So with China in the news a lot the previous week, we asked everyone what they thought China's Geekonomic future was!
1. So what role will China play in the Geekonomy in the Next decade?
(Note multiple answers are possible)
- 33.3% – A source of customers for other country's unique goods and services.
- 83.3% – A major manufacturing hub of devices.
- 33.3% – A buyer, leveraging financial clout and sovereign wealth funds to acquire companies and property in other countries.
- 16.7% – A culture engine like Japan, adding it's own unique spin to media.
- 50.0% – A raw material exporter.
- 0.0% – An innovator, taking it's own place in the world.
- 33.3% – A refuge, where companies make deals to take advantage of the shielded market.
This was interesting – no one who responded expected China to get into innovation, and most expected it to keep a focus on manufacturing and raw meterials. A few of us expected the refuge/financial manipulation angle, but it wasn't a majority.
It seems none of us are expecting it to become a serious Geek center like, say, Japan.
2. China's future in the next ten years?
(This was single-entry multiple choice)
- 0.0% – Nothing remarkable.
- 16.7% – Destruction – They'll actually collapse from political/internal/ecological strife.
- 16.7% -Transformation – their contact with the world will change them radically.
- 16.7% -Domination – they'll be even bigger players in the world.
- 50.0% – Integration – they'll become tied in with other countries and institutions even further.
It seems a good half of us figure China is going to get tied further into the world economy – but another half of respondents figure there's something more massive on the horizon.
So there you go – looks like most of us expect an active China, further tied into the world economy, but not turning into a culture/innovation center.