It used to be that China looks to the West for ideas. AliBaba, TenCent and Baidu all copied the best of Facebook, Amazon and Google to create their own unique replicas to suit the local needs. In China, there are usually no black and white divisions but there such are lotsa grey in between. Given the antique legal system, these new internet companies have strived to push the perceived boundaries to their limits. Even the central government now realized how powerful the change agents have become. Without banking licenses, they have created the biggest money market funds, circumvented the interest rate rules and utilized P2P platforms to marry demand (retail yield seekers) to supply (SME/retail seeking funds) efficiently.
Nowadays, it is the West trying to catch up with China. Take for example, mobile tech. Most local Chinese hardly carry cash in their wallets anymore. The mobile phone is used for everything – cab fares, groceries, convenience stores. Same day delivery is the norm and one does not really need to leave your apartment to get supplies. You can even get a live fish delivered to your doorstep for tonight’s dinner. Chinese logistic companies use cutting edge tech to reach out to all parts of the country in the most effective way possible. 80-year-old grandmothers are already using their handsets to use apps to call and pay for taxi fares. The top drone companies are all Chinese. They have been using it for documentaries for years. Look for “A Bit of China” food porn on youtube to see the amazing shots. Almost everyone in China has an eWallet to effect payments seamlessly, epayments having started more than 14 years ago. The capabilities of WeChat and Alipay are astounding with the eco-systems that they have created. There are no comparable ones to be found outside of China. Facebook is only now trying to catch up.
With the push by China to urbanize its population quickly to create internal consumer demand, mobile tech has grown by leaps and bounds to help achieve this aim. The rest of the world slowly wakes up to this great social experiment and stares in awe. I have attended a number of fintech demo/graduation/bootcamp events over the last 12 months and most of what the new fintech companies are trying to do now have already been done on a large scale in China for years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/technology/china-mobile-tech-innovation-silicon-valley.html?_r=0
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