Opinion: How Chinese innovation is going global

Photo by Adi Constantin on Unsplash

For many, China is still synonymous with the copying or stealing of ideas and the production of low-cost alternatives. “Made in China” used to mean cheap labor, cheap production, and bad quality; Chinese clones of Western innovation used to be infamous the world over. However, those living in the country or following it closely know this to be an outdated view.

With the creation of a large middle class with disposable incomes and desires, we have since moved on to “Made for China.” For a majority of MNCs, China is one of the biggest and most important markets. Local tastes and preferences are increasingly being taken into consideration, with the goal of getting a bigger share of the wallet. From F&B, to fashion, to electronics, to automobiles, “Made for China” is a reality today, as consumption in the country is still steadily on the rise.

Following the shift from being the world’s workbench to one of the world’s most important economies today, the next change is just on the horizon. As China and its companies continue to look for growth, their gaze is increasingly landing on the global markets, where some of China’s most valuable companies (like Alibaba and Tencent) have yet to prove themselves to be able to compete with incumbents.

The next big shift we are about to see will be dubbed “Designed in China.”

Why adoption rates matter

To understand how Chinese companies made the shift from copying to innovating, one needs to look no further than WeChat. Having started its existence as a crossover of QQ, WhatsApp, and similar existing products, many deemed it a copycat. Yet fast release cycles and a strong willingness to solicit, listen to, and react to market response have turned it into Tencent’s likely most valuable property. It has been adopted so widely and used so frequently that Western companies are looking to learn from and copy it.

Success stories like WeChat are possible in China because of the general willingness⏤across generations, social groups and geographies⏤to adopt new technologies quickly. With China’s incredible rise over the past decades, life has looked completely different for hundreds of millions of people, year after year. Change has been ever-present in lifestyle, affluence, infrastructure, and opportunity, amongst other related fields.

To the Chinese, continuous change and adaptation to new circumstances is the norm, a factor crucial to driving rapid adoption of new technologies.

Nanjing Street in Shanghai. Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash

As a rule of thumb in China: If there is benefit, or a chance for gain, or something interesting to a product, people would give it a try without hesitation⏤no matter how small it might be. They will also immediately abandon the product in the case that it does not satisfy. Within such a fast-response, live-or-die framework, Chinese products can evolve quicker and adapt to the market better. Hence innovation, both incremental and disruptive, has the right breeding ground to accelerate at unprecedented levels.

Within the frames of such an economic environment, and after copying and catching up to global standards, it is easy to see why China’s companies are at pole position for creating the next big wave of innovation. And they are already doing it. It’s just that much of their progress has remained invisible to outsiders, until now.

Designed in China

Where most would have considered their home countries to be more advanced than China ten years ago, this is no longer the case. From WeChat’s ubiquitous mobile payments, Xiaomi’s affordable yet high-quality mobile devices, to Niu’s well-designed e-scooters, China is living in the future.

And this has not even touched on China’s millions of merchants and shoppers, whose everyday lives are continuously shaped and changed by Alibaba. The enormous ways in which social technology giants are connecting people through text, voice, video, live stream, and the impeding e-mobility revolution (pushed forward by a plethora of new local entrants and government policy), will most likely make China the global frontrunner in the space.

Conquering the world

Cooperate and prosper