## **Digital ecosystems…**

Alipay is beginning to sign deals with brick and mortar  retailers in Europe, in order to bulk up its mobile wallet offering for  Chinese expats. Simply put, it lets Chinese customers pay with their  digital wallet by tapping their phones on a contactless terminal or  letting the shop assistant scan a barcode on the screen of their phones.  

**The emergence of this type of digital ecosystem has  very significant implications for consumer companies as well as  marketers. It means they control the customer data and can  hence become significantly more influential.**

Alibaba currently says it has data on 500 million people thanks to  its “Unified ID structure” (the image below is copied from their website). 

https://s26.postimg.org/jii7v8tih/Alipay.jpg

## **…are putting huge pressure on traditional consumer models…**

The evolution of entire ecommerce, search and social media  ecosystems, per the image above, is particularly striking in the context  of what the CEO of **Unilever** said in response to a question on strategy in China:

 _“We spent a disproportionate amount of time on educating ourselves.  And it’s frightening the speed at which this is changing, just like they  leapfrogged the landline and moved to mobile phone. **You now see the  millennials – and it’s interesting if you go to China to one day, just  let them show you all the things they can do on WeChat. It’s incredibly frightening. None of the  millenials go through a store anymore.** So, the speed with which this is  changing is mind-boggling, and I think not many people predicted it.

Emerging Market competition was intensifying and that local/domestic EM  companies are clawing back market share against Western players. 

When Facebook reported earnings, they talked about 2Q ad revenue being  up 63%. Mobile ad revenue was up 81% and in the prepared remarks they  highlighted that 40% of active advertisers have already created an ad on  their mobile device.

https://s26.postimg.org/vlnjit4kp/Facebook.jpg

## **Proximity to the transaction is key**


### **Latest Related Articles**

- [Is SnapChat Doomed?]()
- [What the Train Boom in 1830-1850 can teach us about the Tech Sector? ]()🚂[ ]()🖥[ ]() 

https://s20.postimg.org/fifks1na5/Comment\_Upvote\_Follow\_Resteem.jpg