'Manufacturing Powerhouse' China is a Thing of the Past... Now a 'Big Data Powerhouse'

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] As China's big data market rapidly develops, there are calls to accelerate the establishment of government-led big data platforms in the future.

According to the "Trends and Implications of China's Big Data Market" report released on the 15th by the Korea International Trade Association's International Trade and Commerce Research Institute, China's big data market has grown at an average annual rate of 35.7% since 2016, and the market size is expected to reach $8.47 billion this year. The total volume of big data is also projected to reach 48.6 zettabytes by 2025, accounting for one-third of the world's big data.

Since 2015, China has promoted big data development as a national development strategy. Currently, more than 20 provincial-level big data administrative agencies, including the Big Data Administration Bureau, have been established, along with 46 big data industrial complexes offering benefits such as tax incentives and investment attraction. Additionally, 14 major cities including Shanghai and Beijing have big data trading platforms where data from various fields can be bought and sold. Including some of these, China operates 102 regional-level administrative data open platforms nationwide, striving to create a business-friendly big data ecosystem.

At the same time, the actual utilization of big data is rapidly expanding. In manufacturing companies, it is used for cloud transformation, smart factories, and process improvements; in the financial sector, for personal credit evaluation, fund and risk management; in government, for food and drug supervision, urban security and crime investigation, and improving work efficiency through administrative data organization and analysis; and in healthcare, for drug development, side effect prediction, and public health. All these sectors are expected to see an average annual growth rate of over 20% from 2016 to 2021.

The report stated, "Recent trends in China's big data market include accelerated fusion development of 'Big Data+', full-scale integration with new distribution channels, and the establishment of data protection and standard regulations." It added, "As China intensifies control over its own data and the establishment of China-centered standards, it is putting brakes on foreign companies seeking to expand in the Chinese market, so caution is necessary."

Park So-young, senior researcher at the Korea International Trade Association, said, "Companies planning big data service businesses in China must familiarize themselves with the compliance obligations of data users and clearly define responsibilities with partner companies to establish preemptive response measures." She added, "For Korea to develop new industries through big data convergence, the government must take the lead in building big data platforms and support companies in digital integration through concerted efforts."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.