China is gradually shedding its reputation as the world’s technology copycat. Some Chinese companies are also leading the way in new services and business models.

中國正逐漸甩掉全世界最大科技山寨國的名聲，一些中國公司在新的服務和商業模式上已經處于領先地位。

The move toward pioneering also reflects a generational change, says Derrick Xiong, chief marketing officer of drone maker Ehang.

無人機制造商億航Ehang的首席營銷官熊逸放表示，中國企業引領新潮流也反映出一種代際變遷。

The new generation of entrepreneurs, “the post-90s, were born to be global,” he says; “they have never experienced hard times in China so they have a completely different mindset” more akin to that of their peers in the US or Europe than their parents.

他說，新一代企業家都是“90后，出生在全球化時代。他們從未經歷過艱難困苦，因此他們的思維方式完全不同”，比他們的父輩更接近美國或歐洲同齡人的思維。

報道認為，中國在以下幾個領域處于領先位置：

Bike-sharing 共享單車

China has embraced bike-sharing, pioneering a dockless model that offers cyclists advantages over comparable services in London and New York: bikes are unlocked using mobile apps, and can be picked up and left anywhere. Many are even GPS-tracked. Mobike (orange) and Ofo (yellow) have led the pack. One financier, only half joking, opines that the only barrier to entry will be when they run out of colours.

中國迎來了共享單車時代，引領了無樁單車模式，為騎行者提供了比倫敦和紐約的同類服務更大的優勢：單車可通過手機應用解鎖，騎車者可隨地騎走或停放單車。很多單車甚至配有GPS定位。摩拜（橙色）和Ofo（黃色）是最大的兩家。一名金融家開玩笑說，進入這一行唯一的障礙將是顏色不夠用了。

A subsequent crackdown by regulators, irked at the piles of dumped bikes littering cities, portends potholes on the road. But that hasn’t deterred the like of LimeBike from rolling out a similar service in the US states of California, North Carolina and Florida following the dockless, QR code-based Chinese model.

但隨后監管者決定對單車進行整頓，因為他們對廢棄的單車亂丟在各個城市感到很惱火。這預示著共享單車未來的發展路途不會太平坦。但這并未阻止LimeBike之類的共享單車追隨無樁、掃碼的中國模式，在美國加州、北卡羅來納州和佛羅里達州推出類似服務。

QR codes 二維碼

For much of China, the QR code, a type of barcode, is the key that unlocks the digital world. A swipe of the matrix with a mobile device lets a user hire a bike, pay for goods and grab a new contact’s details: why swap business cards when you can just hover your phone over that of your new acquaintance?

對中國大多數地區來說，二維碼是解鎖數字世界的鑰匙。用戶用移動設備掃一掃這個圖案，就可以租用共享單車、花錢買東西以及獲取新聯系人的信息：當你只要用手機掃一下新朋友的手機就能交換信息時，何必要交換名片呢？

Companies in the US, where the QR code was dismissed in 2024, now seem to be changing their view. Snapchat picked up the idea in 2024, allowing users to follow one another as easily as their WeChat peers by scanning each others’ QR codes, and proceeded to facilitate their use to access websites. Facebook this year is piloting ‘rewards’ QR codes to secure discounts in certain shops, while Spotify has adopted the technology to allow users to share music.

二維碼在2024年受到美國企業的摒棄，如今美國企業似乎變了主意。Snapchat于2024年采納了這一理念，允許用戶通過掃碼來加好友，就像微信一樣方便，并進而使用二維碼為用戶訪問網站提供便利。臉書今年試點“獎勵”二維碼，用戶在指定商戶掃碼可打折，同時Spotify推出了掃碼分享音樂。

Social media 社交媒體

WhatsApp’s launch last month of business accounts showed the US messaging app taking another step down the path forged by Chinese peer WeChat.

