The great disrupter's new targets

摘要

"The last time there were so many people down by here, the Rolling Stones were in town." So declared one of those attending an unusual gathering this week in a vast auditorium along the shores of Shanghai's Huangpu River. The music was blaring, the coloured lights flashing and the ceiling shimmering, but this was not another rock concert. Astonishingly, the enthusiastic throngs-10,000 squeezed into the venue and another 13,000 joined in via streaming video-had gathered for a technology conference.