Gigi Lee

Jan 21, 20188 min read

Rising Dragon ~ Technology vs. Convenience, Foreigner Friendly

Mobile phones could spell the end to using cash in China (Photo Credits/photo description: Shanghai Daily)

Full of vocals and footsteps in a rush, many people are walking in a hurry at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station上海虹桥站（高铁站） in China. This should be a normal scene at this busy train station, because it is one of the Chinese major transport junctions. I went to Shanghai and Hangzhou in December,2017. After I arrived at the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport上海虹桥机场, I took a metro in order to take a China Railway High-speed (CRH) 中国高铁at the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station. However, I was getting confused at the train station, so I searched on the internet for answers. The information desk is not very helpful at all; the customer service old ladies were so impatient (maybe too many people were asking questions.)

Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station Waiting Area (Photo Credits: Gigi Lee)

Shanghai Metro enables mobile payments as Alipay and WeChat Pay go into battle over public transportation (Photo Credits/photo description: TechNode)

Tech. vs. Railway Station

There was a dazed foreigner carrying a backpack and a luggage, standing in the middle of the train station, looking for directions, same as me. However, he seemed like he didn’t understand Chinese. This foreigner discovered that I was the only one who was not walking. He came by my side, and asked me where he could buy tickets. Finally I took escalators upstairs and discovered the ticket office… The direction at the train station is not very clear, even in Chinese. It may be the reason when the customer service representatives were getting mad of questions.

I am from Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong is a part of China, Hong Kong people are still viewed as non-mainlanders. The situation is also the same in Taiwanese and Macau citizens. Many Mainland Chinese could buy train tickets online and on app, but it doesn’t apply to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwanese people and foreigners. Mainlanders can change the time to take trains anytime they want unless the particular train is full. We have to go to the ticket office counter to show our identification documents in order to buy tickets. Thus, we need to wait at the station for an hour for the next train. It seems like wasting time.

China Railway High-speed (CRH) (Photo Credits: Gigi Lee)

CRH's Ticket from Shanghai to Hangzhou (Photo Credits: Gigi Lee)

Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station Waiting Area (Photo Credits: Gigi Lee)

Tech. vs. Hangzhou

Hangzhou is a beautiful 2nd-tier city in China. It is one of the tech cities in China. (Another one is Shenzhen.) Many of the famous technology brands launched their headquarters here, for example Alibaba. (As I known, CEO of Alibaba Jack Ma is a Hangzhou local.) Many e-commerce companies have established here as well. Besides Alibaba Group, many start-up e-commerce companies were established in Hangzhou and grow rapidly. Besides, it is interesting to know that many of Hangzhou is a migrant city, less than 20-25% citizens are locals.

West Lake, Hangzhou (Photo Credit: Gigi Lee)

Tech. vs. Call for Taxi

Night fell and call for a taxi was not easy. Downloading a taxi app DiDi滴滴 is necessary in mainland China. However, DiDi requests users to register their phone numbers. Taxi drivers don’t know how to call a foreign number, thus they would rather ignore this order and pick up other passengers instead. Luckily, my friend and I have a mainland phone number. Otherwise, using this DiDi app would be an impossible mission. After we arrived the destination by taxi, we just need to scan taxi driver’s Alipay and Wechat Pay QR code, enter the amount and confirm . It is super convenient.

(Photo Credits: TMO Group)

Tech. vs. Payment

Popularly using mobile payment systems WeChat Pay微信支付 and Alipay 支付宝in China, many taxi drivers ,shops and restaurants do accept these payment methods. When you use one of these payment methods, 1. just need to scan sellers’ WeChat Payment or Alipay accounts’ QR code by using smart phone and enter an amount . 2. Or we show our QR codes to cashiers and let the cashiers to scan codes. WeChat Payment and Alipay connect to mainland Chinese bank accounts, getting convenience for many mainlanders. Similarly to the invention purpose as credit card in this State, a mainland classmate even said, “ I don’t need to bring cash here.” Personally, I consider credit cards are more secure and protective. I can also earn credits in the State. WeChat Payment and Alipay were exposed security loopholes and hackers stole money from accounts in the past. Anyways, these two payment system methods are the uniqueness in Mainland China. Since I am a Hongkonger who live in the States currently, I don’t have use WeChat Pay and Alipay, same as many foreigners. Don’t worry. Mainland Chinese citizens still accept cash.

Wechat scan (Photo Credits: tvcnews)

Wechat scan (Photo Credits: http://wechatpaysg.com)

Tech. vs. Shopping/Having a Meal

According to SCMP.tv reporting on January 15th 2018, there are convenience stores in Shanghai that can only use Alipay and WeChat payment. You can’t find a cashier serve you. If you are not outgoing, you also want to do shopping without talk to anymore else, these stores should be your No.1 choice. There are also restaurants without waiter/waitress to take your order. You just use mobile app to order your food, so you don’t need to pay tips.

According to Phoenix TV, Unmanned convenience stores are by no means a simple upgrade of vending machines, but rather an upgrade of the retail industry into the era of mobile electricity providers. It shows the upgrade in teh area of artificial intelligence(AI) Identification, RFID tag, mobile payment, 360 ° dead-time monitoring, big data collection and analysis of consumer behavior.

