On April 22, the Boao Forum for Asia 2022 Annual Conference closed in Boao, Hainan. At a time when the epidemic is repeated and many places are blocked, it is not easy for a global high-level forum to be held as scheduled. This time, more than 600 guests gathered in Boao and 400 representatives attended the meeting online to talk about "the recovery of the world economy after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic".
Although the duration of this year's session has been shortened and the scale has been reduced, Xu is a rare opportunity for face-to-face exchanges - Chinese and foreign guests have actively issued a "Boao voice" around hot issues such as carbon neutrality, scientific anti-epidemic, and digital economy.
From April 20 to 22, the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022 was held in Boao. Nandu reporter Li Ling/Photo
Looking back at the annual meeting of this forum, the digital economy is one of the high-frequency words. In fact, as early as ten years ago, the Boao Forum for Asia had a forum related to the digital economy, from e-commerce, Internet finance, sharing economy, Internet celebrity economy to meta-universe, Boao Forum for Asia almost witnessed the change of the Internet outlet. In the past two years, a special theme forum has been set up to focus on the digital economy.
In the era of digital economy, what is the next outlet? With the pandemic still raging, how can digitalization bring opportunities for economic recovery? While the digital economy is booming, how to balance fair competition and privacy protection? How to strengthen policy coordination and make the digital economy develop in an orderly manner?
Nandu reporter observed that as an important platform for political and business dialogue, the Boao Forum for Asia is re-examining the digital economy and trying to put forward the "Boao Plan".
The next chapter of the Internet, how far is the metacosm from us?
On the morning of April 22, the Boao Forum for Asia ushered in the last sub-forum on the agenda, focusing on the metacosm. How hot the metaverse is, from this forum may be a glimpse of one or two.
The forum, which was scheduled to take place at 10:45 a.m., was postponed by a few minutes while waiting for all the audience to be seated. In the venue, the host looked at the big screen and the online guests to explain the scene synchronously, and the conference staff was busy adding 20 seats to the back. A slightly older-looking listener grabbed the front row, telling a Nandu reporter on the side, "I just bought a meta-universe book for reading not long ago." We're all talking about metaversities now, and we don't want to be left behind. ”
According to the official website of the Boao Forum for Asia.
After nearly 100 spectators were seated, the exchange of views began. The host took the lead in pointing out the question and asked: "Metaverse, how far away from us?" Does it take 10 years, 15 years, or more for virtual and reality to seamlessly connect? ”
Judging from the on-site raising of hands, more people think that after 15 years, only a few people choose 10 years. Tian Qi, chief scientist in the field of artificial intelligence at HUAWEI CLOUD, is one of the minority. After the meeting, he told Nandu reporters, "Many people think that the metaverse is a new thing, but in fact, we are already in it." Soon people will realize that the metaverse is rising and bringing about great changes. ”
Yuan Hui, chairman and CEO of Xiaoyi Group for 18 years and deeply engaged in the field of artificial intelligence, also holds a similar view. As a staunch supporter of the metaverse, he pointed out based on past experience that "the metaverse is not far away from us" and boldly predicted that it would explode in three years.
Turn the clock back to the Boao Forum for Asia in 2013. At that time, there was a sub-forum with the theme of "Mobile Internet: Hot 'Cold' Thinking", which mainly discussed how mobile commerce, mobile payment, and mobile medical treatment affect people's lives, and how to solve the uncertainty of business models, personal privacy protection and other hidden worries.
That year was the year of china's mobile Internet outbreak. With the popularity of mobile terminals such as smart phones and tablet computers and the wide application of 3G networks, mobile Internet, like today's metaverse, has become a hot favorite of capital.
Yuan Hui noted that there were two key indicators for the outbreak of the mobile Internet at that time, the shipment of smart phones exceeded 100 million units, the price of smart phones fell to less than 1,000 yuan, and a large number of terminal App content emerged. At present, the terminal VR/AR equipment shipments of the metacosmic continue to grow by leaps and bounds, and with the popularization of the scale of terminal devices, the service content will also emerge in large quantities, so people will not be too far away from the metacosm.
