More than half a year after the establishment of the National Data Bureau, what changes have occurred in the data element market?

On October 25, 2023, the National Data Bureau was officially established, and the marketization process of data elements has also accelerated. In half a year, China's data element market has ushered in earth-shaking changes, on the one hand, local governments have actively deployed data bureaus and data exchanges (referred to as "data exchanges"); On the other hand, in the process of development, there are still many problems in the marketization of data elements that need to be solved urgently.

Under the guidance of policies, data elements have entered the "fast lane" of marketization

Data has become not only a basic and strategic resource of the country, but also a key factor of production for the development of the digital economy. According to preliminary estimates from the National Data Bureau, China's total data production is expected to exceed 32 zettabytes in 2023. Some institutions predict that every 10% increase in data flow will drive GDP growth by 0.2 percentage points.

In terms of industrial scale, the scale of China's big data industry will reach 1.57 trillion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 18%, and the market size of China's data trading industry will reach 87.68 billion yuan, accounting for 13.4% of the global data transaction market..... It is clear that data has become an important factor of production for economic development.

In the past six months or so, whether it is at the national level or local government departments, policies have been issued frequently, all of which are promoting the marketization process of data elements. In this year's government work report, it is even proposed: "Improve the basic data system, and vigorously promote the development, openness, circulation and use of data." ”

In fact, this is not the first time that the marketization of data elements has received attention at the national level. In December 2022, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "20 Data Articles", establishing the "four beams and eight pillars" of the data basic system and starting the process of accelerating the reform of the data element market.

In February 2023, the "Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China" was issued, which clearly listed digital infrastructure and data resource system as the two foundations of digital China, proposed to smooth the circulation of data resources, promote the convergence and utilization of public data, and release the value potential of commercial data.

On October 25, 2023, the National Data Bureau was established, which is responsible for coordinating and promoting the construction of data infrastructure systems, and coordinating the integration, sharing, development and utilization of data resources.

On December 31, 2023, the National Data Bureau and 17 other departments jointly issued the "Data Element ×" Three-Year Action Plan (2024-2026), proposing that by the end of 2026, more than 300 typical application scenarios with strong demonstration, high visibility and wide driving force will be created, and the average annual growth rate of the data industry will exceed 20%.

In addition to vigorously promoting the marketization of data elements at the national level, various localities have also actively introduced relevant policies to promote the marketization of data elements at the local level.

As early as October 11, 2020, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Reform Pilot of Shenzhen's Construction of a Pilot Demonstration Zone of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics (2020-2025)", giving Shenzhen the major task of "researching and demonstrating the establishment of a data trading market or relying on existing trading venues to carry out data transactions".

On July 6, 2021, the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress promulgated the "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Data Regulations" to accelerate the cultivation of the data element market and promote the establishment of a data trading platform. On July 11 of the same year, the Guangdong Provincial Government issued the Action Plan for the Reform of the Market-oriented Allocation of Data Elements in Guangdong Province, which clearly stated that "to promote the pilot reform of the market-oriented allocation of data elements in the Shenzhen Pilot Demonstration Zone, and to support Shenzhen to establish a data trading market or rely on existing trading venues to carry out data transactions"; On November 15, 2022, Shenzhen Data Exchange was officially established.

On September 29, 2020, the Beijing Municipal Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology issued the Implementation Plan for the Establishment of the Beijing International Big Data Exchange. On November 10, 2023, the country's first data basic system pilot zone, the Beijing Data Basic System Pilot Zone, was officially launched. On November 25, 2021, the inauguration ceremony of the Shanghai Data Exchange was held in Shanghai and some of the first transactions were reached. On December 5, 2023, the first provincial-level local standard for data asset confirmation in China, Zhejiang Province's "Data Asset Confirmation Work Guide", was officially implemented......

The frequent "big moves" in promoting the marketization of data elements in various localities have become a microcosm of the acceleration of the reform of the data element system.

The road to marketization, "the road is long and the road is coming"

At the national level and local government authorities, they are actively promoting the marketization of data elements, but there are still some pain points that need to be solved urgently.

In the process of reforming the market-oriented allocation of data elements, the first thing that needs to be changed is the original thinking mode and data management architecture. In this regard, Feng Jin, vice president of China Electronics Cloud and general manager of the data product line, told Titanium Media APP that from the perspective of the market-oriented allocation reform process of data elements at this stage, it is more from the supply side, "At present, the reform is basically carried out from the perspective of what the government wants to do and what system the data elements want to issue," Feng Jin pointed out, "It is all from the dimension of government guidance." ”

However, in Feng Jin's view, the final form of the market-oriented allocation reform of data elements is to start from the market side and take the market as the leading, "the market-oriented allocation reform of data elements is first of all market-oriented, and it is oriented to market players, including data vendors, service providers, etc.," Feng Jin emphasized, "Facing the market, we must also think about how to build an internal data resource environment, a first-level data element market and a second-level data element market." ”

After solving the transformation from the supply side to the market-oriented thinking mode, how to unify and manage data with uneven quality is the second major problem faced by the market-oriented allocation reform of data elements. Because the level of digitalization varies between enterprises and even government departments, the quality of the data generated by them is uneven. Even within the same company, different branches, and different departments, there are even differences in the level of digitalization.

