CHENGDU, Aug. 14 (NBD) -- According to the Blue Book of Big Data released in May 2017, except China's four municipalities directly under the central government, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Guiyang, Xiamen, Chengdu, Ningbo, Wuhan, Qingdao, and Shenyang presented a striking performance in the big data sector.

Of them, Chengdu has followed in the footsteps of Guangzhou and Shenyang to set up the big data management bureau, in addition to releasing a series of policies to drive the big data growth. Guiyang has seen its big data industry reach 91.6 billion yuan (about 13.8 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of 2015, accounting for 45 percent of Guizhou province's industry total.

Revenues from big data products and services are expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan (about 150.1 billion U.S. dollars) by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of around 30 percent, says the newly published 2017 White Paper on the Development of China's Big Data Industry.

A leading big data technical system is expected to take shape in Chengdu by the end of 2020, increasing the size of the city's big data industry and related industries to 300 billion yuan (about 45.0 billion U.S. dollars).

Guiyang aims to lift the output value of the niche industry to 160 billion yuan (about 24.0 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of the 13th FYP period.

Other cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Suzhou, and Wuhan, also vow to give a strong boost to the big data development to expand the market to more than 100 billion yuan (about 15.0 billion U.S. dollars) by 2020.

Currently, big data is being broadly used in various fields such as tourism, transportation, and healthcare.

For example, Guangzhou is expanding the use of big data in industrial manufacturing, finance, business, and other areas, while Xi'an is giving priority to the development of industrial cloud, tourism big data, and agriculture and forestry big data.

Artificial intelligence is expected to constitute an important part of the big data ecosystem and to make breakthroughs in niche areas like healthcare, e-commerce, public transportation, finance, and education.

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn