How Should Big Data Develop

Outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has not only affected world political and economic developments, but also changed people’s living and producing styles and ways of thinking. The epidemic has greatly accelerated China’s digital transformation, pushing big data, artificial intelligence, and internet of things to develop more rapidly. From epidemic monitoring, contact tracing, and logistics coordination to medical treatment, vaccine research and development, and public services, big data was applied in many fields. The integration of digital technology with the real economy has become a powerful new driving force for turning this crisis into an opportunity. However, big data is a “double-edged sword”. Although it brings many benefits, it also causes a series of problems. How should big data develop?

Rapid or Steady Growth? Big data once again met new opportunities amid the epidemic

This epidemic has brought a very passive test to China’s economy and society, also provided an opportunity for big data to demonstrate its potentials. During the epidemic, government departments, medical institutions, scientific research institutes, and enterprises widely applied big data technology to epidemic prevention and control and resumption of work and production, demonstrating the irreplaceable role of big data in the fight against the pandemic.

In the epidemic, big data mainly applied in three fields. The first one is epidemic monitoring. The government and enterprises have cooperated on developing big data analysis products and services, and provided real-time information for the public and themselves to make decisions. The second is virus prevention, control, and treatment. Using location and behavior data analysis to identify high-risk people and predict high-risk areas. Big data has also played an important role in disease diagnosis and treatment, vaccine research and development, and medical research. The third is production and life services. Many internet and big data companies and network platforms have provided residents with services such as online education, online medical care, telecommuting, contactless delivery, and online entertainment. A large number of small, medium, and micro enterprises have started digital transformation.

A serious of favorable policies also helped big data to develop. In March 2020, the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Improving the Systems and Mechanisms for Market-based Allocation of Factors of Production was released, followed by a series of documents for the digital economy and digitalization development issued by the General Office of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments.

Big data technology gave an outstanding performance in fighting the epidemic and won favorable policies for its future development. However, in the post-epidemic era, whether we should push big data to develop rapidly or steadily still requires a comprehensive review of the two sides of it.

Opportunity or Hidden Danger? Take an objective view on the risks and challenges brought by big data

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, and due to the changes in the external environment, the development of big data has begun to show new trends. On the technical level, big data technology has gradually evolved from basic links such as data collection, storage, processing, and analysis to data management, data security, transaction and circulation, and other fields. It has formed a complete system, and has integrated with artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and blockchain technologies. On the industrial level, the scale of the big data industry and the number of enterprises have maintained growth. On the application level, big data analysis applications have further extended from the consumer end to the production end. Various technical tools, products and services continue to emerge.

Another aspect may deserve more attention. In 2020, internet and big data platforms were vigorous in the first half of the year, but the situation changed suddenly in the second half. Many internet platforms crowded to launch online group buying. Moreover, the suspension of Ant Group IPO also put the soaring internet companies on cusp. The internet giants and the capital power behind them were seen greedy and profit-seeking. The government immediately made it clear that it would strengthen anti-monopoly and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. After the epidemic ebbed, the problems exposed by big data become more prominent. First, there are obstacles to data integration. The data standards from various channels are not uniform, so the data are less creditable. Second, there are difficulties in data sharing. Regulations and policies on promoting public data sharing are not yet complete, and data management systems have not yet been established. The development of the data factor market is lagging, and the construction of data transaction and circulation systems remains in the primary stage. Third, there are hidden dangers in data security. As the data protection system has not been established, personal information protection cannot keep up with the needs of the rapid change of the situation. Fourth, there are gaps in data regulation. For instance, some internet giants have been using data to compete unfairly in the market. Fifth, the digital divide is difficult to bridge. Differences in the data management and application capabilities among different industries and companies are obvious. The financial, telecommunications, and power industries are holding a safe lead.

All of these pointed to a fundamental problem: rule-making on big data is obviously lagging behind development of the technology, industry, and application. It also shows that big data has entered a new stage of development, which calls for the coordinated progress of technologies and standards.

Technology or System? Thoughts on the high-quality development of big data in the digital age

The digital age has arrived. In the context of the in-depth development of technological revolution and industrial transformation, the data-driven economy will soon become the mainstream. Both productivity and productive relations will be redefined, and the orderly flow and allocation of data elements will become increasingly important. At the same time, it is necessary to properly resolve data application chaos and data governance problems as soon as possible, and use the high-quality development of big data to build a new development pattern and promote high-quality development.

On one hand, big data technology innovation should be encouraged, adhering to problem-oriented, demand-oriented, innovation-driven and high-quality supply to create new demand; focusing on the integration of digital economy and real economy, improving the application of big data, increasing data agility, and encouraging the use of government data for innovative productions, technologies, and services. Meantime, the development also should aim at core technologies, promoting the integration and innovation of new technologies, strengthening data science research, and building a data-driven technological innovation ecosystem; and finally, accelerating the construction of new infrastructure and promote digital transformation to support the digital ecosystem.

On the other hand, a strong data system should be established, adhering to reform and innovation to remove obstacles and improve the national big data strategy; exploring ways to establish a unified and standardized data management system and a classification system, improving the government data sharing and coordination mechanism, and creating a national data sharing platform;strengthening the theoretical research on data property rights and judicial practice of data legislation, protecting the legal rights and interests of right holders, and gradually refining the basic system of data security; coordinating the data resources and computing resources; actively carrying out international cooperation in fields such as cross-border data flow, and participating in the formulation of international rules and standards in the digital field.

In short, only by coordinating the promotion of big data technological innovation, industrial development, and the construction of institutional rules, can big data technology be better applied and head towards high-quality development.

Contributed by Feng Haihong, Associate Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Translated by Ren Meiqi