Beijing's big data trading platform goes online

Beijing's online big data trading platform was officially launched recently. The platform was established under the guidance of the relevant municipal departments and the local industrial union in cooperation with scientific institutions, data dealers and trading agencies. On the newly launched platform, 100 million pieces of original data, including data on workers' average salaries and school directory information, were priced between 1000 RMB to 500,000 RMB (US$163 to US$81,625).



According to Hu Caiyong, the CEO of Beijing Software and Information Service Exchange, although most of the original big data may not be able to serve ordinary people directly, it will prove helpful to them once it is processed by professional companies.



The focus of much of the debate surrounding big data trading is on the issue of personal privacy violation. Hu explained that the government owns the majority of the sensitive big data, which will be made available for trade only after it has gone through a process of "desensitization" in which personal identifying information associated with or included in the data is deleted.