Thriving in this environment required both engineering prowess and raw manpower:

But the O2O revolution showcased an even deeper—and in the age of AI implementation, more impactful—divide between Silicon Valley and China—what I call “going light” versus “going heavy.” The terms refer to how involved an internet company becomes in providing goods or services. They represent the extent of vertical integration as a company links

During China’s mass innovation push, use of local government guiding funds exploded, nearly quadrupling from $7 billion in 2013 to $27 billion in 2015.

In the short run, this cash-flow stimulated the Chinese economy and pumped up valuations. But the long-term legacy of this movement is the data environment it created. By enrolling the vendors, processing the orders, delivering the food, and taking in the payments, China’s O2O champions began amassing a wealth of real-world data on the consumption

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

By the time of Groupon’s initial public offering in 2011—the largest IPO since Google’s in 2004—China was home to over five thousand different group-buying companies.

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

Toutiao is just one company, but its success is indicative of China’s strength in internet AI. With more than 700 million internet users all digesting content in the same language, China’s internet juggernauts are reaping massive rewards from optimizing online services with AI. That has helped fuel the rapid rise of Tencent’s market cap—surpassing

As AI steadily conquers new professions, workers will be forced to change occupations every few years, rapidly trying to acquire skills that it took others an entire lifetime to build up. Uncertainty over the pace and path of automation makes things even more difficult. Even AI experts have difficulty predicting exactly which jobs will be subject