s like we’ve seen this movie before, right? We’ve seen how the internet and accessibility changed China."
He was a partner at SoftBank China and India before SOSV, and an equity research analyst as VP of Deutsche Bank earlier. “I started covering China in 2004, when the total value of Chinese internet companies was $3 billion and now it’s $2.5 trillion. So we have a huge amount of experience."
This was SOSV’s value proposition when it started investing across Asia in 2010. Initially, it was consumer internet in general, but then MOX focused on mobile internet. “We focus on people whose first experience or the only experience with the internet is on a smartphone. This sort of mobile revolution had a much bigger impact in China than it did in the US or Europe," he says.
Comparisons with an earlier stage in China can be fraught with mismatches because the economy and per capita income grew so fast across the border. India is far from reaching that sort of accelerated growth. Lower capacity to pay, poor infrastructure and a patchy internet have kept VCs focused mostly on urban consumers in India. But Bao Bean can see the parallels between India and China more clearly than most.
“I’m not saying China is the same as India, but the challenges people face in Tier-2+ cities in China were similar to those that people outside Indian metros face. So the approaches that worked in China are more likely to work in India than the approaches that worked in the US."

More at Livemint.

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 innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Is the coronavirus disrupting your China meeting? Do check out if the China Speakers Bureau can help you.

At the China Speakers Bureau we have started to explore WeChat Work as a social platform, next to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Are you interesting in following us on this journey? Check out our instructions here.

The next bet is on India - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Shanghai-based VC William Bao Bean, general partner at SOSV, who is also the managing director of two SOSV accelerator programs—MOX and Chinaccelerator, explains how India is becoming the next bet for his startup accelerator after China, in an interview with Kr-Asia.

Kr-Asia:

We came to India during pre-internet times and we realized it was a bit early. In the first three years we invested in seven companies and last year alone we did 15 investments. 

From 2016 to 2019 we made bets on the change that has come to India. We’ve seen it happen in China and the US. In the 90s I was in the US doing tech investment when the internet boom happened. 

We’re focused on mobile-first, mobile-only, and don’t go after the 30 million rich people in India. We’re focused on the populace living in smaller towns, people who don’t really make that much money, and where technology has the opportunity to change their lives. 

The companies we are working with, many of them had almost no revenue when we invested. For example, Coutloot, the e-commerce site we invested in, were barely selling anything, and now they’ve grown by something like 20 times in a year. It’s all the entrepreneurs’ efforts, not ours, but we are trying to be helpful with a slightly different perspective. 

We’ve had some experience in mobile-first and mobile-only models in China. So, we come in and help entrepreneurs with this experience. The early-stage entrepreneurs, they don’t have the benefits like the big guys have of Chinese money or parachuting 50 engineers in from Silicon Valley. We are helping these entrepreneurs with the tips, tricks, tools, and strategies that all the big guys have. 

I think the combination of timing, expertise, and approach that we bring, allows us to make quick investment decisions. Our companies first get traction, then they raise money, and not vice-versa. That’s one of the things that we help them with. 

Kr: How involved are you with your portfolio companies in India? 

WBB: The problem with the internet in India and not just India, but in many countries is the high customer acquisition costs. 

We are not just about investing money; we help our companies lower their acquisition costs as close as possible to zero. We help our companies make more money and increase their lifetime value. We are able to lower customer acquisition costs because our companies cooperate with each other and they cross-promote each other. Our companies don’t have to pay for users, but they do get revenue share on the back end. We have got 56 million monthly active smartphone users and a lot of these are cross-promoting each other. That’s our first strategy. 

People love our portfolio companies’ apps and they’re super sticky, but the problem is they don’t have a business model. So, we help them get a business model and increase their lifetime value. One of the main ways to monetize in India is e-commerce affiliates and financial services. We make it possible for them to start monetizing from e-commerce affiliates and microloans. 

On one side you have free acquisition, on the other side, you have monetization, making customer acquisition costs decrease, and the lifetime value goes up. All these happen without raising money and without an entrepreneur giving away half of his or her company to a VC only to turn around and spend all that money on advertising. 

