Reference News Network, February 3 report. According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post website, January 30 report, Mr. Liu, a Shanghai resident, is driving his brand new Mercedes-Benz CLA car, a German car he has long been fond of, and this luxury model has another place that makes him proud: it is equipped with an intelligent cockpit system from a local Chinese company.
The report said, Mr. Liu said, "In my view, this is a perfect integration of German precision manufacturing and China's smart digital core."
Previously, automotive manufacturers' parts procurement was either done internally or through joint ventures, but Mr. Liu's car marks a shift: ByteDance, an external professional technology company, signed as a provider to create a complete cutting-edge digital service system for this model.
According to reports, researchers said that this collaboration highlights the growing influence of China in the field of digital service outsourcing, especially in AI-driven services and related R&D capabilities, and also demonstrates China's ambition to challenge India's long-term dominance in this area.
China, known as the "world factory," is committed to upgrading its value chain and becoming a high-end service provider.
By December 2025, Beijing clearly stated that by 2030, it would cultivate a group of service outsourcing leading enterprises with international competitiveness, further enhancing the level of digitalization and intelligence in service outsourcing.
A joint action plan issued by multiple government departments pointed out that service outsourcing is an important part of service trade.
Official data shows that China still has a deficit in the field of service trade, although this deficit has been narrowing in recent years.
With a larger economy, China's total scale of service outsourcing has surpassed India. However, according to a report released last year by Chinese consulting firm Dingtao, the scale of China's offshore outsourcing business is still smaller compared to India.
Dingtao's CEO Qi Haitao pointed out that India is a pioneer in the field of service outsourcing and still holds a dominant position, mainly due to its large engineering and technical talent pool, as well as its natural proximity in language and culture.
However, Qi Haitao believes that the advantage of India, which relies on low-cost labor with fluent English, is gradually being weakened by AI technology, while China has already taken a significant lead in the field of artificial intelligence.
China's strengths in the field of service outsourcing are reflected in industries such as traditional information technology services and biopharmaceutical research and development. These industries are gradually upgrading toward more advanced technologies and higher added value, and with the continuous emergence of more cutting-edge technology-driven fields such as big data and cloud computing, China has formed a competitive advantage in this area.
Some observers believe that compared to India, China has taken a more independent and diversified development path in its transition to a service outsourcing provider. (Translated by Liu Xiaoyan)
Original: toutiao.com/article/7602579299773727282/
Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author himself.