Tencent Yang Jian: Industry, ecology and society embrace the triple perspective of technological change

Yang Jian: Vice President of Tencent Group, General Counsel of Tencent Research Institute

Editor's note: Recently, artificial intelligence innovation represented by ChatGPT has attracted very high attention, and its popularization and popularization at the application level, or indicates that the development of this field, is entering a critical point.

From the past development of the technology industry, the emergence of each blockbuster application or killer application will not be a single case, but often a signal of the arrival of a new wave of innovation.

Since the development of the mobile Internet matured, the technology industry has been seeking to embrace the entrance to the next wave of technological innovation, from blockchain, metaverse, Web3, and current artificial intelligence innovation.

These explorations in various subdivisions, no matter how much progress they have, will intersect at some point in the future, thus forming an explosive wave of technological innovation.

This article is excerpted from the recommended foreword written by Yang Jian, Vice President of Tencent Group and General Counsel of Tencent Research Institute, for the new book "Future Habitat", sharing some of his observations and thoughts on innovation:

At present, new technologies represented by artificial intelligence, blockchain, and virtual reality are giving birth to a new wave of digitalization. The pursuit of authenticity, presence, immersion and intelligence has become a new digital direction. The integration of the physical and digital worlds driven by intelligence will stimulate more innovation and application scenarios. What will be the impact of the new round of technological change? How can we embrace this opportunity for innovation?

The technology industry is both a beneficiary of technological change and a brunt of innovation risks. When it comes to the impact of technological innovation, we are always amazed at the rapid change and explosive growth in this field. Those technology companies that we are familiar with in today's market have bravely seized opportunities, found their own tracks, won the recognition of users and the market, and become successful and beneficiaries in scientific and technological change when the tide of innovation arrived.

But these past successful experiences and accumulations cannot become their talismans in the face of a new round of competition. In the face of a new wave of technological change, whether it is a successful large enterprise or an innovative small and medium-sized enterprise, everyone almost has to start from scratch and return to the same running line.

Therefore, when technological change comes, it is often the most drastic change in the industry pattern, and once it cannot keep up with the rhythm of change, it will not only face the risk of being surpassed or even eliminated. In the face of the new wave of technological change, whether it is a start-up or an industry leader, it is a choice of 0 and 1. Once an opportunity is missed, it is often not only market share that is affected, but a test of life and death. This is both the brutality and charm of the tech industry's competition.

The innovation ecology and industrial chain layout formed by the new round of scientific and technological changes have a far greater impact than the product or the enterprise itself. In the process of change, it is easier for people to pay attention to those star products or enterprises in the spotlight, and ignore the innovation ecology and industrial chain layout driven by them. Like the mobile phone industry that everyone is more familiar with, in the evolution from functional machines to smart phones, a number of Chinese brands that can be at the forefront of the industry have emerged, becoming the latest representatives of Made in China. The success of these enterprises and brands is not only due to their own innovation in products and management, but also inseparable from the support of the innovation ecology and industrial chain cluster behind them. Even when incubating future-oriented next-generation technologies, these innovation ecosystems and industrial chains often play a larger role.

Compared with the manufacturing industry, the Internet innovation ecosystem involves a wider range of subjects, more industries, and a more complex ecological structure. According to the Digital Ecological Employment and Entrepreneurship Report released by the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, in 2021, the number of jobs derived from the WeChat ecosystem alone reached 41.68 million, and the number of employment opportunities generated around WeChat mini programs in development, products, and operations exceeded 8.39 million. Many young people with active thinking and pursuing free development have provided users with innovative products and services full of personality with their skills in the digital ecosystem.

The mobile phone industry and the Internet are the two areas where everyone's perception is more obvious, in fact, in the fields of innovation including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics and other fields, the supporting role of innovation ecology and innovation industry chain will be stronger, but these fields are relatively far from our daily life, and everyone's perception is not so obvious.

From the social level, the changes in production modes brought about by the change of scientific and technological productivity will change the pattern of regional and social competitiveness. When talking about the impact of technological change, we often quote Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is that people tend to overestimate the short-term changes of technological innovation and underestimate the long-term impact of technological innovation. The reason for this may be that short-term changes are more pronounced and dazzling, while long-term effects are often subtle.

If we look back at the changes in the world economic center since the Industrial Revolution, we will find an interesting phenomenon, from the earliest Britain, to the subsequent France, Germany, and the United States, almost every change will be accompanied by a breakthrough in scientific and technological innovation. The ongoing third information revolution reframes daily production and lifestyle such as information acquisition, commodity trading, and service provision, and promotes the digital economy to become an important part of the national economy.

As one of the countries with the fastest development of the digital economy, China has also become an important participant and beneficiary of digital technology innovation. In the face of a new round of scientific and technological changes, intelligence, platformization and ecology have become important characteristics of production organizations, and creative work has become an important production mode in the future.

In order to transform this short-term opportunity for change into long-term regional and social advantages, it is necessary to give full play to the strength of enterprises, science and technology, government agencies and other parties to form an "innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain" that supports scientific and technological innovation. On the one hand, give full play to the enthusiasm and initiative of enterprises as the main body of innovation, adhere to the world's scientific and technological frontier, the main economic battlefield, and people's life and health, build a sustainable innovation system, integrate scientific and technological innovation into products and services, form an innovation ecology with continuous breakthroughs, and transform scientific and technological innovation into real products and services.

On the other hand, from a national or regional perspective, in the face of such an intensive period of scientific and technological innovation, it is necessary to continuously improve the scientific and technological innovation support system, cultivate an innovation culture, and form an open innovation ecology with global competitiveness. Only by making continuous breakthroughs in these aspects can our innovation not only solve the current shortcomings, but also advance the layout of basic fields, emerging fields and cross-cutting fields.

It is hoped that this new book compiled by the Institute will help everyone clarify the context of a new round of scientific and technological innovation and seize the opportunities of a new round of scientific and technological innovation. Hopefully, these contents will also benefit practitioners outside the technology industry.