We try and help the companies to get the positive unit economics where the lifetime value is above customer acquisition costs. We help them try and get the scale and when we do that a good number of them can go out and actually raise money at a proper valuation from a proper VC.

More in Kr-Asia.

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 innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

India: next step to 4 billion mobile-only users - William Bao Bean

After China, VC's like William Bao Bean, now focus on India, in achieving its goal of getting to 4 billion mobile-only users, he tells in Techcircle. Many of the lessons learned in China, he can now apply in India, he says.

Techcircle:


What we look for are companies that solve a problem for people in more than one market. If you look at sectors such as fintech, media, ecommerce and social commerce, healthtech, and education, people across markets tend to have similar type problems, especially when they are on $50-$200 Android, getting access to digital for the first time and there is leapfrog effect.

I lived in China for 20 years, came to India in 2005 – we have seen this play out market by market. Every market is not the same, you have to change, localize, optimise for each market. But the challenges that consumers and businesses have and the problems that need to be solved are somewhat similar. So, we have the experience and we are looking for amazing talent. 

Most of our founders are serial entrepreneurs. In our last batch, entrepreneurs had seven exits, one team was part of the founding team of a unicorn. Most of the entrepreneurs we work with are not kids. We have some that are young, but usually they have been around the block. 

When you want to scale up, it is usually better to have a product market fit then scale, not scale and find product market fit. We are looking at companies that are at product market fit or almost there...

In India, it’s no longer a two-dimensional chess game where you can see all the different players. In 2020, everyone is going to have to learn 3D chess. 

There are startups coming from below and then there’s big guys coming from the top. So if you switch the wrong way, they are going to crush you. We need to understand and be aware of the increasing complexity of the market. From an investment perspective, the easiest thing to do is to look at what worked in China. There’s a decent chance it will work in India. 

We are really focused on social commerce. Learning about buying something, not just from an ad or from search, but from a recommendation from a person. Social commerce can be a physical product or can also be a services. In education, we would like to see startups that tech-enable teachers, transforming them from being a YouTuber to a small and medium business person. From making $200 a month to making $3000 a month. 

We are also pretty focussed on fintech. One area that is kind of new in India is monetizing with games. I don’t think people have really cracked the code here in games. We are going to watch out the game space. We just have to open games up for audience in a way they can accept it at a price point they can accept and afford.

More in Techcircle.

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 digital transformation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Taiwan: excellent launch path for pan-Asian ventures - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Shanghai-based MOX (Mobile Only Accelerator) works from different places in the world, including Taipei. Taiwan offers an excellent launching platform for ventures who look for international expansion into the rest of Asia, says MOX managing director William Bao Bean, according to the News Lens.

The News Lens:

By partnering with promotion partners such as mobile operators in each country, MOX enables the strongest mobile startups from around the world expand into new markets without spending money on customer acquisition. 

“The first billion internet users accessed the Internet using their PCs, but the next 4 billion users — Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America — are mobile-only. Hundreds of millions of users are getting on the Internet with smartphones,” said William Bao Bean, the managing director of MOX. 

MOX is operated by the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm SOSV with US$650 million assets under management. SOSV operates six vertically-focused accelerator programs in different cities around the world, and MOX is the first international accelerator in Taiwan. 

“The cost of living and staffing resources [in Taiwan] are relatively low, and there’s a large pool of highly educated professionals suitable for startups. Additionally, for companies looking to expand into Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, and other emerging markets, Taiwan provides an excellent launchpad for international growth," Bean said.

More in the News Lens.

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 innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

China leads innovation in global retail - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

China is leading the innovation for retail and two to three years ahead of the US, says business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, to CSB News. Internet giants like Alibaba started on mobile and then turned to brick-and-mortar, unlike the traditional retail who try to force online upon their customers.

More at CSB News. Shaun Rein 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 e-commerce experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Mobile only: getting to the next 4 billion users - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

A market of four billion users is waiting to be tapped into and William Bao Bean, managing director of the Shanghai-based SOSV, explains how his MOX is helping startups to do so. With a solid background in banking, telecom and the internet, William saw how mobile applications disrupted traditional industries, and offer new possibilities for companies to enter developing markets. Here his take on his current day job.

