Has China, a digital pioneer, forged a "new normal" during the pandemic?

On July 16, Dentsu Inc., Dentsu Digital Inc., and Beebit jointly hosted the webinar "What Transformation is Required in the New Normal Era?"

In the era of living with COVID-19, we often hear the term "new normal," which refers to accepting irreversible changes and building a new society and new norms. But what exactly is the new normal, and what isn't?

Three experts with diverse perspectives and backgrounds discussed what companies should focus on in the era of living with COVID-19, without getting bogged down in the definition of the term.

This time, we spoke with Mr. Yasufumi Fujii, a UX/DX consultant at Beebit who is well-versed in Chinese affairs and has just released his book "After Digital 2."

<Table of Contents>
▼What kind of worldview is "After Digital"?
▼ China's Response as a Digital Leader During the Pandemic
▼ How can the data obtained be leveraged to improve society and UX?
▼ The Changing Value of the Real World and "Digital High-Touch"

(Moderator: Takuya Kagata, Dentsu Digital Inc. )

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What kind of worldview is "After Digital"?

Yasufumi Fujii of BeBit, whose book published last year, 'After Digital: Surviving in an Era Without Offline,' became a major hit selling 91,000 copies. The recently released sequel, 'After Digital 2: UX and Freedom,' has already surpassed 40,000 copies.

After Digital: Surviving in an Era Without Offline / After Digital 2: UX and Freedom (both published by Nikkei BP)

BeBit is a company that has provided UX (user experience) consulting for 20 years and currently supports businesses through "UX-based DX." As a consultant himself, Fujii has spent the last five years supporting numerous Japanese companies in China with their DX (digital transformation).

In the first half of his session, he discussed the COVID-19 pandemic and the real situation in China. In the latter half, he explained the concept of "Digital High-Touch," which he believes companies will need going forward.

As an introduction to the session, Mr. Fujii illustrated his proposed concept of "After Digital."

"Traditionally, as shown in the left diagram, 'real' was the core axis, with 'digital' being merely supplementary. I position this as 'Before Digital' and believe that era is coming to an end. Now, online and offline are fully interconnected—we order meals via apps and use taxi apps for transportation. As this becomes more widespread, we'll reach the state shown in the right diagram, where online permeates all aspects of real life. I call this 'After Digital'. Today, I'll proceed with my discussion based on this post-digital worldview.

China's Response as a Digital Leader During the Pandemic

First, Mr. Fujii began by addressing "China's Response as a Digital Leader During the Pandemic," a topic of interest to any Japanese businessperson.

"Everyone watching the news has high expectations that China is tackling the pandemic through digitalization—remote medical consultations, remote education, live commerce. It's believed that the pandemic triggered massive social transformation in China. But in reality, I think it's just that services in areas already quite digitalized before the pandemic are being used even more."

He cited Hema Fresh, Alibaba's OMO-style supermarket where food arrives within 30 minutes of ordering via smartphone. Originally used mainly by people in their 30s or younger, it saw increased adoption by those in their 40s, 50s, and even 60s or older during the pandemic, with many reacting, "Is there really something this convenient?" He expressed a sober assessment: "Fundamentally, it's just that companies that were prepared from the start are successfully onboarding users."

He also pointed out a common misconception about the pandemic's impact on education. While public schools shifted entirely to remote learning during the pandemic, and some remote classes have persisted even after the situation stabilized, he emphasized that this is not the whole picture.

"After all, writing assignments and discussions are better suited to real-world settings. Plus, China is a nation of dual-income households; parents can't just leave their children home alone. I imagine it's the same for everyone in Japan – could you really imagine your child never going to school and studying solely online?"

In this way, Mr. Fujii emphasized that Chinese society hasn't changed dramatically due to the pandemic; rather, companies that were already prepared are now in the spotlight. He highlighted the danger of assuming "the world will just change on its own because of the pandemic," urging people to consider how they or their companies can think about contributing to society and driving change.

He also touched on the need to support small and micro-enterprises facing extreme hardship. The earlier-mentioned Hema faced a situation where, despite surging demand, lockdowns and travel restrictions prevented them from securing enough staff. Supply simply couldn't keep up with the increased demand.

