2021 China Internet Haha List 3: Top Ten Keywords

With change comes new opportunities. The Internet technology circle in 2021 will still be a magnificent year. The pace and exploration will not stop. Let us take a look at the top ten keywords of China's Internet this year!

1. Digital Economy

With the rapid development of the digital economy, all industries will continue to digitize, the digital economy and the real economy are also constantly integrating and developing, and we are welcoming the digital age.

On October 18, the General Secretary emphasized during the collective study of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee that we must accelerate the construction of an intelligent, comprehensive digital information infrastructure that is high-speed, ubiquitous, integrated with the sky and the earth, integrated with the cloud and the network, smart and agile, green and low-carbon, safe and controllable, so as to open up the information "artery" for economic and social development.

In August, I had the honor to publish the book "Digital China: Digital Construction and Development" with the Central Party School Press.

Digitalization is giving birth to the "digital economy". The value of the digital economy lies in the process of digitalizing the upstream and downstream industries. In the future, the value of the digital economy will be further enhanced.

2. Metaverse

The hottest word in the technology and Internet circles in 2021 is undoubtedly "metaverse".

The term metaverse originated from the science fiction novel Snow Crash written by the famous American science fiction writer Neo Stevenson in 1992. In the book, Stevenson described a network world parallel to the real world - the metaverse, which is the concept of "beyond the universe": an artificial space running parallel to the real world, which is the next stage of the Internet, a virtual reality network world supported by AR, VR, 3D and other technologies.

The metaverse cannot be completely separated from the real world. It is parallel to the real world and interconnected with it, but it is also independent of the real world. People can engage in real social interaction and work in it.

Such an "avant-garde" concept was quickly welcomed by the capital market. Facebook stated that it would transform into a metaverse company within five years. In August, ByteDance spent a huge amount of money to acquire a VR startup. Luo Yonghao said, "Our next entrepreneurial project is actually also a so-called metaverse company."

Looking forward to the day when the "Metaverse" arrives.

3. China Space

2021 can be said to be a year in which China's space industry accomplished many feats and achieved historic breakthroughs: the Tianhe core module was successfully launched, the construction of China's space station began, the Zhurong Mars rover completed its patrol and exploration of Mars, and the number of space launches set a new historical high.

In June this year, Nie Haisheng, together with Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, became the first passengers of my country's space station; the Shenzhou 12 crew returned safely; just one month later, Shenzhou 13 astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu embarked on their journey into space, starting a six-month life in the space station. The record of Chinese people's stay in space will be broken again.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

The starry sky is vast and endless, and exploration is endless. China's aerospace industry is constantly surpassing itself, and is turning dreams into reality with solid steps.

4. Antitrust

On April 10, 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation ordered Alibaba Group to stop its illegal activities for violating the Anti-Monopoly Law and imposed a fine of 4% of its 2019 sales in China of 455.712 billion yuan, totaling 18.228 billion yuan.

Since 2015, Alibaba Group has abused its dominant market position, requiring merchants on its platform to choose between two options, prohibiting them from opening stores on other competitive platforms or participating in promotional activities. It has also used market forces, platform rules, data, algorithms and other technical means to adopt a variety of reward and punishment measures to ensure the implementation of the "choose one of two" requirement, thereby obtaining unfair competitive advantages, damaging the interests of consumers, and constituting an antitrust violation.

On October 8, Meituan was also fined 3.442 billion yuan by the State Administration for Market Regulation for anti-monopoly laws.

What can harm competition is not the size of the platform itself, but the platform's behavior. Whether there is behavior that harms competition is the basis for judging whether an Internet platform should be regulated, and it has no necessary connection with the size of the platform itself.

5. Protection of Personal Information

On November 1, the "Personal Information Protection Law" officially came into effect. This is the first law in my country specifically aimed at the protection of personal information. In the past, the advent of the Internet can be said to have completely changed our lives, and the rise of the mobile Internet ecosystem has made all of us surrounded by a world woven by the Internet. Problems such as telecommunications fraud and Internet fraud are emerging in an endless stream, threatening our property and even personal safety. The introduction of the "Personal Information Protection Law" is urgent.

