When: March 16 till 23, 2019
Where: China

Exploring China

The purpose
We believe the future of digital comes from the East, not from the West. Understanding the success of China will help us to understand what we could do as a next level in Digital in Europe and potentially, what we should not do.
China is already world class in areas like Intelligence (A.I., Big Data), Social (Wechat), Sales (Online & Offline), Security & Surveillance (large scale facial recognition, micro expressions), E-Health (Biometrics, diagnosis, treatment), We will be visiting global giants like Alibaba, Tencent and ICBC but also many global game changers in the mobility, search, manufacturing & retail sector.

And for sure we will visit landmarks like the Great Wall of China and the Bund in Shanghai, fully experience the old and the new China, enjoy Chinese food, go on a retail safari and enjoy a famous Chinese show.

We will not only be looking for innovation & inspiration, but we are also very intrigued by the drivers & levers which made China so successful in digital. It is clear the Chinese digital giants have benefited from a very large homogeneous market, closed for foreign (digital) companies, controlled by the government, driven by a long-term strategy. But we will also be looking into the Chinese culture, leadership style and way of working. And how that translates to, or challenges the future of Digital in Europe. We will leave for Beijing on Saturday the 16th of March (flight duration approximately 10 hours) . We will fly back home, leaving Shanghai Saturday the 23rd of March. The flight duration is approximately 12 hours. The time difference in the week of the 16th of March is 7 hours (it is 7 hours later in China, China has only one time zone).

The plan
We will fly into Beijing, travel to Shenzhen and via Hangzhou and end our exploration in Shanghai.

Beijing
- Meituan-Dianping: the largest online, on demand delivery service in the world. 10 million orders per day. Parent company of Mobike and soon competitor of Didi Chuxing (the ride hailing company that bought Uber in China)
- Beijing Mobike Technology Co. Ltd.: The largest bike sharing company in the world (in number of bikes)
- Didi Chuxing Technology Co.: The largest ride hailing / sharing platform in China, MIT top 50 smartest companies. Experiments with autonomous cars, just started a strategic partnership with Booking.com
- Baidu: China’s largest search engine and one of the largest AI and technology companies in the world. Their Apollo Project is currently the world leader in autonomous driving

  • Shenzhen
    - Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd.: Worlds largest insurance company, the 3rd largest financial service provider. The Ping An Finance Center is the 5th largest building in the world.
    - Tencent: The largest social media and gaming company in the world. Famous for het WeChat & QQ.com. The most active investor in startups in China.
    - Novena: The leader in open source hardware trend in Shenzhen, manufacturer of the open source laptop

    Dongguan (1,5 hour ride from Shenzhen)
    - ChaiHuox.factory: Shenzhen’s first hackerspace ChaiHuo opens in the beginning of 2019. A hackerfactory where developers share hardware & technology.
    - Janus Precision Components: A fully automated factory where robots and autonomous vehicles produce telecom hardware.

    Hangzhou
    - Alibaba: Parent company of Tmall, Taobao, Alipay, and one of the largest data-platforms in the world.
    - Zhejiang Geely Group: Owner of the London Taxi Company, Volvo and Lotus, Leader in autonomous driving. 
    - Hangzhou Blockchain Industrial Park: China’s first industrial park for blockchain enterprises, subsidized by the Chinese government with 1,6 miljard US dollar, homebase for 12 blockchain startups

    Shanghai
    - ICBC: Largest financial corporation in the world. Famous for their robot advisors.
    - Nike/Apple: successful western consumer brands in China
    - Ctrip: The largest online travel agency in China, worldwide know as trip.com. Leader of innovation in data-analysis and process-optimalisation
    - JD.com: One of the two massive B2C online retailers in China by transaction volume and revenue, part of the Fortune 500 and a major competitor to Alibaba. Strong shift into offline: Opening 1000 physical convience stores (per day)

The Price
This is as much as possible an ‘’All Inclusive’’ trip. The cost for this journey is € 8750,- euro, excluding VAT. Including Economy Class return flights, Visa (including application), travel insurance, all company visits, tours, hotels, food & drinks, local transport. Personalized travel options (e.g. different date, time, route, business class), food requirements etc. can be arranged individually.

About Xebia
Xebia Group
Our services and product solutions address digital strategy; agile transformations; DevOps and continuous delivery; big data and data science; cloud infrastructures; agile software development; quality and test automation; and agile software security.

With offices in Amsterdam and Hilversum (Netherlands), Paris, Delhi, Bangalore and Boston, we employ over 1000 people worldwide. In 2016, we generated 77 million in revenue.

Our Identity
Xebia explores and creates new frontiers. Always one step ahead of what businesses need, we turn the latest technology trends into advantages for our customers. As a mainstream frontrunner, we create new solutions and build the future with our clients.

An international network of passionate technologists and pioneering craftsmen, Xebia provides the cutting-edge tools, training and consulting services that make businesses work better, smarter, and faster.

Contact
Inspired & interested? Please contact Yvette Barink at china@xebia.com