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Lessons from China’s Digital Battleground

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Lessons from China’s Digital Battleground

MIT Sloan Management Review,

5 min read
5 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Some of the West’s savviest digital players have failed in China’s booming digital market. Here’s what they need to do to succeed.

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

China’s digital market has attracted some of the West’s smartest companies – Uber, Airbnb, Amazon and eBay, among others – only to leave them sidelined while Chinese players have grown at mind-boggling rates. In this concise and authoritative report published in MIT Sloan Management Review, a team from the Boston Consulting Group explains why Chinese giants like Alipay, Didi and Tujia.com have bested their Western counterparts. The authors outline four imperatives for non-Chinese companies seeking to participate in the exploding Chinese digital market.

Summary

The Chinese digital market is booming: 700 million Chinese users – and counting – are increasing their online spending by 32% every year. In May 2017, the $1 trillion market boasted 63 unicorns ($1 billion-plus private start-ups); nearly half of those companies had needed less than two years to reach unicorn status. At the end of 2016, annual mobile payments in China had topped $8.5 trillion. Income growth among Chinese consumers and pent-up demand resulting from an underdeveloped economy fueled...

About the Authors

Shu Li is a partner in the Beijing office of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). François Candelon is a senior partner in BCG’s Shanghai office. Martin Reeves is a senior partner in BCG’s New York City office and global leader of the BCG Henderson Institute.


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