Shanghai Data Exchange

About Shanghai Data Exchange

Operating as a pivotal quasi-public service institution under the guidance of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, the Shanghai Data Exchange was formally inaugurated on November 25, 2021. This launch marked a significant milestone in China's national strategy to develop its digital economy and establish a regulated marketplace for data as a production factor. The exchange is led by General Manager Tang Qifeng, a key figure in China's big data landscape. The institution was established with backing from state-owned enterprises, including Shanghai Information Investment Inc. and major telecom operators, positioning it as a state-controlled entity designed to build a foundational data elements market.

The core business of the Shanghai Data Exchange is to facilitate the circulation and trading of data products and, more recently, data assets. It addresses key challenges in the data market, such as data rights determination, pricing, security, and regulatory oversight. The exchange operates on the principle of "no listing without compliance, no trading without a specified use case," ensuring a secure and regulated environment. Its business model revolves around providing the infrastructure and a standardized framework for these transactions, creating a new licensed profession known as "data merchants" (数商) who act as intermediaries and service providers within this ecosystem. These merchants encompass a range of services, including data compliance, quality and asset valuation, brokerage, and secure delivery.

The exchange has developed a comprehensive suite of services and systems to support its market. Upon its launch, it introduced what it termed the "Five Firsts": the first nationwide data merchant system, data trading support system, all-digital trading system, data product registration certificate, and data product manual. This framework provides a full-lifecycle service for data trading, from listing and compliance checks to transaction and delivery. The platform features an all-digital, intelligent trading system that ensures every transaction is traceable via a unique code assigned to each data product. In a significant expansion of its services, the exchange launched its International Board in April 2023 to explore cross-border data flows and established the nation's first Data Asset Trading Market for trial operation in June 2024, moving beyond data products to the financialization of data itself.

Significant partnerships have been a cornerstone of its strategy to build a global data hub. The exchange has signed strategic agreements with international firms like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Neudata, and Dun & Bradstreet to foster a global data ecosystem. These collaborations aim to create a "technical interface + data merchant network" to facilitate seamless and compliant data transmission across borders. The exchange hosts a wide array of data products across sectors including finance, transportation, communication, industry, and healthcare, with listed products growing from an initial 20 to over 2,700 by mid-2024. Its transaction volume has seen substantial growth, exceeding 1.16 billion yuan in 2023.