The Digitized China and The Digitizing Malaysia

I have mostly been living in Dali, Yunnan for the past 7 years. I have always been impressed with the digital services in China, especially the use cases they have built around the WeChat (Weixin) and AliPay (Zhifubao) platform, the ubiquitous QR codes and the mini-app ecosystem. The approach is very pragmatic, and it gravitates around the computer that all of us are carrying around us in our pockets, i.e. Apple iPhones and Android smartphones.

I am surprised that not more places around the world (to be honest, I am mostly comparing what I have observed and heard of US, South East Asia, and China) are taking advantage of the fact that almost everyone is carrying around a device that has the Internet connected 24/7, a decent camera with many other sensors, and a robust mobile operating system that can support much more use cases (due to the camera and sensors) than a laptop. That being said, I think the COVID pandemic, did push adoption of more use cases, e.g. cashless payments with QR codes.

One example in China that is so simple and straightforward is how China pays for parking: you drive your car in, a camera scans the license plate, registers it in some system the time, and opens the boom gate and lets the car in. When you drive out, just head to the boom gate, you open up your phone, scan a QR code that opens the parking system’s mini-app and pay immediately and drive out. The process is rather seamless, and you don’t really have to install a new app. Of course, the assumption is that you already have WeChat or AliPay, and did all the Know Your Customer (KYC) stuff ahead of time. Also, if you have trouble getting out due to whatever reason, you call a number, and some person sitting in some remote office can look at the cameras, and take action. The true power of Internet of Things (IoT) is alive in China. Basically in China the main thing the user needs to learn is: scan a code, tap a few buttons, and you move ahead with whatever you are doing.

Actually, not requiring to install an app, is basically the promise of the open web. I remember Facebook built up their app ecosystem rather early on with web technology, but for some reason they abandoned it. It could have been the WeChat for the rest of the world.

Compare that with Malaysia, which had Touch-And-Go (TnG) system for like forever, which worked like an e-wallet, and enabled paying for tolls by just tapping the card on a reader, they expanded into car parks. Unfortunately, it never caught like wildfire, and each car park has their own system. Some are still using paper tickets (and you pay with cash only), some are using TnG (and some are even taxing you for using TnG!), some are using their own cards or tickets, and pay with debit/credit cards. Basically it is a great maze of options, and super confusing. I am happy to report that there are some with license plate readers, and you can pay with numerous types of cards, which is a great experience, but not many places have that implemented yet. Another thing is, there is always this anxienty in the back of your mind: “Hey did I bring my TnG card?” (or some other parking card). Of course TnG has an app now, and you can use it to pay for many things, many thanks to the e-wallet craze a few years ago, and of course the COVID push.

Pretty exciting to see how technology adoption has changed quite a bit in Malaysia, and happy to see how things move forward.