Visual China.
Titanium**Note: This article is written by Tencent Research Institute***Yan Deli, Ouyang Rihui, Titanium** are authorized to publish.Yan DeliSenior expert of Tencent Research Institute.
Ouyang Rihui**Vice President, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, China Internet Economy Research Institute, University of Finance and Economics.
China has always attached great importance to the development of the Internet. On December 7, 2012, the general secretary made an important judgment during his inspection in Shenzhen: "Now mankind has entered such a historical stage as the Internet era, which is a world trend, and this Internet era has a great role in promoting the development of human life, production and productivity. In 2015, the "* Work Report" proposed to formulate an "Internet +" action plan. ** Issued the "Guiding Opinions on Actively Promoting the "Internet" Action (Guo Fa 2015 No. 40), focusing on the urgent task of transformation and upgrading, the obvious characteristics of integration and innovation, and the areas that the people are most concerned about, put forward 11 actions such as "Internet" entrepreneurship and innovation.
With the in-depth promotion of the "Internet", the achievements of digital technology innovation are deeply integrated with various fields of economy and society, and data in different fields are produced, recorded, transmitted, stored and consumed, and the scale of data is increasing rapidly at the speed of Moore's Law. "The amount of global (new) data is doubling every two years", according to IDC (2011), Enfact (2016), DASA R&T (2016), and Brian Gallagher (2020). A large number of data-driven and data-enhanced services have emerged.
The full mining and effective use of data can optimize the allocation and efficiency of resource allocation and use, which has a wide impact on value creation and productivity development. Data has become an important factor of production and strategic resource, and the 12 action plans of "data elements" are put forward this time, marking that we are moving from the "Internet +" era to the "data elements" era. This is shown in the chart below.
Comparison of industries identified by the two actions of "Internet" and "Data Elements".
The Internet and data are a digital continuum. The Internet is an iceberg that emerges from the surface of the water, and people are familiar with it;The data is the underwater part of the iceberg, like black box technology, which seems mysterious. "Internet+" and "Data Elements" have both similarities and differences. "Internet +" has laid a solid foundation for the development of "data elements", which is the upgrade and sublimation of "Internet +" and a strategic choice to conform to the trend of the digital economy. "Internet+" and "data elements" are essentially the deep integration and two-way empowerment of digital technology and economy and society, and the path is either added or multiplied. All walks of life in the national economy are fertile soil for the continuous progress and vigorous vitality of digital technology, and the application of digital technology is an inevitable requirement for economic and social transformation and upgrading and high-quality development.
Data elements are the "accelerant" that drives economic development, and the multiplier effect is very significant. We must vigorously promote the "data elements", play a role in synergy, reuse and integration, and look forward to the physical reactions and more magical chemical reactions that will occur between data elements and all walks of life.
Factors of production belong to the category of history, and data does not become a factor of production in the first place. Galbraith, the new institutional school, pointed out that at every stage of social development, there is a factor of production that is the most important and difficult to replace, and the stratum that controls the supply of this factor of production has an extremely important position.
In William Petty's time, "land is the mother of wealth, and labor is the father of wealth and the active element." "After the Industrial Revolution, human beings entered the era of large-scale machine production, and capital became the first factor of production that determined development. After the second industrial revolution, the social division of labor became more and more refined, jobs were further differentiated, entrepreneurs as a new group appeared on the stage of history, and economists represented by Walras (1877), Marshall (1890), and Schumpeter (1911) began to distinguish entrepreneurs, so that entrepreneurs could become independent factors of production. In 1890, the British economist Marshall proposed a "four-in-one formula" for the factors of production in his famous work "Principles of Economics". That is, in production, the landlord provides the land and obtains rent;Workers provide labor and receive wages;The capitalist provides capital, receives interest;Entrepreneurs provide entrepreneurial talent and make profits. National income is the remuneration of the four major elements, that is, national income (ni) = wage (w) + land rent (r) + interest (i) + profit ( ) This "four-in-one formula" summarizes the essence of production theory and distribution theory, and is generally accepted. This is shown in the chart below.
