China ICT (Info Communications Technology) Industry, Infra, Commerce, Exports: News & Discussions

[ahojunk]

China: A Fast Growing but Chaotic Internet Finance Industry
April 29, 2016 @ 5:26 pm By JD Alois

China’s internet finance industry continues to grow while encountering ongoing challenges as fraud remains prevalent in the loosely regulated sector of the finance industry. Dominated by peer to peer lending (the largest in the world), as of March over 3900 platforms were counted by WDZJ (other estimates differ) with about 950 having problems. While rules are tightening and new entrants are slowing, the government is starting to pound the table regarding a looming crack-down where bogus platforms will be shuttered and those operated poorly may be forced to close. Of course, the remaining platforms should gain in traction and consumer trust as the dodgy platforms are washed out of the system.

While the largest alleged fraud in the P2P sector remains Ezubao at a loss of about 50 billion yuan, other “smaller” platforms have run afoul of the law. According to ECNS, earlier this month the police raided Zhongjin Capital Management. Apparently several employees were arrested under allegations of fraud. Another peer to peer lender, ironically named “Easy Richness”, had its accounts frozen by authorities as it was accused of taking deposits illegally. This all comes as the Chinese authorities are considering “unprecedented” actions against internet finance platforms they deem problematic. These actions are said to take up to a year and will be coordinated across multiple government agencies. During 2015, ECNS stated that the China court system dealt with an astounding 1.42 million cases involving peer to peer lending issues.

Meanwhile, some internet finance firms are taking their own actions to combat fraudulent borrowers. Lenovo has launched the FIDO or Fast Identity Online Alliance. The idea is provide an industry standard process for user verification. The service could be used for payments as well as the other online financial firms. It was reported that as of this month over 150 digital products from large, well known companies are integrated with FIDO.

Last week, Dianrong announced a borrowers blacklist. Individuals who have not repaid loans will be singled out and identified. Not only will lenders see who they are – there will be an added stigma of being outed as being in default on a loan.

As the industry starts to settle down and the rules tighten up, well-managed firms will consolidate control over the online lending industry and things should start to settle down. But even more important is the fact that online lenders are imperative to growth and evolution of the Chinese economy. Ning Tang, founder and CEO of CreditEase, the largest and oldest Chinese peer to peer lender, recently stated;

“Internet finance is key to China’s economic transition. It is not possible to have grassroots entrepreneurs in China without it.”

 

[ahojunk]

China to increase average broadband speed to 30 Mbps
2016-04-28 16:19 | Ecns.cn | Editor: Wang Fan

(ECNS) -- China expects to improve its average broadband Internet speed to 30 megabits per second (Mbps) by the end of this year, said Wen Ku, a bureau chief at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Wen said the ministry has rolled out a series of measures to improve Web access speeds, including fiber-to-home broadband for communities with outdated connectivity in cities.

The ministry has accelerated installation of fiber optic networks in rural areas and is planning to upgrade telecommunication infrastructure in 50,000 villages this year.

It plans to increase the average broadband speed for fixed-lines from 20.5 Mbps in 2015 to 30 Mbps in 2016. In the mobile Internet sector, more effort will be put into expanding the 4G network, with a projected increase of 260 million new users.

The ministry also promised to encourage market competition among the current three major service providers and support private investment into the sector as the country implements its "Internet Plus" strategy that aims to integrate the Internet and industry while encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation.

Officials from the ministry also pledged to increase supervision to enhance user experience.

 

[ahojunk]

The following is taken from a commentary/blog.

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Goldman Turns Positive On China Internet Profits, First Time Since 2010
May 16, 2016, 11:52 P.M. ET

By Shuli Ren

For the first time since 2010, Goldman Sachs feels confident that Chinese Internet companies can generate profit. This is in contrast to the last five years when margins slipped on competition, user acquisition and an impetus to tackle new entrants.

Goldman Sachs thinks China’s Internet space (ex-financials) will grow at annualized 20% to have $2 trillion addressable market by 2020 and can generate $70 billion in profit by then.