Is it an outlet or a bubble? The potential risks of the metacosm need to be prevented in advance
This assertion is not unfounded. When the user experience of a hardware device reaches a critical point, its shipments will increase rapidly, thereby reducing the cost of hardware. Facebook founder Zuckerberg has said that it will take at least 10 million Oculus devices to attract enough developers.
In other words, the number of users is the key threshold for achieving "explosive growth in content and ecosystems." Nandu reporter noted that the report released by the consulting agency IDC shows that the global shipment of AR/VR headset equipment in 2021 reached 11.23 million units, an increase of 92.1% year-on-year, of which Oculus's share reached 80%. It is estimated that in 2022, 15.73 million VR headsets will be shipped worldwide, an increase of 43.6% year-on-year.
Some people say that 2021 is the first year of the meta-universe, and technology giants are competing to accelerate their entry. Last October, U.S. internet giant Facebook announced that it had changed its name to Meta. Zuckerberg bluntly said that the metacosm will be the next important chapter of the Internet. This rebranding hopes that in the future, the company will no longer be seen as a social platform, but as a meta-universe company.
Unlike Yuan Hui's optimism, Duran, senior vice president of iFLYTEK, believes that in the short term, "the opportunities and bubbles of the meta-universe coexist." "On the one hand, the epidemic may ripen the remote office scene of the metacosm, and online education, games, and social networking will be the scenes where the metaverse will take the lead in landing; on the other hand, the metacosm will also become a feast for entrepreneurs, a carnival of giant story materials, capital and currency circles, and finally produce a large number of bubbles."
Duran mentioned the key technical issues, from the perspective of the infrastructure required for the development of the metaverse, computing power is the most obvious constraint at present, affecting the development of vision, interaction, and AI technologies in the metaverse. In addition, the threshold for application- and content-based development is high, and it is currently difficult to combine the high degree of freedom and high immersion that people idealize.
"The first priority now is to guard against the commercial bubbles and speculation associated with the metaverse." But Duran also said that it is necessary to think forward-looking about how to solve the potential risks affecting the development of the metaverse - privacy protection, data security, excessive addiction, monopoly risks, etc. should be put on the agenda as soon as possible.
Is the metacosm an outlet, or a bubble? At the forum, many guests expressed their opinions. Although they did not form a particular consensus on some issues, they provided different levels of thinking perspectives. The discussion, which lasted more than 90 minutes, ended with a timeout reminder from the moderator.
The listener sitting next to the Nandu reporter seemed unsatisfied. Near the end of the forum, she, who was still taking notes, turned her head and asked the reporter: "Just now the expert said that one of the core support technologies of the metaverse is artificial intelligence, what is the core technology of artificial intelligence, have you written it down?" ”
Low cost matches demand, and the digital economy provides inclusive opportunities
If the metaverse is the future that remains to be touched, the booming digital economy based on existing network technologies is dramatically changing people's lives.
Professor Sang Baichuan, dean of the Institute of International Economics of the University of International Business and Economics, told Nandu reporters that the digital economy is a new economic form formed with the development of information technology and the popularization of the Internet under the conditions of a new round of technological revolution, involving a wide range of areas - digital industrialization, industrial digitalization, digital empowerment of economic entities and the establishment of digital economic rules, all belong to the category of digital economy.
"Information technology such as big data, intelligent manufacturing and services, cloud computing, and 5G are widely used in economic activities and play an important role in promoting the optimal allocation of resources in the whole society." Sang Baichuan said.
The scene of the sub-forum "Digital Economy: Benefiting Everyone". Nandu reporter Li Ling/Photo
Jiang Xiaojuan, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and vice chairman of the Social Construction Committee, has long been concerned about and researched the digital economy, and she appeared at the Boao Forum for Asia on the evening of April 22 to participate in the discussion of the sub-forum "Digital Economy: Benefiting All". Jiang Xiaojuan believes that the development of the digital economy provides the three most important capabilities: massive links, massive intelligent matching, and shaping credit. Digital technology can help people with low capacity, weak social resources and financial capital to enter the market at a very low cost of search, transaction and matching.
