In recent years, my country's platform economy based on Internet technology has developed rapidly, and new models and new business formats have continued to emerge.
The ninth meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee emphasized that it is necessary to focus on the long-term, take into account the current situation, make up for shortcomings, strengthen weaknesses, create an innovative environment, resolve outstanding contradictions and problems, and promote the healthy and sustainable development of the platform economy.
The outline of the "14th Five-Year Plan" proposes to promote the healthy development of the sharing economy and platform economy, and further clarifies the strategy and mission of developing the platform economy.
How to solve the development and governance problems encountered by the platform economy, continue to provide vitality for high-quality development and high-quality life, and at the same time seize the opportunities of digital transformation to promote the stability and long-term development of the platform economy?
In this issue, four experts are invited to discuss in depth.
Guest
Cui Yanxin, Deputy Director, Digital Trade Research Center, Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Commerce
Yang Tao, Director, Payment and Settlement Research Center, Institute of Finance, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Feng Hua, Director of the Institute of Service Economics and Emerging Industries, Beijing Jiaotong University
Huang Botao, Associate Professor, Department of Finance, National School of Accounting
host
Sun Shifang, Member of the Editorial Board of Economic Daily and Dean of China Institute of Economic Trends
Platform economy integrates into ordinary people's homes
Moderator: What are the characteristics of the current platform economic development, and what role has it played in economic and social development?
Cui Yanxin: The platform economy is a new economic system based on Internet information technology and constituted by economic activity units driven by data, platform support, and network coordination.
The current development of platform economy has three characteristics: First, the business format is becoming more abundant, and the network effects and external effects of the platform economy are further enhanced; Second, the main body is more diversified, and the public goods attributes of platform operation rules are increasingly prominent; Third, the value of data is prominent, centered on data The value creation and value-added of the company is forming a new data value chain theory, and it is continuously applied and deepened.
The status and role of the platform economy in the overall economic and social development has become increasingly prominent.
The first is to improve the efficiency of resource allocation in the whole society and promote the intensive management of all links in the value chain.
The second is to promote technological and industrial changes, and the economy and society are evolving in the direction of informatization, digitization, and intelligence.
The third is to improve the level of modern governance, and the level of intelligence, globalization, individualization, and refinement of national governance can be improved.
Yang Tao: The typical characteristics of the platform economy are externalities. The platform economy has the special nature of "network externalities."
For example, a payment clearing organization is a typical platform economic model. The more consumers that pay, the greater the value of payment terminals to merchants; the more merchants that install payment terminals, the greater the value of payment products to consumers.
The second is multi-attribution behavior. If the platform does not implement exclusive transaction behavior, consumers can purchase products or services from multiple competing platforms.
The third is the pricing strategy. In the two-sided market of the platform economy, the focus of pricing is to internalize the user's network externalities and attract as many users as possible for the two sides of the trading platform to achieve a win-win situation.
Feng Hua: The essence of platform economy is an ecological industrial organization that uses network information technology to serve users in bilateral or multilateral markets, and has the attributes of quasi-public goods.
The key to its business model is the combination of traffic entry and data monetization. The form of business competition is generally dimensional competition.
In recent years, people have become accustomed to using Internet platforms to meet various needs in daily life. In the context of accelerating the reorganization of the global industrial chain, vigorously developing the platform economy is an important strategy for improving my country’s international competitiveness and promoting high-quality economic and social development. Initiative.
Huang Botao: The technical characteristics of the platform are embodied in the deep coupling and collaboration of big data, artificial intelligence, mobile Internet, cloud computing and blockchain technology.
The platform itself does not produce products, but it can facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers or multiple parties to achieve intelligent matching of supply and demand.
From the supply side, the organization of industrial chains and supply chains in various industries is rapidly becoming a platform, and the specialized division of labor system is becoming more and more efficient, greatly accelerating the process from technology, creativity, design to productization and monetization.
From the demand side, the Internet platform has continuously expanded its breadth and depth to meet various consumer needs and improve the efficiency of resource allocation for the entire society.
