Report On Personal Experience: China To Singapore
China and Singapore have many differences in terms of consumer behavior such as mobile payments are pretty much part of the lives of the Chinese people while Singaporeans still prefer using cash or card payment. Although Singapore is trying to implement mobile payments, Singaporeans are so used to the current way of life that they have through card or cash payments. However, in terms of work ethics, Singapore possess similarities to China mainly due to influence from China itself but also the fact that majority of the population in Singapore are Chinese such as the hierarchical relationships that is very common in Singapore. Singaporean workers are also bound by rules that are set to keep order and ensure that the company run smoothly, and as efficiently as possible and local firms are more towards group-centeredness as they much prefer striving towards a common goal through group effort and cooperation. However, the younger generation of Singaporeans are more individualistic than the older generation, siding more towards personal achievements and rewards, similar to that of western work culture ethics.
This is a report on China with comparison to Singapore after my overseas immersion experience in China for 22 days.
Part 1: Consumer Behavior
After landing in Beijing, we proceed to the immigration checkpoint and had our passports stamped. A teacher from the educational college came to pick us up via buses. We reached our dorm rooms and proceeded to unpack our luggage and that quickly concluded our first day in Beijing. The next day we went out to buy our daily necessities such as toiletries and our sim cards. At the supermarket, after searching for what we needed, we went to the cashier, I noticed that no one else was paying by cash. They had their phones with them at the ready to scan the QR code present at the cashier counter. Personally, it didn’t really hit me at that point in time that cashless payment was such a big part of their lives and economy. We proceeded to have our dinner and yet again, most transactions were done via phones through WeChat pay or Alipay. I noticed that during that 2 days there, only our group of students paid with cash.
The moment that really struck me was when we walked passed a beggar where he had a QR code with him which allowed passers-by to quickly scan the code and continue with their lives. It was first time to ever see a beggar have a QR code with him, compared to Singapore beggars, who all received physical cash from passers-by. Now let’s talk about how China manage to reach this stage of cashless payment being embedded into their daily lives. It all began when Jack Ma’s Alibaba came to be in 1999. Followed by Alipay in 2003 which was launched by Taobao. Alipay came to be popular among the Chinese people due to the fact that it was very convenient and trustworthy. Alipay allows you to pay for everything using their mobile phone application. By simply scanning QR codes, payment was made much simpler. By providing features such as credit card bills payment, bank account managements, P2P transfer, mobile phone top-ups, bus and train ticket purchases, food orders, ride hailing, insurance selection, digital identification document storage. Alipay is also a very popular payment method that allows you to check-out on most Chinese-based websites such as Taobao.
In the early 2000s, very few people in China had credit cards and those that have it did not trust the card payment methods online at the time. When Alipay came into existence, money paid by customers when placing orders will be transferred to an escrow account. This model helps the sellers feel safer because their money is kept by a secured third-party platform and can be claimed after the products have been delivered successfully. The same can be said of the customers, as they feel that they are the ones in control in case the product is faulty, and they want to apply for a refund or a change of product.
One of the many reasons why mobile payments became so big in China is due to it being promoted by the strongest digital players in China. Taobao and Tmall uses Alipay as their main payment method. Meanwhile, there are 1 billion users of WeChat in China which proves the popularity on WeChat Pay. China being a mobile-first society contributes massively to the popularity of mobile payments in China. According to Statista, there were more than 626 million smartphone users in China in 2016 alone. By 2019, it is predicted that there will be nearly 690 million smartphone users in China. This is mainly due to smartphones becoming more affordable for the Chinese consumers. With just an android smartphone, a user can easily access WeChat, Taobao and Alibaba. In 2016, China leads the European Union and the United States combined by having more than 731 million Internet users. Nearly 20 percent of Internet users in China relies on mobile only, compared to the mere 5% in the United States. Internet users in China making mobile payments is around 68%, compared to around 15% in the United States.
One other factor that made mobile payment more popular is the introduction of the online red packet by WeChat in 2014. This idea was also adopted by other big companies like Alibaba and Baidu. Red packets have been a part of Chinese culture since a long time ago. Since mobile payments are so convenient, more people are using online red packets rather than the physical ones, boosting mobile payments’ popularity to a bigger extent in the China. Mobile payments also have their popularity increased from successful campaigns achieved by retailers and brands. One such example is selling luxury cars on Tmall which was done successfully by Maserati. The renowned ultra-luxury car manufacturer put up hundreds of cars of a single model on advance sale. Despite each of these cars being priced at least 150 000 USD, there were sold out in a matter of seconds. This shows that mobile payments can be also used to make payments of high value, increasing the popularity of mobile payments, giving the idea that everything can be paid for via mobile payment.
