Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

Tens of thousands of people attended the four-day China International Big Data Industry Expo 2017, held at the end of May in Guiyang, capital of the south-western province of Guizhou province, that showcased and discussed IT possibilities and opportunities.

Topics included the future of the digital economy, digital security and risk control, the national big data pilot zone, artificial intelligence (AI) and smart manufacturing.

Big data is impacting a huge range of people. As a taxi driver in Guiyang said: “I use online maps to select specific roads, making sure there are no blockages or delays, every day.”

By the end of last December, there were 29 million internet users in Guizhou, accounting for 80 per cent of the provincial population. The number of mobile internet users reached 25 million people.

Businesses with branches or joint ventures in the province include Alibaba, Qualcomm, IBM, Huawei, Tencent, Baidu, Lenovo and Foxconn.

Guizhou has a reputation as a great place for start-ups. More than 400 companies in the big data industry have been attracted to the province’s Guian New Area, established in 2014.

Baishan Could, a start-up established in Guian in 2015, last year achieved revenue of 200 million yuan (about $29m), and the company expects that figure to triple this year. “The government gives us strong support,” Dai Xiang, the company’s co-founder, said in explaining why it had decided to open in Guian.

To train talents for developing the big data industry in Guizhou, the local government built the Huaxi University Town, consisting of nine local universities and 110 big data companies.

College students are able to obtain work experience at the site, practising their skills in the companies, before graduating. The enterprises involved also benefit by being able to earmark employees from the group.

This article was originally published on www.telegraph.co.uk and can be viewed in full

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