China's "Internet Plus" strategy is designed to boost China's economy and open up a horde of opportunities for Internet companies in the country.
On March 5, at the opening of the yearly session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, Premier Li Keqiang announced the new "Internet Plus" strategy. Under this strategy, modern manufacturing will incorporate mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data mining, and the Internet of things.
The strategy is said to be timely as the Chinese economy is at a sluggish period. It also bodes well with the country's current plan to shift away from exports and foreign investment reliance into becoming a resilient, consumption-based economy.
The strategy is well-accepted by large firms. For one, Baidu, China's premiere search engine and a staunch supporter of artificial intelligence development, just partnered with automakers to support and boost its own smart car project in the previous year.
Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu, had positive things to say of the new strategy at a new conference Wednesday. The chairman believes the new strategy would lead to great opportunities for the online-to-offline, O2O commerce field.
"With half of the Chinese population gaining access to the Internet and the boom of the mobile Internet, the Internet has produced a growing influence on many sectors," he said.
It is believed that with the large population of Internet users in China, the strategy can lead to promising things.
"In the past one or two years, we have been happy to see that the combination of the Internet and traditional industries has amazingly transformed decaying things into miraculous things," Li added.