also says he was found on a ferry used to quarantine mike. you're watching news from berlin don't forget you can get all the latest news information around the clock anytime you want on our web site that's at dot com i'm terry martin thanks for watching. i'm neal and i'm to complete the 2nd season of on the fence. the planet on the brink of disaster we just long in-depth interviews with experts about one question . at least changing the focus of the only reason.

this is to almost. be used to be a bank clerk now in his new home of china he's a star like. almost jackson is an influencer he promotes german companies online in china we spent the last 4 years living in shanghai and watching how china's digitalisation history in past that of germany. this includes payment one scan buys his coffee but that's not all. to most decks and uses caps to organize his entire life. to do so with whom i speak for instance i can use city service to check how much pension i'll get health insurance parking tickets you can even pay your electricity your doctor's bill you can do just about anything in just one simple app i don't carry my wallet with me just my cell phone and you know but . and since this is now the case for most people in china even the poorest have switched to mobile payment this man is. wearing his painted up coat around his neck

. did the digitalisation really is a revolution would you don't get to choose whether to take part in it or not you just have to. digitalisation no other innovation has brought about so much change in so little time when we look towards china are we seeing our own future. in the digital world the balance of power is shifting. giant digital corporations dominate the global economy. germany seems left behind in the dust fashion retailers a londo wants to take up the fight will be there to film. fungus and not we believe the marketplace will consolidate and the ads and the politicians responsible for the internet is uncharted territory for us all. do they have a vision for germany's digital future this film accompanies federal commissioner

for digital affairs doughty fair and imo so isn't mobile 1st its mobile any. experts are watching a global race unfold between policymakers and businesses as they buy for digital power consumption or in the midst of a societal of people who is going to wind up battle between these 2 grand systems politics and technology europe has fallen behind in the digital sector the german politicians have wasted at least a decade big tech companies today know more about us and this taxi. the question is who wields power on the internet welcome to the digital age. this is the town of muffin haida in north rhine-westphalia. this is where shanghai based thomas darks and used to live his parents still live here and he used to work for the savings bank before he became a. influencer now he produces promo clips for german companies along with his wife

the pain. killer was in china stacks and has 10000000 online followers many people watches videos like this one where he promotes the schoolbag brand go back in china he's known as often. and what does that mean affability roughly translated author means the happy one because many followers say my physique reminds them of a happy buddha so i do suits me quite well. today almost x. and has an appointment with i go back in cologne his most successful video to date was for their brand and had long been clear to gordon eve it head of air go back to chinese operations that the brand needed to penetrate the chinese market as i do have them in the in germany about $700000.00 children start school each year and china in some $16000000.00 now if not all $16000000.00 children or their parents

may be able to afford an air bag but if we can reach even 10 percent that's already over double the size of the german market. influence or jackson is instrumental to this plan. the idea was for him to film go bag gifting a taxi driver's family with school bags along with money to cover their son's to wish about what had equivalent to 2500 euros. that is that the clip went viral god does he does not come to that's an aa life i think the video went live on aug 13th and on that very day our daily turnover practically tripled and this went on until the day the school year started tock so we could be sure that the boost in traffic was helping the traffic cones hoofed. viewers are generally directed from the video platforms straight to ali baba's online shops. you may want to get to the ship it's one of the largest platform companies in the world and they go to place for german vendors hoping to sell goods

in china. because everyone is there it's basically a search engine and a one stop shop listen i whatever customers want they go there to look at more it ought and they'll find it they're in it on bandcamp murchison straight away hopefully. with all the china has a stablish one of the 1st make up platform companies in the world the company is present in all areas of life customers can make payments with all the paid. for. while they shop on the sales platform team all for auction things on told the chinese. they can find their way using a map. or have groceries delivered with element. valley cloud owns huge storage farms the internet's infrastructure and ali baba pictures produces in markets hollywood movies and that's just a little slice of the vast ali baba universe. the british technology expert jamie bartlett observes a similar trend taking shape on u.s.

