At present, the development of digital economy and digital finance is in the ascendant, and everyone is discussing how to seize this rare historical opportunity to promote the high-quality development of China’s economy. Regarding the digital economy, the general secretary pointed out in a series of expositions that China’s digital economy is related to the overall development of China’s future competitiveness and has pointed out the direction for the development of the digital economy.

At present, it is necessary to further deepen the understanding of the digital economy . I have always held a view that digitalization is not a simple continuation of industrialization. We cannot regard the current digital revolution as the fourth industrial revolution, or as a aftermath of the industrial revolution.

If digitization and the digital revolution are viewed in this way, it may belittle the long-term and far-reaching overall impact of the digital revolution . I once said at a meeting that “the digital revolution will lead mankind into a digital civilization”, which means that the digital revolution is a large-scale economic and social revolution parallel to the agricultural revolution and industrial revolution that occurred in the past , leading mankind into a new form of civilization .

Of course, the digital revolution of the economy and society is based on the industrial revolution, which is the basis of industrialization as a whole . In the past, we vigorously developed industry, which was actually industrialization. Now, the concept juxtaposed with it, in the context of the civilization revolution, should be the digital revolution, and digitization will lead mankind into digital civilization.

I think that only by jumping out of the framework of industrialization and extracting digitization , can we see the internal logic of the digital economy or digital revolution more clearly, and not be obscured and bound by the logic of industrialization.

Once we fall into the logic of industrialization and industrial economy, we cannot truly understand a series of new things and new business forms such as digital economy, digital revolution and digitalization.

For example, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference has done a lot of research on the issue of data rights confirmation, and found that the idea of ​​​​rights confirmation in the past industrialization period simply does not work.

At present, the “Data Act” of foreign countries such as the European Union has also changed the old thinking of the past, no longer emphasizing ownership and abandoning the intellectual property thinking of the industrialization era, but emphasizing the right to use, circulation and sharing of data .

It is a traditional industrial market economic thinking to solve the problem of right confirmation from the perspective of ownership, because the economic transactions in the past were actually transactions between ownerships . Only when the ownership is confirmed can transactions be carried out. This is the basic logic of the industrial market economy in the past.

So in the digital economy, should data transactions also be carried out on the basis of determining ownership in accordance with the tradition? In my opinion, it is not feasible to use the logic of the past to understand. Ownership is no longer important in data transactions, and it is difficult to confirm rights from ownership. The most important thing is the right to use .

As a factor of production, the most important feature of data is that it has the nature of public goods , that is, it is non-competitive and non-exclusive . In the past, physical products and services could only be sold once, and could only be used by one person, but the data could be used countless times, either to Zhang San or Li Si, which did not affect the right to use the data.

From this point of view, the most important thing in data transactions is not the judicial clarity of data ownership, but the clarity of data usage rights.

Because neither public data nor behavioral data is collected specifically. For example, public data is in public management, and behavioral data is formed in transactions. Only when these data are processed and combined with specific scenarios can they reflect their due value.

Data is worthless if it is not associated with a specific context. So from this point of view, we now have to get rid of the traditional logic of the industrial market economy, and understand the digital market economy from another perspective, even at a higher level .

For example, data transactions are “available and invisible” through privacy computing. As long as it is connected, it can be purchased, processed and used in specific business scenarios by different demanders, or the processed and extracted information can be transferred as a data product to obtain benefits without obtaining data ownership.

I think the digital economy represents an economic form in the future, and it may show a state of “led by the digital economy and based on the industrial economy” in the future , similar to when we were engaged in industrialization in the past, we were dominated by industry and based on agriculture status.

As the dominant economic form in the future, the digital economy has changed the employment form and resource allocation methods in the past. The current form of employment in the labor market is no longer a typical employment relationship during the industrialization period, but more of a labor service partnership .

The employment relationship that Marx analyzed the most in “Das Kapital” is constantly decreasing under the impetus of the digital revolution, and is being replaced by more and more labor service partnerships.

What is particularly important is that, from the perspective of traditional political economy, the means of production and means of consumption are clearly distinct, but under digital conditions, the boundaries between means of production and means of consumption are blurred .

For example, online car-hailing, private cars driven by online car-hailing drivers, according to the past definition, belong to consumption materials and cannot be operated to carry passengers, otherwise they are black cars.

However, under the conditions of digitalization, the previous consumption materials can be marketized, and residents’ wealth can be capitalized in more ways, and then can be more fully utilized . A private car can be regarded as household consumption, and at the same time, it can also join the online car-hailing platform as a tool for obtaining income, that is, an asset. At this time, it is difficult to distinguish whether the private car is a means of production or a means of consumption.

Therefore, it is not feasible to understand the digital economy from the perspective of production materials, consumption materials, and ownership mentioned in the past. We should adjust this thinking.

