A new report from Chinese Internet giant Tencent points to roaring growth in China’s Internet-based economy.
The “China Internet Plus Index Report (2018)” (中国“互联网+”指数报告（2018）) claims that China’s digital economy posted year-on-year growth of 17.24% in 2017 to reach 26.7 trillion yuan (approx. USD$4.25 trillion) in total.
According to the report the digital economy’s share of Chinese GDP rose to 32.28% in 2017, from 30.61% the preceding year.
Tencent released the report on 12 April at the 2018 China Internet Plus Digital Economy Summit (中国“互联网+”数字经济峰会) that was held in the south-western mega-city of Chongqing.
In addition to roaring growth, the report also indicates that China’s digital economy is becoming increasingly accessible to a broader range of society.
In 2017 China’s “digitisation Gini coefficient” was 0.59, which while significant of a comparatively low level of equality, nonetheless marked a significant improvement compared to the reading of 0.62 posted in 2016.
Guangdong province is the leading centre for China’s Internet Plus economy, followed by the eastern coastal provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, with the three regions collectively accounting for 33.1% of the total.
Leading cities for China’s digital economy in 2017 included Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Wuhan, Changsha, Jinan, Zhengzhou, Xi’an and Shenyang.