Mobile payments in Singapore are slowly on the rise. Mainly its moving at a slow pace due to not only security reasons but also due to feeling of unnecessary change in the current payment methods in Singapore. Another contributing factor to the slow rise of mobile payments in Singapore are the lack of rewards, loyalty points and low merchant acceptance at retail stores and restaurants. Singaporeans do not feel the need to change from card payment to mobile payment as they have been so used to using card payments for a long period of time unlike China where they do not trust card payments. For example, as stated by 57-year-old Philip Chan on Channel NewsAsia, “I’ve been paying with cash, NETS and credit cards for many, many years. I never felt the need to (use mobile payment), because it’s so easy (to use)”.
Part 2: Work Ethics
After getting our daily necessities in China for our dorm life, the next important matter we had to attend to was acquiring our mode of transport. The most ideal and practical choice was obviously taking the subway. For the first few times of taking the subway, couple of us used train tickets instead of using a public transport card similar to an EZ-Link card in Singapore. The subway was always really packed in the morning or towards the end of the day. Most of the commuters are working adults who are on their way to work or have gotten off work in the evening. This situation that I saw is quite similar to Singapore where working adults take the subway to work or after work. One thing I noticed in particular is that the commuters in China will always move to the door ahead of time, before the reach their stop. Even when it is packed, they will still shove their way to the exit beforehand unlike Singapore where this type of action is rarely seen. They will also ask if the commuter in front of them whether they are also getting of at the next stop. There were a couple of days where we were taken around China by tour guides and tour buses. I noticed that the not only the tour guide but also the bus driver, they take their work very seriously and they will always be at the rendezvous point ahead of the actual specified time. Now let’s talk about how China have these work ethics that they abide to in their line of work. Chinese work culture ethics dates back to the time when Confucius, a Chinese philosopher whose teachings shaped the society and culture of China, demands respect for the elderly and perfection in work. China is classified as one of the economic superpowers and with beneficial evidence to back it up. Working people in Asian countries are often referred to as hard working and China is definitely one of them. An important work ethic in China is time perception.
Punctuality is of great significance to the Chinese people and is considered to be a virtue to them. The Chinese will always be on time or even be there earlier than the specified time and they are offended by unpunctuality. In the Chinese work culture ethics, results are everything to them. Chinese believe that hard work will pay off and contribute to a happy and successful life. Shìshàng wú nánshì translates to “nothing is impossible to a willing mind” are some of the proverbs that the Chinese use to back up their diligence in work. One of the major reasons behind the success of many Chinese owned companies and projects around the world is due to usage of sheer determination and diligence to reach their goals. The Chinese believe that success does not come to you, but it can only be attained if one is willing to reach out for it through hard work and diligence. Another work ethic is perfection. Chinese are competitive and has goal-oriented spirits that are imparted in them at a young age which proves why many Chinese are employed in companies all over the world.
One of the evidences to back up whether the Chinese people are hardworking or not is by their sheer number of working hours. According to the Labour Law of the People’s Republic of China, workers work for 8 hours a day, five days per week. Work hours should amount to more than 44 per week. The working days are usually Monday to Friday while working hours are generally from 08:00 to 18:00 with a two-hour lunch break from 12:00 to 14:00 depending on the work they are doing or the company they work in. However, hotels and hospitals have a round-the-clock service, meanwhile bars and restaurants start operating from 10:00 until late at night. During weekends and holidays, bars usually extend their working hours to accommodate for the increase number of customers towards the late night as adults generally like to go to bars till very late at night to catch up to friends and destress.
Singapore work culture ethics have some similarities to China as both are Asian countries. However, the differences are that Singapore also has their own work culture ethics. A similarity to China is the hierarchical relationships where people at lower levels accept their subordinate status and show respect to formal hierarchical authority or people from the higher-ups. It is seldom or rare to see people violate the chain of command or openly question decisions made by their superiors. Collectivism and having rules for everything are some of the few work ethics that Singapore possess. Most of the Singaporeans and local firms practice group-centeredness, which is cooperation amongst group members to maintain group harmony. T
eamwork and group efforts are the main means of achieving the company’s goals. The act of disagreeing with the decisions made by the group, putting oneself above the group’s needs or boasting about your own efforts are disliked by others as these behaviours jeopardize group harmony. Collectivist culture chooses teamwork and sharing rewards more than to strive for individual recognition. Through the act of sharing responsibilities, helping each other and learning from each other are more desired by the people in the collectivist culture. However, the younger generation of Singaporeans chooses to be more individualistic and achieve their own personal goals compared to the older generation. Rules are very important in the work ethics of Singapore as rules are used to reduce the risk of certain unfavourable situations from becoming a reality. Local companies do not want their workers to possess any crazy ideas or have any over-enthusiastic entrepreneurs managing parts of their main business. Due to these strict rules that are present in the Singapore work culture ethics, there is a lack of space for innovation but exceptional more space for workers to just follow the rules and the orders form their superiors. Hence, Singapore has a low number of creative people due to the work ethics that Singapore has.
Therefore, this concludes my report on China compared to Singapore based on two topics, Consumer Behaviour and Work Ethics. China and Singapore have similarities and differences in both Consumer Behaviours and Work Ethics. Both countries are unique in their own ways but share common practices that are beneficial to the growth of the country.