In addition, the digital economy has turned resources that were not tradable into tradable. Just like the example just now, private cars, as consumption materials, could only be bought and sold as consumer goods in the past, and there is no channel for capitalizing them as production materials to obtain income.

But now there is such a channel, which means that resources that were not tradable before can now be traded after being capitalized. This is a new trading method.

Another example is private parking spaces. You can say that it is a kind of consumer data, because it cannot be traded under the physical time and space conditions of the past, but when we were researching in Guangzhou, we found a company that established a platform for these private parking spaces, allowing everyone to use the parking spaces for a period of time. It is uploaded to the Internet, and the supply of private parking spaces is well realized, and the supply and demand are matched through the platform.

In this way, the private parking space can not only be used by oneself, but also can be rented according to the time period when the parking space is idle when driving out, so that the private parking space can be fully utilized and the utilization efficiency of resources is greatly improved. This kind of efficiency improvement would not be possible if it were not under the condition of digitization, that is to say, digitization makes non-tradable resources tradable.

Another example is that there are some talented young people in some remote villages. I saw an example, a young man who can sing. Has musical talent.

Through the current digital platform, he has transformed his musical talent into an asset, attracting millions of fans and earning millions of dollars a year, which was impossible before.

In the past, even if the young man had musical talent, he had to go to music school and then give concerts. This process was long and he might not be famous yet.

I cite these examples to illustrate that under digital conditions, many resources that were not tradable in the past have become tradable, but these may not be counted in statistics, so digitization actually brings new challenges to national economic accounting and so on. challenge.

To sum up, the digital economy is a dominant economic form in the future. It is different from the logic of the industrial economy. It is urgent to break the inertial thinking and jump out of the cognitive limitations.

Platform enterprises are the micro foundation of the digital economy. In the past, enterprises were virtual legal persons, and now platform enterprises are also virtual legal persons, but their functions are completely different from those of traditional factories, enterprises, companies, etc. It is actually a new production organization method that changes the original The organizational method established by the industrial division of labor has become the micro-foundation of the digital economy.

So how should digital platform companies be recognized, evaluated and supervised? Especially for the behavior of these digital platform companies, such as whether there is discrimination in pricing, whether there is unfair competition, whether there is monopoly, etc., I am afraid that we can no longer follow the old calendar under the conditions of the industrial market economy in the past.

If those old calendars are applied to these platform economies, it may curb the development of digital platform companies.

In fact, this round of rectification in our country – many measures taken against anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition, many of which are worthy of our reflection and further summary.

The reason for summarizing is to see which ones are right and which ones are wrong. We must seek truth from facts, and continue to improve and persevere if we get it right; if we find that we have made a mistake, we must resolutely correct it. The development of platform enterprises creates a favorable environment.

If there are deviations in understanding and insufficient understanding, the development of digital platform companies will be affected. If the micro-foundation of the digital economy is not sound and the motivation for innovation declines, then the development of the entire digital economy will be out of the question.

At present, the supervision of digital platform companies is becoming more and more comprehensive. For example, algorithms need to be reported and supervised. How should algorithms be supervised? This is a difficult problem, because the algorithm is related to the scene, and the scene is designed by imagination, and the design of the scene is also a process of trial and error.

For this kind of algorithm formed based on imaginary scenarios, it is likely to fall into a dilemma to judge whether it is right or wrong, whether it is safe, and whether it is beneficial or harmful to consumers and society.

If the government believes that there is risk if it cannot understand, many innovations may not be born. In order to “innovate within norms”, it is actually difficult to achieve innovation, because innovation means entering no man’s land, which means that there is no frame of reference, so there is no norm. Just like the road, the road has not been repaired, how can there be traffic lights? There should be roads first, and then traffic lights.

“Innovation in norms”, especially in the field of financial technology, needs to be explored and summarized from theory and practice, and what the so-called norms should regulate.

After entering the no-man’s land, there is no direction, and we are constantly trial and error. In this regard, what should be regulated and what should be prevented should be specific, ruled by law, and predictable. It is necessary to prevent the stagnation of innovation caused by the personal preferences of law enforcement officers and the pursuit of minimizing the risk of liability by relevant regulatory agencies.

If regulators are self-righteous, they may make innovators lie flat, investors will stop, and the digital economy will decline. When you don’t know what to do is right and what to do is wrong, this compliance risk will become a huge risk cost, and innovation will be curbed.

How to understand digital platforms, do not simply apply the regulatory methods under traditional industrial enterprises and industrial market economic organizations, especially when it comes to issues such as unfair competition and monopoly, there must be new understanding, new rules and new regulatory methods .

The development of the digital economy is different from that of the industrial economy. Once it falls behind, it may not be able to catch up one step at a time.

If the industrial economy falls behind, we can still make up lessons and catch up, but based on the characteristics of the digital economy, if we fall behind, it will be almost impossible to make up lessons and catch up in the future. Why? Because the micro foundation of the development of the digital economy is the platform enterprise, it will form a new economic ecology. Once this new economic ecology is formed, it will be difficult to shake and change.

