Weblog with daily updates of the news on a frugal, fair and beautiful China, from the perspective of internet entrepreneur, new media advisor and president of the China Speakers Bureau Fons Tuinstra
Hong Kong-based marketing guru Ashley Dudarenok discusses the way China’s market is different from the rest of the world in terms of platform, consumer behavior, and other elements of the crowded and fast-moving market. A debate on Vistatalks with Maria Coa.
“Right now, there’s so many screens in our lives, and the natural thinking is that we’re going to keep having a lot more screens,” Graylin told the Augmented World Expo (AWE) Asia 2023 event in Singapore today. “And with this trend, you’re thinking, hey, it’s going to be another five or ten screens over the next few years. No, it’s actually the opposite.”
“Where we are going now is using the most natural interfaces that we have – our hands, our eyes and mouth, our bodies, and natural ways of how we interact with the physical world,” he told the audience.
“What we’re going to find is that by having a device on your head, more and more of those screens are going to be replaced by that device on your face. And that device at some point will maybe even get embedded as a chip in your body,” he added.
As the gabfest’s name implies, he’s suggesting a transition to life lived in extended reality (XR) – probably beaming out from a single screen worn on your noggin to replace the collection of smartphones, computers, televisions, tablets and e-readers we use today. The myriad screens in public spaces are also at risk.
Graylin predicted the tech to make XR happen is happening.
“Over the last year, we can see new generations of products coming,” Graylin told the conference. He described next-gen XR products as thin and light – and becoming the new norm as more and more screen-bearing devices are replaced with headgear.
China leapfrogged ahead in developing technology by using advantages through mobile-first, blockchain and AI, tells technology analyst Winston Ma in an interview with state-owned CGTN. How China got a headstart in new technology compared to the US, now followed by the digital currency.
When China’s authorities cracked down on Jack Ma’s Alibaba, it was only the start of ongoing efforts to control tech companies and manage their data streams, says Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein to WRAL. “Now Chinese people are quite concerned about data privacy because Alibaba and Tencent have so much data – even more data than the government,” he adds.
WRAL:
China’s Communist Party leaders are uneasy with the growing influence of big technology firms. Key issues are monopolistic practices and handling of user data.
Until recently, tech firms operated in a regulatory gray zone, with relative freedom to create their business models, demand merchants and vendors sign exclusive contracts with their platforms and collect user data to better understand their customers.
After China introduced health monitoring and quarantine apps during the pandemic, it became clear that tech companies like e-commerce giant Alibaba and gaming company Tencent controlled huge amounts of data, said Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.
“I think it was in the last year and a half that you can start to see just how much power these technology companies have,” said Rein.
Alibaba Group Holding recently was fined a record $2.8 billion over antitrust violations. Other big tech companies have been fined or investigated for alleged anti-competitive behavior and lapses in financial disclosure.
“Two years ago Chinese consumers didn’t care, they thought the convenience of apps outweighed any negative benefits,” Rein said. “But now Chinese people are quite concerned about data privacy, because Alibaba and Tencent have so much data – even more data than the government.”
Rein believes stricter oversight of the technology industry will make it more sustainable, with fairer competition that will benefit consumers.
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 Main 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.
China watcher Kaiser Kuo discusses Western narratives on China’s rise. Technology did not beat authoritarian regimes, he explains, just as other Western views on China were profoundly wrong. The Arab Spring uprising was the first sign technology did not bring repression down, but not the last one, he argues.
Ironically, TikTok has become the ideal platform to spread American soft power, says business analyst Shirley Yu at Yahoo Finance. “The fundamental competition between the US and China is going to be technological competition,” which will have a big impact on the media landscape and the way in which we live, she says.
Yahoo Finance:
With the world’s second largest economy investing heavily in technology and innovative startups, China’s digital footprint is growing while the US seeks to dominate the digital landscape. This is leading to profound changes taking place within society as digital infrastructure plays a bigger role in our daily lives and people become more interconnected globally, and at high speed.
Shirley Yu, a Harvard-educated political economist and expert in strategic and economic affairs said this week that “the fundamental competition between the US and China is going to be technological competition,” which will have a big impact on the media landscape and the way in which we live. The global media figure, former CGTN news anchor and founder of Business Talk Show Hey China! said that despite China’s economic growth and recent successes including TikTok, it had yet to make its mark culturally around the world in the same way that the US has done so. “China does not, or has not produced very many strong public voices on the global stage who can communicate effectively in policy, in media, or even in politics, in a sophisticated way, with the rest of the world,” said Yu. Despite the success of Bytedance’s TikTok, the Hey China! talk show host admitted that it is a crucial moment for the world to give a voice to the change-makers, thought leaders and Gen Z doers, who can tell their untold paradigm changing stories about China to the world, and bring inclusion to the media.