Feng Jin shared the case of China Electronics Cloud in the exchange with Titanium Media APP. Taking an enterprise as an example, "although the enterprise has spent a lot of money on data governance, there are still situations such as inconsistent business indicators and complex indicator systems. Feng Jin told Titanium Media APP.

On the business side, it is necessary to collect data from the IoT perception of many devices and perform real-time computing based on the collected data, which puts forward high requirements for the data middle platform. Feng Jin pointed out.

And this is only a unified data management within the enterprise, in the social level of the unified data management platform, but also needs a set of unified management platform with strong capabilities to unify the management, circulation and transaction of heterogeneous and uneven quality data.

This is also a key part of the cooperation between China Electronics Cloud and Shenzhen Data Exchange (hereinafter referred to as "Shenzhen Data Exchange"). As the first "crab eater" in the field of data trading in China, the Shenzhen Data Exchange is the vanguard of China's market-oriented allocation reform of data elements. By the end of 2023, the total transaction volume of Shenzhen Digital Exchange reached 6.5 billion yuan, the cumulative cross-border transaction volume was 110 million yuan, and the cumulative number of listed data products was more than 1,800 kinds, ranking in the leading position in the country.

It is understood that in the early days of its establishment, Shenzhen Data Exchange reached a strategic partnership with China Electronic Cloud, jointly built a full-type data delivery system with high-security cloud native infrastructure capabilities and based on unified management technology, and carried out in-depth cooperation around data circulation and trading, ecological resource diversion, data element talent training and data assetization.

First of all, the Shenzhen Data Exchange and China Electronics Cloud paid close attention to the policy dynamics in the field of data element circulation during the project construction process, conducted policy analysis and interpretation, captured market demand in a timely manner, and flexibly adjusted the platform operation strategy. At the same time, in terms of technology, the microservice architecture and system loose coupling design are adopted, and the system is highly scalable, which can support the needs of rapid business iteration.

Secondly, in terms of the efficient circulation and use of data compliance, the two parties have realized the automatic assessment of data transaction compliance through the construction of the DEXC+ intelligent compliance system, technological innovation and fine management, completed the efficient docking between data providers and third-party legal service institutions, and empowered the data transaction compliance ecology with technology.

It is worth mentioning that Feng Jin told Titanium Media APP that in terms of data delivery and circulation, Shenzhen Data Exchange and China Electronics Cloud have broken the limitations of traditional delivery technology by building a full-type data delivery system, explored data delivery and circulation standards, and realized the trial and delivery of light, medium and high products of different magnitudes and types.

With a benchmark like the Shenzhen Data Exchange, it is believed that although the reform of China's market-oriented allocation of data elements is blocked, it will be imminent.

There are still "constraints" in the interconnection of national data

Looking at the reform process of market-oriented allocation of data elements in various places in China, in fact, there are many first- and second-tier cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Jinan, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, etc., which have done very well. However, the interconnection of data across the country is still a thorny issue.

In view of this, in Feng Jin's view, there are four main reasons for the above problems.

• First of all, the order of the issuance of the public data authorization operation management measures is different in each place, and the authorization operation mode is also different, "the heterogeneous model has hindered the interconnection of various places." Feng Jin pointed out.
• Second, there are differences in the choice of technology/digital platforms by local authorities. "The competent authorities in each place will choose different service providers, and the heterogeneity of the digital platform will make it difficult to connect the platform, and it will also lead to the difficulty of interconnection and interconnection of public data operations in the primary market." Feng Jin said.
• Thirdly, there is still a sense of protection among local authorities, and local authorities generally do not leak too much information to the outside world before successfully launching a public data operation scenario, let alone the cross-provincial and municipal cooperation model, and "working independently" has naturally become a major obstacle to the interconnection of the current national data operation system.
• Finally, at this stage, the top-level design of the whole country is still in a state of combining planning, exploration and practice, and the National Data Bureau still needs to be continuously improved and optimized in terms of upper-level law.

According to the estimation of the National Industrial Information Security Development Research Center, the contribution rate of data elements to China's GDP growth in 2021 has reached 14.7%, with a contribution of 0.83 percentage points. With the advancement of the reform process of market-oriented allocation of data elements, data will play a more important role in GDP growth, and the realization of national public data interconnection is a key step in this process. (This article was first published in Titanium Media APP, author|Zhang Shenyu, editor丨Gai Hongda)