Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1022507
66 tobaccoasia / Issue 4, 2018 September / October China: Big Tobacco and Big Internet Join Hands On June 22, 2018, China National Tobacco Corporation ((CNTC) signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation with China's internet giants Alibaba Group and Ant Financial. Ling Chengx- ing, the director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) and general manager of CNTC, and Ma Yun, the chairman of Alibaba Group, attended the signing ceremony, This move has had a large impact on the industry. In addition to the cooperation with Alibaba, Ling Chengx- ing also met with Ma Huateng, chairman of the Board of Tencent in Beijing last November. The two sides respectively put forward opinions and suggestions on how to explore the practice of Internet+ in the tobacco industry. In fact, just a few years ago Baidu, Ali, and Tencent, the three internet giants in China, had already become involved in the tobacco industry at the corporate level. For example, Guangxi Tianhai and Tencent worked together, China Tobacco Zhejiang Industrial Co. Ltd (CT Zhejiang) introduced Alipay (a third-party mobile and online payment platform) and Ding Ding (a new mobile and desktop program also known as DingTalk, China's "Orwellian" version of Slack), and some enterprises worked with Tencent, Ali, and JD.com (one of the two largest B2C online retail- ers in China) on QR code marketing. Following the launch of "internet+", all industries have be- gun to pay more attention to the importance of data analysis. By analyzing acquired consumption data, they can outline consumer profiles and provide data support for their r&d and marketing. The tobacco industry is no exception. China Tobacco Guangxi utilizes big data with QR codes In the tobacco industry, China Tobacco Guangxi (CT Guangxi) was an early adopter of internet+. In 2015, the company relied on the platform of Tianhai Research Institute to form a platform integrating anti-counterfeiting, tracking, marketing, and promotion. As the platform grew, several styles of products of Zhenlong (the leading brand of CT Guangxi) became a hit in the Guangxi market. "Scanning the QR code" has become a habit of Chinese consumers. QR codes, originated in Japan and South Korea, entered China around 2006 and really became popular after 2012, when the domestic mobile Internet boom just started. The large-scale popular- ization of smartphones and the construction of mobile Internet have provided opportunities for the rapid development of QR codes. With several years of practice, QR code technology has been applied in product identification, marketing interaction, mobile payment, anti-counterfeit tracking, etc. The relevant industries have accumulated rich experience. It is reported that 90% of global QR code users are in China. China's tobacco industry is fully embracing the latest Internet innovations By TobaccoChina Online