Of all the Internet categories, fintech will be the biggest, which explains why all the Internet companies are fighting over it. Goldman sees online finance to have $5.38 trillion addressable market by 2020, from $1.5 trillion in 2015. Alibaba Group (BABA) and Tencent Holding‘s (700.Hong Kong) AliPay and TenPay are the biggest players, with 68% market share currently. Not surprisingly, online retail, or e-commerce, comes second with $1.5 trillion market by 2020, versus $606 billion now. But you can still see e-commerce is more mature and has a smaller pie than fintech. Alibaba and JD.com (JD) are the biggest players, with 88% market share.

Bigger is better. Goldman estimates Alibaba, Baidu (BIDU) and Tencent will collect 308 billion yuan in operating profits by 2020, versus 97 billion yuan in 2015, or 78% of the total profit pile.

 

[ahojunk]

Alibaba, SoftBank set up JV cloud services in Japan
By Enterprise Innovation editors | 2016-05-19

Alibaba Group Holding and SoftBank established a joint-venture firm SB Cloud to launch cloud computing services in Japan that use technologies and solutions from Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group.

SB Cloud will open a new data center in Japan and provide competitive and enhanced public cloud computing services from Alibaba Cloud to meet the various needs of Japanese customers, ranging from startups to multinational companies.

The joint venture will enable Alibaba Cloud to further expand its cloud computing service platform with SoftBank’s extensive business customer base in Japan, which comprises numerous global organizations.

SB Cloud will play a key role in supporting Alibaba Cloud’s business presence in the Japan market where the demand for public cloud computing services is growing rapidly.

The joint venture will provide Japanese enterprises with Alibaba Cloud’s diverse offerings, including data storage and processing services, enterprise-level middleware as well as cloud security services.

“I believe the JV team can develop the most advanced cloud platform for Japanese customers, as well as for multinational customers who want to use the resources we have available in Japan,” said Eric Gan, CEO of SB Cloud and EVP of SoftBank.

SoftBank Group, SoftBank’s parent company, is a major shareholder of Alibaba Group Holding.

 

[ahojunk]

Good to know that Alibaba is doing something about counterfeits.

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Alibaba Says Its Future Depends On Fighting Counterfeiters
by Leena Rao @leenarao MAY 19, 2016, 3:38 PM EDT

The Chinese e-commerce giant is trying to counter complaints that it does too little.

Facing backlash over counterfeit items being sold on its marketplaces, Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba is on the offensive.

Alibaba president Michael Evans said on Thursday that Alibaba’s future depends on its success in fighting counterfeiters. He argued that his company was “100% committed to fighting this battle” while emphasizing the need to work with product makers to tackle the problem.

Speaking at event sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, or IACC, Evans also talked about Alibaba’s data team that helps track down counterfeit goods sold by third parties through its e-commerce sites.

“Our anti-counterfeiting system is now processing 100 million pieces of data per second,” he said. “We’re talking about 8.64 trillion pieces of data each day. In 2015, we were able to block and proactively take down around 120 million suspicious product listings on Taobao. That’s before any of you asked us to do anything.”

Alibaba’s flagship e-commerce marketplace Taobao, where sellers list everything from scorpions to fake Louis Vuitton purses, has long been known as a source of counterfeit goods. The site is a Chinese version of eBay with nine million small sellers.

Last month, Alibaba gained membership into the IACC, prompting a number of the group’s other members, including Gucci America and Michael Kors, to quit in protest. The companies even went as far as describing Alibaba as “our most dangerous and damaging adversary.”

It was also revealed that IACC president Robert Barchiesi owned Alibaba stock, which raised accusations that he had a conflict of interest in his role leading the coalition. The coalition has hired an independent organization to investigate the allegations.

Soon after the backlash started, the coalition said it would suspend Alibaba’s membership. Alibaba, which disagreed with its suspension, has vowed to keep fighting counterfeit goods despite the recent events.

Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, was originally schedule to speak at the IACC event on Thursday. But he pulled out and was replaced by Evans.