“China has not been able to develop a generation of global media icons, nothing near what the US has accomplished in this regard,” Yu reflected. However, when asked about the potential banning of TikTok in the U.S., Yu noted that, “If you watch TikTok, TikTok has become ironically the perfect platform to spread American soft power, through the songs, dances and culture. American youth have successfully used a Chinese platform to spread American soft power all over the world.”
But as the technological competition heats up between the two world powers, companies like TikTok and Huawei have been caught up in the geopolitical confrontations, facing boycotts and bans in various countries. However, the technological shift toward 5G and China’s large investments in areas including IoT, AI, smart cities and digital tech means that the rest of the world including the US will be eager to match that effort – changing how we communicate and connect over the long-term.
China watcher Kaiser Kuo opens a panel on innovation in China at the (pre-corona) AMR Festival 2019 discussing how the West had flipping narratives on how the technology works in an authoritarian climate. And both say more about the China observers in the West than China itself, Kaiser argues.
India has been one of the hotspots of investments from China, but that might end now the hostilities between both countries increase, says business analyst Shaun Rein to AP. Chinese apps have already been banned by the Indian government, and startups seem to be next. Anti-Chinese feelings among consumers might be putting Chinese investors also off.
AP:
The antagonisms carry risks for India: A broader boycott could backfire if China were to retaliate by banning exports of raw materials used by India’s pharmaceutical industry. So far, it has not. In the longer term, Chinese companies might avoid investing in India's technology sector and Indian start-ups might be reluctant to accept Chinese investments for fear of repercussions, said Shaun Rein, managing director of market intelligence firm China Market Research Group. “Chinese investors are going to become very wary of investing in India. They’ll be worried that they might invest billions of dollars into the country and either Indian consumers will boycott and protest against them, or the government will just ban them because they’re backed by Chinese,” Rein said.
Premier Li Keqiang caused some rippled over the past few weeks by pushing street vendors as a way to save the economy and generate employment in the post-corona era. Some big cities disagreed, as they have tried to get rid of those vendors and political economist Shirley Ze Yu also disagrees with the street vendor policies, she writes in the South China Morning Post.
Shirley Ze Yu:
The “street vendor economy”, the latest economic policy from Premier Li Keqiang, has spread across China’s city streets in the past two weeks. It may seem alluring at first, but it’s far from a prescription for economic prosperity. A street vendor economy cannot save China.
During his visit to Yantai, Shandong province, on May 31, Li said: “Street vendors and small shops are important sources of employment. This is the ordinary people’s way of living. Just like those advanced and hi-tech industries, they are vital to the economy.”
Shanghai quickly announced a month-long festival promoting street nightlife. By June 4, at least 27 cities had enacted policies promoting street vendors.
Street vending has long been considered at odds with metropolitan modernity in China. For the past decade, city patrols and street vendors have engaged in a cat-and-mouse game on China’s streets, occasionally ending in brutality...
In an event too orchestrated to be accidental, a group of mayors from Hubei province held a wave of social media live streams in April. The mayors went on popular social media apps such as Douyin – China’s TikTok – to promote local produce, accompanied by their accents and on-camera unease.
They were quickly overshadowed last month when Gree Electric Appliances chairwoman Dong Mingzhu sold 310 million yuan (US$43.7 million) of goods during a three-hour stream on Kuaishou. Viya Huang, a streamer who was virtually unknown to the world before 2017 but now enjoys a celebrity status in China on a par with Kim Kardashian in the West, sold a rocket launch service for 40 million yuan on an April stream that attracted more than 19 million viewers.
Once China has experienced the power of a digital economy, how can it travel back in time and return to a more labour-intensive, less productive output narrative?
SpaceX recently made history by sending astronauts to space on an American rocket again. Solemn salutes were made on Chinese social media to the spirit of innovation. While the United States celebrated the revival of its space economy, China celebrated the revival of its street economy. No country becomes a leading nation by adding flocks of vendors to its city streets.
Government policy intervention can create emotional exuberance on the streets.
China’s leaders know a street vendor economy won’t save the country this time. They are simply soothing the public while stalling to also gaze at the stars.
After a first symbolic truce, the world should brace for the next phase in the trade war between China and the US, warns leading economist Arthur Kroeber, according to Barron's. China has stalled its economic reforms and mechanisms to contain the US power fail, and the technology war is likely to resume, he stresses.
Barron's:
What may be a tactical positive for markets and the global economy is viewed as a strategic negative by those who look at the deal through a longer-term policy lens. “The agreement falls far short of achieving the U.S. goal of forcing China to change its state-led economic system,” writes Arthur Kroeber, founding partner of China research firm Gavekal Dragonomics,in a note to clients. “Instead, it cements a pattern of managed trade reminiscent of Japan’s ‘voluntary’ export restraints in the late 1980s. And it will do nothing to stop further escalation of the two countries’ technology war.”...