For example, the mobile payment of Internet companies has greatly increased the opportunities for rural people in the midwest to access financial services; young people with low education and women who have to take care of their families now have more job options and can consider being a takeaway rider or opening an online store. "In the past, this demand docking was a complex process and the cost of consumption was high, but now the flexibility of employment has changed. The digital economy itself can provide very inclusive opportunities. Jiang Xiaojuan said.
At the same forum, Damien O'Connor, New Zealand's Minister for Trade and Export Growth, used agriculture as an example to talk about the opportunities presented by the digital economy. "When you think of New Zealand, you probably think of dairy, beef and fruit. With the help of e-commerce channels, we have a lot of New Zealand brands sold on Tmall and JD.com. O'Connor said that for a small trading country like New Zealand, which is far from major markets, digitalization can help overcome its challenges in terms of distance and scale, while also more favorablely promoting small and medium-sized enterprises to compete in large markets and reduce trade costs.
Following O'Connor's speech, Zhou Xiaochuan, vice chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia and president of the China Society of Finance and Finance, said that from the case of the digital economy helping traditional industries (such as agriculture, service industry and manufacturing) to upgrade, it can be seen that the value and benefits of digital technology ultimately fall to provide support for goods and services in the real economy.
But What Zhou Xiaochuan found was different from before was that a small number of purely digital things had now developed. "People can think about what new things it might be based on their own experience. I personally think of the metacosm. Zhou Xiaochuan said.
The digital divide, privacy protection, and other challenges to traditional governance methods
It should be noted that while people enjoy the dividends of the development of the digital economy, they also urgently need to solve multiple practical problems.
"Today we can participate in online and offline meetings and benefit from digital technology." Esadust Bank Secretary-General Kazuhiko Oguchi found that after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the digital trend has strengthened significantly, and the crisis has also made the problem of the digital divide increasingly prominent. In terms of access to and access to digital services, the gap between countries with different levels of economic development, between urban and rural areas, is widening, and some people with lower levels of education and income are lagging behind.
Bridging the digital divide has become an urgent task. Kazuhiko Oguchi described some of the efforts made by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development – such as helping some countries build digital transformation infrastructure to provide fast broadband services for local people; supporting the development of power grids in some poor countries to get businesses to join the digital wave; promoting innovation, setting up digital-first project funds, and helping many countries solve digital challenges.
Jiang Xiaojuan also believes that the government should cover poor areas and low-capacity people as much as possible in infrastructure construction, so that they have the opportunity to contact and use the Internet. At the same time, she stressed that in terms of public services, we should promote the homogenization of offline and online.
Not only the digital divide, how to coordinate the regulatory rules of the digital economy is also a problem that the world needs to face.
Sang Baichuan told Nandu reporters that while the digital economy is developing rapidly, it is difficult to establish a perfect system of rules for the digital economy at the same time. Similar to intellectual property protection, consumer interest protection, privacy protection and data security, especially to prevent the risk of cross-border data flow, maintain economic and social security, etc., there are still needs to be further improved relevant rules. In this context, new issues have arisen in the regulation of the development of the digital economy.
Take data transactions as an example - data is like the "blood" of the digital economy era, which can only generate value when circulated, but there are still many difficulties in the process.
Zhou Xiaochuan observed that some countries are worried about this, and their concerns are how to ensure the security of cross-border data trade. In the case of different countries with different privacy protection concepts and rules, how should data be classified and traded? Another obstacle is pricing - a set of data is sold at a low price for unknown purposes before mining, but digging and digging to find a "big gold mine" and "big treasure", is the previous price still applicable?
In the era of the digital economy, the threshold of privacy may have changed. Former Prime Minister Aho of Finland, the Boao Forum for Asia Advisory Committee, said: "Whether we admit it or not, we have lost privacy, or its definition has changed." "How to define privacy in a more flexible way, deal with data rights confirmation, cross-border flow and other issues, Aho believes that it is necessary to build a global governance system, otherwise it will form a chaotic situation."
Aho further explained that at present, major economies have different regulatory rules for the digital economy, but many multinational companies provide global products and services, "in order to be able to better enjoy the environment of credit and supply and demand, we need to have rules common between countries." ”
Balancing innovation and development while regulating the digital economy to prevent monopolies
Similar to Aho's view, EBRD Secretary-General Kazuhiko Oguchi agrees on the importance of harmonizing rules. He also mentioned another issue of concern to the industry, namely fair competition. Digitalization offers great opportunities, even small countries, small start-ups, as long as there is a good technology can enjoy a place in the market. But it is important to have a market environment that promotes fair competition.
