Shenzhen News Network, July 14, 2023(Wen Kun, Chief Reporter of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone DailyThe platform economy has emerged in the tide of development of the times, providing new space for expanding demand, providing a new engine for innovation and development, providing new channels for employment and entrepreneurship, and providing new support for public services. Its status and role in the overall development have become increasingly prominent. Shenzhen has developed the platform economy and has unique advantages in system, industry, technology and ecology. It has cultivated leading enterprises such as Huawei and Tencent, as well as subdivided invisible champions such as Lexin, Lalamove, and Lichuang Mall. In recent years, Shenzhen has taken advantage of the trend and laid out the platform economy from the entire Greater Bay Area urban agglomeration, transforming its own advantages into competitiveness in the platform economy field, promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the platform economy, and gradually becoming a new driving force for economic growth. Platform enterprises continue to support technological innovation, transformation of traditional industries, and enhance core competitiveness, empowering the real economy and supporting high-quality development.
The platform continues to increase investment in technological innovation
On July 12, the WeChat official account of the National Development and Reform Commission said that through in-depth research to understand the development of platform enterprises, a number of typical cases of platform enterprises in supporting technological innovation and traditional industry transformation were sorted out and announced. Many local enterprises and platform enterprises in Shenzhen were selected as cases.
Technological innovation is an important way for enterprises to break through development bottlenecks and enhance their competitiveness. In order to enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises, platform enterprises represented by Tencent are increasing investment in technological innovation.
According to reports, in order to strengthen the development of core businesses such as cloud computing platform products and services in the field of artificial intelligence, and promote the development and commercialization of domestic high-performance AI chips, Tencent continues to invest and support Shanghai Suyuan Technology Co., Ltd.
"Investment in the high-tech sector can open up a new growth direction for Tencent." Some industry insiders said that combined with Tencent’s investment in recent years, it can be seen that Tencent’s investment is gradually trending towards frontier technologies and Enterprise Services.
With the support of Tencent, Shanghai Suyuan Technology products have been applied to artificial intelligence application scenarios such as cloud data centers, supercomputing centers, Internet of Things and smart cities, providing more autonomous and controllable product and service options for the industry.
Last year, Tencent also invested in "Cloud Leopard Intelligence", a start-up company focused on cloud computing and data center data processor chips (DPUs) and solutions, to support the development of the domestic semiconductor industry.
In recent years, Tencent has actively embraced the "digital economy" and upped the ante’s investment in high-tech fields. According to statistics from relevant institutions, in the first half of 2022, Tencent completed 9 investments in frontier fields such as healthcare, new energy, and Enterprise Services, accounting for 26%.
Tencent’s investment in these frontier industries is in line with the national industrial development plan, and by deepening into the industry and the real economy, it continues to increase investment in technological innovation, thus promoting the development of multi-industry innovation.
The platform deeply empowers the development of the real economy
The real economy is the foundation of our country’s economic development. Platform enterprises have advantages in technology, traffic and data, which helps to attract upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to join the ecology and collaborative innovation, jointly promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, promote the efficiency improvement of traditional industries, optimize business models, and promote the high-end and intelligent development of traditional industries.
In the typical case announced by the National Development and Reform Commission, Meituan has focused on its main business, independently invested in the development of unmanned delivery vehicles, and its technical indicators in obstacle prediction model algorithms have reached the international leading level.
According to the relevant person in charge of Shenzhen Meituan Low Altitude Logistics Technology Co., Ltd., in order to better improve the efficiency and experience of urban real-time delivery, in 2017, Meituan launched the exploration of drone delivery services, promoted the transformation of performance tools through technological innovation, and accelerated the construction of a local real-time delivery network coordinated by air and land. It is committed to providing users with 3 kilometers and 15 minutes of standard delivery services.
At present, Meituan has initially completed the research and development and construction of autonomous flight drones, intelligent dispatching systems and high-efficiency operation systems, of which more than 90% of the hardware components are purely self-developed, and thus created a multi-scene, multi-weather urban low-altitude logistics solution.
Strengthen the infrastructure building of low-altitude economic industries and cultivate multiple low-altitude economic application scenarios. Shenzhen, which took the lead in navigation with Meituan drone, has been leading the way in the development of low-altitude economy. As of now, Meituan drone has opened 5 business districts and 14 drone logistics distribution routes in Shenzhen, and built the country’s first drone remote operation management center and put it into use.
Small and micro enterprises are the foundation of the development of the real economy and an important part of financial inclusion. The financial technology platform represented by Lexin takes advantage of technological innovation expertise, takes risk as the center, and uses data to drive decision-making to meet the "short, small, frequent and urgent" capital needs of small and micro enterprises. Accurately "drip irrigation" small and micro enterprises to help the development of the real economy.
In 2022, Lexin and Lexin Pratt & Whitney launched the "Small Shop Fireworks Plan", which will help more small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households to develop better through four characteristic services: high quota, fast review, good service and cost saving. Over the past year, Lexin Pratt & Whitney has contributed a total of 21.30 billion yuan in loans, and the small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households assisted cover more than 300 cities in 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country.
The platform actively enhances its core competitiveness
Platform enterprises are based on the domestic circulation and expand the domestic and international double circulation, which is the key to exploring overseas markets and enhancing international competitiveness. At present, platform enterprises strengthen technological innovation and application, actively participate in international competition, expand international markets, and continuously increase their international influence while enhancing their own core competitiveness.
