Key Trends Shaping China’s Technology and IT Industry in 2021‑2022

Technology and IT have become pivotal topics for China’s commercial market and overall economic development, with digital technologies permeating work, life, entertainment, and industry transformation.

Trend 1: Digital Wormhole – Full Softening of the Physical World – Emerging technologies such as big data, AI, cloud computing, IoT, 5G and blockchain will jointly reconstruct physical elements, enabling data traceability, prediction, and scenario simulation, creating a seamless bridge between the physical and digital realms.

Trend 2: Cloud Service Democratization Enters a New Stage – Cloud services are becoming increasingly accessible, moving from specialized IT teams to business units and ordinary users, fostering an "information management integration" model that expands DevOps‑style cloud‑native departments beyond IT.

Trend 3: SaaS Value‑Assessment Shifts Toward User‑Centric Metrics – SaaS providers will focus on visible user benefits and continuous services, with product efficacy and service value becoming key evaluation criteria, and transaction‑type SaaS models emerging to drive revenue and customer loyalty.

Trend 4: Edge Computing Drives a New Cloud Traffic Competition – As data volumes grow, centralized cloud faces bottlenecks; edge nodes will balance compute power, supported by 5G, leading to a shift from cloud‑resource competition to cloud‑technology and traffic competition.

Trend 5: Cloud‑Based Big‑Data and AI Fuel an Intelligent Wave – The convergence of cloud resources, data assets and AI capabilities enables flexible, elastic services that support end‑to‑end big‑data intelligence, accelerating digital transformation and business growth.

Trend 6: Low‑Code/No‑Code Penetrates All Layers – Low‑code platforms (aPaaS) and embedded solutions are reshaping software development, industry chains and business models, driving higher efficiency, empowerment and innovation.

Trend 7: Cloud‑Native Becomes Infrastructure Backbone – Cloud‑native technologies mature into foundational infrastructure, replacing traditional virtualization layers, integrating with databases, development and operations, and enhancing real‑time, agile, low‑cost product innovation.

Trend 8: IT Architecture Flattens and De‑processes – Reducing intermediate steps between raw data and business needs simplifies architecture, enables real‑time response, and improves agility while accepting some resource waste for greater simplicity.

Trend 9: From Customer Resources to Customer Experience – Companies shift from treating users as traffic to delivering holistic experiences that combine product UI, branding, marketing and after‑sales support, embracing PLG and journey‑based models.

Trend 10: Terminal Landscape Evolves Slowly – Personal smart devices remain dominant; incremental hardware improvements and auxiliary smart‑hardware ecosystems will enrich user scenarios over the next 3‑5 years.