Unmanned convenience stores (Photo Credits: Phoenix TV)

In the E-commerce area, Amazon share has reached 40%. In China, Alibaba Group’s Taobao 淘宝and Tmall (Lynx)天貓are commonly used in online shopping. It is assorted on Alipay, in order to create a convenience for online shopping. According to westdollar.com, Lynx dual 11 global carnival total turnover of more than 168.2 billion yuan. Alipay paid 1.48 billion pen up, up 41%; pay peak to 256,000 pen / second, 2.1 times last year, once again set a record peak last year; the resulting logistics orders reached 812 million single. “168.2 billion yuan sales is not only a record in China, but also a record worldwide,” said Alibaba chief executive Daniel Zhang Yong, according to South China Morning Post. E-commerce is an extraordinary and huge potential market.

Tmall (Photo Credits: voguechinese.com)

You can also order your meal through apps. After you order through mobile apps, Couriers would deliver your food to your particular destination. It is even cheaper than you go to a restaurant for a To-Go order or eat at the restaurant.

According to the Storm Media, Tencent and Alibaba invested in startups like "Ele.me"饿了么”and "Meituan Waimai” 美团外卖.The two App companies, working with tens of thousands of restaurants across China, ranging from snack bars to large chain restaurants, can find menus on the App and find out from tens of thousands of meals with just a finger. These App can offer consumers a more diverse choice than Fast Food.In addition, the price is a major incentive. In order to attract more consumers, these App companies have a huge competition. Using these Apps to order meals, consumers can enjoy up to 20% discount. In contrast, McDonald's, KFC not only did not discount, may have to pay extra delivery costs.

According to the news article from calcalistech.com, 295 million people in China used food delivery services during the first half of 2017, according to data published by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), a Chinese government research institute. This number represents an increase of 41.6% from the second half of 2016. Market leader Meituan, which also sells movie tickets and provides restaurant ranking and coupons, is valued at $30 billion. It is ranked the fourth highest valued startup in the world, ahead of Airbnb, Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX). Only Uber Technologies Inc., Didi Chuxing and Xiaomi Inc. have higher valuations.

Ele.me Food ~ Apps Delivery Service (Photo Credits: Twitter)

Meituan motorized couriers in China (Photos Credits: calcalistech.com)

Tech. vs. Shared Services

Besides WeChat and Alipay apps, shared services are also prevalent in China. All of Shared Services is also operated by apps. In China, we have shared bicycle, similar to metro bike share in Los Angeles. The difference is the Chinese one, you can just scan the QR code for payment, and then you can use a bike. Bike sharing is super popular among people. During my trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou, my media friends talked about we should take a bike-share ride to travel around Shanghai. Shanghai is a big city, using a bike share service is convenient for both commuters and travelers who stay in this city. Los Angeles one prefer people to use coins for payment. When we enter a restaurant in Shanghai, they provide shared portable chargers, one of the popular one is called Ankerbox 街电. It is easy and convenient to use. After scanning the QR code, payment is processed by two leading mobile payment systems WeChat Pay and Alipay. Then, users can get a portable charger and charge their phone. Besides the most common bike-sharing and portable charger sharing, I also heard like umbrella sharing and car-sharing.

For your information, these sharing services are mostly unveiled by start-ups. There is a huge competition between start-up companies in China, thus the stronger companies usually merge other competitors to grow. Because of the merging and capital - raising plans, their growing speed is marvelous. Some of start-ups are even looking for large companies like Alibaba and Tecent’s acquisition. Same situation occurs in other start-up businesses in China as well.

Ankerbox 街电 (Photo Credits: Ankerbox Official Website)

Sharking Bikes await their hirers in Shanghai. (Photo Credits: Gigi Lee)

Metro Bike Share outside of Grand Central Market and Bradbury Building in Downtown Los Angeles, United States (Photo Credits: Gigi Lee)

Tech. vs. New Media vs. Foreign Expansion

Technology also creates rapid extension of businesses in various fields. It is commonly to use WeChat微信 and Weibo微博 to do digital marketing in China, similar to one of the functions of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the United States. On the other hand, many successful Chinese entrepreneurs have accumulated lots of wealth and willing to expand their businesses and influences overseas, and they start using Facebook and Instagram to attract foreign customers and audiences. Among these businesses, it also includes some new media start-up companies that take videos of different topics. These companies produce these videos and upload them to many different social media platforms. Some of the videos were added English subtitles for non-Chinese audience to understand the content. This kind of cultural type of new media companies is unique in China.

One famous one in China is Ergeng Media二更视频. Thus, I visited Ergeng Media's headquarter in Hangzhou to understand more about this firm. The company's main topic is about Chinese culture and people's touching stories, but also includes other topics, like entertainment, information, and technology videos. This private new media firm is not operated by Chinese government, which is run by a group of Chinese media professionals. The media firm maintains friendly and cooperative relationships with official medias , like People's Daily 人民日报. Ergeng media’s major focus is still in China, it starts uploading its original video products on Facebook and Youtube recently. Launching in 2014, Ergeng is one of the most highly awarded new media in China, which has won more than 200 awards in China and around the world. Developing 20 different brands, it only spends 4 years to become a highly ranked new media company in China, which has 40 million followers currently.

Facebook Screenshot of Ergeng Media's Page (Photo Credits: Gigi Lee)

Conclusion

After China welcome foreign investment after 1974, its economy progress dramatically. Many places have been enabled to mobile payment, new media and new technology. As many people view China as a big competitor and fear of China, accepting and understanding this place would be an advantage in the 21st century. I believe that more foreigners’ friendly policies and businesses would be implemented, as China get more influential internationally. Try to find a time to visit China, and you would discover China is out of your imagination!