that's your news update at this hour don't forget you can always get all the latest information around the clock on our web site. you can also follow us on twitter and instagram at days i'm gay richardson in berlin and i'll be back with more news for you in 45 minutes. on legal. go complain the 2nd season on the front of the planet on the brink of disaster we did long interview experts about one question. who changed the focus of the only reason.

this is to. be used to be a bank clerk now in his new home of china he's a star like. almost there is an influencer he promotes german companies online in china he spent the last 4 years living in shanghai watching how china's digitalisation history in past out of germany. this includes payment one standbys his coffee cup but that's not all. and uses apps to organize his entire life. 56 of them by steve 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 and just one simple you know i don't carry my wallet with me much just my cell phone and you know but i've. been since this is now the case for most people in china even the poorest have switched to mobile payment this. man is wearing his pain with

a code around his neck. digitalisation really is a revolution but 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 fill the. funk that's in mop we believe the market will consolidate and that 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 over t.v. alamosa isn't mobile 1st its mobile any. experts are watching a global race unfold between policymakers and businesses as they have by for digital power or in the midst of a societal are 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 fancy. the question is who wields power on the internet welcome to the digital age. this is the town of marvin harder 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. became an 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 bag in china he's known as off. and what does that mean after the daughter directly translated often means the happy one because many followers say my physique reminds them of a happy buddha so i do suits me quite well. today thomas decks and has an appointment with air go back in cologne his most successful video to date was for their brand and had long been clear to gordon eve it had of their go back to chinese operations that the brand needed to penetrate the chinese market. i mean of them in the in germany about $700000.00 children start school each year in china it's 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. influencer day accident is instrumental to this plan. the idea was for him to film or go bag gifting a taxi driver's family with school bags along with money to cover their son's to wish with the equivalent of 2500 euros. that is this the clip went viral. that's an afterlife i think the video went live on august 13th and on that very day our daily turnover practically tripled and this went on until the day the school year started tuck so we could be sure that a boost in traffic was helping us the traffic cones hoofed. if you were generally directed from the video platforms straight to ali baba's online shops. you may ot 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's 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 and and take notice in straight away hopefully. with all the ringback china has a stablish one of the 1st make a platform companies in the world the company is present in all areas of life customers can make payments with all the pain you feel. while they shop on the sales platform team all for auction things on told the chinese e bay 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 fast ali baba universe. in. the british technology expert jamie bartlett observes a similar trend taking shape on u.s.

based platforms. going on facebook in the same ones you always hear. no longer are just search engine platforms or 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 web space 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 frontrunners are all the above are intense and. the only german company to even make the top $100.00 is as a.p. ranked 58th in the world. but some german companies are trying to catch up in the summer of 21000 fashion retailers along opened its new headquarters in berlin twice a month is on board

a day when they welcome all the newcomers. there are 200 today alone 200 out of 14000 account of. the 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. and i was really surprised when i found this amount of people i've heard that's ok i'm sorry but i didn't like that i'm so excited it's it's like it's implied that they are doing something good it's great to have it going on which you don't want to know why demand to hear and learn a lot of scenes and you know move forward you might through. the newcomers are shown the heart of the company. and i would say it's starting to work.

the place is designed to make people reluctant to go home there are not. individual officers but instead flexible working spaces inspired by big players like google apple for free support on the floor are the founders principles speed. and entrepreneurship. so you're making your letter america great you think 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 there's a lot. to welcome speech isn't quite the newcomers to not just be part of a company but to join in on a mission if you eat on pasqual because the v.p. of product design. we're very excited to have you on board and i'm personally very excited to kick off this day and 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 the yes rather than with a 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 sacha is 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 legs and that fixed recommends you what you should watch so this very strong bonds to those platforms is what we're looking to be in terms of starting point for fashion these are me cheika heads business operations for germany austria

switzerland poland and the czech republic under her stewardship the londo is to become a platform in all. these countries as a platform to point the platform strategy also means that customers can buy brands that's a land doesn't carry in stock but instead these products are sold directly by our partners we are networked with 1300 offline straws and some of them generate a large part of their turnover through some land. even classic brick and mortar shops that. invite more for instance there is a lot of has added the consumer weimar department stores to the platform one of them the 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 house we're delighted you want to take

a glimpse of the coming season this is let me tell you this season will be anything but boring up next is. the food the extra special attention is given to regular customers who still prefer visiting in person because it's not going to be super spelled out. meanwhile the platform business is humming along in the rear stock room customer orders through the londo come in from all over germany. people are still buying that skirt. in 24 hours a day working in the digital age constanza here bush diet and christina gore are looking for the product ordered the internet has created a new profession your side sales clerks there are now so-called pickers. whatsits i number it into the hands here is your full. will is here is there for

