Industry has big ideas for big data

The emerging big data industry has been reshaping business models and lifestyles in recent years and will grow into an engine to drive the global technical revolution, said officials and industry insiders at the second Big Data Day forum in China's innovation hub Zhongguancun last week.

Big data, as "a carrier of human knowledge and information", integrates many new technologies, such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things and wearable terminals, said Xuan Hong, deputy director of the Zhongguancun administration, at the forum.

It also has helped bring advances in many traditional industries, including agriculture, manufacturing and the service sector, he said.