Jack Ma, Chairman of the Alibaba Group Board, said at a forum on Nov. 19 that the next thirty years will bring tremendous changes, with planned economies becoming increasingly significant. He said that, thanks to data access, we may be able to observe the “invisible hand” of a country’s market. Before the discovery of X-rays and CT scans, traditional Chinese medicine doctors could not open up a patient’s abdomen to see inside; instead, they developed a unique system of diagnosis through pulse-taking, observation, listening, and questioning. But once X-rays and CT scans appeared, everything changed drastically. Similarly, in the data era, with precise knowledge of national and global economic data, it will be like having X-rays and CT scans for the world economy, and new theories will emerge thirty years from now.

Jack Ma did not elaborate on this part of his argument yesterday. Guancha.cn noted that this is not the first time he has expressed similar views. Last September, in an exclusive interview with Taiwan’s Central Daily News, he said that by 2030, the world will once again see a major debate between market economies and planned economies. “Although a hundred years ago (in the 1930s) the United States’ advocacy of a market economy triumphed while Russia failed, the situation has now changed,” he said. He added, “By 2030, planned economies will become the superior system.”

At the time, Jack Ma explained his reasoning based on data—that is, information. He stated, “In 1930, because people believed in the ‘invisible hand’ of the market, market economies prevailed. But now, the data we possess allows us to see what was once invisible.” He paid close attention to technologies that can collect and analyze large amounts of real-time data, which can be seen as the origin of a new-concept planned economy—one in which production and resource allocation can be planned once the market’s operations are clearly understood.

This is the rationale behind Jack Ma’s assertion that “the IT (Information Technology) era is ending, and the DT (Data Technology) era is about to begin.” He is looking ahead to the era of data hegemony.

Editor: Zhiyu Wang