Who Are the Digital Pioneers?

00:05 Welcome to the lecture on impulses.

00:07 We appreciate you being here.

00:09 But before we get into the lecture's details, we need to take a look at the bigger picture. We have to look to the left, we have to look to the right, and we have to look at which countries are really interesting right now, where big things are happening, and who are the digital pioneers.

00:27 When we talk about the first people to do things online, we have to start with the U.S.

00:33 There are the GAFAs of the world, which are the biggest Internet companies in the world today. Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple are all shortened to GAFA.

00:44 There are also companies like Airbnb, Uber, Netflix, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram in Silicon Valley, which is in San Francisco and is well known to all of us.

00:55 This list shows that there is a clear B2C (business-to-consumer) focus, which means that the end customer, the end consumer, and regular people all over the world are the main focus. But the U.S.

01:09 is also home to big tech companies like Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Intel, HP, and so on.

01:18 As you can see, the U.S.

01:19 is a strong leader in the digital transformation.

01:25 And you could say that the U.S.

01:26 is the leader of digital transformation.

01:33 The People's Republic of China is another digital pioneer.

01:37 It is home to huge tech companies like Ali Baba, Baidu, and JD.com which rule the Internet there, as well as a messenger app called WeChat that combines everything we know today, like Facebook and Amazon.

01:52 It lets us listen to different songs, and everything is put together in a messenger.

01:58 And when we look at these companies, we see that they aren't the only ones that focus on the B2C market, like Amazon and other similar companies.

02:06 Also, six of the ten biggest companies that make smartphones are from the Middle Kingdom.

02:12 Lenovo and Huawei, which many people probably know as Huawei, might be names we know. You may have used a smartphone made by Huawei.

02:19 There are also many other companies that are much more common inside China's borders.

02:25 There are brands like Oppo, Wiwo, One Plus, and Xiaomi, which sounds more like Kziaumi.

02:31 And when you look at this change, you should also think about the fact that more than 800 million Chinese people use the Internet.

02:41 More than 800 million people, which is ten times as many as live in the Federal Republic of Germany, for example.

02:48 And that's where you can see the goal, which is to get so many people on the Internet that they can talk to each other, and the goal of the government fits right in with that.

03:00 By 2030, they want to be the leading AI power on earth, which means they want to be the global AI power.

03:06 And you can see that as you walk through the streets of big cities right now.

03:11 The Social Scoring System is one example.

03:13 When you walk through the streets, for example, the system knows your name is Frank.

03:18 If you cross a street when the light is red, you lose ten points.

03:22 You might not have enough points to shop on WeChat, which shows that everything is linked. In the People's Republic of China, this is the new way things work.

03:32 Japan, which has the oldest society in the world, is right next door.

03:36 And if your society is the oldest in the world, you worry about it because you say, "Oh no, no, no. We don't have enough growth or children.

03:44 We need to take action." And that's what they did with robots in nursing homes for the elderly. That's just one small example of how friendly Japan is to robots.

03:55 The best example is from a long time ago, when Toyota improved automation in the car business, and the rest of the business world followed suit because they said that was the new standard. Toyota was the first company to make this kind of cutting-edge technology.

04:12 In Japan, they even tried to get a robot to run for mayor so that the city of Tama could have the first robot mayor.

04:19 It only came in third place, which is good for the people of Tama.

04:24 At the same time, it shows how open the Japanese are to robots and this kind of technology. We're now looking at Singapore, an island city-state in Southeast Asia, which is a little further west.

04:39 Singapore has a lot of money, which is clear.

04:42 They have a container port, and the airport is a hub for all of Asia.

04:46 This wealthy state and the money it has will be used to fund all future technologies.

04:53 Self-driving cars are at the top of the list.

04:56 Singapore has told its people that they can only drive around in self-driving cars now, and they can't do anything else.

05:03 They're putting a lot of money into investments right now.

05:06 They want to be a smart city, which means that everything will be connected and talk to each other in a smart way.

05:13 They are smart about how they use energy and other resources.

05:16 They are becoming a green mega city, which is a city with more than 10 million people living in it. Megacities want to make sure they are good for the environment, and not just like this smoggy city that doesn't care about the environment.

05:30 Singapore wants to be like this.

05:35 Last but not least, you're betting on Industry 4.0 because you know it's a growing field. That's where we want to put our money.

05:47 We're heading west to get to Israel.

05:50 You could say that Israel is the most high-tech country in the world because it has more high-tech businesses per person than any other country.

06:00 This country is young and hasn't been around for a long time.

06:04 In the past, you have always encouraged people to be entrepreneurs and to start their own businesses. You have also always put money into these structures to help companies grow. Today, this is clear on every level.

06:19 There is a strong link between science, research, the economy, and the military in Israel. They have really tried to get these players on the same team.

06:28 There are a lot of problems in this part of the world.

06:30 This is the Middle East, and we all know what that means: there is always a threat.

06:36 Israel has always tried to use high-tech weapons and high-tech espionage defense to get ahead and protect itself in some way.

06:45 Because of this, a lot of things that were made for the military also found buyers in the private sector. And you could say that Israel may have already found the next future branch since cyber war is probably the next level of warfare.

07:01 Israel's economy could grow a lot if they were able to protect themselves from it.

07:07 As we move west, we reach Europe.

07:10 We take a look at places like Sweden, Norway, and Finland in Northern Europe.

07:14 People in these countries often look at you funny if you still want to pay for things with cash. Maybe credit cards will become obsolete soon, too, and people will only be able to make digital payments with their phones, smart watches, or chips or sensors that are built in. In this way, the people of Northern Europe are in the lead.

07:32 Also, they are embracing digital education, which is a way to teach kids about many things. Programming is often taught in elementary school.

07:40 In the health and energy sectors, for example, they're trying to digitalize everything to make smart infrastructures, which means using resources the right way, not wasting anything, and not pumping out too much and blowing it into the air.

07:53 Everything fits together. Interesting fact: Sweden was the first country to try to use blockchain technology to digitalize land registry, which is the process of keeping track of properties.

08:06 They said that at some point, you should be able to buy a house without using a notary.

08:11 Instead, you should be able to do this with blockchain technology.

08:16 There may soon be a mass exodus of notaries from Sweden to the south because there is no work here. A little farther south is the Netherlands, where almost everyone is online.

08:31 More than 95% of all Dutch people use the Internet, which is a very high number.

08:38 Estonia is a great example of a country that is betting on digitization.

08:43 It is a little bit east of where we are now.

08:46 Imagine that people there have a basic right to use the Internet.

08:50 You can buy a house anywhere, and if it doesn't have Internet, you can say, "Yes, but our constitution says that you have to have Internet access there." So, you have a fundamental right.

09:02 Amazing things can be found in these sections.

09:04 The government hasn't used paper for a long time, and the authorities are now digitalized. They also have an e-residency, which is a kind of virtual citizenship.

09:13 As a citizen of another country, all you have to do is say, "Man, I want to be Estonian." This is not so easy in real life, but it is possible in the virtual world.

09:23 There, you can start a business.

09:25 It's easy because the Estonians said, "Man, the national citizen doesn't exist anymore," but many of them are cosmopolitan in some way.

09:33 They live in places like Thailand, Brazil, and Australia for up to three months at a time. We give them the chance to have a virtual home with all the benefits that come with a company address in Estonia.