The regulations clearly state that "personal information of natural persons is protected by law, and no organization or individual may infringe upon the personal information rights of natural persons." Many foreign media outlets have bluntly stated in their related reports that "this is the strictest privacy protection law in the world."

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

Strict regulations will be a good protection for individual users, but they will also have a significant impact on Internet companies, mobile terminal companies, and companies in the entire information network.

6. Interconnection

After WeChat opened external links to e-commerce in group chats, the "wall-breaking movement" among Internet giants entered a new stage: Alibaba is expected to enjoy the dividends of social traffic, and TikTok users may also share links freely with WeChat friends... The Internet has once again returned to the spirit of "interconnection and interoperability."

A few months ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology summoned Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, Baidu, NetEase and other companies for talks on the "blocking URL link problem" and gave rectification suggestions of "solving the problem in steps and stages". The high walls of the Internet were demolished one by one.

The scale of monthly active users of China's mobile Internet is infinitely close to the ceiling of the eligible population. Among them, the monthly active users of the short video industry have approached 1 billion. If China wants to say goodbye to the temporary growth dilemma, interconnection and interoperability can be said to be the "only way".

7. Renovation for the elderly

In 2021, the trend of aging-friendly renovations has arrived.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has included encouraging smart devices to provide an "elderly mode" in a special action plan; the "three group standards for the aging-friendly smart terminals" have been issued, focusing on solving the various difficulties encountered by the elderly in using mobile phones, tablets, etc.; platforms such as Alipay, WeChat, Baidu, Himalaya, Amap, and Didi have launched "elderly modes" one after another, which is a small step forward.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

The Internet market for the elderly has huge growth potential and is promising, but the elderly lack the ability to discern information on the Internet and are more easily deceived, which allows some companies to take advantage of this and design schemes to "harvest" traffic.

I hope that practitioners will design products for the elderly with the utmost goodwill and promote the positive cycle of commercial value in a more benign way.

8. Car manufacturing

"Car manufacturing" is something that technology giants have been doing in the past two years. Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu, Xiaomi, 360 and other companies have started their own car manufacturing business.

Technology giants have invested in the field of car manufacturing, not only because they are optimistic about the potential of the new energy vehicle market, but also because they are competing for the next super traffic entrance in the 5G era. As we all know, cars are developing towards the "new four modernizations" (electrification, intelligence, networking, and sharing), and the automotive industry is facing a major transformation that will only happen once in a century.

In this century-long automotive revolution, I believe the best is yet to come.

9. Stay-at-home economy

As the epidemic continues, the stay-at-home economy is really spreading more and more, and sectors such as live streaming, gaming, and streaming media are booming.

During the National Day holiday, nearly 30 variety shows will be updated, covering love, script-killing, music competition, etc. In the game market, various types are also flourishing, such as the Winter Professional League of "Honor of Kings", which has just set a high-profit record. The Koi Cup of the dark horse "Naraka: Bladepoint", the MA of "Harry Potter: Magic Awakening"...Interaction between screens has become the norm.

With the enrichment of media and content on the supply side, "staying at home" on the demand side has gradually evolved into a lifestyle. The "home economy" is not a one-time bonus under the background of the epidemic, but has become an increasingly mature new economic model.

The "stay-at-home economy" will never disappear.

10. Online game addiction prevention

This year, the National Press and Publication Administration has required strict restrictions on the time of providing online game services to minors. All online game companies can only provide one hour of service to minors from 20:00 to 21:00 every day on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays. At other times, they are not allowed to provide online game services and other content to minors in any form.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

That means minors can play online games for three hours a week. Have you ever experienced nine underage players being forced to quit in a 5v5 ranking match of Honor of Kings?

The hope is, of course, that children can return to offline play, go out and play games with friends, and not stare at the screen, so that parents can feel more at ease. However, some parents have also reported that during the three hours a week that they are allowed to play online games, their children will definitely return online, because this has become a limit of three hours a week, and they actually spend more time playing games.

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