Digital businesses will total over $US2 trillion over the next four years
IDC shared, during its IDC Directions event in Shenzhen, that China’s ICT spending for developing and operating digital businesses will total over US$2 trillion over the next four years. IDC shared expert insights, intelligence, and guidance to hundreds of ICT industry leaders gathered along with local and global IDC analysts.
IDC revealed the next phase in businesses’ digital journey and the latest IT and digital initiatives organizations can leverage to maximize ICT spending and help overcome the economic, political, and social disruptions impacting their business.
“Despite the mounting economic headwinds, we are still in the golden age of technological innovation. Only by creating resiliency and value based on effective use of the continuously evolving innovative technologies can an IT leader that practices the digital-first strategy cope with the storms and truly realize transformation, innovation, and development,” said Kitty Fok, Managing Director, IDC China.
“Irrespective of the economy, enterprises will not cut investments in security, customer experience, systems integration services, workspace solutions, as well as infrastructure and IT operations optimization,” Matthew Eastwood, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Infrastructure and Datacenter Research, IDC Worldwide. “We are in a period of transformation from multiplied innovation to intelligent automation, with future digital infrastructure deployments becoming more fragmented and enterprises partnering more with multiple public cloud providers as cloud becomes an operational model,” Eastwood adds.
“ICT vendors can seize business opportunities by partnering with ICT industry leaders to leverage technology to scale their digital business,” said Lianfeng Wu, Vice President and Chief Research Analyst, IDC China. “IDC predicts that by 2026, 40 per cent of the total revenues of Global 2000 companies will come from digital products, services, and experience. To win opportunities from China’s over US$2 trillion ICT spending in the next four years, ICT vendors should work from five dimensions: understanding the macro policy trends, grasping digital technology trends, gaining insight into changes in user needs, developing eco-tech solutions, and delivering quantitative digital value,” Wu Adds
Dr. Antonio Wang, Vice President of IDC China, focused on China’s consumer market in his keynote. “In 2023, the first year of the post-pandemic recovery, consumers will still have a lot of anxiety about the future — exchange rates, layoffs, and policy uncertainties are clouding the consumer market. At the same time, the huge consumption base and the long-term positive drivers are obvious reminders that there is still huge potential in China’s consumer market over the next five years. New use cases, technological changes and upgrades, and the expansion of the customer base will all become positive factors contributing to the rise of the consumer market amid uneasiness,” said Dr. Wang.
IDC Directions provides an unrivalled platform for exchanging ideas and engaging with IDC’s most prominent local and global analysts. IDC Directions Shenzhen ran two parallel sessions focused on the themes of continuously developing enterprise intelligence and industry ecosystems and addressing opportunities and challenges in the connected world. During the event, IDC shared its insights on Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), AI, cloud computing, smart city, servers, databases, smart endpoint products, and the development of the semiconductor industry. IDC analysts also engaged participants from leading companies in one-on-one sessions to dive deeper into their challenges and growth opportunities.
However, according to IDC 65.4 million smartphones shipped in China in 1Q23, down 11.8 per cent year-on-year (YoY). The market continued its double-digit decline since the first quarter of 2022, even though the zero-COVID policy ended in December.
Gloomy consumer confidence continued to constrain the demand for smartphones, while wealthier consumers shifted their spending to areas like leisure and services. On the supply side, more RAM and storage are lengthening replacement cycles.
OPPO climbed to the top spot along with its sub-brand, OnePlus. OPPO’s foldable products, the Find N2 and Find N2 Flip, as well as its flagship Find X6 series helped the brand better shape its high-end image, while OnePlus’s more-than-fourfold YoY growth also supported the vendor’s performance. Apple dropped to the second position, though it launched a rare price discount in February to stimulate the demand for its iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.
“As expected, 1Q23 was not a good start as consumers became more budget conscious or shifted to social activities like dining and traveling,” said Will Wong, Senior Research Manager for Client Devices at IDC Asia/Pacific. Wong adds, “Nevertheless, an aggressive pricing strategy is not the sole solution. Introducing products like foldables, which provides value by impressing friends or enhancing social status for some users, will be equally important.”
