Residents check information at a public platform in Kaili city, Guizhou province. [Photo/gog.cn]

If you’re choosing hot words to describe Guizhou province in 2016, “big data” must be on the top of the list. In the past year, the province has taken big steps in developing its big data industry by applying big data to develop transportation, tourism and government services.

The province received approval to build the country’s first big data pilot zone from the central government, and released China’s first local regulations for big data.

The 2016 Big Data Expo was also held in the province’s capital, Guiyang, in May where experts, investors and entrepreneurs from all over the world discussed how to boost the big data industry.

The province has been working to build itself into a service and application center for big data, and the total industrial scale of big data exceeded 500 billion yuan ($7.27 billion) in 2016.

An administrative information sharing platform, Guizhou Big Data, has opened to the public receiving more than ten billion visits each day.

The province’s e-commerce service platform can also provide one-stop services for e-commerce enterprises, covering outsourcing and product traceability.

International enterprises, such as Alibaba (China’s biggest internet company) and Qualcomm (American microchip giant), have chosen Guizhou to develop their big data businesses. Huochebang – a local online logistics company – has 300,000 enterprise members and 2.3 million members who have their own trucks.

The development of big data has also become an attraction point for talented professionals, and an increased number of graduates have chosen to work in Guizhou.