based platforms. google and facebook in the same ones you always hear. no longer are just search engine platforms all social media platforms or video sharing platforms they increasingly will branch out into other areas amazon is no longer just a seller of products it's also a provider of all sorts of mazing webspace the most highly valued companies in the world have long been platform businesses the top ranks are occupied solely by american and chinese companies microsoft apple amazon google and facebook china's front runners are all the above are intense and. the only german company to even make the top $100.00 is as a ranked 58th in the world. but some german companies are trying to catch up in the summer of 21000 fashion retailer salon dot opened its new headquarters in berlin twice

a month is onboarding day when they welcome all the newcomers. there are 200 today alone 200 out of 14000 accounting. for snacks are tailored to the new workforce. the average the londo employee is in the early thirty's and speaks english. they come from all over the world. i was really surprised when i found this amount of people i've heard that's ok i'm sorry i didn't make that i'm so excited it's it's like it's implied that they are doing something good i expect. you know fortune white man to hear and learn a lot of scenes and you know move forward in my career. the newcomers are shown the heart of the company. and say let's start. the place

is designed to make people reluctant to go home there are not. individual officers but instead flexible working spacesuits inspired by big players like google apple or facebook on the floor are the founders principles speed. and entrepreneurship. so your money your letter they're going to grade you you're. losing your job. and they too are part of the family pictures of the office dogs are posted on instagram with the hash tag along to. the welcome speeches invite the newcomers to not just be part of a company but to join in on a mission it's on pasqual because the v.p. of product design. very very excited to have you on board and i'm personally very excited to kick off this day in telling you more about our story that started off with a very bold idea in 2008 in germany to sell shoes online and so this spirit

of optimism that something crazy is possible starting with yes rather than with this is never going to work is something that keeps us all together the londo has a new ambitious goal it wants to become a platform not just an online department store but a digital shopping district it wants to bring customers and retailers together and be the one who makes the rules what does it mean to be a platform ultimately the goal of sasha's to become the starting point for fashion and there's other examples in your life for instance when you're looking for entertainment and you don't know what to watch on friday saturday night you start opening match flicks and netflix recommends you what you should watch so this is very strong bonds to those platforms we're looking to be in terms of starting point for fashion these are many cheika heads business operations for germany austria

switzerland poland and the czech republic under her stewardship the longer was to become a platform in all. these countries as a platform to be calling the platform strategy also means that customers can buy brands that celeb doesn't carry in stock but instead these products the sole directly by our partners we are networked with 1300 offline struggles and some of them generate a large part of their turnover through sunland. even classic brick and mortar shops . now. invite more for instance there is a lot of his out of the consumer weimar department store so the platform one of them the schiller coffeehouse downtown is the biggest shop in the city. this afternoon they're unveiling the upcoming spring trends. ladies and gentlemen welcome to our grand fashion show here at the shellac alpha house we're delighted

you want to take a glimpse of the coming season this is i me tell you this season will be anything but boring up next is. the focus of the extra special attention is given to regular customers who still prefer visiting in person because we got what was going to be so i spent our. meanwhile the platform business was humming along in the rear stock room customer orders through the londo come in from all over germany. people are still buying that skirt. 24 hours a day working in the digital age constanza here bush diet and christiane a gourd are looking for the product ordered the internet has created a new profession besides sales clerks and there are now so-called pickers. whatsits i number it into the a in series or a full. who is 00 for this can't be it. i've got

a 5 to 5 here anyone know where it is. mine also covers it's my job is to find the product a customer ordered online here in the store and then take it to the stockroom for shipping and slugs in them how many would use today for it to be received quite a few orders today there were around $250.00 or $200.00 so i would still. go through all 3 get to use their own tissue paper and stick our logo on top of the front of each one so customers can see that it's from close environment and the shalako. it definitely took everyone some getting used to to not serve customers face to face but to just get a list of the product and send it off without any personal contact and it sounds like took on the hang of it now and really give it their all out so it would. in

order to be displayed on the platform the shiller pays a lot of heat how much exactly neither party will say department stores filling platform orders will this save offline businesses or spell their demise. that's over the counter retail isn't on its way out and was stick around but i'm completely different form. the. economists fear that small and medium sized companies and their workforces may end up losing out in this digital transformation the platform economy marks the dawn of a new age what does is this is practically a new economy because you don't necessarily need 3 or 4 different platforms you need one single marketplace and that's why these platforms have a tendency to snatch up entire markets and the in other words they gravitate

