Behind the scenes at CES Asia in Shanghai, complaints about Chinese copycats
C2C or 'Copy2China' is the practice of copying everything new and popular in the West in the Chinese market. Examples abound in both hardware and internet services, thanks in part to Beijing's tight control of the domestic internet market and policy.
As CES Asia kicked off on Monday, I walked around the two big exhibition halls and easily found quite a number of so-called “new and innovative” products that are made in China but are remarkably similar in terms of function and design to popular devices developed by Western technology firms. "This looks so familiar" is the common refrain when visitors spot something they feel is a copycat of a foreign product.
For example, I found a tablet looks almost identical to Apple’s iPad, down to the packaging, which is a spitting image of an iPad box.
Another Chinese company had brought a wearable device to CES Asia which looked incredibly similar to Google Glass. I asked a salesman about the resemblance and he said: "Google can do theirs and we do our own. It doesn't matter."
Some attendees thought otherwise. During my short visit to the booth, I heard several people excitedly point out "Google Glass" to their friends, only to have confusing conversations with the sales staff when they asked to try on the eyeglasses that display information on a small screen by your eye.
Premier Li Keqiang has recently promoted his vision for the next chapter of the “Made in China” story, which for the last three decades has mainly focused on cheap labour costs and quick production times. But Chinese labour is no longer as cheap as it used to be, especially in comparison with emerging manufacturing hubs such as Vietnam and India. Li’s vision for the new “Made in China 2025” strategy will be largely driven by innovation in the hope that Beijing can transform its economy into a more knowledge-powered economy, instead of being just the “world's factory”.
For Li, C2C will not be the solution for “Made in China 2025” or the premier’s other initiatives including the red-hot “Internet Plus” strategy widely talked up at CES Asia. C2C may help Chinese start-ups make quick money but it won’t do good for the image of China Inc in the long run and no country can go far with a purely imitative mindset.
(For more CES Asia 2015 stories, read here)
George Chen is managing editor of SCMP.com International Edition. For more Mr Shangkong columns: facebook.com/mrshangkong or follow @george_chen on Twitter