In January, the New Orders Index of the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) stood at 46.9 percent in China, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. The index for high-tech manufacturing hit 51.6 percent, much higher the industry’s general level.

Over the Spring Festival period, JollyChic, an online retailer operated by a Chinese e-commerce company called Jolly Information Technology Co. Ltd, sold 120,000 units of eye makeup products to consumers in Middle Eastern countries.

Based on big data, the company could stock 82 percent of goods in advance. It has helped 5,000 Chinese companies go overseas and sell their products to Belt and Road countries and regions.

Statistics indicated that the revenue of digital economy registered double-digit growth for 17 consecutive months in Hangzhou. In 2018, revenue stood at 1.08 trillion yuan, up 18.8 percent.

The value created by core industries of the digital economy per year grew by an average of 22 percent, and contributed 50 percent to Hangzhou's economy.

By cooperating with Alibaba’s cloud computing, the company improved efficiency by 3 percentage points, and saved 15 million yuan per year in costs.

By mid-February, the number of enterprises replacing human labor with robots exceeded 3,300, and more than 80,000 companies were connected to Alibaba cloud. The efficiency of production, utilization of equipment, and product quality have improved, and inventory has been reduced.

Hefei in east China’s Anhui province has the nation’s first industrial base focusing on artificial intelligence. An AI translation bar developed by a company within the park has caught wide public attention.

The machine is able to translate Chinese into six languages, with a battery that can run for 180 days with a single charge. The device only has one button for the convenience of users.

About 150,000 translation devices have been sold since its debut last July, generating 18 million yuan in revenue. This year, approximately one million devices are expected to be sold, said someone in charge of the company.

By 2018, the number of enterprises at the park had reached 433, generating 60 billion yuan in total. In January, 18 companies entered the park, and there are currently 340 projects under construction.