In the era of the digital economy, if there is no inclusiveness towards the digital economy, the value of the digital assets produced will not be as significant, which contradicts the trend of promoting a digital China and integrating into the global digital economy.
The current socio-economic landscape has entered the stage of urban agglomeration development, where different cities exhibit a new pattern of deepening division of labor, complementary advantages, and gradient development.
In the manufacturing sector, the upstream and downstream of the industry chain have achieved agglomeration within urban clusters, and the integration between the service industry and manufacturing is becoming increasingly profound. At the same time, the consumer field also shows new trends of branding and service-oriented development. These development trends are not only closely related to manufacturing but also provide it with strong momentum.
Production services, aided by the vigorous development of big data technology, use big data for consumer insights through platform activities, thereby playing an enabling role in the production process.
From the perspective of the platform economy, by matching supply and demand to connect consumers and businesses, once production factors are formed, they can be utilized by ecological enterprises on the platform. These enterprises use data generated from consumer behavior to form consumer assets and use data for platform, design, consulting, and other services to empower manufacturing.
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In this process, the relationship between the government, consumers, and businesses shows a continuous trend of improvement. The government uses big data resources to optimize services and create a better environment for business development.
The rise of consumer assets
Analyzing from the perspective of the integration of the digital and physical economy (taking Tmall as an example), manufacturing is showing a trend from supply chain-driven to consumer chain-driven.
In the traditional model, businesses look for manufacturers based on demand. Manufacturers often locate around a core resource, such as a steel mill, if they are producing a pot. However, in the era of big data, businesses first consider what kind of pot consumers need, whether it's an air fryer or a large iron pot. If it's an air fryer, they need to consider: who would buy an air fryer? What preferences should the functionality and design meet?
By using big data for consumer insights and profiling, designs are generated, followed by prototyping. A small number of samples are released to the market to understand what designs, functions, and styles consumers prefer through limited sales. Then, the designs are modified and mass-produced in the factory.This process not only reduces the inventory of producers, but also allows for the understanding and forecasting of consumer demand in advance. At the same time, it enables production to be more oriented towards the design center, allowing for a rapid response to consumer demand. This "small order and quick return" model effectively promotes the aggregation of "consumer assets" and has a positive impact on the production process. In the case of SHEIN e-commerce, the application of this model is particularly evident.
SHEIN e-commerce utilizes big data technology to gain in-depth insights into consumer trends. Relying on the advantages of China's massive market scale, the number of new clothing styles launched each month reaches about ten times that of internationally renowned enterprises, rapidly growing into a leader in China's local cross-border e-commerce. Local consumers may not be very familiar with this brand, but its market share in the United States is extremely high.
The interactive relationship between online and offline is crucial. The vigorous development of the offline economy actually provides indispensable complement and support for the online economy.
What exactly is "consumer assets"? From an economic perspective, the core challenge of the market lies in eliminating information asymmetry. Consumers often find it difficult to accurately judge which products can meet their needs, and the supply side also finds it difficult to accurately grasp the true intentions of consumers. The existence of advertising and consulting services is precisely to bridge this information gap.
In the current online economy, live streaming with product promotion is a typical representative. Consumers establish close network relationships with the live broadcast room or live broadcast talent through in-depth social interactions, and trust is formed based on this relationship. The network structure centered on the live broadcast host makes the host the central node of online interactions, and all trust establishment and interactions revolve around the host.
These consumer groups composed of trust relationships and interactive behaviors, as well as the related data resources, constitute the so-called "consumer assets."
Tmall proposes the "Fast Model," which consists of four parts: the total amount of people, the deepening rate of people relationships, the number of core users, and the activity of core users. By combining a crowd, consumers, and product supply, it constructs indicators of consumer operation in terms of quantity, quality, and effect, strengthens the management of the entire life cycle of consumers, and helps brands with their operations.
Online and offline complement each other and differentiate in this process.In such an online era, does the offline become unimportant?
The answer is no, as cities are empowered by digitalization. The new demands for consumption that arise from the improvement of people's living standards cannot be fully satisfied online.
After the pandemic, there has been a significant surge in the number of coffee shops across the country. As a quintessential representative, coffee shops highlight the importance of offline interactions. Consumers here not only taste coffee but also enjoy the atmosphere, interactive ambiance, sense of experience, and fashionability that they create. Similarly, theaters demonstrate the same principle; as offline activities resume, music festivals and concerts are held nationwide, effectively driving the recovery of the post-pandemic economy.
