As soon as my parents picked me up at the Beijing airport, they’ve been gushing about Beijingers washing their cars extremely frequently lately. The magic word is “free”, plus a bottle of windshield washer fluid for first timers. Thanks to various VCs pouring seemingly unlimited cash into the O2O (Online to Offline) Economy, mobile users in China are enjoying a wild ride of promotions simultaneously if not sooner, with Westerners. Services ranging from taxi, hotel to haircut and car wash are all packed into separate mobile apps.

Living in San Francisco as an early adopter of everything, spoiled by free Google Shopping Express, near-free Uber/Lyft rides and convenient Handybook house cleaning, I’m more than tempted to compare what’s happening in China to those in the Silicon Valley. So I went hands-on.

(c) http://www.tynews.com.cn/jcp/c/2014-12/08/content_557185.htm

Upon pulling our car into a local garage-style car wash store, three workers started spraying water and soap all over the car without asking the type of service I want or form of payment I would use. While I was still wondering, they quickly finished and guided me to back up and park along with a row of other customers’ cars before asking me to come inside of their store next door. People are standing around a table with printed QR codes and Wi-Fi password atop and either asking or explaining how the whole free thing works. A woman in her 40s or 50s, whom I expected the least to master “Mobile Internet”, came up to me and started instructing.

It turns out I needed to use WeChat to scan a QR code, follow an official account, proceed to download an app called eCarWash, register with a Chinese phone number and pay 0.05 CNY (less than 1 cent USD) within the app with either WeChat Wallet by Tencent or AliPay by Alibaba to finally complete the transaction. No Google Wallet or ApplePay mentioned, and I’m fairly certain they’re not adopted very well (or at all) in China. I don’t have a local phone number or a local credit card, but luckily I could use my dad’s phone number and the storeowner scanned my WeChat account and transferred 0.05 CNY to me so that I could pay in eCarWash app. With their help, I only stumbled for 10 minutes before receiving a WeChat message saying “thanks for your purchase” while another group of workers has finished detailing the car. Everything worked like a charm, except the app recognized my dad’s phone number as second timer and denied my request for a free bottle of windshield washer fluid.

Takeaways and comparisons:

1. WeChat is already the de facto Operating System for mobile startups. Much like an aircraft carrier, WeChat provides an array of tools to bootstrap other apps. From Instant Messaging, Customizable Official Accounts, Moment (Feed) Ads, QR system to WeChat Wallet, a startup can essentially rely on WeChat to provide the entire marketing, customer communications, and payment needs. It’s awesome. The WeChat eco-system is very comparable to Google or Apple’s.

2. Cellular network coverage is lacking and might hinder O2O economy in a big way. My parents are still stuck with GPRS speed with their iPhone 5 and Huawei Phones. Carriers and device makers are making a joint effort to promote 4G LTE, but people hugely rely on WiFi hotspots for now.

3. Payment war is fiercely ongoing. Two dominant players, WeChat Wallet and AliPay, are investing heavily in partnership deals. The reason eCarWash insisted me to pay less than 1 cent is to make sure that I pay with one of these tools. Compared to Google Wallet and ApplePay, Chinese online payment tools are adopted much better.

4. Startups pay a lot to educate the market, and it works. Didi and Kuaidi, two biggest competitors in the mobile taxi (car sharing) industry, have successfully trained Beijinger to book a taxi on their phone.

There you have it, my experience of O2O economy in Beijing. Happy Chinese New Year!