Digital business in China 2023

The critical point of global digital development has arrived. The digital economy ratio, SaaS expenditure ratio, digital business expenditure ratio, digital talent ratio, etc. have or will exceed 50% in the next 5 years; secondly, digital technology investment is still the core focus of global and Chinese executives; thirdly, the policies of various governments encourage the development of the digital economy. This includes the Chinese government’s “Fourteenth Five-Year Plan” and the 20th CCP national congress report, which both set out the blueprint for the sustained and rapid development of the digital economy; fourthly, past historical data also show the direct benefits of digital transformation on enterprise sales and profits. The year 2023 will become the turning point for the digital transformation of enterprises, that is, enterprises have traversed from the era of digital transformation to the era of digital business, and the next five years will continue to be the golden period of digital development.

Digital business expenditure is growing rapidly

By 2023, Chinese companies will spend on the digital business four times that of economic growth, laying the foundation for operational excellence, competitive differentiation and long-term growth.

The share of digital revenue continues to increase

By 2027, 40% of the total revenue of China’s top 2000 companies will come from digital products, services and experiences. It now accounts for less than 20%.

The number of tech manufacturers in China’s top 500 companies will be doubled

By 2027, the number of tech manufacturers in China’s top 500 companies will be doubled, including companies from outside the technology industry

Enterprise CEOs embrace cloud technology

By 2024, 40% of China’s top 2000 CEOs will establish strategic personal relationships with their cloud providers to achieve quantifiable results from digital business platform investments.

Ecological value chain accelerates innovation

By 2027, organizations with highly developed industrial value chains on the ecosystem control plane will innovate 25% faster than other companies.

Customer data creates trust value

By 2027, businesses that collect, analyze, and contextualize customer data in a trusted way will succeed in building creative business and pricing models that will double their lifetime value.

Continuous growth of ESG spending creates social value

By 2025, a quarter of organizations in China will show responsible leadership by increasing their spending on sustainability-related digital technology by more than 25 percent from 2022 levels.

Management focuses on scale innovation and digital operations

Since the business unit has most of the technology budget, 25% of senior management expertise will shift from encouraging innovation to scale innovation and operating digital businesses by 2027.

Quantifying digital value becomes a necessity

By 2027, 90% of organizations that can accurately quantify the value of their digital capabilities / assets (data, algorithms, software code) will significantly increase in their market valuations.

The talent-skill gap constrains future growth

By 2026, companies that fail to effectively address the talent and digital skills gap in their organizations will be limited in about 20% of their revenue growth opportunities.