In our part 1 of the blog, we shared on the state of China's digital economy . In this blog, we will share on a few key emerging trends in China's digital transformation as it emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
Firstly, the lockdowns in many cities across China earlier this year have accelerated the digitalisation of the economy. The pandemic has permanently changed how the Chinese use digital technology in their everyday lives. China's over 900 million internet users spent an average of 7.2 hours daily on the internet. It is no longer just on shopping and gaming, people are using public services, such as health care and education online. In the education arena, China’s top university, Tsinghua University, offered online courses on China's popular short video app Douyin ( equivalent of TikTok). ClassIn, an online education platform by Chinese edutech Empower Education Online, now sees an average of 2 millions students daily. In the health area, China implemented an initiative to assign residents with coloured QR codes, using big data to assign health risk levels.
Secondly, China is moving full stream ahead on 5G. China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have already built more than 250,000 5G base stations across China. The shipments of 5G phones are expected to exceed 180 million by the end of the year. 5G technology deployment in China is currently ahead of the rest of the world.
Thirdly, livestreaming is no longer just for entertainment and FMCG industry, it's fast becoming an important marketing and sales channel across a variety of sectors including conventional businesses such as luxury goods, real estate and travel. For example, James Liang Jianzhang, co-founder and chairman of Trip.com, attracted 1.2 million viewers to his live stream this year. Dong Mingzhu, chairwoman of home appliances maker Gree Electric Appliances hosted a livestreaming session in June that generated sales of 6.54 billion yuan (US$918 million).
Some of these emerging trends we observed in China will not be just peculiar to China market, it is a glimpse of the near future new normal for cities in other parts of the world.
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