(Yicai Global) July 7 -- Chinese software businesses, a key driver of the digital economy, increased their revenues by an average of 13 percent in the January to May period from a year ago amid the rapid development of artificial intelligence and cloud computing services.

Software developers had total revenue in excess of CNY4.3 trillion (USD539.5 billion) in the first five months of the year, Industry and Information Technology Vice Minister Wang Jiangping said at the annual Global Digital Economy Conference held in Beijing. IT firms led with CNY2.84 trillion, including CNY436.6 billion (USD60.3 billion) from cloud computing and Big Data services.

Representatives from 18 partner cities of Beijing, including Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Busan in South Korea, and Copenhagen in Denmark, were invited to attend the conference that ends today to jointly launch the Global Digital Economy Partner City Cooperative Initiative to advance global exchanges and cooperation and speed up the digital transformation of cities.

China will speed up the development of strategic emerging industries such as Big Data, artificial intelligence, and connected vehicles, as well as make a great efforts in developing advanced manufacturing industry, and boost the digital economy, Wang also said.

The digital economy accounts for an ever-growing share of gross domestic product around the world. Major economies such as the United States, China, Germany, Japan, and South Korea added up to USD31 trillion last year, with digital services accounting for 58 percent of total GDP, up about 11 percentage points from 2016, per a white paper released at the conference.

China has the largest network infrastructure with advanced technologies on the planet, per data from the MIIT. At the end of May, the country had more than 2.8 million base stations for fifth-generation telecom networks, almost 2.1 billion users of cellular Internet of Things, and superior infrastructure for computing power.

China’s digital economy was worth CNY50.2 trillion last year, its e-retailing market ranked first globally for the ninth year, and the software and IT services business had revenue of CNY10.8 trillion, according to a report the Cyberspace Administration of China published in May.

Editor: Emmi Laine