China's 2024 data market transaction volume tops 160 billion yuan

BEIJING - The transaction volume of China's data market is estimated to have topped 160 billion yuan ($22.26 billion) in 2024, up more than 30 percent year-on-year, according to the National Data Administration.

China accelerated its construction of data infrastructure in 2024. By the end of the third quarter, the total number of data center racks in use exceeded 2.11 million, a year-on-year increase of more than 100 percent, administration head Liu Liehong said at a national data work conference on Friday.

Liu said the administration will continue to vigorously implement the mega data project that has been dubbed "East Data, West Computing" to accelerate the construction of an integrated national computing network.

By the end of 2025, new computing power in major computing hubs is expected to account for more than 60 percent of the country's total, and the use of green electricity is expected to exceed 80 percent, Liu noted.

A key part of China's digital infrastructure, the project was initiated in 2022 and designed to develop inland regions' capacities to store and process data transmitted from economically advanced eastern areas.