Jack Ma’s ventures have caught the attention of people across the world. For me Jack Ma’s new supermarket was the ‘leapfrog moment’ that transformed retail in China — which had been playing catch-up with the West — to a world-leading, thought-leading model.
Unmanned supermarkets, stock automatically machine-detected and replenished, constantly fresh produce. The items you want to buy identified on your smartphone – what they are, where from, suggestions for alternatives/complementary products/recipes.
It sounds like something out of science fiction. But assuming it does exist (I haven’t been to one myself: it’s prudent now to regard all news as fake news until proven otherwise) then China may have leapfrogged the rest of the world in retail.
In December we mentioned China and promised we’d come up with more about what they are doing in smart cities. Since then I’ve done some deep-dive research. The answer: they’re doing a lot, and Jack Ma’s fingerprint appears regularly.
In October 2016, the city of Hangzhou started to collaborate with Alibaba to build up a repository for all data in the city. Over time, everything was uploaded to the “City Brain”: the water supply stats; the sizes of crowds in certain areas; real time traffic data; incidents of crime, and more.
The objective for the City Brain is to improve peoples’ experience of daily life. Hangzhou is the pilot site, to be replicated through other cities. The city has a population of nine million, so it’s not a small test-lab. In January the company announced a launch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Looking at roads and traffic — who doesn’t want an “improved experience” when travelling through any city in a vehicle? – The system can collect a range of real time traffic data from sources including cameras, microwave detectors and mobile apps. A camera, linked to the system, serves as an input to enable the City Brain to understand vehicle operations and trajectories.
Aside from monitoring things here and now, it has also used months’ worth of data to work out optimal future scenarios for smoother commutes and safer streets.
UK-based New Scientist magazine reports that the project has already scored some wins: traffic congestion, road accidents, and crime are all down.
City Brain connects to the authorities, notifying them when there’s an emergency or a crisis that needs handling, but it is also wired up to citizens’ mobile phones, informing them of upcoming road traffic or adverse weather conditions in real-time.
It strikes me that the Alibaba approach (the Jack Ma approach?) seems to start from the problem rather than from the technology. “Here’s a problem. How can we use technology — any technology —to fix it?” as opposed to: “This is the box of tricks we’ve got. How can we use it? Where can we find problems that this might solve?”
The impression I have is that solving the problem comes first, choosing the technology second and commercialisation third. This may just be good marketing by Alibaba, but that is how it appears to me.
I would love to get more detail, first-hand. If anyone reading this happens to be the mayor of Hangzhou or equivalent, yes, I would gladly accept a return ticket! But until then, I guess the take-away is: if you’re interested in the smoother running of a city or suburb, keep an eye on China.