Platform economic governance encounters new issues
Moderator: While the platform economy is developing rapidly, some new problems have also emerged. How to further improve the effect of platform economic governance?
Huang Botao: With the rapid development of the platform economy, while enjoying the "data dividend", we are also facing the challenges of "data risk" and "platform monopoly".
It is mainly manifested in three aspects: one is the scientific definition of the property rights of the production factor of data; the second is to control the risk of data leakage and abuse, to further open up government data, corporate data and social data blocking points, and to effectively realize the problem of data sharing; Anti-monopoly governance issues for platform companies, especially leading companies.
Yang Tao: From a theoretical perspective, the frontier research of platform economy is insufficient, and the conceptual boundary is fuzzy.
In practice, one is market competition governance.
At the end of last year, the European Commission announced the drafts of the "Digital Services Act" and the "Digital Market Act", aimed at further restricting the anti-competitive behavior of US technology giants and standardizing the EU digital market order.
The rapid rise of many digital platform companies in my country has greatly improved economic efficiency and social welfare, while also bringing new anti-monopoly and governance challenges.
The second is social responsibility governance.
In fact, the digital transformation based on the platform economy should fully reflect the characteristics of social responsibility and sustainability, so as to make up for the lack of governance in the traditional economic model. However, this is not always the case.
Only by constantly identifying problems and strengthening governance can the platform economy fully utilize its comparative advantages in terms of externalities, multi-attribution, and pricing.
Feng Hua: The current problems in the development of the platform economy are that the monopoly of the platform causes shortcomings in competition.
While the advantages of economies of scale and data driving can increase the efficiency of platform enterprises, they may also cause the stronger Matthew effect to become stronger.
The second is credit shortcomings restricting healthy development.
The lack of credibility such as the user information security of the sharing platform and the authenticity of the information of the search platform has emerged one after another, behind which is the shortcoming of credit.
To build a social credit system that encourages trustworthiness and penalties for dishonesty, the premise is that there is a data sharing platform that serves as public goods and infrastructure for social credit. Currently, a “web” of credit information covering all regions, departments, and various market entities has not yet been formed. It has become an urgent requirement to scientifically and reasonably define the responsible subject.
Third, the lagging of the regulatory system has led to shortcomings in supervision.
Due to the characteristics of platform enterprises' cross-industry diversified operations and cross-industry dynamic competition, the anti-monopoly laws and regulations in the field of platform economy are faced with more complicated problems of matching between the classification of field boundaries and applicable methods, and the coordination of regulatory agencies is required to promote anti-monopoly regulations. Order effectively expands.
Cui Yanxin: The current shortcomings in the development of my country's platform economy are that the market order of fair competition needs to be strengthened; the credit system needs to be improved, and there is still a lack of corresponding technical specifications and standards in terms of information security and data open sharing; third, governance capabilities Needs to be improved, the current departmental, fragmented, and territorial supervision model is difficult to effectively play a role.
While the digital platform greatly reduces transaction costs and improves the efficiency of resource allocation, it also brings resource reorganization and power reconstruction. Among them, ultra-large platform anti-monopoly is a common problem facing the development of the global digital economy.
The first is how to identify monopolistic behaviors, it is difficult to define methods and obtain evidence for more invisible monopolistic behaviors such as market dominance and algorithmic collusion; the second is how to prevent the transmission of monopoly status of super-large platforms.
A super-large platform with data and traffic advantages is likely to transmit its dominant position in a single market to other markets; the third is how to prevent data monopoly and abuse from negatively affecting market competition.
Develop norms and improve governance efficiency
Moderator: The development of my country's platform economy is at a critical period, and it is urgent to follow up in practice and governance. How to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the platform economy?
Feng Hua: The development of the platform economy needs to improve the regulatory system and mechanism, and build a new type of government-market interaction that encourages innovation and effective supervision.
We must adhere to the principle of standardized development.
Clarify the core concept of anti-monopoly supervision, and form a new framework around key issues such as evidence collection of monopolistic behavior and monopoly regulatory tools.
