21st Century Globalization Analysis

In Dragon Multinationals: New Players in 21st Century Globalization, John A. Matthews summarizes a key difference between 21st century and 20th century globalization by saying, “Indeed, a plausible case can be made that as globalization proceeds, it is firms and institutions from the Periphery—in particular firms from the Asia Pacific—that can be expected to most clearly articulate the global perspective and approach needed to exploit the new opportunities” (Matthews). The shift of mass-production to developing countries is a primary way in which 21st century globalization differs from 20th century globalization. Indeed, it largely characterizes the future of the world as a global business.

The 20th century was that of the West – development

Chinese consume our media, follow our fashion trends, value our brands, and consider learning English a top priority. These are all products of the United States '

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global influence throughout the 1900 's – Hollywood, fast food, technology – the list goes on of things developed in the United States, which are now commonplace worldwide.

Today, however, China and other developing countries are outrunning the United States in other aspects, and are doing so very quickly. Transportation in major Chinese cities is extremely efficient, infrastructure is very modern, and Chinese are building at unprecedented rates – all of which is nowhere to be seen in America.

Economically, China has outpaced the United States as a global superpower, and now has the largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world. The last century was about development and innovation, but this one is about efficiency in production – and this time China is the global leader. A vast range of products sold in the West, from toys to computers, are imported from China. Moreover, because China has set the bar for mass-production of goods and services, it has become cheaper for Western countries to outsource tasks of mass scale to developing

With the world 's largest population, U.S. firms are recently starting to focus on tapping into the Chinese market specifically, as some consider it the future of their industry. When I interned at Paramount Pictures, a major U.S.-based distributor of motion pictures, my colleagues and I were told by the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) that the industry 's domestic profits have been consistent for the past few decades, since moviegoing is a standard American pastime. In the past few years, however, the market for U.S. films has grown exponentially in China, causing studios to compete to have their films distributed in the country and taking new measures to do so. According to Paramount 's CFO, China is “the future of Hollywood.” While I was at Paramount, the studio released Transformers 4, and specifically cast a Chinese actress in it and filmed part of it in China to appeal to the Chinese market. It made $300 million in its opening weekend in China.

Technology is another example of mass Chinese consumption – Apple opened 22 stores in seven years in China and plans to raise that number to 40 by mid-2016. Despite the products being built there, the Chinese demand for iPhones as a symbol of wealth allows Apple to charge nearly 20% more for them in China than in other countries, while doubling its revenue to $13 billion in one year (Lee). This further