Notes from My First China Trip

My first trip to China (Beijing and Hangzhou) was very insightful and left me in a state of euphoria. So it was important that I wait at least 10 days before putting down my impressions (to avoid recency bias). 

Apps and QR Codes

The first great thing that happened a couple of days before I was leaving was that both Alipay and Wepay allowed foreigners to create temporary bank accounts with pre-loaded cards so that they could easily transact all across China. I used zero cash on my entire trip! 

Armed with a smattering of Mandarin that I had picked up a couple of months back and Google Translate (one of the few Google apps allowed inside China), I found it relatively easy to walk around on my own and interact with people. 

I used the following apps extensively during my stay in China: Alipay, WeChat, Amap, Baidu Maps, Google Translate, Didi, Bing Search, Luckin Coffee, TikTok, iQiYi. 

QR codes have become integral to the way of life in China. Even beggars and buskers have QR codes on their donation boxes. Colleagues in Beijing mentioned that some of them hadn’t done a cash transaction in over a year. 

But QR codes are not just for payments. From availing services like riding around a bicycle in Beijing to ordering KFC inside a bullet train - QR codes enable the vast number of mini-programs on superapps like WeChat.

Bridging Offline and Online

QR codes are also extensively used to bridge the gap between the offline and online worlds. In the large waiting area of a famous restaurant chain Hi! (food prepared and served by robots), waiting customers can play a live-action multiplayer game against each other (complete with a leaderboard and prizes). This is taking CX to the next level. 

BTL activities conducted at malls allow users to play fun games and win meaningful prizes (and also aid in registrations). In the lead up to Double 11 (11/11 is the Single’s Day e-commerce sale day in China), I saw such activities all over the place. 

Infrastructure

Two things that struck me in both Beijing and Hangzhou - the air quality was excellent and the cities were humongous. Pollution in Chinese cities used to be a problem but it looks like they have been able to curb it in a big way. AQI was Excellent throughout my trip. 

At 16,000 sq km each, both Beijing and Hangzhou are about 28 times bigger in size than Mumbai and Bangalore. While I don’t think such large cities are efficient in terms of energy consumption, we need to invest in building a lot of new cities in India. Our current metros cannot deal with higher densities of population. 

The infrastructure was relatively new, well-maintained and staggering in terms of its capacity. I particularly enjoyed the bullet train ride from Beijing to Hangzhou (1300 kms+ in just over 4 hours). 

Pop Culture

The Chinese pop culture scene has exploded. Everyone reads. And there are magnificent book shops all over, filled with the latest SF, fantasy, crime, literature and non-fiction. Chinese writers have particularly been dominating the global SF scene. (Cixin Liu is a living legend!) 

Chinese movies and television shows have also come a long way and their OTT services iQiYi and Youku are ahead of the curve in terms of business model innovation and developing better personalization. 

Everyone loves Aamir Khan in China (Dangal and PK were big hits and people stood in long queues to buy tickets when the movies came out). Young people in Beijing and Hangzhou know of him. Hrithik is emerging as the next big Indian star in China. 

The public school system is fairly good but there is intense competition to get into the top 9 universities in China - their ivy league - C9. Most city kids are ushered from one activity to the next after school by grandparents - music, dance, fencing, English, maths … 

Grandparents live with their son/ daughter in the city and look after the grandkids. Most households are dual-income - a big reason for the emergence of the massive Chinese middle class. 

Miscellaneous

I witnessed the mayhem of Single’s Day firsthand (11/11). Social selling and selling on live streams by Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) drives a lot of e-commerce GMV. More than 100 million people saw the top 3 KOLs in the wee hours of the morning! 

Downloading and signing up for the Luckin Coffee app and getting the first coffee free and then subsequently only drinking coffee from their store for the rest of the trip proved to me that introducing relevant friction in a customer flow can be hugely beneficial.

Parting thought for the Indian startup ecosystem:

Setup a team in China after your series C. You need the insights. Massive innovation in product and business models happening in China.