IT firms should bet on third platform

China's IT industry is projected to grow 10 percent in 2014, with "third platform" to be the driving force of the sector, said an executive at an IT consulting firm.

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The third platform, namely the mobility, cloud computing, big data and social network service, is changing, and will provide vast business opportunities, Kitty Fok, managing director of IDC China, said at a forum Tuesday.

As people start paying more attention to their health in the next 50 years, Fok suggested that IT firms should venture into the healthcare industry by combing all the third platform technologies.

However, traditional industries tend to evolve slowly. When IT players turn their sights on traditional industries, they are there to overhaul the traditions and reshape these companies, said Wu Lianfeng, associate vice president of IDC China.

China has laid out plans to develop the new-generation of information technologies in its 12th Five-Year Plan, which contains the "third platform" idea raised by IDC.

The Chinese government has rolled out series of policies to promote cloud computing, however, it should first focus on infrastructure, especially on improving the speed of the broadband, so as to facilitate the development of the sector, Fok said.

Referring to information security, China's investment is far below compared to that of the US and Japan, said Wang Pei, research manager of IDC China. China's spending on this area accounts for just 1.03 percent of government's IT expenditure, far below the proportion of the US (8.9 percent) and Japan (7.2 percent), said Wang.

Government's policies to highlight this issue will drive the growth of the information security sector in the future, Wang said at the forum.

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