towards monopolies and because the market is dominated by only a few players then we basically have not much choice i would say the major platforms don't dominate the market they basically are the market because they're either good. when powerful companies charge ahead in the digital age and dictate the market do we need a force to counter them. what about policymakers. the federal commissioner for digital affairs doherty beer is attending the games com gaming convention in cologne. she's been at the helm of digitalisation for 2 years now. she and transport minister under is sure you want to spread their enthusiasm for digitalisation. doro has been addressing the topics of games and harnessing innovation for years now. she assures progress on boards and digital and. structure

and in many many more areas that if we are good human is everyone in the cabinet is excited to see you too and that you know i'm we'd have to ask them but you certainly objects of next question taking the. door to bed often has 10 sometimes 15 such appointments a day her goal is for digitalisation to be considered a political issue. it's not my life i once said offhand that many of my colleagues want this internet thing to just be over with at some point as there is definitely a bit of truth to that some do feel that if we just ignore these developments long enough they won't really come tomorrow even if. its offices in the chancellor one floor below under the americans.

and chaps i have a smartphone and 2 tablets as you can see i don't have a computer here at noon i had it removed immediately even in the old building on him i don't have one in my parliamentary office either my motor isn't mobile it's mobile only. 0. point 2 this interview is the interview today then i'm meeting a photographer for another interview today is a very media intense day then my breakfast which sadly i didn't manage to photograph and tie. the hands of what you post. i know my district involved people like kate just beyond us and what detroit and besides i don't get around to it every day but today i really wanted to show all my scheduled appointments one off to the other because it's always nice to be more transparent and show what i'm up to old i can talk. go to bear's office plus a front room that's it that's where her digitalisation realm ends and the

chancellor there's no dedicated ministry of digitalisation but the policymakers face countless challenges who tackles them what response has the german government put in place. because i don't have an organizational chart that i brought something new instead went on 5 so nobody's seen it yet either it's called a dashboard in my talk that he gets to see who is actually responsible for what is my work ethic and this is just a 1st draft or damage to determine which ministries are tackling the issue before and the good news is they all are before us the ministry of transport for example is responsible for digital infrastructure in the ministry of labor the think tank during 5 week discusses digitalisation the ministry of the interior intends to digitalize administrative procedures while the ministry for economic affairs supports the digital transition in all the ministries combined a total of $244.00 teams and $76.00 departments deal with digital issues. in

addition there is the digital department and the chancellor for strategic issues and the digital council an expert committee. in the digital cabinet all 15 ministers are to meet with specialist policy makers. the innovation council this for politicians and business leaders and she helps coordinate all doughty bear commissioner for digital affairs. are policymakers prepared for digital transformation. but the critics say. it's easy to see how problematic it is everyone bubbles about on their own with no overarching plan i think it's disastrous. when i look when everyone is in charge of some and then no one really is as most humans and there has to be a minister at the top jihad with an allocated budget and staff in order to quote

were named and guide others who are responsible. in theory to our table is minister of state for digitalisation in fact is she wields a little actual power both of you have to take there has no budget and she just serves as window dressing shell so the government can say we take digitalisation seriously but they won't give her the main challenge the market so i really appreciate her as a colleague but she lacks the support of the budget and the power within the cabinet to make progress with precisely these issues important to time as well in skip's internet sites model of us crime section discussion as often as we send a very a no use crying over spilt milk to put it more politely of course you always have to work with what you've got. is the feeling that someone asked why so many they want to be just one head that's entirely the wrong approach what i care about is does it work or not and does it when for instance the government takes its charts along to meet with centralised platform companies. the digital summit of the german

federal government and. commissioner wishes to emphasize the positive aspects of digitalisation here as well she meets with a group of students in a side room. over the next few years the federal government is investing 5000000000 euros in better digital equipment in schools it is it's not just that one student is concerned that the funds may not reach their proper destination since schools have to actively apply for those. items will be another problem is if the principal doesn't take the initiative the students face a problem. it isn't obligatory you have to contact the officials yourself or it's this and that's where i see the problems or the educational concept isn't really put into practice and the students lose out because of it and i can address

