ChinaTechTrip

TRAVEL IN CHINA HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER In the past 30 days, I have visited 8 cities, travelled over 3500 km on high-speed trains, walked an estimated 500 km and stayed in everything from international hotels to Chinese apartments. For my work (field research for China Digital Retail Report and study tour planning for ChinaTechTrip) I normally stick to the same cities: Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai and occasionally Shenzhen, Chongqing and Xi’an. I know these cities well, have local public transport cards and tend to stay in the same accommodation. This time, half of my time was spent exploring a new province. I only had 5 provinces left I haven’t been to and have visited more than 130 cities and towns all over Greater China. Shandong was one province where I had never gotten off the train until now. It was probably also the first time since Covid I travelled by myself in ‘new territory’, meaning I could not rely on prior knowledge and experience. I speak and read Mandarin Chinese enough to get by for practical things, but am nowhere near fluent. To give you an idea: Chinese people normally understand me, but I often don’t understand them because they use unfamiliar words. These past few weeks have taught me a few things about how travel has become much easier than before COVID. Here are a few takeaways: ▶️ I mostly use WeChat, and the mini programs now have a machine translation option, making them much easier to use, even though the translations are far from perfect. Getting a Didi and selecting food after scanning the table QR code have become so much easier because of this. ▶️ When I need to stick to Chinese apps and I don’t know enough characters to figure things out, screen translation on the mobile phone solves the challenge. And in the offline world, Google Lens is a real help. ▶️ When someone calls me, and I can't figure out what they are saying, I tell them to send me a message in the concerned app, so I can screen translate it. We normally figure things out this way. ▶️ When arriving at a chaotic train station without a metro, getting a Didi can be a hassle, so I just stick to getting a taxi at the taxi stand to quickly get to the hotels. But after that, it’s just Didi and local transport, which I prefer over taxis. ▶️ In new cities, I used Alipay to create public transport QR codes. This was a lifesaver because it allowed me to use the metro and bus everywhere I went. ▶️ Ordering food on the Meituan food app and using Meituan Instashopping has become so much easier than trying to figure out where to get certain food or products in the ‘offline world’. Most hotels now have a delivery robot that even brings it up to the room. And when the courier calls, I know what to say to him. ▶️ Same for the apps of Meituan Xiaoxiang, Dingdong Maicai, Hema, etc. When I have a fridge in the apartment, I normally order and stock up for a few days. Travelling around China has never been easier as long as you know the right processes and tools.

A LESSON IS ADAPTABILITY The more I travel around China for field research and preparations for our ChinaTechTrip study tours, and the more I spend time in my favourite 'serviced apartments' in various cities, the more I feel at home away from home. But I also get more used to unexpected things that cross my path. It wasn’t long ago that I was in Beijing and the population was warned to stay inside because of a monstrous storm. People parked their cars on school sports grounds, away from trees, and while I was watching the weather, I wondered what all the fuss was about. At home, I had storms blowing away parts of my fence and snapping younger trees in my garden … This weekend I find myself in Hangzhou, at the edge of typhoon Bavi. A week earlier, people in Suzhou were already warning me about a storm hitting Hangzhou. The hotel was distributing leaflets about the dangerous storm expected from the 10th to the 12th. I moved some of my appointments to avoid the weekend and have mostly been working in the apartment these last few days. And while various weather apps warned about rain and strong winds, the worst thing I have seen in the past 72 hours is an empty garbage bin being blown over. This morning I packed my stuff and said goodbye to the ladies at reception, only to find the metro entrance closed. I tried several other entrances, but had no luck, and some metro staff outside told me there were no metro trains running at the moment. So, I got myself a Didi (a ride-hailing service). When I got in, the driver asked why I was going to the station and said there were no trains at the moment. He suggested I check the 12306 app (which had not sent me a notification), and indeed, all trains between Hangzhou and Shanghai were suspended. I told him to drive me back to the hotel, where I walked in only 15 minutes after having said 下次见！(see you next time). I realised my best option was to stay in Hangzhou another day. I changed my hotel reservation in Shanghai, moved some of my appointments there and booked a new train ticket for the next morning (there was obviously a run on tickets, judging from the limited availability). Meanwhile, the weather was great outside. I saw that the metro had reopened shortly after returning to the hotel. The trains resumed service around 4 PM but were all sold out. Don’t get me wrong, I have read about the devastating damage of the storm in Guangxi and Taiwan, and I’m sure that ‘better safe than sorry’ applies here. But it also keeps surprising me that everything can just grind to a halt like this and it’s perfectly normal to everybody. 没办法. There’s nothing we can do about it. That used to really get on my nerves when I lived in China. Now, I just ordered another Luckin, had another bowl of noodles in the metro station’s food court and decided we’d see what tomorrow would bring.

As part of a recent ChinaTechTrip retail study tour with K5 - Future Retail, I gave a 25-minute briefing about the development of instant retail in the past 12 months. A slidecast video of this briefing is available for paid subscribers. I discuss the following topics: ▶️ The impact of the meal delivery war on revenue, profits and the supposed synergy with traditional e-commerce. ▶️ Involution among lightning warehouses. ▶️ Why have major supermarket chains started opening up front-end warehouses (dark stores)? ▶️ Changes in market shares of instant retail companies. Link in comments.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT QUICK COMMERCE IN CHINA Last April, ChinaTechTrip and K5 - Future Retail took a group of senior managers back to China for a second study tour about retail and e-commerce in China. We kicked off the journey with a thorough update on the latest developments in retail and e-commerce in China. This update included a 25-minute briefing on the latest in instant retail (quick commerce). A slidecast of this briefing will be available to paid subscribers on China Digital Retail Report tomorrow. On China Digital Retail Report, I post weekly articles, reports and videos on the online and offline retail initiatives of China's internet companies. This includes frequent content on e-commerce, live commerce, quick commerce, cross-border e-commerce (Temu, TikTok Shop, Shein, Joybuy, etc) and more. Some posts are free to read, and the most exclusive reports and videos are available to paid subscribers at a very reasonable price, given the wealth of information. To receive the weekly free and paid updates in your mailbox, please subscribe through the link in the comments.

Last year, in September, I delivered a keynote at Hovedorganisasjonen Virke’s Arena conference in Lillestrøm, Oslo. In 25 minutes, I explained the core business model behind Temu and why a cancellation of the tax exemption in Europe is unlikely to stop the platform. Next month, I will be sharing the latest insights about Temu at various conferences in Germany and the Netherlands. In those keynotes, I will explain why I see the latest developments at Temu as its ‘third phase’. Meanwhile, in this week's China Digital Retail Report, I have included a recording of last year’s presentation for Virke, so you can learn more about Temu’s first two phases, which many local players are still not fully aware of. https://lnkd.in/eNWbX5hC

Shenzhen is probably the most futuristic city in China, with driverless cars cruising the streets and drones buzzing between the high buildings. The drones attract a lot of attention from tourists visiting the city, and it’s not hard to find videos of drones delivering milk tea on social media. In this new report, I assess the possibilities and limitations of meal delivery by drone and answer the question, ‘Does this actually make sense for consumers and the meal delivery companies?’ The report examines the drone logistics industry in general before zooming in on the progress and challenges of Meituan’s drone initiatives. Link in comments.