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.

How the World Cup turned mobile in China - Andy Mok

Andy Mok

The past World Cup not only gathered a massive audience in China but also marked a switch from classic TV to mobile, says China analyst Andy Mok at CGTN. Content creation has become a major industry in this traditional sport.

CGTN:

Andy Mok, a digital economy observer, said the large World Cup viewership on China's mobile Internet was game-changing, and was made possible by technology, its user base and content creation. 

"The smart phone revolution totally reinvented the viewing content participation experience. It used to be many people around one screen, passively absorbing content. Today, it's a multi-screen experience and this is the way, especially the young people, consuming, creating and distributing digital content," Mok told CGTN.

More in CGTN.

Andy Mok 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 China's digital transformation? Do check out this list.  

Why mobile commerce does not equal e-commerce - Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Dudarenok

Selling online in China needs a completely different approach compared to the rest of the world. Marketing veteran Ashley Dudarenok, author of Unlocking the World's Largest E-Market: A Guide to Selling on Chinese Social Media explains to CER what the difference is between e-commerce and mobile commerce, and why mobile is dominant in China.

CER:

A: Traditional retail is still the biggest retail channel in China, but this is changing rapidly. When we talk about e-commerce and offline retail, what is happening is that people don’t want to migrate either to one or the other, but instead radiate into the middle ground – the ‘new retail’ experience. That shift happens one the one hand because of the tastes of the consumer, but also the competitive drive from Alibaba and Tencent. 

How big is e-commerce itself? It’s big, but I’d say more important is mobile commerce. Last year, mobile commerce overtook e-commerce in terms of number of purchases made in China, but both are still smaller than offline channels. The key is that new retail is going to merge the online and offline into one ecosystem. We will not see offline stores disappear, certainly not. Instead we are about to see the evolution of these brick-and-mortar stores into the ‘new retail’ experience. I don’t believe employees are going to disappear from grocery stores or coffee shops, for instance, as people all seem to imagine when they picture the future of Chinese retail, they’re just going to be doing different jobs. They won’t be changing the price tags but entertaining us in the store in some way. 

Lots of people still misunderstand e-commerce and think it is omnichannel, with a company present across the spectrum, from mobiles to websites to stores. In reality, new retail is all about putting the consumers at the top and creating a huge data pool around their shopping trends – where, how, and what do they buy. From this, retailers both online and offline, distributors, suppliers etc. plug in and communicate with each other to optimally serve that individual. That’s the uniqueness of this experience. 

So we shouldn’t ask how big is e-commerce now, but how big will it be in three years. 

CER: You make the distinction between e-commerce and mobile commerce. Are they not just variations of the same thing? 

A: In China there is a huge difference. E-commerce is the traditional desktop ordering platforms such as Taobao. Mobile commerce is accessible by apps that often do not have a popular desktop version, like WeChat or some live-streaming platforms. This ability to use a phone to quickly complete the entire transaction is the main idea, and it is a huge business in China. 

CER: Why do you think online retail and mobile payments are so much more popular in China than in other parts of the world? 

A: There are many factors, the first probably being privacy. Westerners are very paranoid about privacy, but the Chinese just have a completely different approach to personal information. Just having a WeChat account, for example, basically requires uploading a passport – imagine how many users would flee Facebook if they started asking for such details. I think Western consumers tend to think beyond just convenience and are sceptical of how retailers might abuse any information provided. In China, there is less fear of being harassed or spammed, but instead giving out more info may just lead to better service. Take WeChat again: they do not allow many types of advertising or spamming etc., and really do focus on quality of service for the user over quantity of payments generated. Its users are at the centre of things, and users themselves know that if they give WeChat their bank info and other data, when they step out of their house later they will get a notification about a discount on their favourite coffee at a Starbucks they are about to walk past. 