Evans also spoke of early success in removing counterfeits from Alibaba’s site. Through a partnership with product makers and IACC, Alibaba has shut down and banned nearly 5,000 storefronts on Taobao, according to Alibaba. It has also removed more than 180,000 counterfeit listings.

In the past, Alibaba has made strong statements against counterfeiting, but the problem has persisted. The company is now trying to show that it is taking real action. Alibaba said previously it is spending millions on anti-counterfeiting efforts and hired a former Pfizer executive to oversee its anti-counterfeiting programs in December. But don’t count on Alibaba to win the good graces of product makers anytime soon.

 

[ahojunk]

Are You Alibaba Literate? 5 Things to Know About the Company
By ERIKA KINETZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS SHANGHAI
— May 27, 2016, 2:48 PM ET

Alibaba is the world's biggest e-commerce platform. Over 420 million people scooped up $485 billion worth of stuff last year on Alibaba's sites. The company went public in 2014, raising $25 billion — more than Facebook — in the largest offering in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. Some things to know about the company:

WHAT IS ALIBABA?

Alibaba's e-commerce platforms cater to both Chinese and global consumers. At its heart is Taobao, a Chinese consumer-to-consumer website much like eBay. Tmall offers merchants official storefronts to consumers in China. Alibaba and AliExpress connect businesses in China with buyers around the world.

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WHAT ELSE DOES ALIBABA DO?

Alibaba also runs an online payment platform called Alipay. It has stakes in Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, as well as Youku Tuduo, a video platform akin to YouTube. And it's building up a cloud computing and internet infrastructure business.

———

WHO'S BEHIND THE COMPANY?

Alibaba was founded in the living room of a former English teacher named Jack Ma. A self-made billionaire, Ma is a folk-hero to some Chinese.

———

WHY DO SOME PEOPLE HATE ALIBABA?

There is widespread suspicion that Alibaba knowingly profits from the sale of fakes on its platforms — a point Gucci America, among others, has made in an ongoing U.S. lawsuit. Some brands complain about how slow and difficult it is to get fakes removed from Alibaba's sites. Alibaba says it has spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-counterfeiting and that it is constantly trying to improve its systems.

———

WHERE'S THE NAME FROM?

Ma knew from the beginning that he wanted a name people around the world would recognize. He asked a waitress in a San Francisco restaurant if she recognized the name Alibaba and she said, yes, open sesame! Drawn from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the name stuck.

 

[TaiShang]

Taobao starts live streaming for products


Working staff of Taobao, one of China's leading e-commerce platforms, shows how to collect pollution-free honey through a live-streaming app in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 30, 2016. In order to help consumers have a direct understanding of goods they want to buy, Taobao kicked off its live-streaming for agricultural products in Tujia-Miao Autonomous County of Xiushan in Chongqing Monday. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

 

[TaiShang]

Alibaba Expands Village Taobao Program
2016-06-02 16:57:48 Editor: Chen Xieyuan

Alibaba has built 100-thousand service centers in small towns or villages in China. [Photo: Agencies]

For Chinese online retailers, the country's vast rural areas are presenting huge potential despite the current economic slowdown.

Yet according to the Ministry of Commerce, among the 186 million Internet users living outside of cities, 60 percent have never hit up the internet to make a purchase.

To tap into the potential of this market, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has built 100-thousand service centers in small towns or villages to help rural people shop and do business online.

Alibaba is known for its online marketplaces Taobao and Tmall, which account for 75 percent of China's online retail sales. The company launched its Village Taobao program in 2014, employing local people as its partners at village service centres.

Village Taobao partners were tasked with helping villagers, most of whom know little about online shopping, to make purchases on the internet.

After receiving goods, villagers pay the centre, and can return goods back to the centre if they are not satisfied.

If people purchase large equipment, the partners can also help install it and provide post-sale services.

Villagers can also pay phone and utility bills at the service centre.

Tang Zhongqiang, Alibaba's regional manager of Village Taobao, said the programme was designed to benefit both farmers and Village Taobao partners financially.

