Four Aspects of 2025 Landscape Shaping the Future of China’s IT Market

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

According to research of IDC, by 2025, China will become the world leader in an array of areas ranging from economic aggregate, manufacturing value added, the number of Fortune 500 Chinese enterprises, scale of online shopping, and population of the middle-class. Obviously, this will bring unprecedented challenges and opportunities to China's ICT market.

According to IDC China's Managing Director Kitty Fok, ''With the application of the 3rd Platform (Cloud, Big Data, Mobility, and Social) and the 6 key technologies known as innovation accelerators (3D Printing, Robotics, Cognitive systems, IOT, Augmented/Virtual Reality, and Next-generation Security), the world will enter a super digital era and Digital Transformation (DX) will become a key trend in all businesses in the next decade. With the release of the Proposal on Formulating the 13th Five-Year Plan on November 3, 2015 by the Chinese government ‐ innovation, coordination, green development, openness, and sharing will become the main themes of China's economic development. With the ICT market of China poised to embrace four new landscapes by 2025 ‐ the New Economic Pattern, New Technological Pattern, New User Pattern, and New Ecological Pattern, China's ICT industry will embark on a transformational journey from a supporting to a leading role in businesses.''

The New Economic Landscape: Determining Market Opportunities and Participation

By 2025, China's economic aggregate will reach US$25 trillion and rank No.1 in the world. The Chinese economy will gradually take the shape of a new landscape: the service sector and intelligent manufacturing will drive economic growth, and Chinese enterprises will become globalized while innovative startups will become the new norm. Under this economic pattern, the following ten key words of the 13th Five-year Plan will significantly impact China's ICT market in the decade to come: Infrastructure, Made in China 2025, Modern Service Industry, Agricultural Modernization, Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection, Internet+, Big Data, Smart Cities, Globalization, and Secure and Controllable Information Technology.

According to IDC research, the ten-year aggregate of China's ICT market for the period of 2016-2025 will reach USD$6 trillion, with an approximately annual growth rate of 7%. This will provide tremendous growth potential for the ICT market space

The New Technological Landscape: Determining Product Direction and Development

The third platform and industry innovation accelerators (4+6) will be applied on a large scale in China. According to IDC research, by 2025, the overall 4+6 technology market will account for 80% of the total of China's ICT market, with an annual average growth rate exceeding 15% from 2016 to 2025. China will enter a super digital era when ICT its transformation from a supporting to a leading role in businesses. In the New Technological Landscape, IOT and intelligent hardware will become ubiquitous, while secure cloud services become an essential part of infrastructure just as water and electricity are currently, and big data assets will drive innovations in artificial intelligence and user experience.

The New User Landscape: Determining Marketing Approach and Strategy

Digital transformation will become the major theme of all industry users in the coming decade, impacting every household and consumer. By 2025, over 80% of organizations in China will have become technological organizations, and each Chinese consumer will have five digital smart devices on average. On the new user landscape: All organizations will embark on the journey of digital transformation. The three-fold role of CIOs (cooperation, innovation, and integration) will help realize the transformation of IT from its supporting to leading role. The 1990's and 2000's generations will become the core users and consumers of ICT products and services.

The New Ecosystem Landscape: Determining Resource Integration and Expansion

With development of technology and evolution of business models, the new ecological system of ICT will gradually reach maturity. The hierarchically-controlled ecosystem derived from dominance by large manufacturers in the past will gradually shift into a flat, loosely-coupled ecosystem centered on platforms. Individuals, industry users, internet companies, and investment firms will all be included in this giant eco-system. A manufacturer's capacity for resource integration and expansion will become their most important element of competitiveness. On the New Ecosystem Landscape: Platform-based manufacturers with the most subscribers will be increasingly able to lead the market. More innovative individuals, industry users and SME's will exert a growing influence on the market. Multinational companies will use new business models to partner with local manufacturers to develop new markets.

''The future decade will be ‐ on one hand, a decade of restructuring, transformation, and, innovation and upgrade for the Chinese economy and, on the other hand, also a decade of innovation and upgrade for ICT's technology and business models. More importantly, it is a decade of all-round digital transformation for industry users. The future challenges and opportunities are unprecedented, so ICT manufacturers and users should fully understand the implications of the new economic, technological, industry and ecological patterns. By consolidating technical strength and resource integrating capabilities, they will realize all-round transformation in the super digital era, and seize the upcoming opportunities,'' summarizes Wu Lianfeng, IDC China's Vice President and Chief Analyst.