Why does Beijing “challenge” ChatGPT? Which city has the strongest digital technology strength?

Source | 01 Finance
Author | Bai Yujie??
On February 13, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology released the White Paper on the Development of Beijing’s Artificial Intelligence Industry in 2022. In the white paper, Beijing proposed to support the head enterprises to build a big model of ChatGPT, which will shake the world.
What is Beijing’s “challenge” ChatGPT? An important support is Beijing’s large investment in digital technology, which ranks first in the country.
ChatGPT is a newly emerging AI technology. Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things are the foundation of the digital economy. It is self-evident that these digital technologies support the development of digital economy.
The trend of China’s digital economy development index from 2013 to 2021 and the number of digital technology patent applications in the same period (Figure 1), jointly developed by the Zero One Think Tank and the Fifth Institute of Electronics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, can be seen. From 2013 to 2021, China’s digital economy development index showed a continuous upward trend, increasing from 1000 points to 5610.60 points; During the same period, the number of digital technology patent applications also increased from 5067 to 74656.
Digital technology is one of the core elements of the index. Through the data analysis of the index, we can compare which cities in China have strong data technology strength.
Academics and industry usually use the number of patent applications to represent their technical strength. We collect the number of patent applications for five digital technologies in cities, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things, from the smart bud for comparative analysis.
Figure 1 Trend of China’s digital economy development index and number of digital technology patent applications from 2013 to 2021
No. 1 in total digital technology: Beijing
We have counted the total number of digital technologies in the top 50 cities in the national GDP ranking in 2021 (Figure 2). The results show that the top 10 cities are Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Suzhou and Jinan.
With more than 10000 digital technology applications, Beijing and Shenzhen ranked the top two in the list, which is a big gap from other cities.
There are many first-class universities and Internet enterprises in Beijing. There are 147 dual-class colleges and universities in China, while Beijing has 34 dual-class colleges and universities, which are far ahead of Jiangsu, Shanghai and other provinces and cities. High-quality education has not only brought top talents to Beijing, but also injected strong impetus into Beijing’s digital technology innovation.
According to the 14th Five-Year Plan of Beijing, the number of industrial Internet platforms, access resources, and the number of national-level intelligent manufacturing system solution providers in Beijing ranked first in the country. According to the 2021 Global Innovation Index Report, Beijing ranks third in the global science and technology city cluster, up 1 place from the previous year.
According to the White Paper on the Development of Artificial Intelligence Industry in Beijing in 2022:
As of October 2022, Beijing has 1048 AI core enterprises, accounting for 29% of the total number of AI core enterprises in China, ranking first in the country.
Beijing has more than 40000 core technical talents in the field of artificial intelligence, accounting for 60% of the country. The number of AI papers published ranks first in China. Among the top 100 institutions in the world in the number of patent licenses, there are 30 headquarters in Beijing.
Zhiyuan “Wudao 2.0” has become the world’s largest intelligent model with a parameter scale of 1.75 trillion. The parameter scale of Baidu’s “Wenxin” large model has reached 260 billion, making it the largest single Chinese model in the world at present.
Shenzhen is a cluster of innovative enterprises. The number of market entities in Shenzhen is as high as 3.8 million, ranking first in the country. The large scale of market entities provides the basis for digital technology research and development, including Huawei, Tencent, ZTE and other important digital technology enterprises. In 2021, the added value of the core industry of Shenzhen’s digital economy will exceed 900 billion yuan, accounting for 30.5% of the city’s GDP. The scale and quality of Shenzhen’s digital economy will rank first in the country’s large and medium-sized cities. Shenzhen is committed to building a national digital economy innovation and development pilot zone, a new generation of artificial intelligence innovation and development pilot zone, an information and innovation industry base and a basic software innovation center.
Figure 2 Number of digital technologies in China’s cities in 2021 Top 20
Digital technology density first: Shenzhen
Although the scale of digital technology is important, the density of digital technology calculated by per capita caliber is also an important manifestation of strength. We have counted the number of digital technology patent applications per capita in the top 50 cities in China’s GDP in 2021, that is, the density of digital technology (Figure 3). The results show that the top 10 cities are Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Jinan, Wuhan, Hefei and Suzhou.
Figure 3 Top 20 urban digital technology density in China in 2021
Relative to the total, the ranking of digital technology density is not the same. Shenzhen leapt to the first place with a per capita ratio of 5.86, while Shanghai leapt to the third place with a per capita ratio of 3.58.
Shenzhen is the pioneer of China’s market economy and the first special economic zone set up in China. It allows the market to play its full role. Innovative enterprises in the market make various attempts.
A sea of multicultural convergence: Shenzhen is an immigrant city. In the past year, Shenzhen has introduced 229100 new talents and received 90300 new graduates. Because talents come from all over the country, Shenzhen can gather more diverse ideas.
