China plans virtual world for commerce
You may soon be able to order replacements directly from the factory where they were made, according to the chief scientist of an ambitious Chinese internet project.
By Agencies |
SAN JOSE: Your favourite pants are fraying? You may soon be able to order replacements directly from the factory where they were made, according to the chief scientist of an ambitious Chinese internet project. China’s government is building a vast virtual world dubbed Beijing Cyber Recreation District, which founders say will help the manufacturing superpower evolve into an e-commerce juggernaut.
Some supply-chain experts say the project is impossibly grandiose in its goal to provide direct links between tens of thousands of Chinese manufacturers and millions of individual customers around the world. But every ‘Made in China’ label eventually could include a Web site where customers could order more — and Chinese factories would produce custom-made goods and send them directly to consumers’ homes, mused Chi Tau Robert Lai, chief scientist of the virtual world.
Some Chinese-language websites of the CRD are already up, but most of it won’t come until the second half of next year at the earliest, Lai said. In addition to connecting factories with people outside China, the project will allow businesses outside China to tap the nation’s burgeoning middle class, he said. “This makes you have to think of China in a different way,” Lai said at the Virtual Worlds Conference & Expo in San Jose. “We are stepping back and trying to blend the human and the computer to touch everything associated with people’s lives.”
The CRD’s dream of eliminating middle men — brokers, shippers, purchasers, even retailers — is not new. Toyota Motor began experimenting with “just-in-time” manufacturing in the 1950s, though it took decades to refine the process.
But just-in-time manufacturing for less expensive items such as clothing, electronics and toys is still years away. The low cost of labour in China — and Sri Lanka, Vietnam and other developing countries — makes it cheaper to ship bulk items to retailers around the world and then sell overstock online or in discount stores. China’s plants — also grappling with quality concerns and US recalls over excessive lead and other toxins — are unlikely to deliver consumer goods to doorsteps abroad anytime soon, said Robert L Bartlett, a retail industry consultant in California.
Lai acknowledged that Chinese manufacturers can’t efficiently crank out just one custom-ordered shirt. But they can wait until numerous people and clothing shops around the world submit similar orders, then assemble 5,000 of the same blue, pinstriped button-down shirt and ship it within a day or two, he said. Lai said the CRD could eventually become a bigger version of eBay, which connects buyers and sellers worldwide online in both auction and fixed-price formats.
Just-in-time manufacturing is expected to generate the largest amount of revenue for the CRD, but the network also will host cultural exchanges, corporate meetings, educational classes and other events common in virtual worlds. Registration will be free, Lai said. Users will buy virtual items with credit cards or micropayments in dozens of currencies.
The CRD will be based on technology from Sweden’s MindArk, maker of the ‘Entropia Universe’ virtual world. Entropia built virtual ‘islands’ from company templates. CRD’s e-commerce transactions will go through Paynova, Sweden’s equivalent of PayPal, and Germany’s CryTek will provide some of the graphics.
Everything in the CRD will live on servers in Beijing maintained by government programmers. The government has dictated there will be no pornography or online gambling on the CRD, which it is touting as public private partnership.
Some supply-chain experts say the project is impossibly grandiose in its goal to provide direct links between tens of thousands of Chinese manufacturers and millions of individual customers around the world. But every ‘Made in China’ label eventually could include a Web site where customers could order more — and Chinese factories would produce custom-made goods and send them directly to consumers’ homes, mused Chi Tau Robert Lai, chief scientist of the virtual world.
Some Chinese-language websites of the CRD are already up, but most of it won’t come until the second half of next year at the earliest, Lai said. In addition to connecting factories with people outside China, the project will allow businesses outside China to tap the nation’s burgeoning middle class, he said. “This makes you have to think of China in a different way,” Lai said at the Virtual Worlds Conference & Expo in San Jose. “We are stepping back and trying to blend the human and the computer to touch everything associated with people’s lives.”
The CRD’s dream of eliminating middle men — brokers, shippers, purchasers, even retailers — is not new. Toyota Motor began experimenting with “just-in-time” manufacturing in the 1950s, though it took decades to refine the process.
But just-in-time manufacturing for less expensive items such as clothing, electronics and toys is still years away. The low cost of labour in China — and Sri Lanka, Vietnam and other developing countries — makes it cheaper to ship bulk items to retailers around the world and then sell overstock online or in discount stores. China’s plants — also grappling with quality concerns and US recalls over excessive lead and other toxins — are unlikely to deliver consumer goods to doorsteps abroad anytime soon, said Robert L Bartlett, a retail industry consultant in California.
Lai acknowledged that Chinese manufacturers can’t efficiently crank out just one custom-ordered shirt. But they can wait until numerous people and clothing shops around the world submit similar orders, then assemble 5,000 of the same blue, pinstriped button-down shirt and ship it within a day or two, he said. Lai said the CRD could eventually become a bigger version of eBay, which connects buyers and sellers worldwide online in both auction and fixed-price formats.
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Just-in-time manufacturing is expected to generate the largest amount of revenue for the CRD, but the network also will host cultural exchanges, corporate meetings, educational classes and other events common in virtual worlds. Registration will be free, Lai said. Users will buy virtual items with credit cards or micropayments in dozens of currencies.
The CRD will be based on technology from Sweden’s MindArk, maker of the ‘Entropia Universe’ virtual world. Entropia built virtual ‘islands’ from company templates. CRD’s e-commerce transactions will go through Paynova, Sweden’s equivalent of PayPal, and Germany’s CryTek will provide some of the graphics.
Everything in the CRD will live on servers in Beijing maintained by government programmers. The government has dictated there will be no pornography or online gambling on the CRD, which it is touting as public private partnership.
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