How People Shop, Cook and Steal | My Assignment Tutor

China’s Buildings Are WatchingHow People Shop, Cook and StealBloomberg News— With assistance by Dingmin Zhang, and Emma DongFintech is changing the way people borrow, invest and pay for things. But there’s another type oftechnology — most noticeably in China — that’s altering the way urban dwellers interact with theirliving and shopping environments.It’s property technology, or proptech — the use of new technologies like big data and machinelearning to help individuals and companies buy, sell and manage real estate.According to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., investment into proptech startups from 2013 to 2017 totalled$7.8 billion, with China accounting for about 36% of that. In 2018, that figure came to almost $20billion, data from market research firm Venture Scanner show.“In China, there is a very dynamic proptech ecosystem, quite mature and advanced at all levels,”Jones Lang LaSalle’s Asia Chief Executive Officer Anthony Couse said at the firm’s first-ever proptechforum in Beijing in May. “Some say we’re slow moving, conservative,” he said, referring to the realestate industry. “I don’t think that applies to us here in China.”One oft-cited reason for China’s proptech leadership is that the country tends to put more emphasison convenience than privacy. That makes it easier for property companies to use transactiondatabases, facial-recognition cameras and other technology to improve people’s shopping and livingexperiences, though developers still have to be mindful how they access and use personal data toavoid allegations of overreach.Here’s a snapshot of some of the ways that Chinese developers are using the internet of things,artificial intelligence and big data to improve people’s living and shopping experiences:Cooking with GasDalian Wanda Group Co. upgraded its property management platforms at two Wanda Plazas byinstalling cameras that use behaviour-recognition technology to track shoppers’ movements insidethe mall, such as how long a person lingers in a store and whether they walk out with a bag in theirhand.The technology, from Wanda’s Huiyun management system, allows the group to capture and analysea person’s age, gender and shopping patterns, letting the landlord better optimize merchant layouts.Shoppers don’t know it, but they’re also assigned a computerized ID, so they’re recognized upon theirnext visit. Sensitive information, including people’s facial images, isn’t stored to prevent the risk ofpersonal privacy infringement issues and potential legal disputes, the company says.The Huiyun technology now tracks conditions in about 280 Wanda Plazas across China, using morethan 10,000 sensors in each of them. The sensors also detect heat and moisture levels, air quality andenergy consumption. They’re able to compare signals from a cook and the range hood in a restaurant,for example, and flash alerts when a stove is left unattended without being switched off.Dalian Wanda also uses proptech when designing its shopping malls. The software can construct athree-dimensional model using inputs from the designer and contractor throughout the constructionprocess to maximize efficiency and ensure quality. The technology enables the company to turn abare site into a shopping mall, with every store open, within 18 months of breaking ground. Thatcompares to around two years of construction alone for a project of a similar size.Feeding the FishPutting sensors around its residential communities has allowed Longfor Group Holdings Ltd. to shiftaway from a labour-heavy property management system. Developed by the Beijing-based homebuilder’s service arm using internet-of-things technology, the system has trimmed labour costs onfacilities maintenance by as much as 62%.Some 480,000 facilities with sensors at developments nationwide capture data and send it to acentral processing facility. The information can range from lower apartment floors being soaked bysummer storms, to an elevator being out of order, or a man-hole cover shifting and potentiallyendangering passers-by.If enough data creates a warning, alerts are sent out to maintenance workers in the field who can pickup the job, similar to Uber drivers accepting a booking.Where manual adjustment isn’t required, automation kicks in. At some developments, water spraysare automatically triggered if sensors deduce that a plot of lawn is too dry. In one residentialcommunity in Chongqing, trash cans automatically compress garbage, paring sanitation workers’emptying frequency to a fifth of usual levels.What does Longfor do with the employees its technology has put out of work? The company usesthem to provide next-level service for residents. An executive who travels a lot can ask these newlytrained butlers to feed her fish while she’s away, or elderly people can be walked outside in theirwheelchairs every morning. Residents can even rate these stewards, as Longfor calls them, using anapp.Brand AwarenessUsing facial recognition technology, Shui On Land Ltd. started to use an app called “INNO” for accesscontrol in its Shanghai office buildings. A surprising finding emerged at one city-centre tower: 70% ofworkers were female. So Shui On renovated one of its shopping malls — Xintiandi Plaza — below thisoffice area, tailoring an entire five floors just for women.At the Xintiandi Plaza in Shanghai, visitors can get brand recommendations based on previous shopping habits. Source: ShuiOn Land Ltd.Apart from adding new stores from New York-based, Taiwanese-born fashion designer Jason Wu andIsraeli cosmetics brand AHAVA, two of the upper floors have been remodelled to resemble a fancyshowroom: In one corner, a chic kitchenette extends to a home decoration store, while a shop foroutbound travel site qyer.com sits next to a bookstore.To further attract female shoppers, Shui On uses big data for distributing coupons and mall maps.First-time visitors can enter their mobile number at a fourth-floor screen to link to their WeChataccount, giving Shui On access to their buying habits on Tencent Holdings Ltd., WeChat’s parentcompany. Immediately, discount coupons are sent direct to a person’s WeChat Pay wallet, making acup of coffee cheaper or car parking free. The screen also offers brand suggestions based on previousshopping habits. The whole process is paired with facial recognition technology, so second-timevisitors need only to stand still in front of the screen.Shui On is also using proptech in a trial to assist tenants. Sensors, for example, can capture how manytimes a hesitant customer picks a book up and sets it down — useful information a store can use toreorganize displays and accelerate sales.Safety FirstAt almost 1,000 residential projectsmanaged by Country GardenHoldings Co.’s affiliated service unitacross China, video surveillancecameras capture footage threetimes a minute, gathering real-timepictures ranging from what guardsare doing to whether non-residentsare intruding upon private property.The pictures are then sliced and diced into numerous data bits and sent to a cloud-based artificialintelligence platform that the service arm co-developed with Tencent in 2018.This picture data from properties spanning 500 million square meters can help staff monitor multiplesituations — more than could be captured from a few cameras — in real time. The analysis can alsotrigger automatic maintenance alerts, such as a full trash bin needing to be emptied.Should a child be lost, the computer algorithms use behaviour-analysis technology to help guardslocate them sooner. It’s also allowed Country Garden’s services arm to cut the total number ofmanagement staff working at its residential projects by a third, according to Yuan Hongkai, its chiefinformation officer.Source: Bloomburg. All images as supplied in the article.