Matchmakers published in Chinese

Matchmakers published in Chinese – Vanessa Yanhua Zhang, Global Economics Group

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Platform economy has become the new norm in China. When young entrepreneurs present their business model to investors and the public, “platform” is one of the words that they most often used. Being surrounded by many platform businesses, from take-way “Meituan” to ride-hailing cars “Didi”, from short video sharing “Douyin” to mobile social network “WeChat”, from mobile payment “Alipay” to e-commerce “JD”, Chinese consumers are probably one of the groups that are most adapted to platforms in the world. People move quickly from hard cash to cashlessness and cardlessness, and leap frog from physical wallet to virtual wallet payment on smartphones through QR code. The 5-inch screen of smartphone holds people’s attention, whether they are on bus, subway, taxi, or in elevators. Smart Chinese entrepreneurs create a large variety of apps to connect the traditional offline business with online world. For example, thanks for the fast delivery and e-commerce platforms such as Taobao-CunTao, JD, Chinese farmers can sell their produce directly to end consumers thousands of miles away and boost their household income, without going through the traditional distribution system. China presents an innovative way of poverty reduction to other developing countries.

The Chinese edition of Matchmakers opens a window to the Chinese readers how platform economy changes people’s lives and the world. Prof. David Evans and Prof. Richard Schmalensee, two pioneers of platform economy, explain to readers the complex theory and why and how it happens, through interesting stories and examples. Prof. Jinglian Wu, the most respected economist in China and who is at his eighty-eight-year of age, wrote a preface for the Chinese edition, and highly praised the book to Chinese readers. Prof. Jean Tirole’s preface for the French version of the book is also translated into Chinese. The book has also received endorsement from Yongchao Duan, Chief Strategy Officer of SEEC and the Senior Member of China Computer Society, Prof. Qiping Jiang, Secretary-General of the Information Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, along with Prof. Lawrence H. Summers (Harvard University), Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO), Dan Schulman (Paypal President and CEO), just to name a few.

This book is perfect for entrepreneurs, scholars, policy makers, practitioners, and general public who are interested in platform ecosystem. With platform-based companies emerging almost every day in China, it will probably inspire the next Pony Ma or Jack Ma in China. Anything could be possible in this magical middle kingdom.

Enjoy the book!