"For example, a commodity might be sold for 4,500 yuan at a physical store, but cost 3,900 online. Villagers can save 600 yuan via e-commerce. If the cost of the commodity is 3,700 yuan, it can generate profits of 200 yuan. A proportion of the 200 yuan will be given to the Taobao partners as a commission fee. Merchants will have to make some sacrifices."

Tonglu County in east China's Zhejiang Province is a pilot area for the Village Taobao program. Local official Shen Shihua said the program has been welcomed by villagers, and the monthly sales volume at a local service station now stands at more than 30,000 yuan, or 4,500 US dollars.

"In the past, deliveries could only reach counties and towns, but now they can reach villages directly. The Village Taobao program introduces many villagers to online shopping for the first time. It also pushes logistics platforms to reach villages, the most grass-roots level, and to occupy the rural markets."

Tang Zhongqiang of Alibaba said helping locals make purchases on Taobao can also help improve the sense of e-commerce among rural people, and it's expected that in the future, rural online buyers, or at least some of them, will become online sellers.

"We hope that after farmers recognize the potential of the e-commerce model, they can make money through e-commerce. We'd like to promote their agricultural products, light-industry products, and local handicrafts online. Our Alibaba partners and third-party professionals will help package the products. To upload and sell goods online is a complex industrial chain. It's not easy, especially for fresh products. It's difficult, but we have to try."

Up to now, Alibaba has established rural service centres in some 16,000 villages in 29 provincial regions.

 

[TaiShang]

Promising Internet of Things cooperation across Taiwan Strait
Xinhua, June 4, 2016

The Chinese mainland and Taiwan, having identified their complementary advantages in the development of the Internet of Things, see promising cooperation across the Strait.

Applications of the Internet of Things have seen strong momentum on the mainland, said Ni Guangnan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, at a seminar on the sharing economy and the Internet of Things held Saturday in Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province.

The two sides across the Strait can perform better if they combine the mainland's advantages of talents, resources, and market with Taiwan's advantages in hardware, particularly integrated circuits, said Ni, who is also a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"We have forged long-term cooperations with our mainland counterparts. We are now following the mainland's smart city development," said Pin-Hsien Liang, chairman of Taiwan Internet of Things Alliance.

Liang said that as an application-oriented industry, the Internet of Things has a rosy future on the mainland which has a very good foundation in applications.

"Taiwan has mastered some key technologies related to the Internet of Things, such as chips and cutting-edge equipment. It has also developed smart city, smart industrial park, and smart life much earlier," he said.

Liang's association has cooperated with mainland partners in developing smart city, electronic toll collection, and smart elevators.

Two travel agencies and one company in Xiamen signed a letter of intent in May with Kaohsiung's tourism association to improve smart tourism in Kaohsiung and explore more tourism opportunities.

 

[ahojunk]

Let's collate all the news on Internet, Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, WeChat, O2O, Online Services, etc and related stuff on this thread.


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For the next Silicon Valley, look to Beijing

Online services, robotics, drones, smartphones, electronic payment systems, mobile games, super computers, cyber security, the internet of things, e-commerce: not just random words but rather those sectors where China has become a dominant force in just a few years.

According to BI Intelligence, a Chinese brand, DJI, has gained a 75% share of the US commercial drone market.

Almost unknown in the West until recently, such names and services as Alibaba, Didi, Baidu and Wechat are now circulating wildly among media outlets, professionals and on smartphones around the world.

A major computer security conference recently held in Amsterdam featured a large number of Chinese speakers on a variety of topics, along with many top-level research and security products made in China.

Two top hardware manufacturers, Huawei and Xiaomi, are investing significant resources in research and development. And a few days ago, Huawei announced that it is developing its own operating system, while Xiaomi has launched its foldable electric bicycle. As the US technology blog Techcrunch asked, “is there anything that China’s Xiaomi doesn’t sell?”

Wechat is being used by 650 million people worldwide, while its parent company Tencent Holdings Ltd. just bought the Finnish company Supercell, producer of Clash of Clans, for $8.6 billion. Thus the high-tech group is becoming a leader not just in the mobile messaging sector, but also when it comes to games played on smartphones and tablets.

