Technology & Innovation

Bridging the gap in a new technology paradigm

May 31, 2017

Asia

May 31, 2017

Asia
Michael Gold

Managing editor

Michael is a managing editor at Economist Impact. Although Michael has roots in Montreal, he grew up in Palo Alto, California and attended Yale University, where he majored in anthropology. Prior to joining the Economist Group, Michael was a correspondent for Reuters in Taipei, where he covered the technology sector. He has also worked in Beijing and is fluent in Mandarin. 

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How are China’s legacy industries embracing new technologies?

While the world now hears much about China’s big technology players Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, less is known about smaller tech players or about the technology adoption of companies in traditional industries. To shed light on the latter, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) surveyed 350 companies across China on their attitudes, plans and strategies toward adopting technology solutions to improve their products or services, with a focus on the finance, retail and healthcare industries. The key findings are:

  • Over two-thirds of companies say they have a clear vision and strategy for using new technologies in products and services.
  • The hand of government ownership guides both strategy and objectives in some legacy industries.
  • Partnerships with technology companies are driving much of the uptake.
  • Finance companies—having been stung by nimble fintech players—see the need to move toward greater technology adoption, but have been hamstrung by regulation.
  • Retail players consider themselves innovative when stacked against the competition.
  • Healthcare’s main objective for technology is to improve patient experience.

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