Digital economy

• China’s digital economy becomes a leading global force. China has:
  • 731 million Internet users, more than the EU and the USA combined
  • 44% of worldwide M2M (machine-to-machine) sim card subscriptions (three times the share of the United States)
  • the world’s largest e-commerce market - accounting for over 40% of the global e-commerce transactions' value (from less than 1% about a decade ago)
  • 43% of the unicorn's value (start-ups valued at over $1 billion)
  • the most active digital-investment and start-up ecosystems in the world
  • mobile payments' value 11 times that of the USA (some 68% of Chinese Internet users are making mobile digital payments, compared with only around 15% in the USA)
  •  the top two most powerful supercomputers in the world. 
    | Related Megatrends: Technology
  • the big digital power BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent) provided 42% of all venture-capital investment in China in 2016 (compared to 5% by Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Netflix in USA) and - other digital innovators such as Xiaomi, NetEase and Ping An are also building their own ecosystems.
    | Related Megatrends: Technology; Security; Governance

Media

• The merger of main Chinese state media (China Central Television (CCTV), China Radio International and China National Radio) into one "Voice of China" is consolidating Chinese state media power and the message it wants to disseminate, but is questioning even more democracy. | Related Megatrends: Governance

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