WhatsApp上個月推出企業賬戶，這表明這款美國消息類應用程序在由中國同行微信開辟的道路上又邁了一步。

WeChat, Tencent’s chat and social media app, has long courted the business world. It is how government, celebrities and businesses from Burberry to Mondelez connect to customers in the Chinese social media space spicing up their chat with cool fashion show snaps, special offers and sales promotions and post information or news. WeChat has more than 20m ‘official accounts’, according to industry estimates, though not all are verfied.

微信是騰訊旗下的聊天和社交媒體應用，一直在向商界進軍。在中國，政府、名人以及從巴寶莉到億滋等企業使用微信與社交媒體中的客戶建立聯系（發布超酷的秀場照片、特別折扣和促銷活動來活躍與用戶的交流）、發布信息或資訊。根據業內估計，微信如今擁有超過2000萬個“公眾號”，但并非都是認證賬號。

WhatsApp is now jumping on that bandwagon, following in the footsteps of WeChat. In an effort to help businesses keep in touch with their customers and to make money the Facebook-owned app has begun offering ‘verifed profile’ accounts, so customers know they are contacting the right shop or service.

WhatsApp如今正準備投身于此，效仿微信。為了幫助企業與客戶保持聯系并賺取利潤，這款臉書旗下的應用開始提供“認證”賬戶，這樣一來客戶就知道他們聯系的是正牌商店和服務提供商。

Retail 零售

The world drew a collective gasp when Amazon splashed out $13.7bn in June to buy Whole Foods, bringing its cut-throat online competition to the bricks-and-mortar world of artisanal breads and organic kale. But Chinese rivals were ahead of the game. E-commerce giant Alibaba snapped up stakes in domestic supermarket group Lianhua in May and before that, in department store Intime. JD.com, which operates a similar asset-heavy model to Amazon, has outlined plans for a massive bricks and mortar presence.

今年6月，當亞馬遜斥資137億美元收購全食超市、把它殘酷無情的線上競爭帶到售賣手工面包和有機甘藍的實體店時，整個世界倒吸了一口氣。但中國競爭對手已經走在了前頭。電商巨頭阿里巴巴于5月收購聯華超市集團股份，之前還投資了銀泰百貨商場。采用與亞馬遜類似的重資產運營模式的京東也計劃大規模進軍實體店。

Alibaba calls the model “new retail”, fusing the physical and online worlds to better please customers try on a frock, buy cat food from the store for later delivery and a rice box to takeaway there and then and ultimately amass more data for itself.

阿里巴巴將這種模式稱為“新零售”，把實體店和網絡世界結合起來，以更好地取悅客戶，并最終為自己積累更多數據。顧客可以在店內試穿連衣裙、買貓糧，商家隨后送貨上門，或點份外賣帶走。

What next? 下一個領域？

There are plenty of innovations still to tap or expand. Mobile payments in the US are a fraction of those in China, where the market was worth $8.8tn last year, according to iResearch. Gifting digital money for instance, at Chinese new year is taking hold elsewhere, already adapted in India via Tencent-backed Hike, a New Delhi-based messaging unicorn.

現在還有很多創新有待開發和拓展。美國移動支付市場規模遠不及中國，根據艾瑞咨詢的數據，去年中國移動支付市場價值8.8萬億美元。比如中國人春節時相互發放的電子紅包正走出國門：由騰訊注資的Hike已經在印度推出電子紅包服務。Hike總部位于新德里，是一家消息應用獨角獸公司。

But arguably the most covetable trend in China is the most basic: education. China last year produced roughly nine times as many graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics as the US. Even allowing for China’s bigger population, it still punches heavily above its weight, suggesting lot of room for many more innovations to be birthed in China.

但中國最令人稱羨的趨勢也是最基本的：那就是教育。去年中國培養的科學、技術、工程和數學方面的畢業生大約是美國的9倍。即使考慮到中國人口眾多，這一數量也相當龐大，這也意味著還有更多的創新會在中國誕生。

China is gradually shedding its reputation as the world’s technology copycat. Some Chinese companies are also leading the way in new services and business models.

