The Zhitong Finance App learned that on May 21, the 2019 Tencent (00700) Global Digital Ecology Conference was held. Tencent Research Institute and Tencent Cloud released the “Digital China Index Report (2019)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”) at the conference. As an infrastructure in the digital age, cloud computing is increasingly becoming an important driving force for the digital economy, and the development of cloud computing can be assessed using standardized cloud volume.

The report shows that in 2018, China's cloud consumption grew rapidly. The annual cloud consumption was 464.78 points, up 318.74 points from 146.04 points last year, an increase of 218.25%. Currently, overall cloud usage is concentrated in Tier 1 and 2 cities, while later tier cities are rapidly catching up. Among them, Tier 5 cities are growing rapidly, with the highest increase. At the same time, there is a positive correlation between cloud consumption and GDP, which is an important indicator of the digital economy. For every 1 point increase in cloud usage, GDP increased by about 23.09 billion yuan.

Government and enterprise collaboration, with the most rapid growth in the western region

The government work report of the two sessions this year pointed out that it is necessary to insist that innovation leads development, cultivate and expand new momentum, and promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. In recent years, various regions have successively introduced relevant policies to promote the construction of a digital China. In 2018, cloud computing was further popularized in government departments. Cloud consumption in the national government sector increased by 404.7% year on year, 1.86 times the average growth rate of cloud usage, and accelerated the interconnection and data circulation between government departments and systems.

Thanks to the active promotion of the government's digital strategy and the joint efforts of cloud computing companies, the technological dividends of cloud computing are declining at an accelerated pace in the central and western regions. The amount of cloud consumption in the western region has increased rapidly, with an increase of more than 400%. In particular, Chengdu, Kunming, Chongqing, and Guiyang achieved rapid growth of 4.5 times, 4.9 times, 8.2 times, and 12 times, respectively.

Judging from the regional distribution of cloud usage, North China and East China are concentrated in scale, the western region is growing faster, and the technological dividends of cloud computing are sinking faster towards the central and western regions. Achieving large-scale growth in cloud use in Yunnan Province is inseparable from the government's top-level design. The provincial government set up the “Digital Yunnan” Group to promote the rapid growth of the digital economy. “One mobile phone tour to Yunnan” has built a mature system including a tourism big data center, a comprehensive tourism service platform, a comprehensive tourism management platform, and three types of tourism application ports, which has promoted the digital upgrading of the tourism industry in Yunnan. The “One Mobile Service Guide” promotes government services at the fingertips. The construction of “Digital Yunnan” has achieved remarkable results.

At the same time, in some northern and western regions where the communication infrastructure and supporting infrastructure for the cloud computing industry are weak, the cloud computing industry in Xinjiang, Tibet, Heilongjiang, Sichuan, and Jilin provinces and cities has developed rapidly under the joint impetus of the government and cloud computing enterprises, and has jointly built cloud computing data centers, big data cloud computing industrial parks, incubators, etc., to comprehensively help all provinces upgrade digitally.

Cloud usage is positively correlated with GDP, making it an important indicator of the digital economy

In the past few years, the development of digitalization, networking and informatization in China has entered a new stage. The main battleground for digital development is developing in the direction of the consumer Internet in the first half and the industrial Internet in the second half. At a new stage where the industrial Internet is the main battleground for digitalization, the digital economy has become the new engine and driving force for China's economic development. The report shows that in 2018, the national digital economy was 29.91 trillion yuan, up 12.02% from the same period last year, and its share in gross domestic product (GDP) rose to 33.22%, up 1 percentage point from 2017. This means that the continued growth of the digital economy is playing an increasingly important role in the steady growth, restructuring, and quality improvement of the Chinese economy.

As the main underlying technology supporting the development of the digital economy, cloud computing is positively correlated with the large-scale development of the digital economy. According to the report, there is a positive feedback mechanism between the increase in cloud usage and the increase in the GDP of each city. Further improvements in cloud computing infrastructure will bring higher labor productivity and a better service experience, which can greatly help the level of regional economic development.

Looking at the other side, regions with high GDP have invested more capital in digital industry construction to promote the integrated development of the digital economy and the real economy. According to estimates, for every 1 point increase in cloud consumption, GDP increased by about 23.09 billion yuan. At the same time, the ranking of regional indices with large increases in cloud usage has improved markedly.

The digital economy is an increasingly important driving force for global economic growth. It is playing an important role in accelerating economic development, increasing labor productivity in existing industries, cultivating new markets and new industrial growth points, and achieving inclusive growth and sustainable growth. As an important infrastructure in the digital age, the cloud computing industry will provide important basic capabilities for the digital transformation of all walks of life, bring higher labor productivity and a better service experience, promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and help local economies develop. “In the industrial age, we look at “electricity consumption,” and the digital economy places more emphasis on “cloud consumption.”

According to reports, the “Digital China Index” has sub-indices for the four sectors of digital industry, digital culture, digital life, and digital government, which are closely linked to the three major fields of digital development, such as industry, consumption, and government. The four major indices are weighted to arrive at the digital China General Index, which measures the level of digital development from the B-side, C-side, and G-side, respectively. This time, the Tencent Research Institute combined data from partners such as Tencent, Meituan Review, Didi, JD, Ctrip, Kuaishou, and Pinduoduo to comprehensively portray the digital development trends of China's 31 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and 351 cities, and dynamically presented the evolution of the digital Chinese landscape.