China finds poor data storage leads to waste, as AI, satellites and self-driving cars generate masses of bytes
- National Data Resources Survey Report 2023 released at digital economy summit finds 22 per cent of Chinese firms surveyed have no data management system
- Rise in China’s data retention expected to spike soon, propelled by embrace of generative AI technologies around the world
China is wasting much of its vast data resources because its storage and data processing capability lags behind its data generation, with a new survey finding that less than 3 per cent of data generated in the country last year was stored and processed.
The findings of the National Data Resources Survey Report 2023 – the first nationwide data resource survey by Chinese authorities – were released on May 24 at a digital economy summit in Fuzhou in coastal Fujian province.
But while data production rose 22 per cent, data storage only increased by 0.95ZB last year – less than 3 per cent of the amount of data generated in the same period, the survey said.
The survey acknowledged China’s data generation and storage conversion ratio was still low and that “the potential value of data needs further exploration”.
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It also noted that use of stored data remained low – nearly 40 per cent of data stored by the companies last year was not read or being reused after being stored.