6. Platform Ecosystems and Super Apps are the Engines of Development
"WeChat is the Chinese WhatsApp. Have you heard that before? That's not true. It's like saying an Airbus is like a bicycle, just faster. In some industries in China, you can already see the added value of advanced digitization and AI. This is particularly evident in commerce, financial services, FMCG, media offerings, and the travel market. Especially in the first four mentioned areas in China, it is noticeable that offerings are already merging into common platforms, with providers striving to combine their services to generate more data on one side and an integrated consumer experience on the other side. This is where so-called platform ecosystems are emerging, such as WeChat or Alibaba, which are clearly different from Western platforms. WeChat is a super app: Users use this app to organize their entire digital lives, as a messenger, as a digital wallet, to get loans, book flight tickets, pay for parking tickets, file tax returns, apply for visas, and much more. The advantage of platform ecosystems: Providers seamlessly understand the entire customer journey of their users. Without breaks from recommendation, through search to digital payment. As a result, companies on these platforms can understand their users excellently and make very precise offers. The so-called "Segment of One" is within reach. It's no wonder that companies like Facebook and Amazon are also trying to transform into platform ecosystems."
