This is tomas decks and he used to be a bank clerk now in his new home of china hes a star like. Almost x. And is an influencer he promotes German Companies online in china he spent the last 4 years living in shanghai watching how chinas digitalisation history in past that of germany. This includes payment one standbys as coffee but thats not all. Musty x. And uses apps to organize his entire life. 50 stuff with advice for instance i can use city service to check how much pension ill get Health Insurance parking tickets you can even pay your electricity your doctors bill how you can do just about anything in just one simple app i dont 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 dont get to choose whether to take part in it or not if you just. After. 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 alond oh wants to take up the fight will be there to film a. Big album fungus and mop we believe the Market Players will consolidate and that and the politicians responsible thats the internet is uncharted territory for us all. Do they have a vision for germanys Digital Future this film accompanies federal commissioner for Digital Affairs doherty beer and i motor isnt 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 not 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 the back 8 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 martin hyder in north rhinewestphalia. 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 an influencer now he produces promo clips for German Companies along with his wife keeping. In china stacks and has 10000000 online followers many people watches videos like this one where he promotes the schoolbag brand now go back in china hes known as often. And what does actually mean affability roughly 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 and. I mean that in germany about 700000. 00 children start school each year in china some 16000000. 00 now if not all 16000000. 00 children or their parents may be able to afford an airbag but if we can reach even 10 percent thats already over double the size of the german market. Influence or the accident is instrumental to this plan. The idea was for him to filmfare go bag gifting a taxi drivers family with school bags along with money to cover their sons to wish with the equivalent to 2500 euros. That is as the clip went viral. Its 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 attack so we could be sure that the boost in traffic was helping us the traffic cones hoofed. Viewers are generally directed from the video platforms straight to ali babas online shops. You may want to get to the ship but its one of the largest Platform Companies in the world and they go to place for german vendors hoping to sell goods in china. Because everyones there its basically a Search Engine and a one stop shop listen i whatever customers want they go there to look more at once and theyll find it there in Atlantic Murchison straight away hopefully. With all the baba 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 paid. For it while they shop on the Sales Platform team all for auction things im told by the chinese. They can find their way using a map. Or have groceries delivered with element. Cloud owns huge Storage Farms the internets infrastructure and ali baba pictures produces in markets hollywood movies and thats just a little slice of the fast ali baba universe. The British Technology expert Jamie Bartlett observes a similar trend taking shape on u. S. Based platforms. Google and facebook and 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 its 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 chinas front runners 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 retailer salon dot opened its new headquarters in berlin twice a month on boarding 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 thirtys and speaks english. They come from all over the world. And i was really surprised when i found this amount of people ive heard that its ok if im sorry i didnt like that im so excited its its like its imply that they are doing something good its a bit going on which you dont want to annoy them and 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 lets start. The place is designed to make people reluctant to go their own. Permanent individual offices but instead Flexible Working space its inspired by big players like google apple or facebook on the floor or the founders principles speed. And entrepreneurship. So youre not here like America Great you think youre. Losing your job. And they too are part of the family pictures of the office dogs are posted on instagram with a hash tag theres a launch of. The welcome speeches invite the newcomers to not just be part of a company but to join in on a mission you eat on pasqual because the v. P. Of product design. Is very very excited to have you on board and im 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 its 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 theres other examples in your life for instance when youre looking for entertainment and you dont know what to watch on friday saturday night start opening match flicks and that fixed recommends you what you should watch so this very strong bonds to those platforms is what were looking to be in terms of starting point for fashion these summit cheika heads Business Operations for germany austria switzerland poland and the Czech Republic under her stewardship the londo is to become a platform and. All these countries as a platform to employing the platform strategy also means that customers can buy brands that celeb doesnt 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 samandar. Even classic brick and mortar shops. Now. Invite more for instance there is a lot of his out of the consumer Weimar Department stores to the platform one of them the shiller coffee house downtown is the biggest shop