It is necessary to build a strong supporting guarantee system.
Strengthen the construction of information infrastructure and increase the coverage of optical fiber broadband; accelerate the application of new technologies such as the software and information technology service industry, especially the Internet of Things; cultivate and introduce financial intermediary service institutions that are compatible with the development of the platform economy to improve service capabilities; speed up Promote the integration of logistics infrastructure and the application of Internet of Things technology, integrate warehousing, loading and unloading equipment and other information, and improve circulation efficiency.
It is necessary to accelerate the cultivation of the data element market, clarify the confirmation of data resources, and strengthen the protection of personal privacy.
Standardize the activities of data market entities, clarify the regulations that should be followed for data collection, processing, sharing and openness, and other data activities and governance.
Encourage data element market entities to participate in public management, and establish a data resource capitalization and data circulation exchange system.
Establish data security management standards to solve data security issues that may arise during the entire data life cycle such as data collection, sharing, and destruction.
Yang Tao: First of all, at the micro level, we must pay close attention to the governance of data, algorithms, and computing power.
On the one hand, data element governance must not only break the "data island" and give full play to the value of data elements, but also avoid data abuse and strengthen data information protection.
On the other hand, algorithms also need to explore governance issues.
In practice, whether it is the "big data" of the Internet platform or the "algorithm trap" for financial investors, governance constraints must be further strengthened.
In addition, there is the governance of computing power.
In recent years, my country's computing power resources have ushered in explosive growth, but the innovation and collaborative governance capabilities are still weak, and there are still many unreasonable resource allocations.
Secondly, from a macro perspective, it is more necessary to build an institutional environment conducive to the healthy development of platform economy and digital economy.
Anti-monopoly is only an abnormal mechanism. It is necessary to promote the formation of a joint force between the government, the market, society, and enterprises on the basis of the gradual formation of theoretical, policy and practical consensus, and continuously improve the comprehensive governance capabilities and efficiency.
Huang Botao: On the one hand, we must adhere to both development and regulation, and explore flexible supervision and flexible governance models for the platform economy.
First, strengthen the effective protection of important data, clarify the responsibilities of data platform companies, the construction of data rights, and the establishment of data governance rules to ensure national data security.
Second, actively promote the development and utilization of data resources, ensure the free flow of data in an orderly manner, and encourage platform companies to continuously optimize their business and accelerate the research on key core technologies.
Third, we must prevent platform companies from abusing their dominant market position, guide fair and orderly competition, and create a good environment for innovation.
On the other hand, it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between broadening financing channels and preventing the disorderly expansion of capital.
It is necessary to continue to play the leading role of the national fund in the investment and financing process of platform enterprises to provide financial support for the development of platform enterprises.
At the same time, the supervision of platform companies has been integrated into the securities market issuance mechanism, and the pre-examination of platform companies during IPO, the strict crackdown on illegal securities activities, the maintenance of national security, and effective prevention and resolution of risks are combined.
Cui Yanxin: One is to adhere to the coordination of development and supervision to optimize the ecological pattern.
Under the premise of controllable risks, promote the establishment of an inclusive and prudential supervision mechanism for cross-border and emerging industries in the platform economy, and continue to adapt to the needs of institutional innovation in the digital economy.
The biggest challenge facing the current platform economy is how to balance the strengthening of anti-monopoly supervision and the promotion of innovation and development. It is necessary to strengthen the classification and classification of platforms to guide platform operators to use more resources for technological research and development and innovation, so that technological innovation becomes an important value orientation for anti-monopoly .
The second is to persist in innovating the regulatory model and improve governance efficiency.
Give full play to the advantages of decentralization and scale of platform economy and community economy, use and guide social forces to participate in governance, and form an effective positive feedback mechanism for supervision.
Emphasize the self-discipline of platform enterprises and the diversity of supervisory entities, and require leading platform economic core enterprises to take the lead and better fulfill their supervisory responsibilities for platforms and related enterprises.
The third is to improve the legal system of platform economic governance.