Tech giants and universities are spending billions in research and development. According to the OECD, China was the second largest R&D spender in 2012, allocating $294 billion compared to the US, a top-spender at around $454 billion that year. Furthermore, China is leading on patents. According to an Economist article, China is filling patents in every single sector.

But there is more. As renowned New York Times tech reporter John Markoff explains in a recent piece, “China dominates a biannual ranking of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers. Also for the first time, the world’s fastest supercomputer uses Chinese-made microprocessor chips instead of chips from Silicon Valley’s Intel.”

As the same articles points out, “supercomputers are viewed in scientific circles as an indicator of national technology leadership”. A leadership that is becoming increasingly unstoppable: tech giants, universities and other businesses are investing heavy resources in research and development to foster local talents and projects that will further benefit the Chinese economy.

Last March, US tech media company The Information organized an event in China led by its director Jessica E. Lessin to better understand how this technology ecosystem is growing so fast. And a May report in Recode argued that “after three weeks in China, it's clear Beijing is Silicon Valley’s only true competitor”.

This overall trend leaves little doubt on what many stakeholders in the West perceive as a big problem, that is, a Chinese Digital Empire with no borders and few competitors.

On the other hand, though, it is obvious that such fast growth is also challenging for China itself. One of the most significant challenges is whether the Chinese government will be able to arrange and implement effective policies on such complex topics as privacy and cybersecurity, to name just a few. Also crucial will be to define a fair working relationship between tech companies, government and citizens. In other words, those broad and successful developments require a deep commitment to the future of the country itself. For example, Chinese officials should commit to bringing fast internet connectivity everywhere, implement digital literacy options, and switch to online services to ease bureaucracy. But at the same time they must protect citizen rights and provide some balanced policies on national security.

These are crucial points to ensure that this new tech leadership will benefit China in its entirety (and even beyond), while also pushing the US to get even more competitive in a sector that is increasingly up for grabs.

 

[Nan Yang]

Shenzhen too.

 

[ahojunk]

The changing of the guard...

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New Internet Chief Named in Reshuffle
2016-06-30 08:16:51 China Daily/Agencies Web Editor: Zhang Xu

Lu Wei (R), the former head of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs, has been replaced by Xu Lin (L), one of his deputies. [File Photo: Agencies]


China's top internet regulator has been replaced amid a round of personnel reshuffles, according to an official statement released on Wednesday.

Lu Wei, the former head of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs, has been replaced by Xu Lin, one of his deputies, according to the statement, released by the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

There was no mention of where the 56-year-old Lu would go. Ministerial-level officials usually retire at the age of 65.

Xu, a 53-year-old Shanghai native, held various posts in the eastern metropolis before being appointed deputy head of the cyberspace management office last year.

He has served as chief of Shanghai's Civil Affairs Bureau, Agricultural Commission and its booming Pudong New Area.

From 2013 to 2015, Xu was the city's publicity director, giving him experience in media management.

The internet in China has seen rapid growth. By the end of last year, the country had 688 million netizens and 4.23 million websites, up by 6 percent and 26 percent respectively year-on-year, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

The statement also announced that Lu Xinshe, governor of East China's Jiangxi province, would replace Qiang Wei as Jiangxi's top official.

Qiang, 63, will no longer be a member of the CPC Jiangxi Provincial Committee or its Standing Committee, the statement said, without disclosing Qiang's next arrangement.

Wang Guosheng, governor of Central China's Hubei province, replaced Luo Huining as the top official of Northwest China's Qinghai province.

The statement also said that Luo would be given another assignment.

 

[ahojunk]

China clamps down on undisclosed search ads
June 28, 2016

The Chinese government is to enforce stricter controls on the way search engines display ads in the country, in a bid to better distinguish between natural and paid-for content.

Users have been particularly concerned with medical ads, which are a threat to people’s health, according to authorities.

The move means that Baidu and other search engines in the country will have to report banned content and verify advertisers’ qualifications in its latest attempt at Internet regulation.

The new rules, set to be in place by August 1st, have been implemented by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).

