Surviving a year on US$ 271 cash

Bin Shi, our Head of China Equities said recently that RMB 2,000 (US$ 271) can last him a year in China. But in Hong Kong where he is based, that wouldn’t see him through five days. Why?

Market Updates 13 May 2019 2 min read

Bin on why RMB 2,000 gets him through one year in China

Bin was speaking to investors in Singapore and Thailand during his roadshow in early May 2019.

In his presentation, “Is data the new oil for China”, Bin spoke about how far advanced China is in technology. From the wide availability of mobile payments to the 220,000 transactions processed per second during Alibaba’s Singles’ Day shows how the wide gap between China and other developed countries in e-commerce.

China has become king in e-commerce

Fun facts on Singles’ Day

Largest

Retail festival globally

3x

More online spend on Singles’ Day compared to Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Thanksgiving combined

220,000

Orders processed per second

Online stores are not just replication of physical malls. Bin reminded the audience that those seamless transactions are possible because Chinese e-commerce players have invested in parallel and cloud computing. Mind boggling as it may sound, the 220,000 orders per second speaks volume about China’s capabilities in super-computing infrastructure.

To put this in context, Bin adds that the processing speed for these transactions is faster than what is required for Bitcoin computing.

The important thing to note is that technology is taking over many traditional industries. So that’s why when Bin looks at innovative companies, it’s not just limited to technology companies. Technology and innovation is shaping other industries like education and healthcare. These “new economy” sectors will continue to drive growth in China.