Today, not everyone believes that China is in a position to create such breakthrough products, as paper or gunpowder in the past.
However, innovations are not equal to inventions, which present the creation of a whole new product or process. Innovation can be seen as an application of a better solution, for example, to meet existing market needs or new requirements.
In this sphere China is the leader. The recent technologies as mobile payments, online-to-offline (O2O), and bike rental services (Mobike) can literally change the world. Active work in China is carried out in the field of quantum physics, supercomputers, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other spheres as well.
Payment and Rental Systems
Any person of the modern world knows about difficulties in paying cash purchases in a supermarket. Even when paying by debit or credit card takes some time. Nowadays in China, especially in cities, there is hardly a similar problem. Mobile payments in China are in use for a long time. They not only can be used for paying for Chinese tuition for secondary school. They save consumers from stress when paying for purchases in a supermarket, in addition, completely new business models are being developed that radically change the modern life.
In China, business models such as O2O or bike rental services are thriving with the development of mobile payments and the use of similar applications as Alipay (支付 宝), Tenpay (财 付 通), and WeChat Wallet. Compared to the US, China demonstrates a much higher commitment to mobile payments with a transaction volume of $5.5 trillion (US: $112 billion) in 2017.
The popularity of bike rental applications (Mobike or Ofo), shows how China does not invent but modifies existing services for present conditions.
Of course, there are applications for renting bicycles in other countries, but the Chinese way is unique. The Chinese customers connect their smartphones with the access to their bank accounts through the mentioned services, so setting up of the application is much easier and faster than in other countries where you need to connect a credit card. A simple registration increases the number of users.
The results of recent studies have shown that since the launch of bicycle renting services in 2016, the number of users is increasing monthly. In March 2017, the growth was more than 100%. Due to the high degree of availability, China has become the world leader in the entire transport on demand (bicycles and cars). This success is an example of how the Chinese model can change the transport system in the world.
The O2O application is another example of how the innovative use of mobile payments can make a revolution. It was commonly believed that on-street shops will be absorbed by e-retail, but China shows how it is possible to combine these two types of trading platforms. In general, the O2O application includes a number of services, as a consumer expects for services in a complex.
First of all, O2O offers services when a customer can buy goods on the Internet and pick them up in the store. According to the recent research, 72% of Chinese consumers want to take the opportunity to make purchases online and to make a return or exchange in a store. In addition, most Chinese consumers want to buy coupons online and exchange them in the store.
In the future, O2O services will include the possibility of buying goods in the store and automatically delivering them to the consumer’s home.
Another innovative way to combine offline stores to the online world is the Dmall (多 点) application, which turns real supermarkets into virtual ones.
The supermarket goods or food are listed in the appendix and the consumer can choose all he wants. A consumer makes payments through Alipay or WeChat applications and these goods are delivered to his home within one hour.
This application can change the ordinary way how consumers around the world buy food and household items. It is definitely an extremely effective innovation if you have in mind the supermarkets with their large queues.
First, this application saves time and secondly, supermarkets do not lose customers because of queues.
China demonstrates unique innovations that cannot be observed in the West. The main factor for the innovative and effective introduction of new services is cheap labor costs. This provides inexpensive shipping, which is the basis of most innovative models in China.
Supercomputers
Not only mobile payments and the use of the O2O application bring serious changes into the life. Today, Chinese supercomputers are the fastest, which certainly affects how scientists and engineers can use supercomputers around the world. Currently, two Chinese supercomputers topping the list of the fastest computers in the world can perform quadrillion operations per second.
The supercomputer itself is not a unique innovation. But the important thing is how the Chinese use it. For example, a supercomputer is used to forecast weather and study climate change. To do this, meteorologists must analyze constantly changing data as accurately as possible and faster. A supercomputer can be used to study how new drugs affect the human body. You can also simulate physical processes to understand how the universe was born or to study the aerodynamics of spacecraft.
However, the ultimate purpose of supercomputers is to simulate the activity of the human brain. In fact, China is already developing a new supercomputer, which according to the plan will be able to perform quintillion calculations per second. Constantly supporting the pace of creating faster supercomputers, China makes the rest of the world to do the same.
Supercomputers are related to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) research. Most likely, the next big step in the evolution of artificial intelligence is expected from The BAT (Baidu-Alibaba-Tencent) Corporation. The state invests in the development of AI billions of dollars, which are distributed among large companies, research centers, and universities.