in the city. This afternoon theyre unveiling the upcoming spring trends. Ladies and gentlemen welcome to our grand fashion show here at the house were delighted you want to take a glimpse at the coming season let me tell you this season will be anything but boring up next is. When the phillies extra special attention is given to regular customers who still prefer visiting in person because we got to be on to the next super. Meanwhile the Platform Business is humming along in the rear stock room customer orders through salon dot come in from all over germany. People are still buying that skirt. In 24 hours a day working in the digital age constanza here bishop hyatt and christiane of course are looking for the product ordered the internet has created a new profession besides sales clerks there are now socalled pickers. Whatsits i number it into the a. N. C. Reserved for. Who is here is 0 for this cant be it. Ive got a 5 to 5 here anyone know where it is and in. Mine ill scrubbers its my job is to find the product a customer ordered online here in the store and then take it to the stockroom for shipping. Them how many reduce today. To how he 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 their point of view so customers can say that its from close with. Us. It definitely took everyone some getting used to to not serve customers face to face forward or to just get a list of the product and send it off without any personal contact at times they have 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 shilling 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. Thats over the counter retail isnt on its way out and was stick around but in completely different form for. d 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 dont necessarily need 3 or 4 different platforms you need one single marketplace and thats why these platforms have a tendency to snatch up entire markets on 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 dont dominate the market they basically are the market that mocked because i thought there was 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. Shes been at the helm of digitalisation for 2 years now. She and transport minister under here sure you want to spread their enthusiasm for digitalisation. Daughter has been addressing the topics of games and harnessing innovation for years now. She assures progress on esports and digital and. Structure and in many many more areas if you are good to me is everyone in the cabinet is excited to see you too and you know i know wed have to ask them but essentially our next next question is taking the. Dog who often has 10 sometimes 15 such appointments a day her goal is for digitalisation to be considered a political issue. I kept my luck i once said offhand that many of my colleagues month this internet thing to just be over with at some point there is definitely a bit of truth to that some do feel that if we just ignore these developments long enough it would really come tomorrow even if. Its offices in the chancellor one floor below under the americans. And shop i have a smartphone and 2 tablets as you can see i dont have a computer here at noon i had it removed immediately even in the old building on him i dont have one in my Parliamentary Office either my motor isnt mobile 1st its mobile only. 0. Point 2 this interview is the interview today then im eating a photographer for another interview and insist i go today is a very media intense day then my breakfast which sadly i didnt manage to photograph and tie. The hands of what you post. I destroy develop people like it just beyond us and what detroit in my side so i dont get around to it every day but today i really wanted to show all my scheduled appointments one after the other because its always nice to be more transparent and show what im up to a little guy tucker. Go to bears office plus a front room thats it thats where her digitalisation realm ends and the chancellor theres 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 dont have an organizational chart but i brought something new instead and went on survive the nobody seen it yet either its called a dashboard in my talk that he gets to see who is actually responsible for this as mine were at the end 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 fast the ministry of transport for example is responsible for Digital Infrastructure in the ministry of labor the think tanks 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. 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. You see how problematic it is everyone bubbles about on their own with no overarching plan i think its disastrous. When i look at when everyone is in charge and then no one really is as you months and there has to be a minister at the top with an allocated budget and staff in order to quote word need and guide others who are responsible. In theory to our tape it is minister of state for digitalisation in practice she will do little actual power little to be had 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 wont 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 influence of time as one skips internet sites model of us crime section to section as often as we say in the various no use crying over spilt milk to put it more politely of course you always have to work with what youve got. Is the feeling that someone asked why so many they want to be just one head thats entirely the wrong approach what i care about is does it work well not and does it when for instance the government takes us 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 and schools. As its called one student is concerned the funds may not reach their proper destination since schools have to actively apply for them. Bottles were given another problem is if the principal doesnt take the initiative the students face a problem. It isnt obligatory you have to con