Lei Jun (C), founder of Xiaomi, speaks at a forum on Internet innovation of the 2015 World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang Province, Dec 17, 2015. (Photo/Xinhua)
A forum on Internet innovation of the 2015 World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province held on Dec 17 brought together business leaders and Internet industry officials to share views on a series of topics including the entrepreneurial spirit, technological innovation, the sustainable development of the capital market, the social economy and the enterprises. [Special Coverage]
Wu Hongbo, UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs, said the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development agreed by the UN recognized that the popularization of the Internet could narrow the information gap among different groups of people and accelerate overall social progress.
Today, the Internet economy is becoming a transformative force in promoting economic reform and innovation, Wu said. Some innovative tools, including e-commerce, search engines, instant messaging and Internet finance, are the driving forces of sustainable development, he said.
"The competitiveness of traditional industries is comparatively weak and the operating efficiency of the industries is relatively low in developing economies such as China. But due to these factors, people involved in traditional industries in developing economies are more open-minded than their peers in their developed counterparts, and are more willing to embrace the opportunities brought by the Internet. So now we can see in developing economies that the integration of online and offline resources is improving the overall user experience, which is rarely seen in developed economies such as the United States."
"Now many new technologies are still being developed and are not yet mature enough to be released; that's why we seem to be not so excited about technological innovation. We have to admit that it may be difficult for some technologies, such as 3D printing, to improve greatly within three to five years. But I still believe that some technologies, such as virtual reality and robotics, have the potential of making major progress in the next few years."
"A universal and long-lasting lesson we entrepreneurs should have learnt is the uncertainty the world brings to us. The uncertainty comes from three aspects: government policies, the world situation, as well as the innovation of technology and business model... To make a better A-share market, I think the government should implement the registration-based IPO system as soon as possible. Meanwhile, strict and fair supervision and regulation should also be conducted. Through these methods, I believe the A-share market will boom itself without other external assistance."
"Although WeChat has been very successful during the past five years, we have started to think what app or product will replace it in the future. We notice that the Internet information terminal evolves about every two decades, and that evolution will bring changes to information and even the business patterns. So we are thinking about what is the next generation of Internet information terminal. Is it automobiles, wearable devices or virtual reality and augmented reality? We have noticed the trend, but we are not sure whether it's the future. But I believe people will always pay a great deal of attention to technological development."
