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Comment by contingencies | Hacker News Reader

Here's an original thought. The presentation asserts that Tesla has eaten the entire auto industry, and this is because of slipping battery costs. It does not, however, correctly credit China for this change.

What other changes has China recently led? Video conferencing, mass-adoption of mobile payment, death of the desktop, home food delivery (pre-COVID), online grocery, e-Health passports.

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Wow, way to twist the history to your own narrative. Also, no, Tesla has not eaten the entire auto industry, stock market cap doesn't equal to product market share

> Video conferencing

Zoom (American company) launched in 2011. DingTalk started way late in 2014 and wasn't even that popular until 2017. and still playing catchup to Zoom.

> mass-adoption of mobile payment

Japan in the 90s. I believe Chinese citizens were still mostly riding bikes then.

> death of the desktop

Japan in the 90s

> home food delivery (pre-COVID)

Grubhub was founded in 2004. IPOed in 2014.

> online grocery

Tesco direct started in UK in 1997.

Needlessly snarky response. Write to the author about the Telsa claim. Yes, there are earlier examples in each case. I personally worked in digital video in 2000.

I was referring clearly to mass adoption (actual market penetration). Nothing matches China, period. Look at numbers for WeChat (video), WeChat/Alipay (mobile payment), Meituan/Eleme (delivery), etc.

Tesla hasn’t eaten the audio industry - that’s what investors are speculating. Battery prices are falling because of technology and (mostly) volume, not particularly because of ‘China’

Volume is China. The same for solar.

The middle class in China is currently smaller than the one in Europe. It is - and always will be - much smaller than the middle class of the western countries combined. China is large but other countries together are much larger.

That's the thing. In China, EVs and solar are not the domain of the middle class. They're used by everyone.

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