The pace of reform in China's data field is accelerating. Some institutions said that the commercialization prospects of data elements are promising.
Data element is a product of the digital economy era, and it is another key production factor to be developed after land and oil. Data elements specifically refer to the data resources invested in the production of goods or services and obtaining benefits, mainly the information, data sets and data products collected, sorted and processed according to specific production needs. Data is a factor of production that cannot generate value by itself, but can coordinate other factor markets to optimize supply and create new demand to promote economic growth, which is the core engine for the deepening development of the digital economy.
Why do you value data elements?
First, the digital economy has become the main driver of economic development.
With the development of information technology, the digital economy has become the main form of economic development after the agricultural economy and the industrial economy, and major countries in the world are actively seizing the commanding heights of the development of the digital economy. In 2021, the scale of the digital economy in 47 major countries in the world reached 381 trillion US dollars, of which the scale of China's digital economy in 2021 is 455 trillion yuan, with a compound growth rate of 13 from 2017 to 202173%, and the proportion of the digital economy in GDP has increased from 32 in 17 years69% increased to 39 in '2159%, which has gradually become the main driving force of China's economic development. According to the Academy of Information and Communications Technology, by 2025, the scale of China's digital economy market is expected to exceed 60 trillion.
Second, data elements are the key to the development of the digital economy.
As a new type of production factor, data has use value after collection, storage, processing, circulation, and analysis, and can be used as data assets in the data element market after the ownership is clear. The Statistical Classification of Digital Economy and Its Core Industries issued by the National Bureau of Statistics clearly defines the digital economy, pointing out that the digital economy is a series of economic activities with data resources as the key production factor, modern information networks as important carriers, and the effective use of information and communication technology as an important driving force for efficiency improvement and economic structure optimization. It can be seen that the importance of data elements, as a key production factor of the digital economy, is self-evident. According to the "Report on the Development of China's Data Element Market (2021-2022)", the contribution rate of data elements to China's GDP has continued to increase in recent years, reaching 147%。
At the same time, policies to govern the data element industry have been intensively introduced.
The transformation of data into production factors requires relevant departments to do a good job in top-level design, and coordinate and promote the construction of data infrastructure systems, the integration, sharing, development and utilization of data resources, and the market-oriented construction and governance of data elements. In recent years, China has been committed to promoting the reform of the data element industry, intensively introducing relevant policies, continuously stimulating the potential of the data element market, and accelerating the development of the digital economy.
On October 25, 2023, the National Data Bureau was officially unveiled in Beijing. The establishment of the National Data Bureau will lead and coordinate the management of data resources from the national level, and the data industry ecosystem is expected to be further formed through the implementation of the overall data infrastructure system, which will effectively promote the technological innovation, development and utilization of data elements and effective governance.
On October 22, 2023, the inaugural meeting of the National Data Element Industry Industry-Education Integration Community was successfully held at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics. The goal of community building is to make full use of new technologies of artificial intelligence, promote the integration of data elements into curriculum construction and classroom teaching, and accurately cultivate practical talents in big data and artificial intelligence.
In December 2022, the Communist Party of China issued the "Opinions on Building a Data Basic System to Better Play the Role of Data Elements". The main purpose is to build a basic data system to ensure the security and development of data elements. The opinions point out the direction for giving full play to the advantages of China's massive data scale and rich application scenarios, activating the potential of data elements, and further releasing the value of data elements.
Why is the reform of the data field speeding up?
01Build a basic data system to better play the role of data elements
Data elements are one of the core strategies for the development of China's digital economy. Data is the "food" of global economic development in the 21st century, and whoever has the data will own the world and the future. As a new factor of production, data needs to be empowered by data technology to carry out circulation transactions and scene docking, so that its value can be realized and truly incorporated into the social production process, so data has become the core element of the development of the digital economy. It is precisely for this reason that major countries in the world regard the market-oriented allocation of data elements as one of the important national strategies.
Today, the rules for the market-oriented allocation of global data elements are basically formulated by the United States, which greatly enhances the global competitiveness and radiation of local digital enterprises in the United States, promotes the rapid development of the digital economy in the United States, and further consolidates the leading position of the United States in the development of the global digital economy. In addition to the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other world powers are also actively establishing new rules for data acquisition, production and circulation, safeguarding their own digital sovereignty and developing their own digital economy.
In this context, China has unique advantages such as new national advantages, super-large market scale, massive data resources, and rich application scenarios, and needs to actively participate in the formulation and improvement of new rules for the allocation of global data elements, contribute to the "China Plan" of the global digital economy, and then strive for more voice and build new national competitive advantages.
