Author: Yue Bo, Sun Zhijie, Zeng Qi.The Value of Data: Redefining New Productivity in the Digital AgeIn the economic sense, the data factor has a dual connotation: first, data itself becomes a production material, i.e., the factorization of data; second, data acts on the modern economic system, changing the form and nature of existing production factors, i.e., the digitization of factors.The factorization and assetization of data lead to digital industrialization.American quantum physicist John Wheeler proposed that “everything comes from bits” and that “information (data) is the foundation of the universe’s existence.” Data, as a carrier of information recorded electronically, has always been an important part of social production and business activities, bringing economic benefits to users or owners. Nowadays, with the rapid development of digital technology, various digital technologies make the collection, transmission, analysis, storage, and other processes of massive data economically feasible. Data itself possesses the value of a production factor, becoming a new type of production factor. At present, with the large-scale cross-industry application of technologies such as big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, service products and business models centered on data as a core production factor are maturing. In fields such as digital twins, data security, data storage, data analysis, and digital marketing, a large number of unicorns and new species of enterprises like Nezha have emerged, giving rise to several new tracks in the data service industry, marking the increasing economic value of digital factors and the realization of industrialization of digital technology. At the same time, big data standards and ownership in various industries are gradually established and developed. Various new infrastructures such as 5G, data centers, supercomputing centers, AI open innovation platforms, and public technology platforms are also accelerating implementation, enabling the full process of data factors from generation to use to be measurable, tradable, and exchangeable. Data resources with specific significance have become tradable virtual assets, leading to the emergence of various data exchanges.Column: Hangzhou High-tech Zone Releases the First National Group Standard for Data Intellectual Property Pledge
In March this year, the Hangzhou High-tech Zone (Binjiang) Market Supervision Bureau, in conjunction with the Zhejiang Provincial Intellectual Property Research and Service Center and seven other units, released the first national group standard related to data intellectual property pledges, “Data Intellectual Property Pledge Service Procedures.” The group standard was jointly drafted by these units, starting with data collection and information desensitization, using a blockchain public storage platform to upload corporate data, ensuring that the data cannot be tampered with. Then, the results of data chain verification are confirmed, and a public certificate of data intellectual property is issued, turning data into quantifiable and rights-confirmed digital assets. Finally, enterprises can pledge this data asset based on its evaluation results to obtain loans. The standardization of the data intellectual property pledge process and the formation of a group standard allow the conversion of data assets to gain market recognition, effectively helping small and micro enterprises transform data intellectual property results into core assets of the enterprise, thereby effectively smoothing the capital chain of enterprises. Just ten days after the standard was released, five enterprises in the high-tech zone experimented with data intellectual property pledges, collectively obtaining financing of 20 million yuan.
The Digitization and Virtualization of Factors Lead to Industrial Digitalization.Since the outbreak of the information technology revolution, with the widespread application of information and communication technologies (ICT), big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and other digital technologies, the data factor has accelerated its penetration into various fields of the traditional real economy, and its multiplier effect on improving production efficiency has become increasingly evident. We believe that the reason why digitalization has become an unstoppable historical trend in the development of human economic society lies in the data factor, which has brought profound changes to various production factors, i.e., the digitization of factors. With characteristics such as non-depleting, zero marginal cost, connectivity, and coding, big data has endowed various traditional production materials with “liquidity,” further flexibly allocating resource factors, making the cross-temporal and spatial migration of factor value possible, thus completely overturning the traditional way of human understanding and transforming the material world.Column: Virtual Digital Humans
AI technology highlights the digital characteristics of virtual humans, leading to large-scale commercialization and initiating the process of virtualization and digitization of labor factors.In the 1980s, virtual humans transformed from concept to entity, with digital factors embedded in the complex labor factor of “human.” With the development of AI technology, technologies such as machine learning are rapidly iterating, allowing 2D virtual humans to “come back to life” as 3D virtual digital humans, closer to real people in terms of appearance, movement, and intelligence. At the same time, AI algorithm technology has reduced the production costs of digital humans, leading to their widespread application in the entertainment and media industries. In finance, education, healthcare, and other industries, virtual customer service representatives, virtual teachers, and intelligent medical assistants have also begun to appear. The metaverse has spawned a new track for virtual digital humans, bringing a new form of labor factors. The metaverse leads humanity into a space where the virtual and real blend, and virtual digital humans have become a new form of human-machine interaction. Service-oriented virtual humans can be engaged in production and services, executing standardized work in the form of virtual avatars. With the continuous improvement of image recognition technology and human recognition algorithms, virtual digital humans will transition from customization to generalization, from the commercial end to the user end, driving a disruptive change in the form of labor factors.