it's not if you just use the word problem 11 times maybe it was 10 or 12 times but either way quite frankly i believe that's just too much personally i see more opportunities where the program can be deployed sensibly and the concepts are already on hand and they are comprehensive that's right now someone else has to get it. base that's what social media use might be my favorite tool is instagram really because they're people much friendlier because how we treat each other is important to me i mean and i'm going. door to bare it's quick to post pictures on instagram for visits to major platform companies such as facebook. or google. people. but what about the problems that digital companies are posing for policymakers for example for years giant platforms

have hardly paid any taxes despite billions of turnover. in part because they post profits and losses globally. and the result while top earners in germany fall into a 45 percent tax bracket and in the e.u. conventional companies pay 23.2 percent on average digital companies less than half that 9.5 percent. but that's still far more than what the biggest digital players hand over. to take one example from the us amazon turned a profit of $11300000000.00 there in 2018 and paid 0 taxes on. you must understand little subsets taxpayers who pay half their income or corporations pay a fraction tired of form $10.00 or $25.00 because they pay less taxes but i'm completely against waging that sort of trade but once everyone pays their taxes in their home country and that's why it always depends what right do i say and what

comes back it says there is positive as to demands they should pay even if they must be healthy about an excess by those steps. every taxation of digital companies is a global issue one keynote speaker at the digital summit is my greater best toggery the head of digitalisation of the european commission. she's a european doherty beer of sorts but her tone is quite different. but the 2 put a framework in place so that this is paying their cash on taxes just as well as any other bases do already. we need. which can make sure that public homes are named to serve people i don't know it's the other way round the more you know how those companies always the more you see the harm they are this is how i want to show things in common. they are home for 4 days.

and one every day life is driven by platform apps people deliver this data supply around the clock like in china. these bikes can only be booked by app. if you don't have the and. and want to hail a cab you often wait in vain. to be admitted into china's international import you have to have your face can. exhibit at the fair to. come back for example. but this is a primary school but. at the booth he takes

a quick selfie with the promoter. ok here we go back can reach up to half a 1000000 visitors but customers buy online on the pages operated by the major platforms just like the. air go bag pays fees to the platform and supplies of the ali baba. this is the best do you know what happens to the data your company feeds into the internet here in china. there is no no idea. i don't think you can request that kind of automation. when tomo stacks and users are leaping in a cafe he also beats behind data does he know how much the platform knows about to . get through the data volume is certainly huge kind of course you could live like a hermit somewhere but if we don't jump on the bandwagon it will eventually find

ourselves struggling behind watching from the sidelines. it's the digital business model the platforms posed easy access to customers in return they demand data from companies and customers. not just in china. we are observing now a major quest for data and is driven mostly by the business models of technology firms internet made of its online or you can observe how much time i've spent on a website how much i interact with it what products have caught my interest or what topics i prefer which before. you can then make deductions about my occupation and depending on which topics i'm interested in of a city and all this is collected and compiled into a profit. margin a time in 10 or 1520 years from now not that far away really when somebody who is

18 years old has had almost their entire life data fied their fitness levels their diet levels their kathleen intake big tech companies today know more about us than the study. without a doubt. however unlike the stasi customers in the digital age often disclose their data voluntarily it's an enticing offer the more data customers give to a company the more accurately it can tailor their products to each individual's demands solano also collects customer data as the size of it what about the style all this flows into an algorithm. for the. drawing on millions of data points of product designer on pasqual steam creates special profiles from fashion conscious adopters to the chronically dissatisfied. then go and when we look at this feedback we notice

a pattern of behavior of models this means that we can show our customers that we understand we know you here the themes you like and here are some things you might not have 9 lyrics citing as relevant to you the 6 band on the 11th attacks and the llano also uses customer type ologies to show targeted advertising. there is no evidence that the company fails to sufficiently protect data scientists have long feared that customers might also be influenced against their will. and. here's one example a couple in their early thirty's is considering having children but also loves to travel. the major platforms already know this about them based on their online clicking behavior. and what can happen is that this information gets sold to the highest bidder so for example you can imagine a company that specializes in fertility treatment. encouraging these people to go

