Big data industry expands rapidly in Guiyang

Since becoming China's first big data comprehensive pilot area in 2013, Guiyang has been exploring a new path of development by digging into the application value of big data and integrating it with the real economy.

Global Big Data Exchange (GBDEx), established in 2014 in Guiyang, is the world's first exchange of big data and has a symbolic significance in the development of Guiyang's big data industry.

Currently GBDEx has over 4,000 registered users, 225 high-quality data sources, 150 PB of data and 20,000 data products covering over 30 fields.

The big data industry provides a perfect opportunity for Guiyang to balance the development of its ecological environment and real economy. As a high-technology industry, the big data industry has a low negative influence on the environment and is less dependent on natural resources, industrial foundation and logistic conditions.

The stable geological structure, cool climate and abundant electricity resources of Guiyang make it suitable for the construction and operation of data centers on a large scale.

Over the past five years, Guiyang has accelerated the construction of information infrastructures, launched multiple supporting policies, and provided platforms to attract more talents and investments.

Top 500 companies from China and the rest of the world such as Intel, Dell, Alibaba, Huawei and JD have come to invest in Guiyang and cultivate more regional big data involved companies.

Supported by the government, these companies make use of the political, commercial and civilian value of big data and promote its application in all industries, making them a major engine boosting high-quality economic development in Guiyang.

In 2017, high-tech industries led by big data achieved an added value of 14.3 billion yuan ($2.1 billion). From 2013 to 2017, Guiyang's GDP doubled with an average annual growth of 13.1 percent, which makes it top ranking among the nation's provincial capital cities for five consecutive years.

Meanwhile, the forest coverage of Guiyang increased from 44.2 percent in 2013 to 48.66 percent in 2017. The rate of excellent air quality in Guiyang reached 95.1 percent, ranking ninth among 74 major cities in China.

According to the plan, Guiyang will achieve the data storage capacity of 1 EB, cultivate 10 big data brands with core competitiveness, launch over 100 big data applications, reach a business revenue of 150 billion yuan, gather over 10,000 big data market players, and become the China Big Data Valley by 2020.