"I visited Shanghai during this period and saw many chain restaurants and other eateries struggling because they couldn't open their doors. They had no sales but still had to pay salaries. In response, Hema, which was suffering from labor shortages, partnered with restaurants unable to open. They essentially started sharing personnel, saying, 'We're short-staffed, so we'll take your employees for a month. We'll pay their salaries and provide benefits.'"

This initiative gained significant attention in China and reportedly spurred labor sharing beyond the food service industry. Mr. Fujii shared his perspective: "While this focuses on enhancing labor mobility, it's not just about people—sharing spaces is also possible. There's still much more we can do."

How can the data obtained be leveraged to improve society and user experience?

Mr. Fujii also touched on another topic likely to interest the audience: the argument that countries and regions like China, South Korea, and Taiwan may have contained the pandemic by having their governments manage citizens' personal data.

For example, India has assigned digital IDs to its entire population and spent nine years implementing measures to link them to bank accounts.

"In that sense, how nations or corporate entities handle data will become central to discussions in the coming era. At Beebit, we propose the term 'UX Intelligence'."

This UX Intelligence is also a major theme in Mr. Fujii's new book, 'After Digital 2: UX and Freedom'. Simply put,

it's about how to return the benefits of the data obtained to society and improve UX, rather than using it solely for the profit or management of one's own business.

This perspective on data ethics, he argues, will directly impact corporate growth going forward.

Mr. Fujii predicted that discussions about new forms of democracy and freedom in the data age will accelerate. He also addressed a common misconception: "Do Chinese or Korean people have less resistance to handing over data to their governments or companies for the sake of convenience?" He stated that in both China and Korea, resistance to the improper handling of personal data is strong, suggesting that this fundamental resistance is likely universal across countries and cultures.

Another topic Mr. Fujii raised that day was the concept of a company's "customer touchpoints."

The Shift in Real-World Value and "Digital High-Touch"

At BeBit, which champions UX-driven DX, Mr. Fujii consistently emphasizes the importance of skillfully leveraging three customer touchpoints—high-touch, low-touch, and tech-touch—as shown in the diagram above, to build strong, long-term customer relationships.

However, the pandemic made it difficult to use "high-touch" (human-to-human contact) and "low-touch" (human-to-place contact). This necessitated considering how to cover the elements these contact points provided, such as "emotion and trust" and "comfort, enjoyment, and happiness."

What Mr. Fujii finds particularly instructive at this point is how digital technology is beginning to enable "high-touch" and "low-touch" experiences within the entertainment sector.

For example, the online streaming system "Beyond LIVE" by V LIVE, which impressed Mr. Fujii, allows anyone who buys a ticket to participate as a general viewer. Additionally, fan club members can virtually participate from home, with their video chat images projected onto the venue's background.

Seeing the potential in digitally achieving these "high-touch" customer interactions—previously thought only possible through human contact—Mr. Fujii stated:

Digital High Touch

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The idea is that even digitally, by skillfully structuring the experience into levels, you can stir customer emotions and cover the elements of "excitement and trust" that high-touch interactions traditionally provided.

"Even if physical 'places' return in the future, it might be possible to simultaneously stream live events—like the recent Southern All Stars concert attended by 500,000 people—while adding extra value for those who can participate in person. This could, in a sense, deify the real experience and turn it into an object of aspiration."

Mr. Fujii's assessment is that whether physical spaces return or not is "uncertain." His proposal that day was to create touchpoints and experiences while keeping an eye on both possibilities.

To summarize: one approach is to reconstruct the "high-touch value" that physical spaces traditionally provided. Fujii also states that now is the time for companies to confront the "surge of social issues" currently evident in crises like those facing small and medium-sized enterprises. Companies that can incorporate DX thinking into this effort will likely be stronger.

He concluded by suggesting that, much like the "sharing of people and places" happening in China, addressing these surging social issues could involve collaborative solutions rather than relying on a single company. By championing the cause of DX, we could mobilize efforts to tackle situations where users are struggling, society is struggling, and even the nation is struggling.