Sci-Tech

The scale of the digital economy is steadily growing

2026-02-26   

The 57th Statistical Report on the Development of Internet in China (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released recently shows that by December 2025, the Internet penetration rate in China has exceeded 80%, the added value of the core industries of the digital economy has increased to 10.5% of GDP, and the number of users of generative AI has reached 602 million. The application scenarios have deeply penetrated into the fields of life and production. According to the Report, during the "14th Five Year Plan" period, China's Internet adhered to innovation and leadership, and built a new pattern of development featuring system synergy and vitality with new infrastructure as the base, new technology as the engine and new subjects as the support. Advanced deployment of new infrastructure and consolidation of digital foundation. In terms of mobile networks, China has built 4.838 million 5G base stations, and all townships and 95% of administrative villages in the country have access to 5G. The 5G evolution network has covered over 330 cities; In terms of computing power facilities, 42 Wanka intelligent computing clusters have been built, and the scale of intelligent computing power ranks among the top in the world, which strongly supports the rapid development of China's artificial intelligence industry. "The Internet provides computing power and data cornerstone for the large-scale development of AI, and AI drives the intelligent evolution of network infrastructure. ”The relevant person in charge of China Internet Network Information Center said that China has built more than 100000 high-quality data sets, basically established a national integrated public data resource registration system, and achieved full provincial coverage with more than 130000 registrations. In 2025, China will deploy and implement the "Artificial Intelligence+" initiative to strengthen the extensive and deep integration of artificial intelligence with various fields. In the opinion of Wang Changqing, deputy director of the Institute of Policy and International Cooperation of China Internet Network Information Center, SMEs are not only beneficiaries but also the main force in the "AI+" action. As a beneficiary, artificial intelligence is a tool for small and medium-sized enterprises to transform, accurately solving their pain points of "difficult research and development, high cost, and low efficiency". For specialized and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, artificial intelligence helps them break through technological barriers and seize market opportunities in segmented fields, achieving a transformation from "small and refined" to "small and strong". As the "main force", small and medium-sized enterprises are the practitioners of the "last mile" of artificial intelligence landing. Dingli New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. has been deeply involved in the field of environmentally friendly adhesives for many years. Like many manufacturing enterprises, the company purchased and introduced various systems in the early stages of development, which was thought to be the beginning of information construction. However, during use, there were situations where data could not flow between different systems, which actually reduced operational efficiency. To this end, Dingli New Materials has collaborated with DingTalk to integrate dozens of systems, unify identity authentication and data entry, and provide a "thousand person, thousand face" intelligent workbench for different roles. Administrative personnel can quickly advance project approval on mobile devices, engineers focus on tasks and data, and managers can also oversee the overall operation. Everyone achieves efficient collaboration on DingTalk, the digital hub. We have completed a 'people-centered' work approach reengineering, where technology, systems, and data all serve the goal of simpler and more efficient task completion. This is precisely the guarantee for us to achieve rapid response and collaboration in the global market competition. ”Zhou Chuanyi, the person in charge of digitalization at Dingli New Materials, said. The report shows that there are over a hundred high-level 5G factories in China that have reached the global leading level, with an average production capacity increase of 25%, product quality improvement of 21%, and a 19% reduction in operating costs; 45.5% of employees in small and medium-sized enterprises stated that their companies have adopted a combination of online and offline business models and actively expanded their online operations. Wang Changqing suggested that in the next step, policies should focus on issues such as "not being able to afford, not knowing how to use, and not daring to use", and make precise efforts to help enterprises save money, teach them how to get started, and provide support for them. On the one hand, building regional computing power centers to share costs and launching lightweight artificial intelligence toolkits enables small factories and shops to use good technology for a small amount of money. On the other hand, organize typical cases such as product defect detection and customer mining, and provide operational guidelines; Open up public data and share industry models, so that small and medium-sized enterprises do not need to start from scratch and rely on the existing industry accumulation to carry out innovation; Unified promotion of digital transformation on a park and industrial cluster basis to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in transforming and reducing risks. A new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is evolving in depth. The breakthrough development of AI, especially generative AI, is pushing the economy and society from the era of extensive connection of "Internet plus" to the era of deep intelligence of "AI+". The massive user groups formed by the long-term accumulation of the Internet provide broad soil and data feedback for the popularization of artificial intelligence technology and iterative optimization; Artificial intelligence significantly reduces the threshold for the use of digital technology, driving users from simply serving consumers to becoming value creators involved in technology optimization and content innovation. At the same time, artificial intelligence provides low-cost and high-performance intelligent tools for various business entities, helping enterprises accelerate their intelligent transformation and further stimulate market vitality. Experts said that in the future, we should seize the strategic opportunities brought by the development of artificial intelligence and promote the development of the Internet to achieve an all-round leap. We should encourage cross disciplinary innovation in smart cities, smart homes, and connected vehicles, and support enterprises in building smart product and service ecosystems with global influence. Promote the widespread benefits of intelligent achievements to small and medium-sized enterprises and urban and rural users, strengthen technological governance and ethical norms, and achieve safe, reliable, and sustainable long-term development. (New Society)

Edit:hechuanning Responsible editor:susuiyue

Source:Economic Daily

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