this can be it. i've got 5 to 5 here anyone know where it is and. mine all scrubbers 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. how many would use today for it decrypts received quite a few orders today there were around 250 or 200 so i would still. go through all 3 get to use our own tissue paper and stick our logo on top of that for the future so customers can see that it's from close environment and. it definitely took everyone some getting used to to not serve customers face to face and for you to just get a list of a product and send it off without any personal contact of the times that they've gotten the hang of it now and really give it their all out so it would. in order to

be displayed on the platform the schiller cult pays a lot of feet 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 in a completely different form for. people ready. 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 market 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 all the market because i think there was a good decision. 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 come 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. what is the daughter who has been addressing the topics of games and harnessing innovation for years now. she assures progress on the sports and

digital and. structure and in many many more areas so that really all that you meant is everyone in the cabinet is excited to see you too and that you know i know we'd have to ask them but you certainly are mixing next question of taking the time . often has 10 sometimes 15 such appointments a day her goal is for digitalisation to be considered a political issue. i kept 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 i would really come tomorrow evening. teabags offices in the chancellor one floor below uncle americas.

and shop 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 off on him i don't have one in my parliamentary office either my motor isn't mobile 1st it's mobile only on this. point this interview is the interview today then my meeting photographer for another interview in the psystar today is a very media intense day then my breakfast which sadly i didn't manage to push it off and tie. the hands of what you post. can i destroy developed people like that nor does he understand 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 after the other because it's always nice to be more transparent and show what i'm up to old i can talk or. go to bears 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 policy makers face countless challenges who tackles them what response has the german government put in place. because i don't have an organizational chart what i brought something new instead went on 5 so nobody seen it yet either it's called a dashboard thank you it lets you see who is actually responsible for my work ethic and this is just a 1st draft or damage to determine which ministries are tackling the issue of fire and the good news is they all are of the ministry of transport for example is responsible for digital infrastructure in the ministry of labor the think tank doing fabric 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 teams and 76 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 to critics say. you 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 and then no one really has as you months i mean there has to be a minister at the top with an allocated budget and staff in order to coordinate and

guide others who are responsible. in theory to our table is minister of state for digitalisation in practice she will do little actual power both of you have to take care has no budget and she just serves as window dressing child so the government can say we take digitalisation seriously but they won't give her the main challenge he marked 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 influence of time as one skips internet sites model of us crime section a section as often as we say and the various 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 some ask why so many of it would be just one head that's entirely the wrong approach what i care about is does it work well 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 or booked my. 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 and schools. as it's called one student is concerned the funds may not reach their proper destination since schools have to actively apply for them. by this problem 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 address it

you know if you just use the web 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 since again on the concepts are already on hand and they are comprehensive that's right now it's someone else's turn. base that's what social media use my me my favorite soulless instagram really because they're people much friendlier because how we treat each other is important to me i'm going to get in the. door to bare it's quick to post pictures on instagram for visits to major platform companies such as facebook. or google. google. google. but what about the problems the digital companies are posing for policymakers for example for years giant platforms

have hardly paid any taxes despite billions in 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 why the subsets taxpayers who pay half their income corporations pay a fraction of the title from $10.00 to $25.00 most i pay less taxes but i'm completely against wage and that sort of trade and everyone pays their taxes in their home country and that's why it always depends what rate do i say and what

comes back as it says there is talk of this to demands they should pay even if they must be a healthy balance by those steps. heavier taxation of digital companies is a global issue one keynote speaker at the digital summit is my great or best talker the head of digitalisation at the european commission. she's a european doughty bit of sorts but her tone is quite different. well the 2 put a ban want to play this so that this is paying their taxes taxes just as well as any other businesses do already. we need. we can make sure that patents are named use or people i know it's the other way round the more you know how those companies are always the more you see the harm they are this is how i want to show things in common. they're 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 app and want to hail a cab you often wait in vain. and to be admitted into china's international import expo you have to have your face scanned. the german entrepreneur is exhibiting at the fair. it's gotten even from go back for example. so this is only for promotion but this is saddleback we are selling primary school bags. at the

booth he takes a quick selfie with their promoter. ok here we go back can reach up to half a 1000000 visitors but customers buy on the line on the pages operated by the major platforms just like the house and weimar era go back pays fees to the platform and supplies its data ali baba. this is the best do you know what happens to the data your company feeds into the internet here in china as you know i know no idea. i don't think you can request that kind of confirmation. when and uses i'll be paying a cafe he also leaves behind data. does he know how much the platform it was about . to get through the data volume is certainly huge 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 platform supposed 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 because of firms internet made up its online 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 look for which before. you can then make deductions about my occupation and depending on which topics i'm interested in and all this is collected and compiled into profiles under. a margin of time in 10 or 1520 years from now not that far away really where somebody who is 18 years old has had almost

