Foreign media: E-commerce social advantage highlights China's consumer technology ahead

【Global Internet Reports】 According to the “South China Morning Post” reported on September 27, UBS Group recently stated that with the commercial advantages of China’s huge e-commerce and social media platforms, China will continue to be in the subversive B2C technology field. Lead the world. Analysts at Swiss Global Financial Services said that China’s R&D investment in e-commerce and some disruptive technologies will surpass the United States next year.

UBS analyst Sundeep Gantori said at the company’s “Disruptive Technology CEO Summit” that “in many consumer technology areas, China is far ahead of the West. Chinese companies are using social networking applications.” The way to generate income in the field is that other technology companies in the world are struggling but cannot do anything about it."

Tencent Holdings is the world’s highest-income video game company and the best example of a Chinese company’s commercial success in social networking. In the second quarter of this year, the combined number of QQ and WeChat monthly active users of Tencent reached 963 million. Since its release in 2011, WeChat has become a mobile phone application that cannot be separated from mobile phone users in mainland China. It provides users with a range of services, such as shopping, take-out, doctor appointment, and payment.

Gantori pointed out that China is ahead of the United States in the fast-growing network of grocery sales. He estimated that net grocery sales already accounted for about 5% of its domestic market, compared with about 1% in the United States. Information from the IGD, a research institute of grocery industry, shows that Alibaba’s Tmall and Jingdong are two major grocery sales and retail companies in the Chinese mainland. UBS expects that by 2020, the share of networked grocery sales in the domestic grocery market will increase to 6.6%.

However, Gantori also said that in terms of B2B technology, Chinese companies still lag behind their Western counterparts. The West leads China in robotics and automation, as well as blockchain and other financial technology fields. “In the field of artificial intelligence, China still lags behind the United States, whether it is attracting investment or attracting talents.”

Management consulting firm Zinnov estimates that in 2015, 65,000 people in the United States were engaged in artificial intelligence-related work. In the same year, there were 20,000 people in China and 18,000 in India. Ms. Amy Lo, head of financial management at UBS Hong Kong and Greater China, said, “As the Asia-Pacific region transitions from the old economy to the new economy, the number of AI-related employees will increase exponentially,” Lu estimated. By 2025, the number of artificial intelligence talents in China and India will reach 155,000, which is higher than the 110,000 in the United States during the same period.

UBS’s research report on innovation announced on Monday predicts that China’s R&D spending will exceed that of the United States next year, but no specific data will be disclosed. (Internship Compilation: Dong Xiaojing Reviewer: Li Zongze)