“Some search results contain rumors, obscenities, pornography, violence, murder, terrorism and other illegal information,” the CAC said.

“Some search results lack objectivity and fairness, go against corporate morals and standards, misleading and influencing people’s judgment.”

Under the new legislation, search engines operating in the country will be prohibited from providing banned information in various formats including links, summaries, cached pages, associative words, related searches and relevant recommendations,

They will also be required to report websites and applications that contain prohibited content when spotted, the regulator said.

The Chinese government already exercises widespread controls over the internet and has sought to codify that policy in law.

The Cyberspace Administration of China said search engines should investigate the “aptitude” of clients offering paid-for ads, set a clear upper limit on such ads and clearly distinguish which are paid-for ads and which come from “natural searches”.

“Internet search providers should earnestly accept corporate responsibility toward society, and strengthen their own management in accordance with the law and rules, to provide objective, fair and authoritative search results to users,” it said.

Baidu said in a statement that it was committed to providing the best search experience and will fully comply with the law.

“Baidu will work closely with government agencies, internet users and the community to uphold a healthy internet environment, and strive to provide objective, impartial, and authoritative search results to our users,” it said.

The move could be good news for marketers and consumers alike. The changes fall in line with the approach pioneered in the UK to ensure transparency of paid promotion. Since the late 1990s Google had been clear on what was sponsored and what was in natural search.

Industry insiders told us that when this was first tackled in the rest of the world, the discussions with US and European search engines at the time had been both very swift and very aligned. That was driven by the culture of media transparency that is more developed in Western Europe and North America than in China.

 

[ahojunk]

Can Big Data Cure China’s Health Woes?
Sixth Tone - Cai Yiwen
Jun 28, 2016

China is pushing ahead with plans to increase data sharing between hospitals to improve the country’s health care system.

In what experts have described as a significant breakthrough, the State Council, or China’s cabinet, is calling for the development of a national platform that would allow the country’s medical and health care institutions to connect with one another and share patient data and other medical information.

The State Council-issued guidelines also encourage a greater development role for “socially innovative forces” — typically interpreted to mean startups and other internet-based health care companies.

China hopes to extend affordable and high-quality health care to all citizens by the end of this decade, a goal the World Health Organization has described as “one of the most ambitious” such health-related undertakings in the world.

Yet considerable barriers remain in achieving this target, including low standards for health care available to patients in the towns and smaller cities of China’s heartland.

This means that when people in these rural areas become ill, they often avoid local hospitals and rush instead in large numbers to big hospitals in provincial capitals. Some even venture to the more developed coastal cities such as Beijing and Shanghai in pursuit of what they see as higher quality medical care.

This puts a huge strain on the country’s hospital system. In addition to being costly and inefficient, traveling large distances to big hospitals for health care can also be ineffective.

Experts say technology and greater data sharing have the potential to significantly enhance the quality of care available to Chinese. For example, they offer patients in rural areas the chance to access some of the best doctors and specialists through telemedicine, a process whereby consultations can be made via satellite or internet connections between hospitals in the countryside and major hospitals in larger cities and major metropolitan areas.

In recent years, more internet companies have begun to participate in the medical and health care market in China. A number of health care websites and apps, such as Chunyu Doctor, We Doctor, and Dingxiang Doctor, have been created to help patients book appointments with doctors or find doctors online.

According to data from iiMedia Research Group, China's mobile health care market has grown 44.7 percent, from 2.95 billion yuan (around $444 million) in 2014 to 4.27 billion yuan in 2015.

Last year, China’s first “internet hospital” was established in Wuzhen, in eastern China’s prosperous Zhejiang province. The hospital is as an online platform that assists patients in finding doctors online and in booking appointments with them; it also acts as a communications link between large public hospitals and hospitals in rural or smaller cities.

Up until now, limited access to patient data has been a big obstacle for the proliferation of internet health care in China. That’s because many public hospitals are not willing to share their information with third parties, including internet health care companies, which consequently find it difficult to expand.