for holidays in order to be lazy having children for example the control room or videos more adverts about holidays or even more of a dios of friends who are going on holidays rather than baby videos and these people may find themselves 5 years later after travelling a lot more they find themselves in a situation where they need for timothy services so they have and that may be what what this pair of companies that provide fertility services are optimizing for because they're trying to create future customers. data is the fuel that feeds major platforms are we at risk of losing control of our data. so longer not only collects customer data but also that of its employees. the company calls this 360 degree feedback. the associated computer program

is called zone r and depends on employees evaluating each other by digital tools helps them rate their colleagues strengths and weaknesses. philip is a professor for the future of work in a study he investigated what companies like salon don't use this data for. disability out these assessments are gathered and then aggregated into what is generally referred to as a score on. the companies usually have a classification system. a 3 tier system has become established for whatever reason with a low mid and high performance lifestyle that is the power of numbers. and in principle it's no longer your employer's feedback it's your colleagues opinions facts on the stats. so you'll find with most big tech firms they're obsessed with employee feedback monitoring their employees working out what they're doing or to

try to drive increases in productivity and they would say happiness most of what happens there is that a great number of different contexts are suddenly mixed together one on enough money you money should i not always give my best friend a good rating in the company regardless of how well i think she did her job demanded he do confront moral conflicts when you were forced to use such software i certainly didn't think that it would ever end up being used in germany. opener who is a board member of the laundry. he rarely gives television interviews. but he wants to emphasize digital feedback systems have long been commonplace. reason definitive and we're definitely not the only company to use 360 degree feedback and i think it is overall the natural evolution of assessment and feedback culture to incorporate more data out of it alone the question is how can we collect as many data points as

possible in order to create an objective assessment and service in order to know where have accomplishments really been achieved and what needs more work and this forms the basis of our promise to employees we've always said so mondo is a place to learn and grow from it and to me that really states the core of why employees enjoy working are going to hear about. data protection authority is currently investigating the tool the program is under constant revision there's a lot to assess. digitalisation is shaking the bedrock of all we know how we work how we live together who knows. what about us and how is it being used. in china the state drives digital development. of. the country is steaming ahead into the future and this group of german

entrepreneurs wants to join them. in the past such digitalisation tours led to silicon valley but now it's shanghai like this one organized by the management consultancy accenture. this trip is led by dr may want. she was born in beijing and works for accenture and humble. the 1st lesson for german visitors is facial recognition what happens if they cross a red light here if you crawl 7 it's funny it's rat they capture you in the spring and you'll face well be nice to you on the screen over there and people know you made a mistake people know you are the person for all history. and you can't go yeah yeah it's real clear here you see this people out mutually broken the law so that we can help us to make the people follow the rules i would say so i

mean shaving and their works are one now a bit careful especially when they see the camera here on the streets. a total of $600000000.00 smart cameras monitor the country they recognize exactly who they're filming. the government gives the project's whooping names like eagle eyes were sky and. what is their plan. and. good morning i'm 10 hours show you something that you could only do it in china. the chinese state television explains what the collected data can be used for already voluntary point systems reward customers for instance for giving their data to shopping plot points. this year china wants to introduce a state run social credit system mandatory for everyone. every person is then meant to get a score from the state. being paid. posts social credit social credit system or

scoring is based on 1st collecting information from the population. the focal given today across the street on red lights or have they committed a crime because all this data is collected and points are assigned. of course this is also an attempt at measuring a person's value and if the governments are good then the yet they can use this or this information for good you can improve services that can improve healthcare and so on but the governments are bad then that could be a problematic thing and it can lead to all kinds of exploitation and tyranny. the chinese government is already planning penalties for people who scores dropped below a certain minimum. they cannot go chaplain that plays they cannot go chopping block high speed trains they cannot go to luxury restaurants and they can't get a gold cos as there on they want to get that answer is that they can't even read the house it's just it's broken in one place restrictions are imposed everywhere.

what's happening in china is no less than a social revolution the government is transforming the country at a breakneck speed. to climb a building has a management consultancy in germany. you don't have to like what you see to be impressed by china's determination. i think that's the huge advantage of a single party system my solution comes they just implemented and it's stop internet startups are being founded in the states is dispersing a lot of funds to them this puts china in the league of cities are these i suppose you know. a good 2 hours away from shanghai the city of hung joe is home to the make a platform ali baba. it invests in the company developing the government's facial recognition software and it supports the social scoring system

