At the recently concluded Guiyang International Big Data Expo, Guiyang announced it will focus on the big data industry, especially in the development of "data blocks".

A data block refers to the massive amount of information from different sectors that are processed to drive different sectors, such as an improvement in efficiency for government management.

As the latest move to develop a data block, Guiyang began a citywide free Wi-Fi project earlier this year in which the local government assured the public of secure, safe and confidential connections.

This was followed by the establishment of the nation's first laboratory, public site and trade exchange center for big data.

Trade at the center is expected to reach 200 million yuan ($32.8 million) by the end of this year. Guiyang is also planning what officials call a "big data valley" and will host an international expo about big data security.

The expo, spread out over a 60,000-square-meter area, attracted more than 300 well-known companies from China and abroad, including Huawei, Alibaba, Lenovo, Google, HP and Microsoft.

Some leading figures from the Internet era joining the gathering are Jack Ma, chairman of the Alibaba Group, Zhou Hongyi, chairman of the Internet security company Qihoo, and Terry Gou, chairman of Foxconn.

These people will use the accompanying summit to share their views on big data technology and there will be an innovation contest to attract the best minds to give their innovative design applications of big data technology.

Zhu Wei