- 02/05/2018
- Category: Commentaries
When we talk about the state of digital disruption, one of the easiest ways to notice such disruptions are the ways the economy runs. When we used to buy groceries directly from the store, people in China order them online through their sophisticatedly integrated mobile application, where the order, the transaction, and the delivery are all determined and ensured from one single click. We might also read newspaper every morning from our phone, instead of waiting for the paperboys throwing our subscribed papers. This is exactly what the 2015-released book, The Global Digital Economy: A Comparative Policy Analysis, tries to underline, especially from the spectacles of policy makers. As the world is becoming more digitally intertwined, how are governments and policy makers aligning themselves with the rapid and transformative trends? The book opens with an intriguing arguments, that the governments worldwide have responded slowly to the phenomenon of digital economy, and that most innovative strategies they attempt at grooming the new and promising industry are not accommodating the current engines of digital economy: digital media and digital content. The authors say “Digital media and digital content, it is fair to say, have not fit easily into national economic strategies and government policy.” Is that so?
One striking point that the book highlights is the sectors of digital media and digital contents. It argues that these two sectors, through the concept of digital creation, are the core of the digital economy, aside from other key subsectors: digital infrastructure, management systems, production, and creation. The authors then take digital creation as the baseline in determining the rate of success in governments’ attempts to facilitate the unprecedented growth of an economic model. The book also provides detailed break-down of the current state of the growth in digital creation, citing, different sectors like the search engine platforms, social networking platforms, online and video games, travel industry, commerce, and even digital politics and e-government. Giving highlights on how each industry strives, the section further argues that such new characteristics of how this new economy runs are foreign to the government’s understanding. Driven mostly by creativity and culture-driven ideas, digital creation requires more than just a conventional approach in grooming their growth.
The authors further argue that “The nature of the industry is such that typical policies and procedures, ranging from training programs and business development loans to intellectual property protection, do not work particularly well in the digital-content sector.” This is why, according to the authors, most governments either fail or adapt slowly. Moreover, what makes the industry seems to be more complicated for the government is the fact that this industry is so particular on preferences, as culture and language play a huge role in both the success and the failure of the industry in certain places. Due to this particularity, the government also faces intangible trajectories in retrieving an applicable model of growth for their own industry. English speaking contents have obviously dominated the internet, but the raise of Spanish-speaking audiences, and the high number of digital content consumers in Asia might tell something about not only how different parts of the world now have nurtured their own market, but also how different incentives should also be applied to different industry according to their cultural and language background. This phenomenon then drives the emergence of ‘glocalization,’ a phenomenon where the global interconnectivity and cultural attributes, as what the authors note, define the global reality.
The book also notes down how several governments situate with the particular rise of digital creation industry in their respective countries/regions. Each region thrives and succumbs differently to the digital economy. The European Union and North America are mainly praised due to their quick adaptation with the trend, and the ways they transform data and information into valuable assets. The East Asians are also praised notably for their infrastructure prowess, but is highly criticized for some political and cultural values that more or less hinder their already rapid cultivation of digital economy’s values. Comparing them with the rest of the world, especially the developing nations, there remains a huge visible gap in both the infrastructure and usage of digital features, hence thwarting them from utmost economic advantages of the digital economy. The book concludes with a set of policy recommendations are also derived, and they mostly focus on the affirmative approach by the government to engage with the industry and understand that the industry is different in characteristics, and thus entailing different treatments as well.
As the book mainly discusses the digital creation as the breath of digital economy. However, the book does not go quite deep in justifying that digital creation, especially digital media and digital contents, are what define digital economy. The authors indeed mention other key subsectors, especially infrastructure, management, and production that shape the economy in general, but they are put aside and pretty much left untouched. This then is potential in understanding the concept of digital economy in general, and tendency of taking ‘digital creation’ for granted is inevitable. Similar portions of infrastructure, management, and production of digital economy should also be dug deeper to present multifaceted opinions on the current state of digital economy, especially how governments and policy makes deal with them. For example, in East Asia, as the book noted, the infrastructural prominence is pushed highly by the government, making them highly equipped with fast internet, for instance. How is that disregarded in framing the whole governments’ approach to the development of digital economy? The discussion mainly gravitates around the particularity of East Asian cultures, languages, and political landscapes which hamper their pursuit of digital economic prowess. While in fact, China, South Korea and Japan nowadays stand among the most digitally savvy economy in the world.
Another interesting point that can potentially be explored even further in the book is the concept of ‘glocalization.’ Yes, this is indeed not a new concept, and people do talk about that. But maybe a little bit more of elaboration on this concept can link the nature of the digital economy’s particularity (on cultural and language roles) and the digital creation, or even digital economy in general. This can potentially provide ample answers on the overall degree of complexities governments are facing in facilitating such rampant economic trend. But still, in general, the book provides a comprehensive outlook on variety of digital creation activities, and how far they have disrupted the conventional economy. We still cannot deny that the government indeed has been lagging in facilitating everything the industry needs. But maybe not because governments don’t really understand, but maybe because the innovations always outpace regulations.
Editor: Atin Prabandari MA(IR)
