Internet Plus - foreword of the book "Internet Plus: From IT to DT" by Jack Ma,
“The whole mankind is moving from the age of IT to DT— only by allowing others to be successful, can you achieve success!”
- Jack Ma
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“人类正从IT走向DT，只有让别人成功，你才会成功！”
- 马云
“Internet Plus” seems to have become the latest and hottest internet lingo in 2015, which owes much to China’s Premier, Li Keqiang, who included the term in his government work report at the 12th National People's Congress on March 5th, 2015. According to Li, “We(Chinese government) will develop the "Internet Plus" action plan to integrate mobile Internet, cloud computing big data, and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing, to encourage the healthy development of e-commerce, industrial networks, and Internet banking, and to get Internet-based companies to increase their presence in the international market.” One month later, “Internet +: From IT (Information Technology) to DT (Data Technology)” was published by AliResearch Institute, with a foreword written by Jack Ma, the president of Alibaba, and the richest man in Asia. Let’s see what Jack’s got to say.
Ma opens his foreword with a few true stories that happened in several “Taobao Villages” in China, stories about local village men buying and selling goods through Taobao or Alibaba platform, stories that made Ma feel “assured.” According to Ma, even though the internet industry has been growing rapidly over the past twenty years, he observes that internet companies rarely survive after three years, a fact that is perhaps quite shocking to most of us, especially those working in conventional industries, who hold much envy, if not hatred, toward the internet world. Ma believes that there is a crucial link missing from the internet, and that is, “to let the mouse collaborate with soil and concrete, to find a way for internet economy and the real economy to integrate. Only through internet Plus can internet firms survive.”
Ma claims that, while some may still have no idea what IT stands for, the world is already moving forward, stepping into the age of DT. To Ma, IT and DT are not merely two different technologies—this transformation will also bring drastic changes to our way of critical thinking, and our relation to the world.
“The kernel of the age of IT is self-control and self-administration, and “information” as power. On the other hand, the age of DT is all about altruism and excitation of the public dynamic. The age of DT is more fluid, more transparent, more altruistic— it lays its emphases on responsibility and experience.”
Ma envisions a future in which data rules the economy instead of petroleum; the primary business model will be C2B instead of B2C; companies will no longer care about their individual scale, standardization and power, but flexibility, promptness, and being user-friendly. Enterprises and nations will no longer be caught up in a competitive rival relationship; instead, they will learn to cooperate through competition, and turn their eyes to care and responsibility of society as a whole.
Ma believes that the .65 billion Chinese population who are online and the other .65 billion who are not online yet together amount to “the most prominent consumer market, the most flexible “intellectualized” manufacture base, and the most vibrant test site for “Internet Plus”. These forces will not only permeate rural villages in China, but also penetrate their ideologies, thereby contributing to the integration of knowledge, resource, manufacturing, and service in the global value chain. Internet Plus will introduce a new way of globalization that is in sync with the pace of digitalization.”
Related articles:
1. Gao, Yuan, Li Keqiang creates 'buzz' with use of Internet lingo, China Daily, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015twosession/2015-03/06/content_19734498.htm
