China’s Platform Economy

We know about Facebook and Alibaba’s platforms but China’s platform economy plans will blow you away.

FromPekingology: ‘Xi Jinping.. said we should focus on the long term while taking into account of the status quo, fill the shortcomings, strengthen the weaknesses, create an innovative environment, solve prominent contradictions and problems, and promote the regulated, healthy, and sustainable development of China’s platform economy‘.

China owns the intellectual property to and this year will launch platforms for five new industries, complete protocols and fully functioning interfaces:

1. IIoT, Industrial Internet of Things
2. CBDC, Central Bank Digital Currency
3. BSN, Blockchain Services Network
4. QKDN, Quantum Key Distributed Internet
5. Smart Cities.

Each will create many personal fortunes, and create hundreds of thousands of lucrative niches worldwide. Let’s look closer:

• The Industrial Internet of Things, or IIoT, refers to the billions of industrial devices—anything from the machines in a factory to the engines inside an airplane—that are filled with sensors, connected to wireless networks, and gathering and sharing data. In other words, part of China’s Platform Economy. The advent of tiny low cost sensors and high-bandwidth wireless networks now means even the smallest devices can be connected up, given a level of digital intelligence that allows them to be monitored and tracked, and can share data on their status and communicate with other devices. All of this data can then be collected and analysed to make business processes more efficient. The IIoT is important because of its potential to enable faster and better decision making. The change that the IIoT can bring is also closely related to the digital transformation projects that many businesses are working on. Worldwide spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) is forecast to reach $745 billion in 2019 – up from the $646 billion spent in 2018 — and likely to hit $1 trillion in 2022. The vast majority of that spending will be by businesses. The integration and application of the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing has been strongly encouraged in the planning and designing of the city. Much as the economic adjustments of the 1980’s and 1990’s found expression in the gradual implementation of new policies and strategies in the special economic zones, so too are new technologies finding their place in the new area’s development. According to the Chinese authorities, the use of these new intelligent technologies will bring far-reaching changes in terms of urban development. The hope is to be able to plan in such a way that those innovative technological tools will not only improve energy efficiency but also reduce management expenses. A special emphasis has been placed on building so-called intelligent infrastructures with features such as smart sensors and lighting, as well as facial recognition systems, all of which are conceived of as ways to reduce time and manpower being invested in these areas. In order to optimize space management, some of the transport, water and electricity infrastructure will also be built underground. Several leading Chinese companies have already signed cooperation agreements with Xiong’an’s local government. Baidu has been testing self-driving vehicles equipped with its “Apollo platform” and China Mobile has made similar demonstrations with its new 5G remote control driving technology. Alibaba, which has opened three subsidiaries in Xiong’an, has introduced its Artificial intelligence “City Brain” platform designed to improve traffic management.
• CBDC. The Chinese government has flagged the PBOC’s launch of Central Bank Digital Currency in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen. The currency has been in the development since 2014 is ready to be launched. Union Pay Chairman, Shaofu Jun, the initiative for digital currency can solve the problem of cross border transactions since it uses distribute, blockchain technology. According to the PBOC the statutory digital currency will consist of a “two-tier” system involving the central bank exchanging digital currency with financial institutions who will, in turn, exchange it with individual investors and consumers. Shenzhen is an outstanding candidate given the presence of leading financial institutions such as China Merchants Bank and Ping An Bank, as well as tech giants such as Tencent. Another part of China’s Platform Economy.
• Blockchain Services Network. Launched in April 2020, Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) is the Chinese government-backed blockchain initiative, conceived to support blockchain SMEs to position and develop in the Crypto space. The network relies on FISCO BCOS open-source protocol, a collaborative project developed by Beyondsoft, Digital China, Forms Syntron, Huawei, Shenzhen Securities Communications, Tencent, WeBank, YIBI Technology, Yuexiu Financial Holdings and more. China Government has recently announced that BSN will be accessible by external users starting from August 10th, 2020.
  How BSN work:  Blockchain-based service network is an information infrastructure where all participants share the same public services provided by Chinese Government and currently integrates six public blockchains: Tezos, NEO, Nervos, EOS, IRISnet and Ethereum. Without the need of acquiring extra physical servers or cloud services, it aims at greatly reduce participants costs and encourage micro-size and SMEs to access BSN and accelerate the widespread of Block-chain technology. Indeed, developers will be allowed to create decentralized application using the facilities (bandwidth and data centers) provided by BSN’s offshore centers. The core project relies on public city nodes provided by specific data centers and cloud resources providers: once they have installed the public city node software, they can be linked in the BSN network. In the official Blockchain-based service network website, it is accessible live node status. From here, it becomes accessible to external participants, that can start deploying their block-chain solution form there, starting from pre-built chain code. Nodes are available in more than 120 cities in China and 8 international cities (amongst which: Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, and many more).
  Main Advantages
  • Cost-saving for access and application development: aiming at spreading blockchain technology usage and adoption, Blockchain-based service network is built in a such a smart way that allows SMEs, micro-sized companies and individuals to the blockchain industry with consistent costs-saving. Smart gateways and pre-built nodes do not require for technology investments nor particular blockchain skills. It is estimated that blockchain companies’ operating costs will be reduced as much as 80%;
  • Accessibility and flexibility: Blockchain-based service network provides consensus order cluster services to all application, allowing users to share the same identification certificate and access to application. Leveraging on these factors implies that each BSN-node is not owned by a single entity, but data center becomes the owner of the related city node.
• QKDN, Quantum Key Distributed Internet. Quantum communication uses photons (read unhackable) to securely distribute a “secret key” to allow the exchange of encrypted messages. The technology holds enormous potential to revamp multiple domains, including finance, defence, governance etc., and building a secure quantum internet. A network for quantum key distribution (QKD) spanning thousands of kilometres has been built in China. It links four quantum metropolitan area networks (QMANs) in cities in eastern China with a remote location in the far west of the country. The system comprises a 2000 km fibre optic link between the cities of Shanghai, Hefei, Jinan and Beijing and a satellite link spanning 2600 km between two observatories – one east of Beijing and the other just a few hundred kilometres from China’s border with Kazakhstan. As part of China’s Platform Economy, the network was built by Jian-Wei Pan at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei along with colleagues in academia and industry. QKD uses the principles of quantum mechanics to allow two parties to share a secret cryptography key. A crucial feature of QKD is that the two parties can tell if an eavesdropper has intercepted the key while it is being shared. Once the secrecy of the key is established it can be used to exchange encrypted messages using a conventional telecoms network .
• Smart Cities.There is currently no clear definition of the concept of a smart city.
  Europe’s Definition: 
• Smart city is an advanced city that concentrates on high technology; in cities, ICT connects people, information and various parts of the city to create a sustainable, green, competitive and innovative city with high quality of life;
• Whether a city is smart depends on that environment of human resources, as well as traditional (transport), modern (information and communication technology) exchange infrastructure investment can accelerate sustainable economic growth, improve the quality of life, promote intelligent management of resources, and promote city governance participation.
• Smart City is a city that gathers highly educated, knowledge-based work and innovative activities.
  Smart cities optimize the utilization of electricity, transportation, and other systems by applying sensing and information dissemination technologies to urban infrastructure to improve the quality of life Smart city refers to the application of ICT in real-time analysis at a community, city, regional or national scale to promote sustainable economic development.

