A group of industries form a confederation to monitor and maximise the use of big data.
In line with the Chinese government's "Internet Plus" strategy, a group of industries have collaborated to form the Global Big Data Confederation aimed at exploring new commercial applications of Big Data.
In particular, the body will examine how best to use Big Data to better inform trends and behaviours for mobile advertising.
In early 2015, the government unveiled its "Internet Plus" initiative aimed at integrating mobile internet, cloud computing, big data and the "Internet of things" together with traditional industries like manufacturing, banking and energy to stimulate growth and innovation.
Sharing data and insights across industries will give state-owned firms a national advantage in China, especially in the m-commerce segment. In December last year, China Mobile and China Unicom added 25m 4G users to their networks - roughly the same as the population of Yemen.
The group will consist of executives from Microsoft China, AliResearch (Alibaba's dedicated research arm) and IBM China Development China Lab, amongst others.