The emergence of this phenomenon stems from the efficiency of face-to-face communication. While the online economy certainly provides convenience for those who cannot be physically present, attendees generally believe that this method is more effective in promoting offline interactions. Therefore, online and offline complement each other, jointly constructing a complete communication system.
This complementarity is particularly evident in live-commerce. Even with online live broadcasts, the offline studios need to be close to the markets of big cities, or even located in city centers. Many internet celebrities and live streamers choose to set up their studios and broadcast rooms in the city center to better access a variety of offline products and teams that serve them, such as makeup and studio decoration.
Today, the decoration of live broadcast rooms and business negotiations have become emerging professional positions. Just like electronic sports competitions, where the audience mainly watches live broadcasts online, offline live broadcasts also involve diversified activities such as advertising, peripheral products, and catering.
Moreover, in the public service sector (taking the breakfast cabinet at the subway entrance as an example), many white-collar workers can order breakfast through online platforms during their morning subway ride. When they arrive at their destination and exit the subway station, they can easily pick up their pre-ordered breakfast from the breakfast cabinet, thus saving time on breakfast preparation, purchase, and waiting in line.
In this process, there may be a gradual trend of differentiation between the offline and online economies, which should not be overlooked.
The online economy indeed offers unprecedented convenience, and its content tends to be more mass-oriented and popularized. In contrast, the offline economy needs to demonstrate a stronger sense of individuality and interactivity in content provision to meet the growing diverse needs of consumers.
Taking offline salon discussion activities as an example, if the content presented is only common knowledge that can be easily found online, and the guest's sharing can also be easily found on the internet, then the value of listening on-site will be greatly reduced. Therefore, the online and offline economies may show a trend of differentiation in the future, with the offline economy possibly leaning more towards individualization, boutique offerings, and emphasizing a high degree of interactivity.Inclusivity towards the Evolution of Platform Economy
In the current digital age, the rapid development of the digital platform economy has given rise to numerous functionalities. The service industry provides a powerful enablement for manufacturing and even agriculture, achieving effective matching of supply and demand.
Taking "My Work Network" as an example, it has successfully connected the demand for flexible employment in the manufacturing industry with the supply of flexible workers, creating new job positions such as "My Work Network" brokers. This form of flexible employment has become an emerging employment trend, especially during poor economic conditions, it plays an active role in counteracting unemployment in a counter-cyclical manner.
In addition, live-streaming salespeople on platforms like Taobao and TikTok have also given birth to new service formats. Platforms use big data resources for precise matching and operations, leveraging China's vast market and data advantages, gradually replacing traditional international productive service providers.
Platforms like Yue Butler, Meituan, Ele.me, and Didi have also brought great convenience to life, playing a significant role in supply and demand matching. The development of the digital platform economy has also given rise to a large employment group of housekeepers, delivery personnel, couriers, and ride-hailing drivers.
In the post-pandemic era, many changes have occurred in cities. Especially during the pandemic era, many phenomena that have accelerated online have emerged, making one wonder if urban space is no longer important? The answer remains no.
The substitution of online for offline or digital technology for job positions often only replaces more routine jobs within the manufacturing industry. In the service industry, it tends to have a complementary effect, especially in live-streaming e-commerce, food delivery, couriers, and ride-hailing drivers, all of which empower the digital economy. Due to the complementary effect of online and offline, it may even strengthen population aggregation.
This can be summarized in eight words: Online connection, offline differentiation.
Currently, e-commerce empowers the service industry through economies of scale and network effects, improving the adaptability between supply and demand, promoting precise consumption, and at the same time, through economies of scale, it also fosters diversity and convenience, which are characteristics that also rely on the population density of offline areas. For example, comparing Shanghai and Jiaxing, the scale of local immediate e-commerce and life service industry in Shanghai is ten times that of Jiaxing, far greater than the 4.6 times difference in permanent population size.
Inclusivity towards the evolution of the platform economy is essential, as is stimulating innovation based on digital technology. An industrial atmosphere and an inclusive policy environment are very important. In the era of the digital economy, if there is no inclusivity towards the digital economy, the value of digital assets produced will not be as significant, which contradicts the trend of promoting Digital China and integrating into the global digital economy.In the current discussions about the digital economy, it is important to avoid several dichotomies:
Firstly, we must not oppose services and manufacturing. Many service industries currently empower manufacturing, and the digital economy is a service industry that empowers manufacturing.
Secondly, we should not simplistically oppose consumption and production. Consumption can empower production-oriented services and service-oriented manufacturing.
Thirdly, we should not simplistically oppose online and offline economies. The online and offline economies are complementary to each other.