In the typical case sorted out by the National Development and Reform Commission, Tencent invested in and supported Beijing Yunji Technology joint stock company, superimposing its own computing power advantages with Yunji Technology’s indoor positioning and navigation technology advantages to form an internationally competitive service robot product. As of now, there are more than 20,000 service users, and the business covers 41 countries and regions.
Platform enterprises have not only achieved rich returns through investment, but also enhanced their own core competitiveness and promoted high-level technological self-reliance.
"Platformization" is a major trend in the future, especially in the digitalization of the economy and advanced manufacturing, where platforms play a very large role.
In recent years, Huawei has undergone a clear transformation from a product company to a platform-based enterprise. Platforms such as Hongmeng Systems, Euler, cloud computing, and intelligent connected cars are all building strong ecosystems, and these platforms have become the driving force for Huawei’s continuous development.
"Digital transformation is moving towards a platform economy, and ecological aggregation creates value together. Digital platform is an inevitable choice." The relevant person in charge of Huawei’s strategy department said that Huawei’s digital platform supports the integration of multi-scenario applications and data, IoT devices, opens up partner marketing venues, and connects IoT (Internet of Things) to IT systems. Huawei’s digital platform partners create a co-construction, sharing, and win-win ecosystem to help all walks of life in digital transformation and build an intelligent world where everything is connected.
In March this year, Huawei’s 2022 annual report shows that Hongmeng ecology is booming, and the global registered developers exceed 6 million. Over the past few years, Huawei has continued to innovate and attack, allowing Hongmeng ecology to continue to evolve and open up, and join hands with developers to enter the fast lane of Hongmeng ecology.
Shenzhen has advantages in developing a platform economy
On July 12, Li Qiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Premier of the State Council, chaired a forum on platform enterprises. The meeting pointed out that on the new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way, the platform economy has great potential.
The platform economy and the new model it has spawned are gradually becoming a new driving force for economic growth. As a representative of Shenzhen platform enterprises, Xiao Wenjie, CEO of Lexin, said that the government encourages platform enterprises to practice "internal strength" and work hard, continue to promote innovation breakthroughs, and better empower the development of the real economy, which is conducive to stimulating the new vitality of the development of the platform economy. Lexin will actively give full play to the technological and innovation advantages of platform enterprises, actively increase support for small and micro enterprises, and help small and micro enterprises alleviate the problem of "stuck neck" of funds through technological means. Help small and micro enterprises to innovate in technology, increase production capacity, and expand market share, and deeply empower the development of the real economy.
The relevant person in charge of Lalamove said that since the beginning of this year, the Lalamove platform has steadily increased the order volume in the Chinese mainland, and is also constantly absorbing new transportation capacity to join. This year, it has provided 900,000 flexible employment positions for the society; overseas development, covering South East Asia, South Asia, South America and other 10 markets. The Lalamove brand has also harvested the simultaneous growth of order volume and transportation capacity.
Li Enhan, deputy director of the Token Digital Economy Research Center of the China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Development Research Institute, said that the meeting affirmed the important value of the platform economy and platform enterprises in expanding domestic demand, promoting employment, promoting scientific and technological innovation, assisting the development of the real economy and participating in international competition. At the same time, it also put forward higher requirements for governments at all levels to create a fairer and more orderly market environment, improve the normal supervision system, and promote the healthy development of the platform economy.
"Shenzhen has unique advantages in developing the platform economy." Li Enhan said that the first is the institutional advantage. Shenzhen has the conditions to give full play to the advantages of the special zone’s legislative power and conduct pioneering explorations in the digital economy fields such as the platform economy, providing institutional guarantees for the standardized and healthy development of the platform economy. The second is technological advantages. Shenzhen is in a leading position in the development of cutting-edge digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and big data, providing strong technical support for the development of the platform economy. The third is industrial advantages. Shenzhen’s new generation of information technology industry has a solid foundation and a complete industrial chain. It can effectively integrate the industrial resources of the Greater Bay Area, providing prerequisites and strong market demand space for the smooth operation of the platform economy. The fourth is ecological advantages. Shenzhen not only has leading enterprises in the platform economy field such as Tencent, but also has many emerging platform enterprises such as Lichuang Mall. At the same time, BYD, Huawei and other enterprises have also built a platform ecosystem linking upstream and downstream around their core businesses, integrating professional services and financial resources. These have laid a good ecological foundation for Shenzhen’s efforts to develop the platform economy, and also promoted the development of the platform economy towards individualization, segmentation and specialization.
How to better develop the platform economy, Li Enhan put forward suggestions. Shenzhen should further attach importance to the strategic value of the platform economy and respect the laws of the platform economy. First, encourage start-ups with platform attributes to enter more new fields and new tracks, and provide a better development environment and financing channels for these enterprises in the early and embryonic stages of development. Second, encourage large platform enterprises to give full play to the advantages of scientific and technological research and development and resource integration, and actively participate in international competition while driving the common development of enterprises in the platform ecosystem. Third, improve the normalized supervision mechanism, clarify the reasonable development expectations of platform enterprises, guide platform enterprises to make rational use of capital power and social influence, actively fulfill social responsibilities, and promote the healthy and sustainable development of platform economy norms.