The U.S.-China technology war is also likely to escalate, playing out over emerging technologies like 5G. Kroeber says the U.S. is upping pressure on European allies to rethink using gear from China’s Huawei Technologies in their 5G networks. Norway’s telecom utility decided to use Huawei rivals, and German legislators are pushing back against chancellor Angela Merkel’s efforts to keep buying Huawei gear. More Chinese companies could also end up on the U.S. export-control or sanctions blacklists—all of which will push China to further re-energize its investments to reduce its dependence on U.S. suppliers, he adds.
And don’t count out another tariff war emerging after the election. With the Trump administration’s efforts to debilitate the World Trade Organization’s dispute resolution mechanism, Kroeber says there is no effective check on the U.S. ability to engage in unilateral trade actions like tariffs, especially after the election. Kroeber is also skeptical about China’s purchase commitments, adding that it is hard to see how these targets can be met in the real world. That suggests tariff wars could resume in 2021 if the targets aren’t met.
Chinese surveillance technology, especially social credit systems and facial recognition, is seen by Western media as a final end to privacy. But Tencent watcher Matthew Brennan sees this innovation works differently on the ground, in China, he explains in Metro.
Metro:
‘There’s been a lot written of very scary, negative coverage regarding social credit in China,’ says Matthew Brennan, a China-based technology expert.
‘The reality on the ground is very different to what is being reported.’
Brennan believes Chinese citizens do have privacy – ‘but it’s difficult to explain how much’.
He draws comparisons with credit score checking systems in the US and UK, which bring in oodles of data from different sources to assess how creditworthy an individual is.
‘These credit score systems in developed markets also monitor consumers,’ he says. He believes that China is simply embracing technology in new ways.
Large tech companies in China are rolling out new ways of utilising personal data to carry out everyday tasks – from checking in to flights to paying for items in shops...
The country was among the first to dally with foldable smartphones, and has recently seen smartphones with projectors built-in come to market. But in the near future it will see ticketing for its subway using facial recognition to make payments become more widespread.
Brennan has even demonstrated on his Twitter feed the ability to check in for flights and check out at supermarkets using facial recognition, tied to government ID cards.
‘It’s cropping up all over China in different scenarios, some of which are payment related, some of which aren’t,’ he says.
This may seem like anathema to a western audience, but in China it’s the norm. ‘It’s got a much broader acceptance amongst society,’ Brennan says.
While the world is still trying to come to terms with 5G and China's position on the new technology, China itself is deploying 5G on a large scale. Andy Mok, a non-resident fellow at Center for China and Globalization explains for state-owned CGTN what the consumers might still miss on this development.
CGTN:
Andy Mok, a non-resident fellow at Center for China and Globalization, stated that 5G was more than high Internet speed.
"Those '90 percent underwater' part of the 'iceberg' that people didn’t know about 5G would trigger the essential breakthroughs for the industry 4.0," he said.
"All of these applications that are for faster download speed to consumers is sexy, but I think what’s really important is the 90 percent underwater part that people don’t see.
"What 5G is enabling, is hundreds of billions of devices to talk to each other. And that would change every industry, whether we are talking about transportation in driverless cars, health care in telemedicine, urban management with smart cities."
Americans find it hard to get China is ahead of them in terms of technology and innovation. Chinese American Kaiser Kuo sits down with Steve Sjuggerund of the Daily Wealth to discuss his observations after he spent two decades in China, partly as communication director for internet giant Baidu.
Daily Wealth:
Steve: When I tell Americans that China is ahead of us in technology use, they don't want to hear it.
Kaiser: I think when we're talking about innovation in China and in the United States, it's important to understand the cultural and social matrix in which these take place...
You look at China, China has seen technology develop very much in lockstep with its really rapid growth. There's a kind of faith in the ability of technology to deliver better lives.
Compare that to the United States right now, where there's a lot of anxiety about technology...
If you look at some of our leading technologists, people like Bill Gates or like Elon Musk, they're out in public warning about the perils of – Elon Musk called it "summoning the demon" of artificial intelligence – that there are going to be armies of killer robots and we better really start worrying about that now.
That conversation is barely happening in China...
There are concerns raised about the jobs that might be lost to advanced robotics and things like that. But by and large, there is this faith that this will deliver better lives. It's a really big contrast.
Steve: In my travels to China, I can't believe the changes I've seen in the last five to 10 years. What would you say is the biggest change you've seen?
Kaiser: I have to say the biggest changes weren't at all in the last 10 years...Really, I think it was the decade of the '80s where the light in people's eyes changed.