The "four-in-one formula" of the factors of production
China attaches great importance to the market of factors of production and constantly promotes the innovation and development of theories. The report to the 15 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for the first time clarified the three factors of production: capital, labor, and technology. The report of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China added "management", thus clarifying the four factors of production: labor, capital, technology, and management. In 2004, the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) put forward in the "Several Opinions on Strengthening the Development and Utilization of Information Resources" (Zhongbanfa No. 34, 2004): "As a factor of production, intangible assets and social wealth, information resources are as important as energy and material resources. "This is the first time that information resources have been proposed as a factor of production. In 2017, the general secretary emphasized at the second collective study of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China: "It is necessary to build a digital economy with data as the key element. "In 2019, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) added land, knowledge and data on the basis of the report of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, thus clarifying seven factors of production, including labor, capital, land, knowledge, technology, management and data, which is also the first time that the status of data as a factor of production has been officially clarified. This is shown in the chart below.
Relevant expressions of the National Congress and the ** Plenum on the factors of production.
Different factors of production play different roles. Land is a gift from nature, an "inorganic nature itself", a "coarse and chaotic mass of nature". Labor is the economic work of human beings, both physical and mental, heterogeneous and perishable. It should be noted that the capital in the theory of factors of production is not money or money, but capital goods such as machinery, equipment, and plants, which are man-made and durable things used to produce other products and services, and are relative to the concept of consumer goods. According to the Austrian school of Mises, "capital goods are intermediate between a given natural factor of production (i.e., natural resources and human labour) and consumer goods." "Entrepreneurs are not easy to define, they are mainly risk-bearers, combinations of factors, promoters of innovation and executors of management.
Data is likened to the "new oil" and is often confused with concepts such as information and knowledge. Data is just data, nothing else. Data is an objective existence, a factual description of things, which can be obtained by measuring, recording, discovering, etc. Data is generated by use, and it will continue to be created, and there will be more and more, so it presents the characteristics of large data. "Data will become the most fundamental objective product, and whatever we do, we are producing data" (Paul Sonderegger, 2017).
Data is a factor of production born in the era of digital economy, a new factor of production, the kind that Galbraith refers to, and it is very different from the factor of production that plays a role in agricultural society and industrial society. At the moment, efforts are still being made to raise awareness of the data. Jiang Xiaojuan (2023) uses "three more, one fast and one big" to summarize the unique nature of data, that is, multi-subject production, multi-scenario reuse, more sensitive information, rapid impairment and depreciation, and large differences in demand.
Data elements are a major innovation in China leading the trend of digital economy. Mei Hong pointed out (2023): "It is China's first initiative to establish data as an important factor of production. Jiang Xiaojuan also said (2023.)11): "China is the first country to list data as a factor of production, and there is no precedent in the world. The meaning of what you want to express needs to be understood.
Adam Smith famously said in The Wealth of Nations: "We have never seen a fair and prudent exchange of bones between dogs A and B." "Trading is a unique mutually beneficial behavior in human society, and it is the most spontaneous and positive activity. A deal will only happen if both parties benefit from it. Trading seems to be a difficult problem when it comes to data. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2019) states: "Data has important use (or misuse) value, but not exchange value like most economic goods. Chen Changsheng (2023) also reminds that we should be vigilant in forming a behavioral orientation that "only the data that has been traded is usable data".
Data has a wide range of use cases, but only a small fraction of it is used for trading. According to OECD data (2022), 15% of companies in Europe used big data analytics in 2019. But only 13% of businesses have bought data, only 06% of companies have data. Although large enterprises prefer data transactions, the proportion of data purchased and sold is only 46% and 21%, while the proportion of big data analytics is as high as 369%。There are significant industry differences in data transactions. The information and communication sector has a higher proportion of transactions, followed by professional and scientific and technical activities, energy and utilities;Manufacturing, construction, accommodation and catering services are less traded. This is shown in the figure below.
