China: ‘Copycat’ No More
For a really long time, the Chinese have been derided by the West for ‘replicating’ their market-tested products and stealing their Intellectual Property. At a point of time when the world’s most powerful nation came up with technology companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook, Chinese tech companies which initially took lessons from the West(for the most parts) were labeled as ‘Copycat’. To counter Google — there was Baidu. For Amazon — there was Alibaba. Then came Renren to compete with Facebook. Tencent QQ is China’s response to Yahoo while Youku is the substitute for Youtube in China.
Though there is a stark difference between American & Chinese approach to technological evolution. When Google, Facebook & Amazon were inclined to catering to the global audience and growing their numbers exponentially in the shortest span of time, the Chinese companies were thorough in their approach to build a strong community inside China. With this, they even kept the user data within the ambit of Beijing’s control(The Great Firewall).
Let’s take a look at how Wechat has shaped the way Chinese live. Wechat is omnipresent in China. What started as a copy of digital messaging app Whatsapp, has now turned into a one-stop destination for the Chinese to pay their bills, video chat, shop online, order food, book a cab, reserve a seat, file IT returns, in short almost everything. So, in China, you don’t have to switch to multiple apps but rather use Wechat to find everything in one place.
These are known as ‘mini-programs’ where without occupying a huge chunk of your phone’s space, services of multiple platforms can be enjoyed at one place. WeChat is no longer walking on the footsteps of Whatsapp instead it’s becoming a model for others to follow. Facebook’s idea of a marketplace in its platform is inspired by WeChat’s mini-programs. (Now, who is copying whom?)
Baidu — Alibaba — Tencent (BAT)
There is a growing cult of the BAT companies in China. Tencent, a Chinese amalgamation of Facebook and Nintendo is now the world’s biggest gaming company and operator of China’s biggest social network — WeChat, which engages 980 million active users on its platform(that’s more than the combined population of EU & Russia). In 2017, Tencent was among the top 5 companies with the highest market cap after Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon.
Baidu, often called ‘Chinese Google’ dominates online advertising, research and development in the field of AI & driverless cars in China. Most of us have are familiar with Chinese retail giant — Alibaba. Alibaba’s Singles Day sale which is the equivalent of Black Friday sales in America garnered around 25 billion US dollars which is double the amount collected on Black Friday sales. The numbers speak for themselves.
BAT companies represent China globally and bolster the Dragon’s claim of becoming a World Power with its own version of Google, Amazon & Facebook. Tencent and Alibaba are already in the race of top 10 most valuable companies in the world. On the other hand, US companies don’t enjoy such cooperation from their government.
Facebook in its Q1 Report of 2019 said — it kept aside 3–5 billion dollars as it expects to get fined by USA’s Federal Trade Commission(FTC). The FTC is investigating whether Facebook violated a consent agreement reached in 2011. Chinese companies get away with impunity especially in cases pertaining to privacy issues as long as they comply with their governments’ terms & conditions. China has passed a National Intelligence Law (in October 2017) which mandates that they can ask any of their companies to provide any kind of data — either onshore or offshore. (USA’s boycott of Huawei is based on the same fear).
Dragon’s Quest For An Orwellian Society
China is also the first country to introduce the concept of ‘Social Credit Score’(SCS). It is basically like rating your Uber driver but instead, the citizen’s scores are evaluated with the help of Artificial Intelligence(AI). Citizens are monitored 24*7, analysed and given points on the basis of their past behaviours in public spaces, their punctuality in filing IT returns, criminal records, etc. The project is headed by Sesame Credit (Alibaba’s financial wing) which will make use of Alibaba’s 400 million users data accumulated over the years. The SCS shall hold more significant value in daily life as a bad score could debar a citizen from taking loans or travelling abroad.
It is important to note that the surveillance model is gaining popularity among other countries across the globe, the recent example being Ecuador. Ecuador recently ordered ECU-911(citizen monitoring devices) from China and conducted training sessions in the presence of Chinese personnel in Quito. Ecuador’s capital city feels the presence of ‘Big Brother’ as high-tech Chinese security cameras monitor the streets round the clock.
“They’re selling this as the future of governance; the future will be all about controlling the masses through technology,” Adrian Shahbaz, research director at Freedom House, said of China’s new tech exports. (NY TIMES)
But could the Chinese be trusted with such a huge chunk of confidential user data? As authoritarian governments look out for advanced tech devices to monitor their territory, there will be a subsequent rise in the demand for citizen-monitoring devices. If China continues to supply this technology to other authoritarian regimes, will there ever be any hope left for civil protests against those governments in case they go rogue? (as the potential suspects would have already been grabbed by the authorities by then). Also consider the possibility that in the backend, security devices like ECU-911 could ‘secretly’ supply back the confidential data back to Beijing (as America & many allegedly fear). Whooosh! Rest I leave it to your imagination.
