Digital News

　　According to the latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Internet enterprises above the designated size in China registered a 3.1% year-on-year increase in business revenue in the first half of the year, with the growth rate 2.2 percentage points higher than in the first five months. The upward trend has been fueled by the rapid rise of emerging sectors, including 5G-based calling services, live streaming and short videos, and cloud gaming. It also highlights the strong momentum generated by the combined advance of large-model applications and AI-powered devices. With digital consumption demand continuing to grow, mobile data usage has recorded double-digit growth for six consecutive months. Powered by innovation, China’s Internet industry is pressing ahead through the waves of the real economy.

　　Behind the strong growth figures, cutting-edge innovation is emerging as the industry’s ballast through economic cycles. In the first half of the year, R&D investment by Internet enterprises above the designated size bucked the trend, sending a clear signal that leading enterprises are moving their strategic focus from competing for traffic to fortifying fundamental capabilities. Core technology areas such as operating systems, databases, inference chips, and large models are drawing unprecedented investment. Hundreds of billions of yuan are flowing into cloud and AI infrastructure development. Domestic large models such as Qwen are fully open-sourced and deployed for large enterprises and institutions. The industry’s competitive focus is shifting from scale expansion to deep technological development, using innovation to build resilient moats against uncertainty and forging the second growth curve through cost reduction and efficiency improvements.

　　The sustained buildup of innovation capacity will ultimately manifest in core industrial sectors. The number of registered generative AI services is rising rapidly, while domestic large models continue to push the boundaries in parameter scale and multimodal capabilities, even taking root in critical areas such as industry, finance, and medical care. The first large model platform in the metallurgical industry has pushed metallographic analysis accuracy to over 95%, while intelligent risk-control systems now enable credit approvals in seconds, and medical AI is improving the efficiency of new drug development by orders of magnitude. These are far from mere technological gimmicks—they represent a real efficiency revolution unfolding on factory floors, in laboratories, and within financial institutions. Drawing on deep data accumulation and strong scenario understanding, Internet enterprises are emerging as key hubs for converting large-model capabilities into tangible value, driving AI to become a core productive force that empowers industries across the board.

　　Technological breakthroughs and industry empowerment will ultimately translate into tangible results in the market. In the first half of the year, online retail sales rose steadily by 8.5%, while the growth of instant retail has ignited a “new wave of consumption,” fueled by multiple reinforcing factors: policy support and platform promotions are unlocking consumer potential, “AI + consumption” is transforming the shopping experience, and innovations such as smart shopping assistants and virtual fitting rooms are emerging. Particularly striking is the rise in “emotional consumption,” with user numbers for categories catering to emotional needs exceeding 300 million. Instant retail is rapidly expanding from food and beverage into beauty, pharmaceuticals, and even travel, as platforms integrate services to create a full-scenario consumer ecosystem. This not only unlocks a wider market and extends the reach of brick-and-mortar businesses but also generates substantial employment in logistics, warehousing, and digital operations, injecting steady momentum into the overall economy.

　　However, the industry’s path forward is far from smooth. High computing costs and uneven regional distribution impose strict constraints on innovation and iteration, while insufficient penetration of technology into core industrial segments limits its impact. Institutional barriers to the circulation of data elements are restricting the value that can be extracted from “data-rich resources,” and the regional digital divide, together with technology adoption hurdles for small and medium-sized enterprises, remains a pressing issue. Additionally, the gap in maturity between domestic foundational technology ecosystems and global leading standards demands accelerated catch-up. These deep-rooted challenges call for more systematic and far-reaching strategies to drive breakthroughs.

　　Strengthening the foundation of computing power has become a top priority for driving innovation. Efforts should be made to accelerate the development of national computing power hub nodes, optimize energy target allocation, and prioritize building green, low-carbon, and high-efficiency data centers. At the same time, the expansion of regional and industry-wide computing power resource sharing platforms should be actively promoted, lowering the computing power threshold for small and medium-sized enterprises through economies of scale and flexible scheduling. Concurrently, research into new computing architectures should be pursued to build a technical reserve for future massive demand, ensuring that computing power costs no longer pose a barrier to innovation.

　　Deeper empowerment lies in bridging technology and industry at a fundamental level. Efforts should accelerate the large-scale, in-depth adoption of AI large models and next-generation information technologies across industrial manufacturing, modern agriculture, urban governance, and other areas. Emphasis should be placed on building secure, reliable, and well-regulated systems for the circulation and trading of data elements, unlocking the “data-rich resources” dormant across industries. Priority should also be given to developing “hard-core” applications that address core industrial pain points, such as improving yield rates, optimizing production processes, and enhancing supply chain resilience, so that technological innovation translates into tangible breakthroughs on factory floors and in laboratories.

　　In addition, large platform companies should be encouraged to open and share foundational AI tools and cloud resources, building a low-cost “AI-as-a-Service” ecosystem for small and medium-sized enterprises. Strong support should be directed toward the development of lightweight, industry-specific, fine-tuned models to simplify technology adoption. Collaborative efforts should establish a network of regional technology service centers across industries, universities, and research institutes, providing consultation, training, and solution matching to ensure that technological benefits reach the farthest corners of the industrial chain. Meanwhile, digital infrastructure in central, western, and underdeveloped regions should be strengthened, guiding Internet capital to focus on the digitalization of local characteristic industries and nurturing new digital business forms with regional identity.