The rising sun: Shenzhen’s permanent resident population is 17.56 million, slightly less than Beijing’s 21.886 million, but the urbanization rate of Shenzhen has reached 99.81%, close to 100%, far higher than Beijing’s 87.5% urbanization rate. While the urbanization rate is very high, the average age of permanent residents in Shenzhen is only 32.5 years old, full of youthful vitality.
Although there are many young “north drifters” in Beijing, the population over 65 years old in Beijing will account for 13.3% of the total population in 2021, which is much higher than the 8.58% of the population over 65 years old in Shenzhen.
More urban population in Shanghai has created more digital technology. The population and urbanization rate of Shanghai are both higher than that of Hangzhou. The reason is that Shanghai not only has a permanent resident population of 24894300 more than 12.204 million in Hangzhou, but also has an urbanization rate of 89.3% higher than 83.29% in Hangzhou. Shanghai’s high population and urbanization rate provide a fertile land for its high digital technology density.
Qingdao, often known as a tourist city, has entered the top 20. In recent years, Qingdao has made full efforts to develop the industrial Internet with the goal of building the world’s industrial Internet capital. Qingdao has built a multi-level industrial Internet platform. Haier, Hisense and other leading enterprises have been successively selected as China’s top 100 software enterprises. Among them, the Caos platform built by Haier has gathered 340 million users and more than 3.9 million ecological resources. Qingdao Industrial Internet has also achieved a deep integration with business. Qingdao Port Automation Terminal can achieve “everything can be connected” through the Internet of Things technology, creating the world’s first production efficiency.
Number 1 digital technology: Shanghai
In addition to scale and density, let’s look at the proportion of digital technology, that is, the proportion of the number of digital technology patent applications to the number of various patent applications. We can compare the importance of digital technology in different cities. We have calculated the proportion of digital technology patent applications in the top 50 cities in China’s GDP in 2021 (Figure 4). The results show that the top 10 cities are Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Kunming, Nanning, Guangzhou, Changsha, Jinan, Wuhan, Chengdu and Zhengzhou.
Figure 4 Proportion of digital technology in Chinese cities in 2021: 20
The proportion of digital patents in Shanghai is as high as 11.3%, and Shanghai has the largest investment in digital track. Just because Shanghai attaches the most importance to the development of digital technology compared with other cities, Shanghai has the integrated circuit industry base with the most advanced comprehensive technology and the strongest independent innovation capability in China, and has more than 1000 core enterprises in the artificial intelligence industry cluster. Shanghai is also the national new generation artificial intelligence innovation and development pilot area and the artificial intelligence innovation and application pilot area. It can be said that Shanghai’s digital economy construction is in the leading position in the country.
The proportion of digital patents in Nanjing is 8.4%, second only to Shanghai. Nanjing digital technology has become a new engine to promote the high-quality development of Nanjing with many development achievements. According to the “14th Five-Year Plan” for the development of digital economy in Nanjing, Nanjing has won 24 national science and technology awards, ranking second in the country; The national key research and development plan announced 36 special projects, of which Nanjing City undertook 16 projects, and the digital economy accounted for 6 projects. It can be seen that there are many digital technology achievements in Nanjing.
The rich achievements of digital technology have brought about the vigorous development of the digital industry. As the first “famous software city in China” in China, Nanjing’s software and information service industry, electronic information manufacturing and other core basic industries have developed rapidly. In the list of 200 pilot demonstration projects for the development of big data industry in 2020 published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Nanjing is in the leading position in terms of share.
It is also noteworthy that Nantong and Shijiazhuang have entered the top 20.
Nantong has made remarkable achievements in the development of industrial digitalization in recent years, with a high level of informatization application in the first, second and third industries. Nantong has 2470 industrial Internet logo registered enterprises, and the number of registered enterprises ranks first in prefecture-level cities in China. The level of agricultural production intelligence and operation networking has been continuously improved. The coverage of agricultural informatization in Nantong has exceeded 60%, and the online retail sales of agricultural products have exceeded 3.15 billion yuan. The government’s digitalization has been further promoted. Nantong has built the “Nantong Brain” of urban intelligent management with high standards, and has become the only prefecture-level city in China that has won the two national pilot projects of “Central European Green Smart City” and “National Smart City”.
In recent years, Shijiazhuang has witnessed rapid development of digital economy and prominent advantageous industries. The new generation of electronic information and bio-pharmaceutical industry is an important advantageous and leading industry in Shijiazhuang. In 2021, the operating income of these two industries will increase by more than 15%, and the added value of high-tech industries will increase by more than 12%. Shijiazhuang has continuously strengthened its innovation capacity in the field of new generation information technology, and has been recognized as the National Semiconductor Lighting Industrialization Base and the National Torch Program Software Industry Base. Shijiazhuang has initially formed an advantageous industrial cluster dominated by semiconductor lighting, communication and navigation equipment, new displays, power electronics, application electronics and software.
To sum up, cities have their own strengths in digital technology. In terms of the total number of digital technologies and the density of digital technologies, the top ranking is usually the best of the well-known first-tier cities or new first-tier cities. However, in terms of reflecting the importance of digital technology, some cities are quietly rising.
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