Guiyang Big Data Exchange, or GBDE, is expecting robust profit growth in the near future thanks to the growing popularity of data trading, said a senior manager of the company.

"Trade in data is creating bigger and bigger value nowadays, and data is urgently needed for whoever wants to win in the fierce market," said Wang Sanshou, executive president of GBDE. "Both the trading volume and value will see dramatic leaps in the future."

GBDE was founded in 2015 as the world's first big data exchange. At the Big Data Expo being held from May 25-28, the company is showcasing its latest developments, including its new trading system and data platforms for the Belt and Road.

The company will use data related to the Belt and Road to help the country to make better decisions in areas such as policy, infrastructure, trade and finance.

Wang said that after data masking, cleaning, analyzing and model building, the data products are safe and tradable and can be applied to a wide range of areas.

Che Xinyi, deputy general manager of Hangzhou CNCR-IT, said the challenging process of data collection used to be the major hurdle for the big data company.

"Data sources were very limited and negotiations usually involved more than one company. It was hard to reach mutual agreement, which also affected the quality of data," Che said. "The quality of data collected is vital in the company's big data application sector. Data for us is the raw material of production. Without good raw materials, even the best way of thinking in data application can not help to produce data products."

Che said GBDE has provided Hangzhou CNCR-IT with safe, legal, timely and cost-effective access to the database.

"Companies could not tolerate such high time costs," he said. "But GBDE has a rich source of data, as it has strong resources, which will greatly reduce the time spent collecting new data."

In a white paper on China's big data exchange, released by GBDE in 2016, the company estimates that by 2020, the scale of China's big data industry will grow to 1.36 trillion yuan ($197 billion), including 54.5 billion yuan in big data trading. GBDE also hopes to list on the Chinese stock market.

Up to now, more than 1,000 members have registered with GBDE in China, including Tencent, Huawei, Alibaba, China Unicom and Tianhong Asset Management.

Wu Hequan, academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the value of data lies in the potential of integration and data mining, while the mobilization and trading of data helps to boost data integration and mining.

GBDE will launch its data-sharing platform for the Guiyang government during the expo. The platform has collected data from more than 30 lines of work, including mining, agriculture, fishery, wholesale, retail and transportation. The platform is expected to widen the government's information integration and sharing, and help to realize the value of data.

renxiaojin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/25/2017 page11)