The Application of Artificial Intelligence at Chinese Digital Platform Giants: Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent

ETLA Reports, No. 81 (February, 2018)

14 Pages Posted: 25 Apr 2018

See all articles by Kai Jia

Kai Jia

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Martin Kenney

University of California, Davis

Juri Mattila

The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA)

Timo Seppala

Aalto University

Date Written: February 26, 2018

Abstract

The Chinese digital platform giants – Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent – have quickly risen to be amongst the most notable developers and users of artificial intelligence. One important catalyst for this development has been the so-called Platform Business Group (PBG) strategy used by Chinese digital platform firms. In this strategy a platform firm aims to develop powerful synergies by tightly linking together a number of different platforms it owns so as to offer multiple services to users under its umbrella. By applying the PBG strategy, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are able to exploit enormous multi-faceted datasets on individuals for use in the development of artificial intelligence algorithms. As a result, the Chinese platform giants appear to be taking a somewhat different approach with the development and use of artificial intelligence than their Western counterparts. If the Chinese platform giants succeed in their efforts to expand into the global market, their business strategies will introduce a different threat to the conventional European industries from those challenges already presented by Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Platforms, Platform Business Group strategy, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent

JEL Classification: L8, L86, O3, O33

Suggested Citation

Jia, Kai and Kenney, Martin and Mattila, Juri and Seppala, Timo, The Application of Artificial Intelligence at Chinese Digital Platform Giants: Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (February 26, 2018). ETLA Reports, No. 81 (February, 2018), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3154038 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3154038

Kai Jia

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China ( email )

No.4, Section 2, North Jianshe Road
Chengdu, Chengdu 610054
China

Martin Kenney

University of California, Davis ( email )

Community and Regional Development Unit
Davis, CA 95616
United States
5305745943 (Phone)

Juri Mattila

The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) ( email )

Lönnrotinkatu 4 B
Helsinki, 00120
Finland

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.etla.fi/

Timo Seppala (Contact Author)

Aalto University ( email )

P.O. Box 21210
Helsinki, 00101
Finland

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