(本文翻譯自 陳冲 Car-tech對Fin-tech的啟發 2021-01-26)
Another new year begins. The 50-year-old annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is grandly held in Las Vegas. Different from the past, it’s all-digital this year. The wide exhibition space has shrunk significantly. Another feature this year is that many car manufacturers took part in the exhibition, and even non-car manufactures such as Sony and Amazon display “cars” in the exhibition. So, what’s the relation between car manufactures and consumer electronics?
“A car is actually a computer with wheels.” It’s my article published in the newspaper five years ago on Sep. 27th 2016. The key point is that in the digital age, new business models emerge. Many industries that were highly regulated, protected, and even supervised are no longer hard to enter. Existing institutions and regulatory authorities should be well prepared for situations such as financial industries’ challenges from payment services providers and the pressure from hailing platforms like Uber to Taxi.
German Bosch used to say that 10 million codes can made its car run in 2010, but would require 100 million in 2020. Is it product a car installed with a computer, or a computer with wheels? That’s an interesting question. Ford is shutting down its plant in Kentucky due to semiconductor shortage which caused the car chips shortage needed to make vehicles. It can be seen that Car-tech and automobile manufacturing is inseparable now. If after 2030, Japan allows only electric vehicles, and after 2035, Europe and the US ban the sale of gasoline car, the threshold for Car-tech to enter automobile manufacturing industry will almost disappear. At that time, the competitiveness of Car-tech in transportation vehicles will obviously pose a great threat to traditional vehicle companies who rely on internal combustion engine.
Since I stepped down as premier in 2013, I have always mentioned in speeches the challenges traditional financial industries face from new entrants. From March to November of that year, there were four special articles in the newspaper discussing this. On Sep. 8th, I published the article on the Commercial Times titled Technology Innovation Turns Around the Franchise Industry, calling on franchised industries (including financial industry and taxi industry) and their competent authorities to plan ahead for these businesses protected by laws as they face competition. On Dec. 20th 2015, another article on the United Daily News, Digital Wave Subverts Traditional Supervision Concepts, in which I mentioned that financial industries are subverted by innovative technology. When law and technological environment have undergone huge changes, the concept of supervision must also be adjusted accordingly.
JKOPay, Taiwan version of Alipay that stepped on the red line recently, is under investigation now. Ant Group’s IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong was suspended last month because the government thought that Alipay’s credit business and leverage operations need more supervision. From the regulatory standpoint, the cases of JKOPay, Ant Group and even Cherry Pay two years ago do not meet requirement of current effective regulations. However, do current effective regulations keep up with the fast-changing social environment and technological evolution? Do these laws be amended to meet current needs? It seems that financial consumers’ long-term interests and people’s right to enjoy high-quality services should also be considered.
I remembered that when discussing Uber issue in 2012, San Francisco mayor Edward Lee had said that “San Francisco must be at the forefront of nurturing its growth, modernizing our laws, and confronting emerging policy issues and concerns.” Mark Farrell, the then Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, also directly pointed out that “As policymakers, we must make sure our 21st century economy isn’t strangled by outdated laws and rigid regulations written in the last century that never envisioned what technology makes possible today.” Well, this is the lesson Car-tech can teach Fin-tech.
2021-01-26
(Released on Appacus Foundation website, Jan. 26th , 2021)