中國正逐漸甩掉全世界最大科技山寨國的名聲，一些中國公司在新的服務和商業模式上已經處于領先地位。

The move toward pioneering also reflects a generational change, says Derrick Xiong, chief marketing officer of drone maker Ehang.

無人機制造商億航Ehang的首席營銷官熊逸放表示，中國企業引領新潮流也反映出一種代際變遷。

The new generation of entrepreneurs, “the post-90s, were born to be global,” he says; “they have never experienced hard times in China so they have a completely different mindset” more akin to that of their peers in the US or Europe than their parents.

他說，新一代企業家都是“90后，出生在全球化時代。他們從未經歷過艱難困苦，因此他們的思維方式完全不同”，比他們的父輩更接近美國或歐洲同齡人的思維。

報道認為，中國在以下幾個領域處于領先位置：

Bike-sharing 共享單車

China has embraced bike-sharing, pioneering a dockless model that offers cyclists advantages over comparable services in London and New York: bikes are unlocked using mobile apps, and can be picked up and left anywhere. Many are even GPS-tracked. Mobike (orange) and Ofo (yellow) have led the pack. One financier, only half joking, opines that the only barrier to entry will be when they run out of colours.

中國迎來了共享單車時代，引領了無樁單車模式，為騎行者提供了比倫敦和紐約的同類服務更大的優勢：單車可通過手機應用解鎖，騎車者可隨地騎走或停放單車。很多單車甚至配有GPS定位。摩拜（橙色）和Ofo（黃色）是最大的兩家。一名金融家開玩笑說，進入這一行唯一的障礙將是顏色不夠用了。

A subsequent crackdown by regulators, irked at the piles of dumped bikes littering cities, portends potholes on the road. But that hasn’t deterred the like of LimeBike from rolling out a similar service in the US states of California, North Carolina and Florida following the dockless, QR code-based Chinese model.

但隨后監管者決定對單車進行整頓，因為他們對廢棄的單車亂丟在各個城市感到很惱火。這預示著共享單車未來的發展路途不會太平坦。但這并未阻止LimeBike之類的共享單車追隨無樁、掃碼的中國模式，在美國加州、北卡羅來納州和佛羅里達州推出類似服務。

QR codes 二維碼

For much of China, the QR code, a type of barcode, is the key that unlocks the digital world. A swipe of the matrix with a mobile device lets a user hire a bike, pay for goods and grab a new contact’s details: why swap business cards when you can just hover your phone over that of your new acquaintance?

對中國大多數地區來說，二維碼是解鎖數字世界的鑰匙。用戶用移動設備掃一掃這個圖案，就可以租用共享單車、花錢買東西以及獲取新聯系人的信息：當你只要用手機掃一下新朋友的手機就能交換信息時，何必要交換名片呢？

Companies in the US, where the QR code was dismissed in 2024, now seem to be changing their view. Snapchat picked up the idea in 2024, allowing users to follow one another as easily as their WeChat peers by scanning each others’ QR codes, and proceeded to facilitate their use to access websites. Facebook this year is piloting ‘rewards’ QR codes to secure discounts in certain shops, while Spotify has adopted the technology to allow users to share music.

二維碼在2024年受到美國企業的摒棄，如今美國企業似乎變了主意。Snapchat于2024年采納了這一理念，允許用戶通過掃碼來加好友，就像微信一樣方便，并進而使用二維碼為用戶訪問網站提供便利。臉書今年試點“獎勵”二維碼，用戶在指定商戶掃碼可打折，同時Spotify推出了掃碼分享音樂。

Social media 社交媒體

WhatsApp’s launch last month of business accounts showed the US messaging app taking another step down the path forged by Chinese peer WeChat.

