A trio of Boston Consulting Group professionals presents an overview of trends in China’s internet industry. The analysis is specific and detailed about some topics such as “smart manufacturing,” while describing others in broad strokes. The trends analysis is sound and culminates in pointers for companies operating in China today.
China’s big online firms have built a powerful consumer internet, including a digital overhaul of the food, transportation and clothing markets. But the focus on the consumer web left China’s “industrial internet” – the upstream businesses and vendors – relatively underdeveloped. China’s nascent manufacturing industry has room to grow in “smart manufacturing,” including digitally connected machines and sensors; “industrial IT” that integrates data; algorithm-informed decisions; and human-robot partnerships.
Now, China’s consumer internet is propelling the growth of its industrial internet. Simultaneously, slackening online user growth is forcing internet giants...
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