How years of R&D produced sharing economy

BEIJING - This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of bikes.

Every day, millions of Chinese still ride them to work or go shopping.

However, they no longer open bikes with keys, but by smartphone apps. It is not only bikes. By scanning QR codes at stations and restaurants with a smartphone or logging in to one of thousands of mini-sites on Tencent's instant-messaging app WeChat, users can access and rent everything from sports equipment and washing machines to umbrellas and cars.