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I personally am ok with silicon valleyesque hubs coming up around the world. But what's really surprising is the speed. The reason? The best markets and the be

by NTDF9 8y ago

I personally am ok with silicon valleyesque hubs coming up around the world. But what's really surprising is the speed. The reason? The best markets and the best people are not coming here anymore. Sometimes when I go to Asian countries, I almost feel like they're from the future. Payments, electric scooters, charging stations, rental bikes, AI, digital ecosystems, car sharing, hotels, biofuels, cloud based systems etc. are all waay more important, waay more mature, waay more people designing, waay more usage, waay more convenient than the US. The more that smart entrepreneurs decide that US is not the future, the more tides are a turning. The next Sergey Brin will probably be in Asia.

seanmcdirmid 8y ago
Fun fact: China and Japan both use far more cash than the USA. Cloud, especially cloud providers, is way more mature in the USA. Car sharing ditto. Try finding a car charging station at a Chinese supermarket parking lot like you’d find at Whole Foods, etc.... China has made a lot of progress in the last few years, they are definitely making faster progress than the USA. But they also started way behind and are still, to much extent, behind in many areas.
- NTDF9 8y ago
  > China and Japan both use far more cash than the USA. Cloud, especially cloud providers, is way more mature in the USA. Car sharing ditto. Try finding a car charging station at a Chinese supermarket parking lot like you’d find at Whole Foods, etc. I agree. But that's the difference between US until the last decade and today. Cloud providers here are mature because Amazon pioneered it in the last decade. But AI on cloud is all Alibaba. We don't hear about it here in US media but US companies are playing catchup. Same for charging stations. They don't need a charging station in whole foods because most people don't even drive as much. They order groceries on apps. Even if they do, charging stations are present in gas stations there. Their low cost cheap cars have features that rival Tesla (albeit at a lower quality and lower price) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HoppERe2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HoppERe2M We here in the US just don't get this shown to us in media.
  - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
    > But AI on cloud is all Alibaba. Huh? I mean, Alibaba is doing alright, but not particularly better than the other cloud providers. > Same for charging stations. They don't need a charging station in whole foods because most people don't even drive as much. They order groceries on apps. Even if they do, charging stations are present in gas stations there. Their low cost cheap cars have features that rival Tesla (albeit at a lower quality and lower price) Teslas are actually fairly common in Beijing now because of the plate lottery. The Chinese have plenty of parking lots and plenty of driving. The biggest challenge to personal electric cars in China, something I don't think anyone has figured out yet, is that many people don't actually have formal overnight parking spaces for their cars. Sure, it works for taxis, you'll see taxis use those charging stations, but no one else. Look, I've totally been there. We used to have bottled water delivered to our apartment (heck, even before the apps came out, we'd just call the store downstairs). I don't do that anymore now that I'm back in the USA, I just drink from the tap. And no, I never had a car in China either, but plenty of other people did and the grocery stores weren't empty (especially when compared to a western one)! > We here in the US just don't get this shown to us in media.
emiliobumachar 8y ago
Is there a single Asian city that scores on all of the examples you cited?
- NTDF9 8y ago
  Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul comes to mind. But other major asian cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, Taipei, HongKong, Kuala Lumpur all have 70% or more of those. You'll find some of those even in Vietnam, Thailand and India.

by NTDF9 8y ago

seanmcdirmid 8y ago

Fun fact: China and Japan both use far more cash than the USA. Cloud, especially cloud providers, is way more mature in the USA. Car sharing ditto. Try finding a car charging station at a Chinese supermarket parking lot like you’d find at Whole Foods, etc.... China has made a lot of progress in the last few years, they are definitely making faster progress than the USA. But they also started way behind and are still, to much extent, behind in many areas.

NTDF9 8y ago
> China and Japan both use far more cash than the USA. Cloud, especially cloud providers, is way more mature in the USA. Car sharing ditto. Try finding a car charging station at a Chinese supermarket parking lot like you’d find at Whole Foods, etc. I agree. But that's the difference between US until the last decade and today. Cloud providers here are mature because Amazon pioneered it in the last decade. But AI on cloud is all Alibaba. We don't hear about it here in US media but US companies are playing catchup. Same for charging stations. They don't need a charging station in whole foods because most people don't even drive as much. They order groceries on apps. Even if they do, charging stations are present in gas stations there. Their low cost cheap cars have features that rival Tesla (albeit at a lower quality and lower price) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HoppERe2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HoppERe2M We here in the US just don't get this shown to us in media.
- seanmcdirmid 8y ago
  > But AI on cloud is all Alibaba. Huh? I mean, Alibaba is doing alright, but not particularly better than the other cloud providers. > Same for charging stations. They don't need a charging station in whole foods because most people don't even drive as much. They order groceries on apps. Even if they do, charging stations are present in gas stations there. Their low cost cheap cars have features that rival Tesla (albeit at a lower quality and lower price) Teslas are actually fairly common in Beijing now because of the plate lottery. The Chinese have plenty of parking lots and plenty of driving. The biggest challenge to personal electric cars in China, something I don't think anyone has figured out yet, is that many people don't actually have formal overnight parking spaces for their cars. Sure, it works for taxis, you'll see taxis use those charging stations, but no one else. Look, I've totally been there. We used to have bottled water delivered to our apartment (heck, even before the apps came out, we'd just call the store downstairs). I don't do that anymore now that I'm back in the USA, I just drink from the tap. And no, I never had a car in China either, but plenty of other people did and the grocery stores weren't empty (especially when compared to a western one)! > We here in the US just don't get this shown to us in media.

emiliobumachar 8y ago

Is there a single Asian city that scores on all of the examples you cited?

NTDF9 8y ago
Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul comes to mind. But other major asian cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, Taipei, HongKong, Kuala Lumpur all have 70% or more of those. You'll find some of those even in Vietnam, Thailand and India.