iResearch Annual Summit kicks off in Beijing

The 8th iResearch Annual Summit, organized by iResearch Consulting Group, kicked off on 24 April, 2013 at China National Convention Center in Beijing.

The theme of the conference was named "Share technology innovation and build revolutionary future." Top leaders from Chinese IT firms, consulting institutes and other tech related enterprises gathered together to discuss hot topics and the future development of China's IT industry.

During the main sessions of the conference, Yang Weiqing, founder of iResearch Consulting Group, Gu Yongqiang, CEO of Youku Tudou Inc, Teng Binsheng, vice-president of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and Zhao Yong, former researcher at Google Research delivered speeches, which respectively focused on mobile Internet, video website development, Internet with enterprises development and also Google Glass -- Wearable Computing Devises.

Yang Weiqing, founder of iResearch Consulting Group

Yang Weiqing said that although the GDP growth of China has reined up fewer than 8 percent, China's Internet industry strives to outshine others. In the past six or seven years, China's economic growth rate has maintained at about 10 percent, however, according to the long-term survey of iResearch, the annual increase rate of China's Internet industry reached 42.4 percent.

The figure represents the increase rate of China's main IT enterprises, and in a sense, reflects the developing trend of the Internet industry, Yang said.

All-in-one screen

According to Gu Yongqiang, if 2012 was the year to integrate within the web video industry, 2013 is an appropriate year to create a new season of the all-in-one screen.

Gu Yongqiang, CEO of Youku Tudou Inc

In 2005 and 2006, people generally watched videos on the TV screen. From 2006 to 2012, the PC became a popular terminal for audiences. Although mobile Internet has been discussed for a long time, the industry's traffic only started to increase in early 2012. By the end of last year, the number reached over 100 million, and it has surpassed to 150 million so far.

"We believed that the traffic number will boom in 2013," said Gu.

Internet & company development

In this information age, powered by the Internet, China's industrial structure is in the reform process. Although it is difficult to achieve technical innovation, the Internet is still a field full of potential, said Teng Binsheng.

Teng Binsheng, vice-president of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business

According to Teng, thinking of a breakthrough point of business models is a must-do mission in both the IT industrial area and traditional industrial field. For example, before entering the browser market, Qihu360, a major Internet company providing security software, took anti-virus software development as a feeding-in point to compete with traditional industrial giants. Experience in software building and designing also contributed to its success.

Google Glass -- Wearable Computing Devises

The first testers of the Google Glass were catwalk models from New York Fashion Week 2012. After the show, the models expressed that they were impressed by the video captured via Google Glass, which recorded real-time activities and the expressions of photographers and journalists, said Zhao Yong.

Zhao also discussed another example of Google Glass at work - a tourism project powered by a British firm. The project allows users to walk down London streets with one lens showing the realtime scenery and the other lens showing the street view history. It provides the user with a multi-perspective sightseeing tour.

E-commerce enterprises and marketing firms including Alibaba and OMG of Tencent have also joined the 8th iResearch Annual Summit.