A second is the integration of technology and society. The technology in the West just isn’t there. But in China the speed at which people adopt new ideas is rapid. Grandmas and grandpas are using mobile payment and shopping apps to guide their daily lives, but in Europe and the US people of that generation would most likely need their sons and daughters’ help. This extends to companies too, which expand and develop so fast here. There is that saying: ‘perfect is not fast enough.’ Trial and error will push forward progress much faster than a perhaps more mature approach of Western companies to achieve perfection before moving on to the next stage. This cautiousness and adherence to procedure is exactly why many foreign retail brands are suffering in China – they just can’t keep up with the locals. 

CER: Let’s focus on the companies themselves then. How are foreign retail brands competing with the homegrown players? 

A: It depends on the market segment. International B2B (business-to-business) firms just don’t have a clue what to do in China. FMCG brands are also losing market share year on year. 

Luxury brands, on the other hand, have retained their prestige for historical reasons, it has nothing to do with their adoption of technology. They are certainly going through a digital transformation right now, but they can afford to go a bit slower for this reason. They don’t have to worry about local firms beating them in terms of quality or image. Furthermore, luxury brands’ core Chinese consumer base is around the 35+ age group, which still has an affinity for traditional retail practices. 

But make no mistake, they want in on China and know a special approach is needed. A common strategy for a luxury group is to pick a single brand and digitalise it for the Chinese market, and if it works apply it to the other brands. 

CER: Lastly, what effects do you think there will be on businesses from Beijing’s increasing oversight of industries like mobile payments and peer-to-peer lending? 

A: Beijing is getting concerned with the amount of money flowing around in blockchain, cryptocurrencies and individual lending, but let’s remember China’s general policy: if it’s not forbidden, it’s allowed. So in the short term, until there are acute changes in policy, companies will keep doing what they’re doing. 

There will be more regulation in the long term, however, and an adjustment period will be necessary for retail companies. But I think once this is over it will be good for the industry. Are some brands going to be hit? Yes. But once the playbook is laid out, once firms know what they can and can’t do, companies can start setting up a solid, long-term infrastructure.

More in CER (here quoted in Chozan.

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

Are you looking for more experts on China's digital transformation? Do check out this list.

How 'social' became crucial for internet business in China - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Social connectivity has become crucial for life and business in China. "If you want to do well as an internet company today, you need to be strong on the social aspect, otherwise you won’t be able to gain any traction," tells business analyst Shaun Rein, author of The War for China's Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order, to the South China Morning Post.

The South China Morning Post:

Such business models are successful because China leapfrogged the personal computer era and saw tremendous growth in mobile internet and smartphone users, according to Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group. 

“Smartphones are inherently social devices, and many of China’s tech companies built services with the smartphone in mind. Social networking was also an area where China’s technology companies had little competition because foreign players were blocked from entering the market by the government.” 

Such favourable market conditions allowed Chinese internet companies to greatly influence how social media and social networking sites operated in China. 

“Social has now become a big part of the Chinese internet and the ecosystem of services. If you want to do well as an internet company today, you need to be strong on the social aspect, otherwise you won’t be able to gain any traction,” Rein said... 

“In a landscape where Chinese consumers are unsure of which products and services are good they are more likely to trust what their friends are using, buying or recommending,” said China Marketing Research Group’s Rein.

More in the South China Morning Post.

Shaun Rein 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 China's take on the digital transformation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

The upcoming cold war in the Internet - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Key players in the US and China have profoundly different ways to expand, says William Bao Bean, managing director of Chinaccelerator to the Harbinger China. Those major player changed the playing field profoundly, also for startups.

The Harbinger China.

William: In the U.S., companies like Facebook have lagged behind China for a year-and-a-half to two years now. And it's taken about a year-and-a-half for Facebook to develop many of the features that are currently coming out on [Facebook] Messenger and WhatsApp around payment and commerce.

So here's the difference: in China you can go on any social network and pretty much anything that you see you can click and buy, whereas on Facebook, on [Facebook] Messenger, on WhatsApp, on any of these platforms, they have a different business model, or actually, they do not have a business model. They are not making any money. So Facebook played the long game and now they are making lots of money. But it's all advertising based and if you think about basic economics, advertising drives behavior. And usually people want to drive purchasing behavior so advertising revenue is actually a subset of the actual commerce revenues. Advertising drives game revenue; advertising drives commerce revenue. 

