The stakes of Big Data in the IT industry: China as the next global challenger?
Résumé
The information society relies on services for communicating, sharing, networking, searching, buying, etc. which are mostly provided by large corporations, such as Google, Facebook, or Amazon. The Web connects all regions in the World, but its most popular services are ensured by a handful of corporations which are almost all in the USA. While Europe is relying on the American industry in an essential way with few local alternatives, Asia offers a much more dynamic landscape. Japan has developed strong systems, and Korea relies equally on Korean, Chinese and American systems. But the real alternative comes from China, which has developed an industry which ranks second behind the USA, and might eventually challenge their dominant position. It might seem irrelevant to know which country provides the services of the infor- mation society. But it is on the contrary of the uttermost importance. These services allow the harvesting of huge quantities of data. These so-called Big Data have become a resource much like iron ore or crude oil, they are fueling the new knowledge economy. In addition, they allow to produce knowledge in a fascinating manner. The current non-uniform geographic distribution of these industries might result in strong informa- tion asymmetries between regions. If Europe is essentially absent of this stage, it is clear that China aims at becoming a global leader in this area. Big Data constitute one of the economic and political challenges of the 21st century.
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