In the past, under the conditions of the industrial market economy, as long as we had a large amount of cheap labor, we could catch up with low costs and even squeeze out other countries’ enterprises, but this is almost impossible under the conditions of the digital economy.

To give a simple example, take the software used by computers as an example. At present, Microsoft’s operating system is widely used. Is it possible that we can’t make an operating system of Microsoft’s level and quality? No, we can do it.

Twenty years ago, the country developed its own operating system, but it was unable to be industrialized and marketized, and we could not break through the existing market ecology. It is technically possible to break through, but it cannot be realized commercially. Of course, in the military field, domestic substitution can be achieved regardless of cost. The comprehensive strength of a country is ultimately reflected in the competitiveness of industries, products and business models supported by continuous innovation.

Driven by digitization, this international competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Digitalization is reshaping the new economic ecology. Once it fails to catch up, it may not catch up step by step. This is different from the industrialization era. It goes without saying that in the wave of the digital revolution, slower development will be the greatest national security risk.

Another difference is that the digital economy is characterized by diminishing marginal costs and increasing marginal returns. The diminishing marginal costs and increasing marginal returns brought about by this digital virtualization are completely opposite to the increasing marginal costs and diminishing marginal returns of the industrial economy.

The current virtual manufacturing, virtual verification, virtual training, etc., greatly save the usual process of implementing in physical space, and greatly reduce the cost.

For example, before the official operation of high-speed rail, a series of verifications are required to test its stability and reliability, which can now be realized through digital virtual processes, and the cost is continuously reduced. As well as the current R&D, virtualization has greatly shortened the R&D process, accelerated the R&D process, and reduced the cost of R&D trial and error.

It can be seen that the digital economy shows an acceleration in the upgrading and iteration of technology. Those who run ahead will get faster and faster, and those who fall behind will be almost impossible to catch up after falling behind.

Digitalization will automatically form an acceleration of development, which is directly related to diminishing marginal costs and increasing marginal returns. This can be evidenced by the development speed of some digital platform companies.

It takes much less time for a digital platform company to grow into a multinational giant than for a traditional company. In the development of the digital economy, my country and foreign countries can be said to be on the same starting line, at least the gap is far smaller than that of the industrialization era. The problem is that once the gap widens, it is almost impossible to catch up in the future.

The development of the digital economy is related to the future of China’s development, the overall situation of development and international competitiveness. It is necessary to re-understand and deepen the understanding, to reflect on the existing regulatory policies and regulatory methods, and at the same time to reflect and summarize some existing laws.

From the perspective of the relationship between development and security, there are two sentences to describe: security is the premise of development, and development is the guarantee of security. The meaning of “safety” in the first half of the sentence is different from that in the second half of the sentence.

We say that “safety is the premise of development.” The “safety” here refers to specific safety. For example, production accidents caused by hacking will hinder the progress of production. It refers to specific, partial, and concrete safety.

Besides, “development is the guarantee of security”, the “security” here actually refers to the overall and overall security, which is the security of the country.

For example, we say that slow development or stagnant development may be the biggest insecurity. This is in an overall sense, just like the saying in the past that “if you fall behind, you will be beaten.” The security here is based on a whole and overall situation of future strategies Therefore, the meaning of “safety” in these two sentences is different.

In a normal context, security is the condition, and development is the goal. The two are the relationship between the condition and the goal, and this relationship cannot be reversed logically. In order to develop, even if there are no conditions, we must strive to create conditions.

What may be more concerned now is the first half of the sentence “safety is the premise of development”, so all departments are focusing on safety, and if they rush to catch up with safety, it is likely to turn the alternative development of safety into a “goal” and become the department’s performance and exemption. Maximum consideration.

Once such a mutation occurs, the innovation of enterprises, especially the rapid iteration of digital technology, may be inhibited, causing them to fail to catch up step by step. This is a great risk to the development of my country’s digital economy and brings strategic challenges. not safe.

At present, more consensus needs to be formed, especially for government departments, to have a new understanding and new concepts of the digital economy, especially in terms of regulation, to implement inclusive and prudent regulation, especially not to copy the regulation of the traditional industrial economy to the digital economy Among them, the same is true for digital finance. In this regard, more research results are needed to prompt relevant government departments to change their traditional understanding.

Now we have seen some gratifying changes, that is, the State Council has established an inter-ministerial joint mechanism on the development of the digital economy, led by the National Development and Reform Commission, and participated by 20 departments, to discuss some problems that may arise in the process of digital economy development. This is a positive To avoid various departments going their own way, to a certain extent, it resolves the bottleneck that the current regulation may bring to the development of the digital economy.

This should be fully affirmed. It is hoped that the inter-ministerial joint mechanism for the development of the digital economy can play a greater role in promoting the high-quality and rapid development of my country’s digital economy.