"When you travel from the U.S. to Asia, you end up one day ahead, and if you think of mobile internet in particular, Asia is ahead of the rest of the world, and you feel like you have stepped into the future" said Daniel Alegre, president of Google Inc's Global Partnerships, during the "Thought Leader" session of the ongoing Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) held on Thursday in Beijing.
According to Alegre, ranking at $28 billion, Asia is now the second largest market followed by the U.S. for venture capital investment, five times than it was just in 2015.
Taking Alipay, the mobile payment application that launched by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd as an example, he was impressed at the ease of transactions, such as scanning QR codes on mobile phones to pay bills at the counter of restaurant, which was one of China's technological innovations.
Themed "Mobile Infinity", the event covers topics such as robotics, virtual reality, mobile advertising, transforming mobile into an important tool in the medical sector, smart home appliances and the mobile games sector.
Since 2009, organized by the Great Wall Club, the GMIC hosts mobile executives, entrepreneurs, developers, and investors from around the world and across platforms to build partnerships, learn from industry thought leaders, to better understand mobile technology trends, and to shed light on how mobile is positively changing the world.
After the Beijing event, this year's GMIC will be consecutively held in the cities including Tokyo, Jakarta, São Paulo, San Francisco, Bangalore, Taipei and Seoul.