Facebook makes money on advertising while in Asia, social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo make money on commerce such that they get a cut of the actual purchase. So if you control the payment platform as well as the user, it's much more powerful than just controlling the advertising. You can potentially have an order of magnitude of greater revenue. So we will see an interesting battle played out in other countries like India, where Facebook and WhatsApp are strong and where Chinese players have backed local commerce companies and local payment companies. So it'll be the Indians backed by the Chinese against U.S. heavyweights like Facebook and Amazon. And that'll be interesting to see how things play out, especially in comparison to China, because the Chinese retail industry is under a huge amount of pressure since people don't carry wallets or buy offline anymore. 

Adam: Given that Facebook is entering new markets like India, and with the other Chinese-backed providers which have payments attached to the virtual and social experiences, how do you think Facebook might localize their products or customize in those particular markets in terms of payments? 

William: Facebook does not localize. They have an “one size fits all” strategy. Facebook in the U.S. is the same as Facebook in India. They can add features, and they are adding payment methods. But the bottom line is that a product designed for one market does not always work in another market. So far Facebook has been very successful in Southeast Asia and same with WhatsApp, but they are somewhat bounded by the fact that they do not localize. So what you'll see play out is global companies like Facebook and Google increasingly going up against local players backed by Chinese companies like Alibaba and Tencent.

I think it is like the next World War. It's not going to be fought with the tanks and bullets and guns, but between global companies. Instead of having 80 percent of the money made by 20 percent of the companies, it's 99 percent of the money being made by 1 percent of the company.

More at the Harbinger China.

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 list.

Are you looking for more experts on innovation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list. 

Related articles

• Alibaba's Ant Financial partners with Hutchison to develop its Alipay service in Hong Kong
• China blocks WhatsApp messages

Attracting mobile-first users is a different ball game - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

What internet companies coming to China forget is that the user base is completely mobile. They have always done all their online stuff on mobile devices, says managing director William Bao Bean. of accelerator VC firm SOSV at MOX Demo Batch Day 3, writes E27.

E27:

“Consumers whose first experience is with the mobile phone. They are different than the rest of us, they have different needs, different requirements and the monetise differently. We help [the startups] with their services and the most important thing is we help with user acquisition,” Bean said during the event.

More at E27.

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 internet experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

Why China's health care apps are failing - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson

Thousands of mobile apps have tried to tap into the poorly organized health care system in China. They failed, despite massive funding, says Beida business professor Jeffrey Towson at his weblog, because the developers knew more about mobile phones than about health care. Health care is modernizing, he writes, but government supervision hampers speed.

Jeffrey Towson:

More than a thousand Chinese healthcare apps have been launched in the past five years. These startups, targeting the seemingly super-hot intersection of booming smartphone usage and modernizing healthcare, were supposed to be the next big thing. And many have been backed by top venture capitalists and leading Chinese companies such as Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings  and Ping An Insurance Group. 

But as of yet, there have been few real successes in Chinese mobile health. In fact, most health apps have failed to generate significant numbers of active users, let alone produce much revenue. And forget about profits. 

Now as investor sentiment in the idea cools, many of these startups are cash poor and heading towards a painful shake out. Chinese healthcare appears to have defeated China’s smartest entrepreneurs. 

There are lots of reasons for this. But at the simplest level, investors just knew a lot more about China’s smartphone market than its healthcare system.... 

In my opinion, absent big, immediate changes in the core structure of SOE hospitals and government insurance, the best target for Chinese health apps is consumers and consumer-facing businesses. They should essentially bypass the core hospital system and go direct to consumers. Focus on ancillary services such as dentistry, medical tourism, optometry, beauty and aesthetics, and health and wellness. Do e-commerce for OTC products – and for prescription products when that becomes allowed. Basically, sell directly to Chinese consumers who have money and smartphones and want better healthcare now. 

Looking at the big picture, it is clear that Chinese healthcare is in fact modernizing. And the changes that have been happening have been quite dramatic. But this is modernization under government direction and with a mix of business, political and social objectives. So the speed of China’s healthcare modernization is slow and step-by-step. And this has created a mismatch with the rapid pace expected by mobile health app startups and their venture capital investors. This difference in pace is the fundamental problem for these apps. And it will probably not end well for most of these startups.