Percentage of businesses using, buying, and selling data in Europe, 2019 (**OECD, 2022).
This is mainly determined by the heterogeneity of the value of the data. Xie Ruolin has a sentence in "Latent": "Now that two gold bars are placed here, you tell me which one is noble and which one is dirty?""This illustrates the fact that gold bars are homogeneous, and two gold bars have the same value performance. Homogeneity is ubiquitous, while data is heterogeneous, and the value of the same data to different subjects is completely different. Wang Qinmin (2023) incisively pointed out: "The value of data varies according to the object of use, the application scenario, and the professional data quality standard. "Often, value decides**. OECD (2022) points out that since the marginal cost of data is close to zero, it is determined by demand, that is, the value that users give to the data. This naturally leads to differential pricing.
The transaction is generally clear**, the purchase utility is predictable, and even seven days without reason to return. Even if there are problems and disputes, there are departments to solve them. Data is difficult to price and the expected utility is difficult to manage, so data transactions must be based on a high level of trust. Buyers need to trust the quality, legitimacy, and reliability of their dataSellers need to trust that buyers will not use the data in harmful ways, and that they can effectively prevent buyers from reselling or otherwise passing on the data. This requires an extremely high cost of trust and a complete institutional guarantee.
The data has been called the "new oil" (Clive Humby, 2006) and "the world's most valuable resource" (The Economist, 2017). However, the data is still dormant and untapped. 90% of the world's data is never analyzed and used (IBM, 2015;DASA R&T, 2016), 80% of industrial data in Europe has never been used (European Commission, 2022). Therefore, it is necessary and urgent to fully tap the potential of data and vigorously promote the "data elements". We should also note that "data elements" are a systematic project that cannot be achieved overnight and requires a long period of work.
First, adhere to the unity of development and utilization and security protection. Data is similar to nuclear energy in many ways, and it has great value for development and utilization, and it is also necessary to do a good job of security protection. As we move from the Internet of Everything to the Internet of Everything, the process of generating data is becoming more complex and changeable. The data contains sensitive personal information, business secrets, and even misuse or leakage if it is not properly handled, which will cause serious consequences. In line with the principle of encouraging innovation and development, we must adhere to the bottom line of security, formulate rules for the use of data anonymization, and introduce exemption clauses applicable to enterprises, so as to leave enough room for development and release data dividends.
Second, adhere to the demand traction and pay attention to practical results. Demand is the fundamental driving force of innovation, and urgent needs inspire significant innovation. The European people's demand for spices gave birth to great voyages and geographical discoveries, which can be described as foodies that changed the world. The war was unfortunate, but there was a strong need for technological progress – computers originated in World War II, and the Internet originated in the Cold War. Advanced technology can only burst into vitality when combined with the unpretentious and popular needs of all ages. Technology without application scenarios is a castle in the air, and it must be high and low. Only by combining with application scenarios to solve practical problems and business pain points can the value of data elements be fully released.
Third, accelerate the open sharing of public data. Public data is the best quality data due to its large volume, strong versatility and high value content. Chen Changsheng believes (2023): "Whether from the perspective of international practice or legal ethics, public data should be opened up first. Openness is the best development, and after the opening of public data, a large number of development forces from all walks of life will emerge. "In recent years, China's public data openness has made great achievements, but the chimneys, segmentation, duplicate construction and other problems are still relatively serious, "data as power, open as a risk" situation is more common, the relevant departments need to introduce rules and measures to dispel concerns, strengthen positive incentives.
Fourth, it is necessary to enhance international exchanges and strengthen the coordination of international rules. We live in an interdependent world, and the Internet has turned the world into a global village where "chickens and dogs hear each other". The global cross-border flow of data has accelerated, and the data issue has changed from an emerging issue to a core topic in the negotiation of international economic and trade rules. We urgently need to actively strengthen international communication and cooperation, jointly build data flow and governance rules for the digital economy era, and work together to build a community with a shared future in cyberspace.
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