It’s no secret that everything in China moves fast. At ‘China Speed’ in fact. From building a skyscraper in 19 days, to the fastest trains in the world, China is all about embracing change and getting things done in the shortest possible time. In the technology industry this trend continues with innovation and technology uptake at an all-time high. Wherever you look, people are talking about it.
In the past, China’s tech industry has been compromised by perceptions that it was a follower in the market and primarily focused on replicating ideas from global leaders. Although some of this might have been true in the past, it was parallel with a rapid technology learning curve. More recently, it’s easy to see that China has learned quickly and now has an intensity of innovation and development that puts it on a par with other major players and has enabled a technology revolution of its own. These days, from CNN to Bloomberg, all the major influencers are acknowledging China’s leadership in tech and potential to change the world, with lists of ‘Top Chinese Tech Companies’ rife. China is not only keeping up with global tech trends, but is surging ahead to break new ground and it’s doing it at China speed.
Alibaba, a member of ARM’s new family, the Softbank Group, is possibly the best known name in Chinese tech and indeed, one of the most famous e-commerce giants in the world. Its share price is around 30 times where it was a little over a decade ago and its services have expanded to a point where they rival any standard retail infrastructure. Baidu, China’s answer to Google, has fast become the country’s favourite search engine and has already expanded into food services, online payment systems and much more. Tencent is another name you’ve likely heard. Launching WeChat, the second incarnation of their QQ instant messaging service in 2010, it today boasts over 700 million users and acts as a one stop social shop for chatting, image sharing, news, payment and so much more. All of these companies boast a now-established trend in innovation with rich R&D activities certain to continue to impress.
ARM partner Huawei is another perfect example of the power of China speed. With sales jumping 40% in the first half of 2016 and smartphone shipments up 25% in the same period, the meteoric rise of China’s premium smartphone maker is nothing if not impressive. On top of that, with flagship devices like the Mali-T880 powered P9, Huawei has managed to break into the global high end premium mobile market. This ability to compete with the world’s leading technology brands has allowed them to become a major driving force, with sales outlets alone up 116%.
Not only is the smartphone market one to watch in China but mobile gaming is growing at breakneck speed too. In Q2 2016 the market reached an estimated RMB 24.4 billion (US$3.66 bn) which equates to a phenomenal 120% increase year on year. It’s also predicted that mobile gaming will continue to grow and take a larger share of the overall gaming market, from 33% in 2015 up to around 48% in 2019.
So why is China so much quicker off the mark with new and emerging tech and how have they turned around their image to become the ones to watch for new and exciting products? The answer is of course not a simple one, as multiple factors must come together to make it happen, but an example is the very different approach they take to projects when compared to the West. While the West has a tradition and preference for exhaustive analysis and planning, China doesn’t wait. They see a great idea and an opportunity to develop it and they leap on it. They’re bold, brave and unafraid of risk and are therefore paving the way in new and emerging technology areas.
Huawei's P9 smartphone ranks amongst the top premium smartphones of 2016
This assertiveness and drive is key in the technology industry, companies need a new product on the shelves before anyone’s even realised they want it. Not only that, but whether they realize it or not, it’s also important to the consumer. China ships the most smartphones worldwide and consumers expect to upgrade relatively frequently, but don’t want to pay a fortune. The market is so big that there is extensive competition and end users are therefore able to demand more premium performance even from a mainstream priced device such as an internet TV box or a smartphone. This puts pressure on all levels of the supply chain to design, implement and release the next bigger and better offering faster and cheaper.
It’s this need for speed which makes the ARM Mali Multimedia Suite such a great fit for the Chinese tech industry. Not only have Mali products led a relentless march in device capability but the flexibility and scalability of the Mali range means our partners can quickly achieve the right balance of performance and efficiency for their particular market needs. Indeed, records were broken in 2014 when Chinese semiconductor company Rockchip were able to produce the first Mali-T760 based silicon just a matter of months after the GPU launched. It’s not just about GPUs though and the ability to address an increasing range of media capability and functionality can be key to whether a product speeds ahead or idles on the side lines. This is why our pre-optimized Mali Multimedia Suite of GPU, Video and Display processors work together seamlessly. This not only reduces risk and implementation time when designing a new product but also allows our partners to fully exploit unique features and significant bandwidth savings through technologies like ARM Frame Buffer Compression (AFBC). In addition to the technological benefits, ARM is also able to tap into the expertise of our rich ecosystem of software, middleware and application partners to help strengthen the offerings of a new or emerging licensee. 
Given the rich cultural history, incredible rate of change and huge potential of the Chinese market, it’s no surprise that the Chinese government are keen to secure the country’s tech supply chain. It’s important for them to ensure it develops rapidly and is capable of capitalising on this opportunity and we can see this in such things as the governments ‘made in China 2025’ initiative.
ARM and the Mali team are happy to be able to support the flourishing of such a strong new ecosystem by working closely to help provide the products and flexibility to make that happen. Our range of dedicated multimedia products, perfectly aligned to support a vast range of configurations and designs, is allowing us to help our partners develop the scalability and flexibility required to reduce time to market and continue leading the way in the future of tech.