Strengthen the construction of the anti-monopoly legal system, do a good job in the overall coordination and organic connection of the anti-monopoly law, data security law, etc., issue anti-monopoly regulatory documents and supporting rules in the field of platform economy, and increase the status of new infrastructure and obligation clauses for super platforms.
In view of the characteristics of free services on Internet platforms, we focus on the impact of new Internet key elements such as traffic and algorithms on industrial development, as well as comprehensive factors such as dynamic competition, into the antitrust analysis and judgment.
Digitalization promotes the vigorous development of the "smart +" industry
Moderator: Where is the connection point between platform economy and digital construction?
Which industries and technological innovations will bring opportunities in the future?
Yang Tao: In the future, we can mainly focus on the following aspects.
One is the rapid development of the data element market.
With the gradual manifestation of the value of data elements, it not only has a profound impact on traditional production elements, but also changes the ecological environment and combination mode of the comprehensive utilization of elements.
The discovery, application, confirmation, transaction, and circulation of data elements will be an important foundation for platform economy and digital transformation.
The second is the vigorous rise of the digital industry.
The platform economy has become an important force to promote the development of the digital economy and industries. The "Statistical Classification of the Digital Economy and Its Core Industries (2021)" issued by the National Bureau of Statistics includes digital product manufacturing, digital product service industry, and digital technology. There are five major categories: application industry, digital element-driven industry, and digital efficiency improvement industry. The first 4 categories are digital industrialization, and the fifth category is industrial digitalization.
The third is the standardized development of digital finance.
In the second half of last year, the European Union released a digital finance package plan, and the corresponding digital finance concept has attracted new attention.
An important innovation direction of digital finance is a platform-based and open financial ecosystem, which requires a good grasp of compliance and efficiency.
Cui Yanxin: The platform economy relies on digital technology to realize the intensive input of labor, capital, technology, data and other production factors, and promote the digital and intelligent management of R&D, design, marketing and other links.
The infrastructure is transformed from self-built data center to relying on cloud network, the technology cluster is transformed from IT (information technology) to DT (digital technology), and the operation logic is transformed from the logic of competition to the logic of symbiosis.
The development of the platform economy will promote the maturity of emerging technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and edge computing, and promote the vigorous development of the "smart +" industry, especially the growing growth of industrial Internet platforms, which will promote smart manufacturing, smart logistics, personalized design, The rapid development of new models and new business formats such as customized research and development.
Huang Botao: The platform economy uses data as a key production factor and modern networks as an important carrier, which has spawned large-scale technological innovations in industries such as electronic information, commerce and logistics, and high-end equipment, including 5G mobile communications that improve network width, depth and efficiency Innovations in the fields of, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, etc. also include re-innovation of the platform’s unique and patented algorithm models.
At present, my country’s consumer platforms are in a leading position in the world, but there are not many production platforms. In the future, efforts will be made to promote the transformation of the platform economy from a consumer platform to a production platform, so that enterprises can use the new platform configuration method with high efficiency, low cost, and Accurately obtain production factors, realize the coordinated transformation of the entire industrial chain through R&D, design, manufacturing, operation management, and market services, and reshape the industrial development system.
Feng Hua: The platform economy is based on the development of digital technology. The first is chip technology, the second is communication technologies such as high-speed mobile Internet and the Internet of Things, the third is algorithmic language technologies such as big data and cloud computing, and the fourth is to integrate the basic level and Artificial intelligence technology combined at the application level. The new round of development opportunities brought about by the platform economy and digital construction, including e-commerce platforms, search engine platforms, and financial Internet platforms, are profoundly changing the global industrial landscape. The platform economy provides new scenarios for enterprise innovation. The information on both sides of supply and demand is more transparent and symmetrical, and market competition is more intense. In this environment, on the one hand, companies must give full play to their core competitiveness and outsource modules that do not have comparative advantages, so that a large part of their resources will be used to improve and upgrade a single process; Under the circumstance, by improving the process and improving the quality of goods, in order to win the market.