China's road to digital transformation is quite different from other markets as the consumer internet is driving the development of industrial internet, according to a report co-released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Alibaba, and Baidu.
To a certain extent, Chinese consumers have led a highly digital daily life. 20% of households in first- and second-tier cities have turned their homes into a smart home. That was close to the average level in the U.S. In addition, China captured 35% of smart speaker sales globally in Q2 2018, which was just 1% in Q3 2017.
The consumer internet has seen new business model innovations booming in recent years, such as the new retail coffee shop chain Luckin Coffee and unmanned stores.
On the contrary, the development of industrial internet still lags behind developed markets. For example, only 25% of manufacturers have been digitally transformed in China as of 2017, which was 46% in Germany and 54% in the U.S.
China needs to c...
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