In the digital economy era, computing power is a new productive force and the focus of technological competition among countries. As both the “storage capacity” of data storage technology and the “processing capacity” based on network communication technology computing power plays an important role in the information industry. At the same time, computing is also a kind of service capability based on computation, which, with the penetration of markets, has been continuously serving households and various industries like water and electricity. According to, for every one-point increase in computing power index, digital economy and GDP will grow by3.6‰ and 1.7‰ respectively.
Computing power supports the and growth of online markets
Currently, digital transformation across various industries has led to continuous from offline to online economic activities, enhancing the ability of online markets in resource allocation. one hand, digital economy development has created unique e-commerce markets that are similar to traditional; on the other hand, digital platforms have fostered emerging markets such as search engines, messaging platforms, online gaming platforms, and data trading platforms. As digital economy gradually extends consumption end to industrial end and expands from low-end repetitive physical labor to knowledge-intensive sectors involving human emotions domain-wise; online marketplaces will play a greater role resource allocation processes across all stages including production consumption transactions circulation within market systems. Meanwhile， activities within these online marketplaces have become increasingly extensive and complex with higher demands for data processing speed and efficiency.
The of an online marketplace relies on computing power as its foundation. In traditional offline markets that were formed by aggregating multiple segmented sub-markets through supply-demand matching mechanisms as well as price mechanisms at various levels within industrial chains or supply chains across different industries; it mainly relied on spontaneous order forces in the marketplace while concealing calculations made by countless merchants、enterprises、and consumers regarding their own decision-making processes。On contrary，online marketplaces retain this marketplace force while relatively relying more on platform’s unified coordination among different market entities。To extent，algorithms replace production functions for resource allocation purposes，delivering targeted products/services to users，providing procurement information to suppliers，and giving personalized feedback demand indications back to producers。Algorithms operational rules set by these platforms while their actual execution depends on computational capabilities at their base。
In daily life settings optimizing logistics systems’ configurations (e.g., delivery route design)、online-off interactions between marketplace participants (e.g., food delivery) heavily rely calculations powered by computational capabilities。
It isworth noting that online marketplaces require strong computing power for large-scale resource allocation coordination, which cannot be achieved through traditional mental calculation, abacus calculation or calculators. Instead, modern digital technology and infrastructure are needed.
In particular, and payment in online markets rely on computing power. On one hand, computing power facilitates discovery in online markets. It enables businesses to better match market supply and demand and dynamically adjust their prices accordingly. This promotes the formation of enterprise prices, segmented market prices, general equilibrium prices while reducing price inefficiencies in local markets and overall market fluctuations. On other hand, online payments require computing power to coordinate pricing, implement discount policies, and allocate profits reasonably. Online platforms have established clear rules where most transactions do not involve bargaining but instead provide a one-click quotation under the service of computational capabilities. Platforms set reference or guideline prices for rideailing services,
freight trucks services,labor dispatch services,and food delivery among others.Some platforms also establish rules price protection or lowest price across the entire network which significantly influence merchants’ actual pricing.It is rare for merchants to significantly deviate from the relevant prices determined by platforms.In this process,the platform acts as a planner who simulates historical data to obtain reasonably close-to-the-general-market-equilibrium prices.Platforms would it difficult to guide diverse product categories & diversified merchants’ preferences/price points without strong capabilities.
Computing power also enables the unlocking of potential consumption by cultivating “lemon markets such as used car trading and idle transactions.Like electricity，the use of computing power has its own peak periods.At specific times，people may need a large amount of allocated through online markets.This promotes investment in computational technologies & related facilities by platform companies.The investments made during peak periods release potential consumption China，forming a virtuous cycle between consumption & investment.A typical example is how the of “Double Eleven” shopping festival complements rapid development