Innovation isn’t flying cars or VR glasses

By:  June 17, 2019 Categories: 

Last Saturday we found a new apartment in Shanghai through ZiRoom (自如). The app has zero flair and is pure efficiency. Through filters we narrowed down our options, listed on a map in north Shanghai (screenshots are just examples).

Most apartments have 360° photographs. We got an appointment in 10 minutes, and later that evening we decided to take it, and paid & signed the contract through the app. The WIFI & TV (with a free Chinese Netflix-service) worked within minutes, and ZiRoom also provide a weekly cleaning lady.

To me this is the kind of real innovation that will never win awards at Cannes Lions because it doesn’t ‘feel’ futuristic, and will never get mentioned in advertising blogs, because it doesn’t boast artificial intelligence or VR-glasses.

It’s underwhelming actually, but it’s so user-friendly — and if I ever use a traditional broker again I’ll surely look at it as extremely outdated. We got an apartment in the most convenient way possible.

Latest

Rich People Park

Rich People Park

We’re in TaiKoo Li QianTan (前滩太古里), a brand new, high-end shopping mall near the Huangpu River in Pudong. It’s a beautiful complex with four levels, viewing bridges, walls of white steel and vertical gardens (the first I’ve seen that actually look like on an architectural drawing), and paths of bright bricks alternating with patches of […]
June 5, 2026
Torrential rain and colorful umbrellas

Torrential rain and colorful umbrellas

I was planning a bike ride, but then saw it was drizzling, so I carried Hasse outside — underneath an umbrella — to go get a coffee. Yet the rain was so heavy we just hid underneath the canopy in front of a supermarket to see some of the chaos unfold. I’ll miss these streets […]
May 25, 2026
Streetside in the AI Park

Streetside in the AI Park

Be skeptical of sweeping stories about China, regardless of how good or bad they portray things. The technological advancements mentioned in the news may be even more profound in reality, but not as widespread as shown. The GDP growth has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, but real wealth is mostly concentrated in coastal […]
May 16, 2026
Clothes Making Clouds

Clothes Making Clouds

There are so many ways to define Shanghai, yet a few popular icons do a lot of the talking. As the international metropolis and a symbol of China’s rising economic power, there’s the Lujiazui (陆家嘴) skyline — with the Oriental Pearl Tower (东方明珠) and high offices of Chinese and multinational corporations. There’s the Maglev train […]
May 5, 2026