The platform economy will be deeply integrated with the real economy
Our reporter Wang Yichen
The "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" and the 2035 long-term goal outline "Accelerate Digital Development and Build a Digital China" chapter proposes to "promote the healthy development of the sharing economy and platform economy."
In the past 2021, traffic peaked, growth slowed, regulations tightened, antitrust... the platform economy has shifted into a mature stage of development, and the effect of traffic dividends and business model dividends has weakened.
Looking forward to 2022, high-quality development, interconnection and social responsibility will become the key words of platform economic development.
The industry generally believes that the future growth space of the platform economy will shift to more solid value creation, deep integration with the real economy, and the use of digital advantages to empower traditional industries, improve production efficiency, and reduce the circulation cost of the whole society. This is the second time the platform economy is in the standardized development. Take off, the only way to build a new national competitive advantage.
Promote high-quality development
Over the past period of time, major Internet platform companies have successively released their third quarter reports for 2021. Tencent’s revenue growth rate in the third quarter fell to the lowest level since its listing in 2004, and Alibaba, JD.com, Pinduoduo’s revenue and net profit growth rates also showed varying degrees Decline.
Layoffs, lower welfare, and not burning money have become "combined punches" played by many companies.
Since 2021, relevant departments have intensively introduced a series of new regulatory measures, especially in the Internet and the rectification of off-campus training.
Under the regulatory requirements to prevent disorderly expansion of capital, anti-monopoly, data security, and privacy protection, the Internet industry bid farewell to the barbaric growth stage.
At the same time, the platform economy has also touched the flow ceiling.
As of June 2021, the number of Internet users in my country has reached 1.011 billion, and the Internet penetration rate has reached 71.6%, forming the world's largest and most vibrant digital society.
The gradual disappearance of the demographic dividend can be described as a draw for Internet companies.
Under strong supervision, "labor pains" are inevitable, but they are more opportunities.
Looking forward to 2022, platform companies will put more emphasis on the quality of development.
Not long ago, Alibaba announced that it will actively adjust its revenue expectations in order to make drastic investments in the future and open up new space for development.
Zhang Yong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group, said: “Alibaba continues to make firm investments around the three strategies of domestic demand, globalization and cloud computing, laying a solid foundation for the group to achieve long-term sustainable development.”
In the face of the future, Internet companies must jump out of the red sea of traffic, actively seek new development methods, continuously improve their innovative research and development capabilities, and open the "second growth curve."
"The future development trend of the platform economy will be different, and the internal division of the industry will be obvious." Pan Helin, executive dean of the Institute of Digital Economy, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, believes that the platform economy relies on platform traffic to drive growth in the early stage, and it depends on improvement in the later stage. Efficiency drives growth. The future is a brand new period of platform development, which will provide new growth momentum to the economy.
Connectivity adds vitality
In pursuit of high-quality development, "network silos" must be broken.
Previously, the two major national-level applications on the Internet have been in isolation for a long time. WeChat Pay cannot be used for Taobao shopping, and Taobao links cannot be shared in WeChat, but only Taobao passwords.
Since the second half of 2021, the call for breaking the isolation on the Internet has been increasing.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a six-month special rectification action for the Internet industry in July 2021. The issue of blocking URL links is also a focus of this rectification action.
In early September 2021, the Information and Communication Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized an "Administrative Guidance Meeting on Blocking Web Site Links", requiring all platforms to unblock web site links in accordance with standards on September 17.
In the context of national policy support and transformation and development, interconnection has become an important starting point for new infrastructure to achieve fairness, convenience and inclusiveness.
Jia Kang, vice president and secretary-general of the Chinese Institute of Finance, said that finding a feasible way to remove the barriers will benefit the majority of users: consumers can upload various personal information to a minimum, and conveniently switch between different platforms to use different services; Small and micro enterprises can integrate their own resources on different platforms, comprehensively coordinate their business, and reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Currently, the barriers between platforms are gradually being opened, but the removal of URL link blocking is only the first step to solve the interconnection problem, and there is still a long way to go.
In December 2021, Kuaishou and Meituan announced that they have reached a strategic cooperation in connectivity.
Based on the Kuaishou open platform, the two parties will open up content scene marketing, online transactions and offline performance service capabilities, and jointly create a "one-stop" complete consumption link for users.
The interconnection between the two parties will bring broader imagination and market growth to the local life industry, which will help realize a virtuous circle of platforms, users, talents, merchants, and business ecology.
At the 2021 Baidu Alliance Summit held recently, Baidu Group Executive Vice President Shen Shao said that interconnection should not only be the interconnection between platform information and content, but also the interconnection of technology and ecology.
Only in this way can the Internet's innovation vitality be truly enhanced, which in turn promotes the upgrade of the entire industry and the lives of the general public.
Interconnection will turn closed "flow pools" into active and surging rivers.
Shen said that interconnection and interoperability will be a major opportunity for the entire mobile Internet for the next ten years. Interconnection will bring the Internet back to its early open state, and interoperability will allow Internet companies, and between Internet companies and traditional companies to truly collaborate, and interoperate. , Technology empowerment, ecological support, and jointly share the digital and intelligent technology dividends, bring more multiplier effects, and enlarge the overall cake.
Fulfill social responsibility
A small mobile phone screen completely changed the fate of Gerungdröm.
This Tibetan girl from Daocheng, who had never been to the county seat before the age of 18, now uses the fast-hand short video platform to become a well-known local leader in getting rich.
Kuaishou initiated the "Happy Rural Leaders Program", which is the first Internet corporate social responsibility project focusing on rural entrepreneurs in China. It has now developed into the country's first rural entrepreneur growth incubator and rural industry accelerator.
Statistics show that from January to October 2021, more than 420 million orders for agricultural products were sent from rural areas to all parts of the country through Kuaishou's live broadcast e-commerce.
In the past three years, more than 20 million people earned income in Kuaishou every year, many from remote areas.
Su Hua, the founder and chairman of Kuaishou, said that since the development of the Internet, short video live broadcast platforms are deeply integrated with the real economy and all walks of life. On the one hand, it has improved the inclusiveness and convenience of the supply of online public cultural services; on the other hand, it has spawned New business formats and new models will be introduced to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and burst into greater economic potential and social value.
At the 2021 World Internet Conference, Zhang Yong, on behalf of Alibaba, announced the development of two new strategies around social responsibility-ESG (Environmental, Social, Corporate Governance) and Promoting Common Wealth.
Zhang Yong said: “The greatest value of the platform economy lies in the achievement of others while at the same time achieving healthy growth of oneself. Only more inclusive, fairer, more standardized, and more tolerant, more people and more small and medium-sized enterprises can participate in the platform economy. Only then will it truly and sustainably develop well."
To promote high-quality development, platform companies must fulfill their social responsibilities.
Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent, believes that the digital upgrade of traditional industries will bring about value chain reorganization. Once out of control, capital and new business models may have an impact on practitioners in the original business model.
Internet companies, especially platform companies, should uphold the concept of science and technology for good, practice technological ethics rules, and place development above the bottom line of safety.
Shen said that in order for small, medium and micro enterprises to catch up with the digital fast train, in addition to state support and their own efforts, they also need to master the digital and intelligent leading technology of Internet companies to "pass and help", by helping small, medium and micro enterprises to practice digitization, Intelligent basic skills, forging unique skills for high-quality development, and finally forming a digital and intelligent ecosystem where large enterprises stand indomitably, small enterprises are overwhelming, and large, medium, small and micro enterprises develop together.