The Impact of Data: Giving Rise to New Economic Momentum, New Paradigms, and New EcosystemsData-driven companies become new momentum for economic growth.Comparing the top 10 global publicly traded companies by market value in 2000 and 2020, the number of internet platform companies surged from 1 to 7. This dramatic change in the best-performing global enterprises in just twenty years signifies a shift in the locomotive of global economic growth from financial and energy oligarchs to digital economy platform enterprises that have been established for decades, several years, or even just recently. Moreover, according to a tracking study by Great Wall Strategy Consulting on global unicorn enterprises, 63.6% of unicorn enterprises in the digital economy sector have emerged globally, with seven countries including China, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and Germany having more than five digital economy unicorn enterprises. It is evident that when data becomes a new type of production factor, emerging enterprises that know how to utilize this new factor represent more advanced productivity, while traditional large enterprises representing backward productivity will gradually be replaced. In fact, for a regional economic entity, the so-called process of digital transformation is essentially the process of the birth, growth, and eventual market success of new species of enterprises driven by data factors. In this process, the regional economic entity itself will complete the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure and the succession of development momentum, ultimately achieving a transformation of economic paradigms.Column: Main Findings on Global Digital Economy Unicorns
In 2020, there were a total of 501 unicorn enterprises in the global digital economy, with the leading role of super unicorn enterprises further strengthened.In 2020, there were a total of 501 unicorn enterprises in the global digital economy, with a total valuation of $1,644.375 billion, and an average valuation of $3.282 billion per enterprise. In 2020, there were 18 super unicorn enterprises in the global digital economy sector, accounting for 3.6% of the total number of unicorns, yet contributing nearly 40% of the valuation of global digital economy unicorns.
In 2020, global digital economy unicorn enterprises raised over $85.573 billion in financing.In 2020, among global digital economy unicorn enterprises, 275 newly received financing, with a financing scale nearing one trillion. Capital shows a high interest in digital economy unicorn enterprises in the fields of healthcare, life services, financial services, new retail, and enterprise services. In 2020, in internet education, transportation services, and life services, two digital economy unicorn enterprises in each field obtained massive financing of over $1 billion in a single round.
Serial entrepreneurs, technical experts, and industry experts are the main groups of founders of digital economy unicorn enterprises.In 2020, 28.3% of digital economy unicorn founders were serial entrepreneurs, 26.1% had backgrounds as technical personnel or field experts, 22.2% had previously held executive positions in enterprises (of which 60% of entrepreneurs with executive backgrounds are Chinese), and 14.3% were first-time entrepreneurs; additionally, 86 digital economy unicorn enterprises had founders with composite backgrounds. Moreover, 10.7% of digital economy unicorn enterprises were incubated through large enterprise platforms.
Data-driven ‘Four New’ Paradigm Builds a New Ecosystem for the Digital Economy.Under the influence of data as a transformative factor, a digital economy ecosystem centered on data factors, powered by digital technology, and based on digital infrastructure is gradually nurturing and growing. The “Four New” elements of “new scenes, new species, new tracks, and new governance” emerge and evolve in a mutually reinforcing manner, becoming a new paradigm of economic development that is distinctly different from traditional industrial economies, and fostering a virtuous cycle within the digital economy ecosystem (as shown in the figure below). Firstly, New Scenes. Scene innovation in the context of the new economy specifically refers to the commercialization of new technologies applied in specific circumstances and businesses, generating a large amount of real data around satisfying genuine market demands, which in turn feeds back into the iterative upgrade of technology development, achieving a win-win of breakthrough R&D and scene explosion. The emergence of a new scene signifies that the new technology has found a viable business model, has passed market validation in a short time, forming a data-driven business closed loop, and indicates entrepreneurial success. Secondly, New Species. In recent years, high-value enterprises recognized by capital, such as unicorns, potential unicorns, and Nezha enterprises, as well as various platform-based digital enterprises, have emerged. The essential difference between these new species enterprises and traditional enterprises lies in treating data as the source of innovation and core asset, achieving explosive growth with zero marginal cost. Thirdly, New Tracks. The cross-industry integration of the digital economy and the real economy is an important source for the emergence of new tracks. Digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, 5G, and blockchain are applied across industries in the real economy, promoting the digital transformation and upgrading of industries, continuously giving rise to new industries, new business forms, and new models. Once there is sustained concentration and explosion in a certain field, opening up massive markets worth hundreds of billions or even trillions, it forms a new track, creating new momentum for industrial development. Fourthly, New Governance. The development of the new economy compels governments to continually deepen reforms and innovate governance, and under the continuous upgrade of digital technologies, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence have become important driving forces for enhancing the effectiveness and precision of governance, promoting government and enterprise towards joint governance innovation, forming a new mechanism for digital governance characterized by precise warning, credit self-discipline, and ecological co-governance.
Figure: Composition of the Digital Economy EcosystemThis article is excerpted from the Great Wall Strategy Consulting Enterprise Research Report No. 374, “Data-Driven High-Quality Development of High-tech Zones” (published in June 2022).
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