Constructing a data element system is the foundation for making China's digital economy stronger, better and bigger. At present, various units such as China's leading departments, platform enterprises and intermediaries have massive data resources, but according to the first report, due to the existence of unclear ownership, insufficient incentives, rigid constraints and other problems, there are outstanding problems in data processing, production and transaction circulation: on the one hand, there are a large number of data subject institutions that are unwilling and afraid to take out the data, resulting in a large number of high-quality data precipitation in the first department and platform institutions and cannot play their role as a factor of production;On the other hand, the phenomenon of arbitrary and disorderly use is more common, especially in some departments with large scale of public data and strong market demand, only individual enterprises are allowed to operate their own data, resulting in the monopoly of public data by individual enterprises. Therefore, in recent years, policies related to the governance of data elements have been intensively promulgated, aiming to improve the data property rights system, build a circulation and trading system, establish a data revenue distribution mechanism, and strengthen data security governance, which is a move to adapt to the times and is conducive to consolidating the foundation for the high-quality development of China's digital economy.
Data elements are the new fulcrum of traditional economic transformation and upgrading. Compared with other factors of production, data has new characteristics such as reproducible, non-depleting, and near-zero marginal cost, which breaks the constraints of limited supply of natural resources on growth and can provide inexhaustible impetus for economic transformation and upgrading. At the same time, data has the effect of amplifying, superimposing and multiplying other factors of production, which can promote the rapid flow of resources, accelerate the integration of market players, and improve the efficiency of resource allocation in various economic and social fields. Building a data-based institutional system, promoting the standardization and institutionalization of the data element market, and promoting the compliant and efficient circulation and use of data are conducive to empowering the real economy and accelerating the transformation of old and new kinetic energy, which is a new fulcrum for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. China is in the era of digital economy, and activating the value of data elements has become an important engine for building a modern economic system.
An important link for international cooperation in the digital economy. At present, the opening up and cooperation of the global digital economy is entering the development stage of deep integration of digital technology and international development. In 2021, the scale of global cross-border digital services** reached 3$86 trillion, accounting for 63 percent of services**3%。Constructing and continuously improving the governance system of data elements is conducive to promoting the orderly cross-border circulation of data elements, systematically putting forward China's plan for global digital governance, and giving voice to China, which is conducive to further promoting China's grasp of the development initiative in the increasingly fierce international competition.
02The circulation of data elements is the key to unleashing the value of data
Isolated data itself is worthless, and data circulation will promote the release of data value.
Promote the transaction and circulation of data elements and accelerate the transformation of data value. The transaction and circulation of data elements can realize the cross-regional flow, cross-industry sharing, and cross-process application of data elements. The data exchange is the "base" for fully tapping the potential of data elements, and plays a pivotal role in data transactions. By the end of 2022, there were nearly 50 data exchanges in China, and the types of data products and services have become increasingly rich, accelerating the transformation of the value of data elements. At present, Guiyang Big Data Exchange has gathered a total of 602 business entities such as data vendors and data intermediaries, with a cumulative transaction volume of more than 1.6 billion yuanNearly 1,500 data products have been listed on the Shanghai Data Exchange, and the data transaction volume has been rising since the beginning of this year, with the data transaction volume exceeding 100 million yuan in AugustAs of the end of July 2023, the Shenzhen Data Exchange has gathered more than 1,500 data products, attracting 1,055 business entities such as data vendors, data providers, and data demanders, making it the largest data trading platform in China.
However, with the rapid development of data exchanges, they are also facing many development pain points, such as the lack of clarity on data rights confirmation, difficulties in security and privacy protection, and difficulties in valuation and pricing, which have increasingly obvious constraints on transaction activity. In the future, we will continue to improve the basic system of data elements, establish unified data standards for the data market, improve the basic laws and regulations of data transactions, and build a collaborative mechanism for data supervision and governance, which will further realize the establishment of a unified market for data elements across the country.
According to CreditEase Wealth, the "2023 China Data Trading Market Research and Analysis Report" shows that from 2021 to 2022, the market size of China's data trading industry will increase from 617600 million yuan increased to 876800 million yuan, with an annual growth rate of about 42%. It is expected that in the next 3 to 5 years, China's data trading market will still maintain a relatively high growth rate, and by 2025, the scale is expected to increase to 204.6 billion yuan.
Although the construction of China's data element market is still in its infancy and needs long-term development and cultivation, it is believed that with the overall coordinated promotion of policies and systems, technical means, and market exploration, as well as the continuous advancement of data infrastructure and the continuous acceleration of the digital transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, the role and value of data production factors will become more prominent, so as to promote China to achieve new leaps and overtakes in the new era of digital economy, and become a new leader. Some people in the industry believe that in the long run, data elements will open a strategic door for the next 30 years of development.
This article is based on 21 Economic Net, Shenzhen News Network, Economic Information Daily, Guangming Network, Surging News, Wen Wei Po, China ** Network, Xinhua Financial Client, Communication Industry Network, and Financial Circles Report.