Japan has a theory for smart cities called “environmentally” related city. which believes that the true meaning of smart cities is to apply information and communication technology (ICT) in infrastructure and living facilities to improve efficiency and build a city that makes residents feel more convenient and comfortable
Consensus Smart City Definition
1. Based on information and communication technology
2. The core of applied technology is to improve people’s quality of life;
3. Applications include human resources, government governance, resource and environment, mobility (transportation and communications), and serve specific policy objectives including resource optimization, sustainable development, and improved quality of life.

2.2 The main driving force for the development of smart cities
Population and energy are two major, common problems for cities today but are also the initial reason for the development of smart cities around the world. Different countries have also proposed their original intention of developing a smart city based on their own national conditions and the actual problems they face in development (Hong Kong Central Policy Unit , 2015). For example, the reasons for the development of smart cities in Japan are the country’s high urban population density, aging infrastructure, and tight resources. The reason for Singapore’s development of smart cities is that the land area is small, and it is plagued by a shortage of resources and the ageing of the population.
ICT technology is the basic support system for smart cities. It is integrated in different departments to achieve transparency and efficiency. It can be used to improve power usage and distribution, ensure a 24/7 water supply, improve mobility through traffic management, enhance automatic monitoring and security systems, and provide Wi-Fi- powered open spaces and homes for businesses. The spatial scope and application areas that ICT can integrate are basically infinite and comprehensive, and the results of its implementation largely depend on the reasons driving the country and the city to build a smart city, as well as the available budget.

New technologies push forward the development of smart cities. In 2008, IBM issued “smart earth”, which aims to solve the problems faced in the development of global cities using new technologies. This proposal generated the concept of smart cities and was met with consensus across the world. In China, in 2012, the ministry of housing and urban-rural development proposed the smart city pilot project, marking the beginning of China’s official movement on smart city construction. Regarding the definition of a smart city that is most widely accepted in China, Zhen Feng’s(2014) article “the application of big data in smart city studies and urban planning”, published in International Urban Planning, mentioned that smart cities are not only a certain field or a simple Informatization method, but rather rely on information technology to promote policies related to the urban social economy, the environment, space, multi-scale interconnection, interoperability and interaction, and the government in all aspects. Smart cities cannot be developed all at once, but should involve a process of continual updates, in which changes in the way society and the city operate are reflected in technology.
In 2008, according to the report “Super Smart City”1, published by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, of the more than 1000 smart city building projects in the world, China ranked the most with over 500. The construction of China’s smart cities has entered a period of rapid development. In fact, the current smart cities have begun to take shape, and the “sports-style” construction method in the early stage has gradually slowed down. In the course of development, the government has gradually realized that government- based construction lacks sustainability and that smart city construction also requires the power of universities, enterprises and citizens. The government must clarify its role and relationship with other related forces and have them take part through policy guidance to achieve the goal of building a high-quality smart city based on advanced technology and high efficiency.

Building One San Francisco Every Month

FULL TRANSLATION: The international environment and countermeasures of network governance during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period