Digital service, production flourish across China

BEIJING -- A man visits a digital experience center in a warehouse in Beijing, and a digital figure appears on the screen. The figure mimics his every movement, and it can even dance with him.

The warehouse of the metal company Shougang Group used to store iron powders, while now its approximately 8,000-square-meter exhibition area is equipped with holographic projection, artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) technologies.

As the 2022 Beijing Digital Economy Experience Week started this month, people are invited to a series of experiential activities, such as being immersed in the starry sky via VR or communicating with ancient figures in digital form using body language with the help of a motion capture system.

In the first quarter, Beijing's added value of the digital economy reached 387.36 billion yuan ($57.35 billion), up 7.2 percent year-on-year and occupying 41.2 percent of the Chinese capital's gross domestic product (GDP) during the period, according to the economy and information technology bureau of Beijing.

Digital services are applied in more fields. Based on the imaging technology and AI skin detection algorithm, Meitu, an AI-driven technology company, has provided businesses and institutions related to the skin beauty industry with digital services.

Through the company's mobile app, AI can detect the users' skin problems and recommend specific skin care solutions.

With the combination of online and offline services, beauty industry stores will receive more guests, and customers can have a better skin condition not only in the virtual world but also in the real world.

For the first half of 2022, China's combined output of the electronic information manufacturing, software, communication and internet industries surpassed 10 trillion yuan, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

"China's digital economy plays an increasingly important role in stimulating economic growth," said Wang Peng, an official with MIIT.

In Yongtai county, East China's Fujian province, the duckery of Guangyang Egg Industry Co Ltd has applied an intelligent management system to automatically feed ducks, clean feces and collect eggs.

The system has enabled a single farmer to breed some 50,000 ducks, improving the efficiency of livestock stock production, said Yu Jie, chairman of the company.

In Fujian's Ningde, Chinese automotive lithium-ion battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd has applied a "smart brain" in its plant. With the support of Huawei's 5G technology, the brain collects real-time energy consumption data, to provide energy-efficient solutions in production.

From 2017 to 2021, the output of China's digital economy increased from approximately 27 trillion yuan to over 45 trillion yuan, with its proportion to GDP growing from 33 percent to 39.8 percent, according to Cao Shumin, deputy head of the Cyberspace Administration of China.

"The development of the digital economy is in fact digitization in various industries," said Liu Shangxi, president of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences.