Tencent with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China and Ipsos has jointly published the 2017 Mobile Payment Usage in China Report based on data collected from 324 Chinese cities in an online survey of 6,595 respondents about user behavior and consumer use cases of the smart cashless lifestyle. In this report, 40% of respondents regularly carry less than CNY 100 and over 70% use cash when only cash is accepted and they can survive with less than CNY 100 (approx. KRW 18,000). 84% said that they feel calm without cash as long as they have a smartphone to use mobile payments. In addition, the report finds that Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu, Dongguan, Chongqing, Suzhou and Foshan were the top 10 cities by rate of mobile payment adoption and use of a digital platform.

 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba drew great attention with its first cashier-less coffee shop named Tao Cafe at the Taobao Maker Festival held in Hangzhou, China on July 18. The cafe saw nearly 6,000 people and received 7,000 orders throughout five opening days and, on one occasion, a queue of 85 people all at once. It was a whole new concept of a shopping service using face recognition technology to allow users to order what they want by simply saying it and making a payment without a cashier.

 Tao Cafe is not really the first store running without a cashier. The very first cashier-less store is Amazon Go in Seattle, the United States opened in December 2016 and Deep Blue Technologies in collaboration with Zhima Credit released an unmanned store system this February, which was followed by the opening of the unmanned convenience store Bingo Box in Shanghai at the beginning of June. Tao Cafe then came along early in July. The unmanned store is no longer strange in the retail industry. Integration of online and offline channels coupled with unmanned payment system and biometrics presents a new opportunity for the retail industry with labor costs reduced to a more acceptable level.

 Unmanned (automated) payment and service is a shopping trend that's irreversible. In fact, it's commonly found in everyday life through a self-ordering system at McDonald's, KFC and many other restaurants. Such an interesting, convenient, smart and highly efficient way of shopping will change the retail and service industry forever. Now, we should make up our mind; whether to take it as an opportunity or merely challenging the hurdle and how to deal with it.

 I personally think the service industry will need fewer workers with the advancement of technology and a professional, personalized service. The outdated standardized service will be replaced with an AI (Artificial Intelligence) system. The adoption of a personalized service is challenging but inevitable, and it will assist the drive toward minimal human involvement. But, once we adopt and adapt to this new service model, it will surely create a great opportunity for us. That is because it will make customers come to us, instead of us going searching for them.

 In recent years, cosmetics companies have introduced their own AI based skin test apps and devices for scientific in-depth analysis of skin conditions, troubles and cosmetics ingredients and comparison using big data. Some even combine different products to make better ones and present products that are one of a kind and tailor-made designed for each customer.

 A series of products is old-fashioned. A personalized service that satisfies the different needs of customers is the way to impress and move the hearts of customers. And that's the right way of doing business for a large corporate group. We, Amorepacific, will be able to provide products and services personalized for customers of different ages and skin types using our technologies and brand strength to increase sales and differentiate our brands over the competition.