National data body highlights role of platform companies

China's National Data Administration highlighted the important role of platform companies in leveraging investment to drive development, jobs and innovations, as a new batch of notable investment cases of leading internet firms such as Tencent Holdings and Didi Global were unveiled on Thursday.

It also marked the latest move of the newly-established data administration in driving platform economy. The administration was officially inaugurated in October for the coordination of data infrastructure and data resources, and is currently under the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner.

The data administration said on its social media platform on Thursday that platform enterprises, such as Tencent, JD, Alibaba Group, Baidu Inc, and Didi are increasingly investing in key areas that help lead development, create jobs and enhance the country's global competitiveness.

Such investments have greatly accelerated the construction of a modernized industrial system, the solving of key technologies and helped boost the quality and efficiency of real economy. They have also contributed to the country's technological self-reliance and high-quality development, it added.

Among notable investment cases, Tencent Holdings is investing in industrial internet firm Rootcloud, and has supported the latter in offering industrial internet services nationwide. Tencent is also investing in enterprise-level data provider Transwarp to help drive the digitalization of thousands of enterprises.

JD, on the other hand, is investing in on-demand delivery firm Dada Group. Dada has offered flexible jobs to more than 1.2 million deliverymen and 50,000 product pickers. JD's another investment into food distribution firm Dili Group has encouraged over 100,000 clients to purchase agriculture products, which in turn has offered nearly a million job opportunities for surrounding industry chain suppliers.

In July, the top economic planner unveiled the first batch of typical investment cases on platform companies including Tencent and Meituan.

The data administration said on Thursday that more efforts will be made to continuously launch notable investment cases of platform enterprises, so as to promote them in playing a more active role during the development of digital economy.