Gary Liu: The rapid growth of the Chinese internet -- and where it's headed
Gary Liu is CEO of the South China Morning Post, a leading news media company that has reported on China and Asia for more than a century. Full bio
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happens in China.
of Chinese New Year,
of these trips are taken
migrant workers,
this is the one chance a year
and their left-behind children.
of their monthly salary.
is 15 and a half hours.
now have to handle 390 million travelers
for long hours -- sometimes days --
with near-stampede conditions
to ease this experience.
now account for 70 percent of sales,
at train stations.
have replaced manual checks,
is deployed across the network
called Didi Chuxing,
who are driving home
for long-distance routes.
in this past holiday season,
was further than 1,500 miles.
from Miami to Boston.
has powered fast upgrade and innovation
in both familiar and unfamiliar ways.
in technology and consumer behavior
sprinkled in every once in a while.
of the American tech industry,
with this type of fuel.
in New York City to Hong Kong
of the South China Morning Post.
that is far less familiar to me,
and many of its entrepreneurs.
an underprivileged populous,
from China's economic boom.
between the rich and the poor,
incredible empowerment.
become focused on the needs of people
of an economic ladder,
truly become a job creator,
where this alternative fuel exists,
and status as a rising superpower,
have created an opportunity
of the Chinese tech industry,
that call China home.
active participation --
depending on how you view it.
heavily on network infrastructure
environment for investment.
on standards and regulation,
and therefore, fast adoption.
of tech talent exists
of educational incentives.
in the past, have been protected
the Chinese internet
about dystopian monitoring.
a social credit rating
qualitative characteristics
closed-circuit cameras.
to predict crime and terrorism
is already under constant surveillance.
to grow, and it is so big --
most of us realize.
had reached 772 million users.
of the United States, Russia,
of France and Canada combined.
are active on mobile.
use messaging apps.
digital news consumers,
e-commerce platform, Taobao,
monthly active users.
trips a year in China.
taken around the world.
arguably manipulated form within China,
the lives of its citizens.
should not be dismissed,
from Jiangxi province.
extremely important to the Communist party
of the Red Army.
because of its separation
centers of the country,
left home at a young age
which is one of China's tech hubs.
are left with only elderly,
themselves above abject poverty.
to return to Jiangxi in 2017,
e-commerce marketplace in China
a very specific provincial craft --
his locally made goods online.
of consumption growth
an explosion in craft goods sales
platforms allow rural producers
distribution areas.
actually track this impact
"Taobao villages."
10 percent of its households
and making a certain amount of revenue.
in the last few years.
Taobao villages in 2013,
half a million active online stores,
he was able to employ 15 villagers.
of fermented bean curd.
in the next year,
scattered across China's rural landscape.
far away from home,
hardships of rural life,
vast and dangerous distances
and high school students.
is one of these students.
every single day to school,
in an isolated landscape.
farming village in Gansu province,
in this entire school.
of 1,000 in Gansu alone
registered students.
barely furnished and not insulated,
long been disadvantaged,
dramatically shifted
of a “Sunshine Classroom.”
classroom of 100 students
hundreds of miles away.
like music and art,
far beyond his home.
the Frederiksborg Castle museum
for many years outside of China.
truly transformative scale,
education systems
need for innovation.
that grew to 300,000 students
rural students across China
by live-streaming classes.
than the entire US student population
in ed-tech in China
in public funding
and restrictions and controls,
once-forgotten populations
populations of need, not of want,
of the curiosity, the creativity
population, or penetration,
only reached 56 percent of the populous.
over 600 million people
Southeast Asia or the American heartland,
with capital and with effort,
and societal impact all over the world.
what more could be possible
become the primary focus
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Gary Liu - Media executiveGary Liu is CEO of the South China Morning Post, a leading news media company that has reported on China and Asia for more than a century.
Why you should listen
In January 2017, Gary Liu became the CEO of the South China Morning Post (SCMP), a leading global news company that has reported on China and Asia for more than a century. Founded in 1903, SCMP is headquartered in Hong Kong, where it is the city's newspaper of record, with a growing correspondent staff across Asia and the United States. SCMP's vision is to "Elevate Thought," and the mission is to lead the global conversation about China. Prior to joining SCMP in January 2017, Liu was CEO of Digg, spearheading the New York startup's transformation from aggregator to a data-driven news platform. Previously, Liu was head of Spotify Labs, where he led emerging technologies and business strategies for Spotify's global markets.
Gary Liu | Speaker | TED.com