More at Jeffrey Towson's weblog.

Jeffrey Towson 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.  

Fintech, mobile and social commerce in 2017 - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

China is becoming fast one of the most innovative markets, explains Shanghai-based managing director William Bao Bean of the Chinaccelerator. Fintech and mobile will leave their marks on 2017, he explains to a non-Chinese audience. While startups have a hard time to find funding, 9% of the startups in Shenzhen get one million US dollar in funding. In stead of joining foreign multinationals, young Chinese prefer now an entrepreneurial career, he tells in The Heat.

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 fintech experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Related articles

• How to startup in China
• China's about to unleash its roller-coaster tech market on the world
• Snap Inc. has a new China tech R&D office focused on Spectacles
• Why Snap opened an office in China

William Bao Bean: the man behind one of the successful accelerator programmes in China

William Bao Bean

Often innovator William Bao Bean prefers to give the stage to his China-related innovative startups, but ahead of the MOX - the Mobile Only Accelerator in both Taipei and Singapore in March, E27 profiles the force behind China´s drive for innovation.

E27:

William Bao Bean, SOSV Managing Director and the head of Chinaccelerator, one of China’s most successful accelerator programme, is the managing director for another, mobile-only, programme. It is called MOX, and its goal is to help the best mobile startups go cross border, and reach up to 130 million potential users. 

On January 2nd, the programme kicked-off its second batch that included companies from the US, Russia, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Vietnam and Thailand. “Our goal has been to help the best mobile startups go cross border into mobile-first, mobile-only markets in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and South America,” said Bean. 

“This batch represents the best of the best, and our goal is to help them reach 130 million users.” 

The Demo Days will be held on March 7 in Taipei and March 9 in Singapore.

More at E27.

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 innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.    

The next four billion internet users will be mobile only - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

The first billion internet users entered the space using their PC´s. But the last four billion users will be mobile only, says innovation expert William  Bao Bean in Tech in Asia, talking about the MOX demo days. To reach those billions, innovation startups also has to be mobile.

Tech in Asia:

MOX is a program by SOSV, a US-headquartered venture capital firm that invests in seed- and growth-stage tech startups. The difference is, it’s doing so through its own accelerators. The firm also operates IndieBio for biotech, Urban-X for smart cities, Food-X for restaurants, HAX for hardware, and Chinaccelerator for internet software. 

“In the US and Europe, you have one billion people who started using the internet on PCs,” MOX managing director and SOSV partner William Bao Bean tells Tech in Asia. “In China, one billion people will soon be online, first on mobile – the largest mobile-only population in the world. That’s the next billion.” 

MOX operates out of Taiwan and is about what William calls “the last four billion” – specifically Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America. MOX partners with one of William’s local investee companies, GMobi, which offers smartphone advertising services and a payment platform.

More in Tech in Asia.

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? Check out this list.

William Bao Bean discusses how mobile payments are going to change the financial world

Related articles

• How Opera fits into China´s browser war - William Bao Bean
• Would-be bank follows crowd to raise £1m
• How can governments stimulate innovation? Get out of the way - William Bao Bean

Fostering a mobile startup community in Taipei - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

For two months managing director of the China Accelerator William Bao Bean left Shanghai for Taipei, to nurture a new offices and a startup community MOX. In Taipei Times he explains how how this Silicon Valley working style works out here.

Tapei Times:

MOX comes from a lot of money — it is one of six global accelerators run by SOSV, a US-based US$250 million (NT$8 billion) venture fund. Each accelerator is sector-based. The companies they choose must spend at least two months in MOX’s Taipei office, working closely with Bean and other staff who “accelerate” their progress by linking them to a variety of crucial resources or helping them localize their product. 

“We look at the team and traction,” MOX Managing Director William Bao Bean (賓威廉) says. “We look at users and whether they come back. We don’t care about how much money they have because they’re not paying.”... 

“With us, all you have to do is make your app awesome,” Bean says. “We’re trying to flip the model [of having to pay for advertising first].” 

