China is paying people to shop. It’s a boom for tech.

China is paying consumers to buy new things. It is also making some fairly specific suggestions about what those things should be. Beijing has allocated 250 billion yuan, about $37 billion, this year for its consumer trade-in program. By August, the program had supported 1.55 trillion yuan in sales of eligible goods, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. The final installment went to local governments in late September. It sounds like old-fashioned stimulus: Help households replace aging products and hope they keep spending. But the shopping list tells another story. China is using consumer subsidies to build markets…