Going back to The Netherlands is like stepping back in time, where QR codes and mobile payments are replaced by bank cards and cash.Ī while back, a student applied to become my teaching assistant. In just a few years, I dare to say in the last 5 years, China’s mobile payment revolution has changed the way I consume in China.
WECHAT QR CODE FOR YI FANG MOVIE
My phone with Alipay and WeChat Pay is sufficient for me to buy groceries, book a hotel, rent a bike, watch a movie or manage my finances, among many other things. Multiple trips to the not-so-friendly bank attendants and in the end knowing the location of all ATMs and bank offices in a 2 mile radius, made me long for the efficient Dutch financial services. I still remember that in my first years here, I had to get loads of cash from my foreign bank card with undersupplied ATMs. Coming from the city of Rotterdam in The Netherlands, a “city of doers”, I knew Hangzhou was going to be a global place and I had to be part of that development. Not only because of the beauty of the city but also the sheer force of change ongoing there. At the same time, I was lucky to be in Hangzhou. Jack Ma I met during a family day meeting in Taobao, Fang Yi was still a student entrepreneur at Zhejiang University and Sun Deliang was in the first years of developing his platform strategy. I had the luck to meet them early on and could not help but feel their passion to make a difference. I was inspired by the early endeavors of people like Jack Ma, Fang Yi and Sun Deliang in Hangzhou, who made me believe in China’s innovation potential. Receiving multinationals eager to study new technologies and business models but also delegations from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors is my contribution to building bridges - who could have thought that 13 years ago?
Facilitating the talent development of hundreds of elite students and next generation change-makers is my passion. The first response from my academic colleagues in The Netherlands when I announced I would study innovation in China in 2004 was, “That must be a short project!” Today the world is embracing China as an innovation nation, one where residents have a “ringside seat to entrepreneurial development”, according to Thinkers50.
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