Look, I think one thing Americans need to keep in mind when they look at China is: all this change that they've witnessed has happened in the space of one biological generation.
You can do a lot in terms of "hardware" change in a biological generation – all the magnificent forests of steel and glass [the skyscrapers] that we see now.
But the more important change that has to take place is in the "software." That is really in the psychology of people, the mentality of people. That changes more slowly, but those changes are ultimately much more important.
And where I saw the biggest sort of transformation in that was in that decade of the '80s, where there was almost insatiable curiosity about the outside world just because it had just opened up.
People were on fire and they didn't stop trying to drink deeply of all this suddenly available knowledge that was around.
Figuring out who might be hurt by the trade war between China and the US is still be tough, but tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent see their US ties as a liability, says financial expert Sara Hsu to Cheddar. "The trade spat between Washington and Beijing has not only quelled investors’ appetites, it has also discouraged Chinese tech giants from expanding internationally."
Cheddar:
As the U.S. tech sector regained some of its footing Tuesday, last week's tech sell-off continues to undermine some of China's tech bellwethers Tencent and Alibaba.
Sara Hsu, economist and associate professor at SUNY New Paltz, said that unlike Facebook and Twitter, hamstrung by slower-than-expected user growth, Chinese tech stocks have more serious investment hurdles ahead.
"There are concerns of a trade war, that it could possibly dampen investment from the United States," Hsu said in an interview Tuesday with Cheddar. "Particularly for Tencent and Alibaba which have a lot of interest in the United States, in terms of trade and investment."
The trade spat between Washington and Beijing has not only quelled investors’ appetites, it has also discouraged Chinese tech giants from expanding internationally.
Alibaba's Founder, Jack Ma, had pledged to create 1 million jobs in the U.S. and increase the amount of goods that ship from America to China.
Hsu said that China's tech stocks are also faced with tightening liquidity and currency depreciation.
"There are depreciation pressures on the Chinese currency which is going to affect the earnings report for companies that are listed on the New York Stock Exchange," she said.
The Chinese Renminbi has slipped in the past two months and hit its lowest level in more than a year, despite measures by central bankers in Beijing to support China’s currency.
Getting space in travel is hard for startups in new technology, says VC-veteran William Bao Bean, general partner at SOSV, as companies like Priceline and Ctrip in China dominate the industry. Unless you are able to solve specific problems, he tells WebinTravel.
WebinTravel:
“Travel is a closed insular industry, there’s a lot of history and baggage. The incumbents really don’t want it to happen – it’s not in their interests to open up too much. It’s also hard to compete against the likes of Priceline that spends US$6 billion on marketing or Ctrip, which is so dominant in China.”
He however sees opportunities for “innovating around travel for companies that solve specific problems”.
Bao Bean said that SOSV, which groups seven accelerators, does about 150 investments a year, out of which there may be two to four in travel. In total, SOSV’s portfolio includes 700 investments, with the number one sector being biotech and fossil fuels. Bao Bean also founded MOX, SOSV’s Mobile-Only Accelerator, in partnership with GMobi, the largest mobile platform for South-east Asia and India.
In addition, he is also an active angel investor, doing about 40 investments a year personally.
His interests in travel range from luxury travel – one of his investments include Go Portier, the hotel concierge service used at The Siam in Bangkok – to the corporate segment through an app that offers services in 20 cities across Asia Pacific. He’s also involved in Rikai Labs, a Shanghai and San Francisco-based startup that builds chatbots that are distributed via messaging platforms like WeChat, Messenger and Slack.
Bao Bean is not afraid of testing – he tried social commerce for hotels “but it failed”. “You need decent engagement – event tickets, packages, weekend getaways, last minute trips – but it’s tough given Ctrip’s domination in the market.”
Europe and America are getting the message: they are behind China in e-commerce. China veteran William Bao Bean tells an European audience at Medialaan in Brussels it is not about technology, but about the speed of adoption of the users.
"Should I bother to come to China, people ask often, The answer generally is: No." William Bao Bean talks to a group of Israeli startups in Tel Aviv. "When you use your gut feeling in China, you are mostly wrong. In China technology is not important, its about cash, friends or both." Lessons from a seasoned investor, who says you can only succeed if you have an "unfair advantage". 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 speakers on innovation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list .
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
life - A GPS with Chinese characteristics
Shanghaiist noted this taxi with GPS-system. Having been in Europe for a while, I have noted the blessing of those systems who must have saved already many marriages. The machine is not only affordable, less than 3,000 Rmb, but allows the taxi driver to write characters on the screen.
The unit speaks to you and announces each approaching intersection. Our driver still somehow managed to get lost, but we don't think it was the device's fault.