WhatsApp上個月推出企業賬戶，這表明這款美國消息類應用程序在由中國同行微信開辟的道路上又邁了一步。

WeChat, Tencent’s chat and social media app, has long courted the business world. It is how government, celebrities and businesses from Burberry to Mondelez connect to customers in the Chinese social media space spicing up their chat with cool fashion show snaps, special offers and sales promotions and post information or news. WeChat has more than 20m ‘official accounts’, according to industry estimates, though not all are verfied.

微信是騰訊旗下的聊天和社交媒體應用，一直在向商界進軍。在中國，政府、名人以及從巴寶莉到億滋等企業使用微信與社交媒體中的客戶建立聯系（發布超酷的秀場照片、特別折扣和促銷活動來活躍與用戶的交流）、發布信息或資訊。根據業內估計，微信如今擁有超過2000萬個“公眾號”，但并非都是認證賬號。

WhatsApp is now jumping on that bandwagon, following in the footsteps of WeChat. In an effort to help businesses keep in touch with their customers and to make money the Facebook-owned app has begun offering ‘verifed profile’ accounts, so customers know they are contacting the right shop or service.

WhatsApp如今正準備投身于此，效仿微信。為了幫助企業與客戶保持聯系并賺取利潤，這款臉書旗下的應用開始提供“認證”賬戶，這樣一來客戶就知道他們聯系的是正牌商店和服務提供商。

Retail 零售

The world drew a collective gasp when Amazon splashed out $13.7bn in June to buy Whole Foods, bringing its cut-throat online competition to the bricks-and-mortar world of artisanal breads and organic kale. But Chinese rivals were ahead of the game. E-commerce giant Alibaba snapped up stakes in domestic supermarket group Lianhua in May and before that, in department store Intime. JD.com, which operates a similar asset-heavy model to Amazon, has outlined plans for a massive bricks and mortar presence.

今年6月，當亞馬遜斥資137億美元收購全食超市、把它殘酷無情的線上競爭帶到售賣手工面包和有機甘藍的實體店時，整個世界倒吸了一口氣。但中國競爭對手已經走在了前頭。電商巨頭阿里巴巴于5月收購聯華超市集團股份，之前還投資了銀泰百貨商場。采用與亞馬遜類似的重資產運營模式的京東也計劃大規模進軍實體店。

Alibaba calls the model “new retail”, fusing the physical and online worlds to better please customers try on a frock, buy cat food from the store for later delivery and a rice box to takeaway there and then and ultimately amass more data for itself.

阿里巴巴將這種模式稱為“新零售”，把實體店和網絡世界結合起來，以更好地取悅客戶，并最終為自己積累更多數據。顧客可以在店內試穿連衣裙、買貓糧，商家隨后送貨上門，或點份外賣帶走。

What next? 下一個領域？

There are plenty of innovations still to tap or expand. Mobile payments in the US are a fraction of those in China, where the market was worth $8.8tn last year, according to iResearch. Gifting digital money for instance, at Chinese new year is taking hold elsewhere, already adapted in India via Tencent-backed Hike, a New Delhi-based messaging unicorn.

現在還有很多創新有待開發和拓展。美國移動支付市場規模遠不及中國，根據艾瑞咨詢的數據，去年中國移動支付市場價值8.8萬億美元。比如中國人春節時相互發放的電子紅包正走出國門：由騰訊注資的Hike已經在印度推出電子紅包服務。Hike總部位于新德里，是一家消息應用獨角獸公司。

But arguably the most covetable trend in China is the most basic: education. China last year produced roughly nine times as many graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics as the US. Even allowing for China’s bigger population, it still punches heavily above its weight, suggesting lot of room for many more innovations to be birthed in China.

但中國最令人稱羨的趨勢也是最基本的：那就是教育。去年中國培養的科學、技術、工程和數學方面的畢業生大約是美國的9倍。即使考慮到中國人口眾多，這一數量也相當龐大，這也意味著還有更多的創新會在中國誕生。