Bean says a big part of the work is helping these companies localize to their new target market. 

“Southeast Asia is mobile first and mobile only,” he says. “You have to change your product, your user experience, how you make money.” 

For example, one company had to downsize its app from 40mb to 10mb to accommodate local internet resources. 

Bean hopes to involve some Taiwanese companies in future batches as the company recruits its second batch later this year. 

“The future of Taiwan tech is Internet,” Bean, who started his technology investment career in Taiwan, says, adding that he can help new local companies move into emerging markets. 

As a mentor at Taiwan Startup Stadium, Bean had already been working with some of these locals. But when MOX made offers to several Taiwanese companies for the first batch, Bean says he found that investors were wary of this new model that required sharing equity, which isn’t popular here but is the norm in Silicon Valley. 

As a global company, MOX could theoretically be based anywhere, and Bean’s answer is simple. 

“It’s nice here,” he says, referring to the convenience, good food, reasonable weather and so on. 

He adds that it is also a good balance of infrastructure and rent costs — falling somewhere between Hong Kong and Bangkok. Plus, 

Bean says you can recruit talented staff who mostly speak English for a lower cost. Bean also hopes to foster somewhat of a local mobile startup community. For example, every week when the companies are in Taiwan and every month otherwise, MOX flies in international experts for a happy hour event that is open to the public, with free drinks and a barbecue afterward — which Bean calls a “Silicon Valley style get-together.”

More in Taipei Times.

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 innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Check out this list.

Will telecom companies survive the digital age? William Bao Bean discusses their options.

What makes mobile apps run? - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

In Taipei the Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX) has launched and SOSV partner William Bao Bean has jumped over from Shanghai to support the operation, in PRunderground he explains what it takes to develop the next mobile apps for 4 million users.

PRunderground:

Traditionally, early stage companies struggle to expand beyond their home markets and especially into emerging markets where monetization can be difficult. 

“Mobile startups depend on rapid user growth and a viable revenue model to be successful.  This is why we created MOX, where we can deliver both automatically to our batches.  No other accelerator can help startups ramp revenue and users around the world the way we can,” says William Bao Bean, Investment Partner, SOSV. “We are also fortunate to have Alvin, a seasoned mobile-industry entrepreneur, as the program director. I’m confident he will lead MOX to become the leading accelerator targeting mobile-only markets globally.”

More in PRunderground.

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 innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

Related articles

• Mobile-only accelerator MOX launches in Taiwan
• Team behind Chinaccelerator launches mobile-only accelerator in Taiwan aimed at 'next four billion'

Trend: China going global - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

The trend for the coming five years is China going global, says William Bao Bean, managing director of Chinaccelerator, the first and longest running startup accelerator program in China in E27. “These innovations are best targeted at other mobile-first markets in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and South America, and not US and Western Europe.”

E27:

“The big trend for the next five years is China going global,” said William Bao Bean, Partner of SOS Ventures and Managing Director of Chinaccelerator. 

“China is the largest mobile-first, mobile-only market in the world and much of the mobile innovation in the world is coming out of China,” he added. After all, with cheaper smartphones and mobile tablets being launched into the market every day, consumers are spoilt for choice when it comes to accessing the Internet via portable devices. More people are communicating on their smartphones, rather than on desktop computers. It also means that companies are rethinking their mobile strategy, given that most of their customers have a smart device with them all the time. 

“These innovations are best targeted at other mobile-first markets in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and South America, and not US and Western Europe,” said Bean. 

“While we have seen China’s leading Internet players get more aggressive over the last 18 months, you are now seeing Chinese investment funds like CIC and Fosun follow suit, spreading their wings internationally after initially focusing on China investments,” added Bean.

More in E27.

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 interested in more experts on innovation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

Related articles

• Need mobile-first startups? Go to China - William Bao Bean
• Chinese conglomerate Fosun acquires Milan's Palazzo Broggi
• China's Expanding Reach And Growing Influence In Central & Eastern Europe
• Funding, moving from Silicon Valley to China - William Bao Bean
• Asian Tech Start-Ups Quietly Earn Backing