BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) as a post-shanzhai phenomenon: An analysis from the perspective of antifragility and modularization

Abstract

Shanzhai refers to the production of mobile phones that imitate popular brands, a practice that became widespread in China around a decade ago. This form of production is characterized by modularity: the division of products into small independent components that make it easier to update and replace parts without affecting the whole. In this article, we analyze modularization as a post-shanzhai phenomenon in China’s largest technology companies – Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (BAT) – in order to compare them to their Western equivalents: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft (GAFAM). Instead of exoticizing Chinese technological development or undertaking another postcolonial reading, we use the concepts of ‘boundary objects’ and ‘antifragility’ to put the revolutionary values that endure in post-shanzhai China (and elsewhere) into perspective. In addition, we conclude that a fuller sociohistorical understanding of the ambivalences of shanzhai may encourage more self-critical understandings of Western technological and digital developments.