Despite rapid development last year, many internet health care companies still cannot make a profit and are struggling to survive, according to Zhao Heng, an expert in health care policy and founder of the medical and health consultancy Latitude Health.

But the new State Council guidelines offer hope. “This is not just good news; it is a critical breakthrough,” said Liao Jieyuan, CEO of internet health care company We Doctor. Liao said that while hospitals have a wide variety of documents — items such as medical histories and checkup results — stored in their computer systems, such records are “just isolated islands of information” without a link between the systems.

Regardless of its good intentions, China still has a long way to go. Gong Yihua, president of Jointown Pharmaceutical Group, said during a workshop at an internet health care conference in Wuzhen last weekend that the use of big data in the medical field is still immature in China, and that the lack of a robust database of medical information must be addressed.

“You can’t tell anything from the data [in its current state], and it’s very hard to imagine it being used as an effective tool,” he told participants from the medical and information technology sectors. “It’s going to take a long time to come up with a good system.”

Zhao of Latitude Health also described China’s medical data as “fragmented” and “unsystematic.” He said one step toward successfully tapping information technology to promote a better health care system was to establish a systematic way of gathering data.

Persuasion, too, will be an important tool: “The point is to push public hospitals to share their data,” he said.

 

[ahojunk]

China's Alibaba expanding into rural market
2016-06-06 11:14 | CCTV | Editor: Xu Shanshan

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced an investment of 10 billion yuan, or 1 and a half billion U.S. dollars, over the next three years, to set up its service in the country's rural areas. This will likely help alleviate poverty. CCTV's Han Peng reports from one of Shandong's villages, to see how the service is improving the lives of residents.

Rural life in China isn't all idyllic. Marginalized from the booming urban market, one out of ten peasants still lives under the poverty line.

But the rising e-commerce market is providing to be a much-needed platform to sell their produce at a higher price. And it makes it easier to buy urban products as well.

That's the latest program by China's e-commerce giant Alibaba. The company is setting up some 100,000 rural service stations over the next three years in some of the poorest and remotest villages.

"My business aims to help my neighbors to buy what no one sells, and sell what no one buys in our village. We believe there is huge market potential in rural areas," said Xia Youzhi, rural resident.

Xia Youzhi used to run the only convenience store in his village. Last year, he decided to join Alibaba, and set up a rural service station.

Alibaba is by far the first and only online retailer in China to set up a sales and purchasing platform for rural residents. And in Chinese villages, e-commerce works in quite a different way.

Villagers don't really know how to use a computer or a mobile app, so Xia has to install a big computer screen in his store to help them pick out products and make online orders.

Most villagers are skeptical about online payment, fearing that sellers might scam them. So Xia, as a trusted local shop owner, receives the cash from villagers, and then pays online through his own bank account.

But his most demanding work lies outside the store. Most villages have no roads for trucks, so deliverymen can only send the packages to the rural service station.

Xia has uses a motor-tricycle to transport the packages to villagers' homes. At the same time, he can collect from the villagers whatever they hope to sell.

We now follow Xia Youzhi to complete the so-called "last kilometer logistics". The roads here are quite bumpy and difficult, but this is regarded as the core to e-commerce competition. No matter how new e-commerce may look like to local buyers, the deals have to be completed in the most traditional and rural way.

Figures show that one-third of China's villages lack the necessary infrastructure for logistics, and two-thirds still have no access to the Internet.

But as China pledges to complete Internet infrastructure for all villages by 2020, Alibaba says it is confident in tapping into the huge potential of the rural market.

"E-commerce can solve one of the biggest problems for rural residents -- that is by helping them be equally informed about the market with urbanites. With just a click of a mouse, they can buy and sell what they want, making them an equal player in the market," said Sun Lijun, partner of Alibaba Group.

Xia Youzhi's rural service station is one of the earliest in China -- in a village near Shandong's central city of Weifang.

It was never a booming export region until now.

Local authorities say despite a nation-wide shrinkage, Weifang has seen its export rising last year, because it embraced the idea of rural e-commerce.

Some say with more villagers buying and selling online, the world might just see a "Made in China" tag coming out of the country's villages.