The Guiyang International Big Data Expo, held from May 26 to 29, in the city of Guiyang, Guizhou province managed to attract millions of Internet visitors on opening day.
It is the first exposition of its kind in the world and one part of the city's plan for its big data industry and quest for capital,technology and human resources.
And the city has put a lot of effort into its big data industry by connecting data, information and networks in its own response to Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative, which he announced in 2013 as a way to revive old trade routes across Asia, Africa and Europe.
In joining the effort, Premier Li Keqiang sent a message to Guiyang and the Big Data Expo, on May 26, saying, "Data is a basic resource and an important productive force. Big data, combined with cloud computing and the Internet of Things, is rapidly changing ways of production and living,"
Earlier, at the two sessions in Beijing this March, Li had brought up big data by referring to Internet Plus, a combination of the mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things and manufacturing to encourage the e-commerce, industrial networks, and Internet banking.
He calling it a favorable wind that can carry the Chinese economy to a higher level, and, not wanting to waste time, Guiyang officials vowed to use Internet Plus to take the big data lead in China and turn their city into a big data valley.
Internet Plus's purpose is to help Internet companies go internaional and, as the world's most populous country, China has an ocean of data from many digital devices, which under those conditions could generate great value.
Big data has certainly reformed the city's industrial structure and generated a new business model involving big data, for a big data factory, big data supermarket and data experimental workshop for trade, analysis, and exchanges.
And, some preferential policies and its pleasant environment have attracted entrepreneurs from China and abroad.
The city began taking the lead earlier this year by starting a citywide free Wi-Fi project, then followed that with the opening of the nation's first big data laboratory, a big data public site, big data exchange center and many more service providers in cloud computing, call centers, data processing and social data analysis.