their entire life data fied their fitness levels their diet levels their caffeine intake big tech companies today know more about us than this fancy. 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 fit what about the style all this flows into an algorithm. for the. drawing on millions of data points or product designer on pasqual steam create 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 things you like and here are some things you might not have 9 lyric signs seen as relevant to you the band on the 11th 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. 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 the 1st tentative treatment. encouraging these people

to go for holidays in order to delay having children for example the control room or videos more adverts about holidays or even more of a dios of having 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 eternity 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. that's allowed or not only collects customer data but also that of its employees. the company calls in 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 and. philip stop as a professor for the future of work in a study he investigated what companies like salon don't use this data for. is a big gap these are sas months are gathered and then aggregated into what is generally referred to as a score on. the companies usually have a classification system would have 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 there. so you find with most big tech firms they are 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 not a great number of different contexts are suddenly mixed together one and 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 demand on you 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. as a board member of the laundry he rarely gives television interviews. but he wants to emphasize digital feedback systems have long been commonplace. reason to think 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 the question is how can we collect as many data points as possible in order to create an objective assessment 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 for me and to me that really states the core of why employees enjoy working i got here i've been. berlin's data protection authority is currently investigating the tool. the program is under constant revision in the long doses. 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. the country is steaming ahead into the future and this group of german

entrepreneurs wants to join. in the past such digitalisation tours led to silicon valley but now it's shanghai like this one organized by the management consultant to 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 crawls 7 on is rather a capture you in the spring and your face well be lifted out of the spring over the year and the people know you made a mistake people know you are the person cross the street. that you can't yeah yeah he's real peer here you see this people out there should have broken the mold so for me helps 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. morning i'm chen i want to 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 platforms but 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. because social credit social credit system or

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

everywhere. what's happening in china is no less than a social revolution and the government is transforming the country at a breakneck speed. we do climb a booting heads 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 then it stopped the internet startups are being founded in the states is dispersing a lot of funds to them this puts china in the lead of the new york as i know you know. a good 2 hours away from shanghai the city of hung joe is home to the make a platform. 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 a camera on to their 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 joel the german entrepreneurs recap what they experience today. as 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 of a switch to greater shock he said this digital totalitarianism seems to be the most

successful model for christ in what it says that. you have and you know it and if people are under the impression that the government works just fine germany our basic impression is the government doesn't work that has an impact so of course we put up with all the other down signs which take a heavy toll on us surveillance scoring and so on down there and you think to yourself at some point someone ought to bring up george orwell that is george all nobody ever does and that's a bit surprising and makes you question your own position of it i think it's wrong from dissidents 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 that things are changing

much too quickly. then again at a digital trade fair in lisbon the impression that's 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 yeah i guess everyone thinks what's happening in china is great but no one in germany wants educations like the have in china at the expense of freedom and human rights watch and no one wants to give up their luck crissy in our country and i believe that even without relinquishing our basic democratic values we can step up our game like this happens next morning. but how. is a lot of board member who been hit or is on his way to see commissioner doughty pair. there is a lot that the platform boss and politician could argue about. like indecision regarding germany's digital policy or platforms of hunger for power online. but the tone remains pleasant. he thought that with dr tape there

i think we have an interlocutor who took interest in digitalisation long before she was named commissioner and as for this team and i think both sides always provide ideas we can discuss but there are always issues we can talk about probably minimum spec and cunning as it could be to do in india 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 of politicians are willing 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 to be 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 give us something and so you'd say you're taking the lead and titled 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 keep the sunday agenda what kind of a digital millia do we want to have to alter our world was we need to understand from 5th knowledge is what is actually feasible technologically. and they need to understand from the public and from politicians and what are the rules and there are regulations 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 wanyama market 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 china. a mixed ethnic bad cast until one dance company 12 exceptional dancers from across the globe are brought together by one of the most exciting choreographers of our time. to actually kind of pair you a church gown and the ballet russe to friends are 21. in 30 minutes on d w. a

new era as we go. the fire going feeling. this has been filling. our use of. places as the. flames that consume forests and entire residential areas from. rising temperatures water shortages lens clearance there's an abundance of flammable material once again i did. no stop the fires. is only going up against. global concentration the world on fire starts aug 12th on g.w.

. this is e w news a live up from berlin and anger in the streets of beirut protests following tuesday's a devastating explosion that leaves at least one police officer dad and dozens of people injured demonstrators a blame the blast on years of government corruption also coming up. mandatory coronavirus testing begins for travelers coming to germany and testing stations open at airport arrival terminals as concerns are broke that a 2nd wave of the pandemic may be hitting the country.