Nandu reporter noted that when major economies strengthen the supervision of the digital economy, they invariably hold up the anti-monopoly regulatory weapon. However, in Zhou Xiaochuan's view, in strict accordance with existing legal provisions, it is more difficult to define the monopoly problem in the field of digital economy, and it is easier to say that fair competition is easier.
He talked about several points of fair competition: for example, you can't infringe on intellectual property rights, you can't maliciously suppress competitors, and you can't carry out exaggerated false propaganda. From a trade perspective, there should be reasonable and cost and pricing, rather than relying on a lot of money to cross-subsidize and compete with others at unreal prices.
In an interview with Nandu and other media in Boao, Huang Yiping, vice president of the National Development Research Institute of Peking University and director of the Digital Finance Research Center of Peking University, also mentioned the issue of competition supervision. He argues that platforms are large and not necessarily monopolies; "either-or" is not necessarily anti-competitive; and discriminatory pricing is not necessarily fraudulent. Whether these acts are reasonable or not requires a deep economic analysis and analysis of the application of law.
So, what kind of rules will help improve the market environment, while rationally supervising the digital economy to prevent monopolies, and empowering the benign and rapid development of the industry? Huang Yiping pointed out that the purpose of supervision and governance is to make the digital economy develop smoothly, healthily and orderly. "Regulatory norms are what they should be, but if they go very hard all at once, innovation can easily slow down."
Huang Yiping told Nandu reporters that in order to balance the relationship between innovation and supervision, some practices that can be considered are, "For example, can we not use the word 'strong supervision'?" Because as soon as it was proposed, everyone felt that this was a top priority, resulting in sport-style supervision and regulatory competition, plus the pressure to become a platform enterprise. So many regulatory departments and related policies should still coordinate with each other and consider comprehensively, and try to form a daily and responsive supervision. ”
Jiang Xiaojuan suggested giving full play to the autonomy of enterprises and defining some large digital platforms as important participants in the social order. "Platform compliance management is the first priority, followed by external government supervision."
During his years as Prime Minister of Finland, Aho, a self-described "follower of the market economy," found that the better the governance model of multinational companies, the more conducive it is to their own development. Because to gain the trust of consumers around the world, companies must not only have high-quality products and services, but also have high standards in the management of privacy, data protection and security.
In terms of international coordination, Huang Yiping pointed out that European and American countries have put forward their own demands on digital trade, and when China wants to participate in such international exchanges and cooperation in the future, it must not only consider actively participating in international rule-making, but also move closer to the rule practice of most countries.
In order to adapt to the rapid development of the digital economy, traditional regulatory rules and governance frameworks do need to be adjusted. O'Connor, from New Zealand, specifically mentioned the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), the world's first dedicated digital economy governance agreement.
According to Nandu reporters, DEPA was signed by Chile, New Zealand and Singapore on June 12, 2020, covering 16 thematic modules such as business and trade facilitation, data issues, cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises, and digital inclusion. On November 1, 2021, China formally applied to New Zealand, the depositary of the agreement, to join the DEPA, demonstrating China's determination to strengthen cooperation in the field of digital economy and expand opening up to connect with high-level international rules.
Affected by the epidemic, the development of the digital economy has become a global consensus. In the wave of the digital economy, China is moving hand in hand with many developed countries. Sang Baichuan told Nandu reporters, "The digital economy provides an important opportunity for China to narrow the gap with the world's advanced countries. ”
At present, how can China seize the opportunity, continue to innovate and continue to develop, how to explore the best solution of the digital governance framework, and compete for the right to speak on the rules of the global digital economy... Focusing on hot issues, the Boao Forum for Asia tries to propose a multi-party and international perspective to plan the future for the development of the digital economy.
In fact, such a discussion should not stop at one or two forums, and people are looking forward to seeing China's action plan for digital economy governance in the future and how to contribute Chinese wisdom to the world.
Written by: Nandu reporter Li Ling from Boao