Shanghai Study Trip – Day 1 Learnings

Goal of this post / disclaimer

This is primarily for myself in order to learn and repeat the key takeaways from a study trip in Shanghai.

If you also can benefit from the below information fine; if not, also fine for me and my words are of course not exhaustive.

Learings and Take aways

• Software Development in China
  • Today, already 4 year old kids in China are learning to programm and speak „the language of the computer“ just like any other languages
  • The professional software developers should watch out; at latest ba 2030 a new wave of digital natives will be coming, and it is big!
• Doing business in China: Get your money upfront!
  • It is absolutely advisable to get at least 80% of the payment upfront from chinese customers or investors.
  • Ask yourself the question: Can you order something from Alibaba (e. g. Aliexpress) via bill? No! You’re expected to pay upfront which you also should expect
• Doing business in China: Part 2
  • Prepare business as usual as you would do for any other position
  • Consider consulting an advisor and / or especially when it comes to contracts or legal issues, a chinese lawyer
  • Make sure to protect your IP (Intelectual Property)
• Mobile payment solutions
  • What has been expected and promoted in many articles is absolutely true: The chinese aare so much into mobile payment; you seldomly see anyone paying with „real money“!
  • Even really small shops are ready to receive mobile payments of for example WeChat Pay (Tencent) or AliPay (Alibaba)
  • Payments are efficient and so smooth but of course; big brother is watching you
  • Impressive: The acceptance of mobile payment is the highest in Tibet, where more than 80% of payments are done by smart phone!
• WeChat is so much more than „Chinese Whatsapp“
  • You probably knew that but it is worth repeating: There is more behind WeChat than a simple messenger!
  • The feature pack includes payment, gaming, moments, and many more
• Artificial intelligenct
  • Big data and AI is a big thing in China as we know
  • This says it all where China is going regarding those topics:

    • Eventually, passengers will be able to board their flights just by having their faces scanned at the airport, with the “face as boarding pass” capability ready for implementation as early as 2018,

  • http://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2108163/baidu-offers-facial-recognition-technology-help-beijing-airport
• Is China a „need to be“ for foreign comanies?
  • 5 Years ago the answer would have been => Yes
  • Today: It depends!

Visits / Sessions today

• Swissnex China – http://www.swissnexchina.org/
• Sim Selective International Management – http://sim.biz/
• MyLink Law Office – http://www.mylinklaw.com/