. but ali baba doesn't actually allow television teams with camera onto the premises. we accompany the tour group to the for you. then we're told from here on the cameras must stay off. only photos are allowed inside. the tour group alerts ali baba is currently building a worldwide logistics network they want to reach any point on earth with their products within 72 hours. and. that evening in hong show the german entrepreneurs recap what they experienced today. there is this incredible unfathomable optimism in technology they say things like technology will give us a bright future and frankly even it will help us dominate the world if it was to grow up he said this digital totalitarianism seems to be the most

successful model for. you how did you hear people are under the impression that the government works just fine germany on basic impression is the government doesn't work that has an impact so of course we put up with all the other downsides which take a heavy toll on us surveillance scoring and so on and you think yourself at some point someone ought to bring up george orwell and nobody ever does and that's a bit surprising and makes you question your own position of it i think it's wrong for him because of it's one thing. china is compelling us to act how do we ensure that our digital transition doesn't turn orwellian but that the old world doesn't face its demise how do we pave a democratic way into the digital age. a 3rd of germans actually believe that the dangers of digitalisation outweigh the opportunities for them things are changing

much too quickly. then again at a digital trade fair in lisbon the impression is germany is far too slow it's been left in the dust by major platforms from the usa and china but what are the costs of catching up yeah you know everyone thinks what's happening in china is great but no one in germany wants educations like they have in china at the expense of freedom and human rights watch and no one wants to give up democracy in our country and i believe that even without relinquishing our basic democratic values we can step up our game practice sappers gets going. but how. is a lot of board member who been hit or is on his way to see commissioner doherty bear . there is a lot that the platform boss and politician could argue about. like indecision regarding germany's digital policy or platforms hunger for power online . but the tone remains pleasant. if talking about with dr tape there i think we

have an interlocutor who took interest in digitalization long before she was named commissioner and was with his team and i think both sides always provide ideas we can discuss but there are always issues we can talk about probably many members question coming as it could be so didn't it i'm not one who always tries to force things or who gets rude i don't get laid out that's not my way of doing politics from the get down to 20 years politicians are going to take entrepreneurs to the side but that's not your style. it has come to mind up for them to type of course that really appeals to the general public and you'd probably like it too because it translates into more clicks and a bigger audience but you must remember everyone has their cross to bear and you know everyone faces certain constraints wherever they stand one gives and saying and so you'd say you're taking the lead and it's right i make great strides every day with grand visions and high heels into the future towards

a positive digital future one of. we need politics to put this on the agenda what kind of a digital melia do we want to have to alter our world was we need to understand from fixed knowledge is what is actually feasible technologically. and they need to understand from the public and from politicians what are the rules and and they're going to play sions that should govern their systems who wields the power online policymakers businesses all of us. in munich as in many german cities people have already decided to let ali baba into their everyday life at the victor while you mock food market you can pay in cash or with ali baba's ali. you can find the chinese logo in many shops. at the drugstore chain

d.m. . can pay with all the pay in all of its 2000 german affiliate branches and an old traditional tavern has replaced its blue and white flag with one from ali baba. and so the digital age dawns in germany brought to you by trying. to point to a strong opinion clear position of the international perspectives. from the time being the coronaviruses it seems had to stand with many countries including germany possibly facing a 2nd wave we all sports exactly how we can seem to find out join me and my guests on to the point. to this point. not something on the d w

d to know that 77 percent. are younger than 6 of fox. cuts me and me and you. and you know what it's time all voices want part. of the 77 percent speech obama issue. this is where it comes. to 77 percent this weekend on d w. how does the virus spread. why do we panic and when will all this. time for just 3 of the topics covered and the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the coronavirus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at. slash science.

play. the state of your news live from berlin the number of corona virus cases in india tops 2000000 but experts fear the true number could be much higher as infections are the country's densely packed mega city list also coming up hundreds of school students in northern germany are sent home as health official sound the alarm over a spike in infections there are also worries about returning travelers bringing the pirates back with that. cost lebanon's leadership faces growing anger over incompetence and corruption following the deadly blasts in the capital.