China Issues Action Plan for Platform Economy Collaboration
Seven Chinese government departments have jointly released a three-year action plan aimed at fostering coordinated development among large, medium, and small enterprises in the platform economy, signaling Beijing’s latest effort to rebalance one of the world’s most dynamic digital ecosystems. The “Action Plan for Promoting Coordinated Development of Large, Medium, and Small Enterprises in the Platform Economy (2026–2028)” was issued on June 18 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and four other agencies, according to Xinhua News Agency.
Context and Background
The platform economy—encompassing major players such as Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, ByteDance, and JD.com, along with millions of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that operate on these platforms—has been a cornerstone of China’s digital transformation. However, the sector has faced persistent tensions between dominant platforms and the smaller businesses that depend on them for access to markets, data, and customers.
An official from MIIT, as reported by Workercn.cn, stated that “China’s platform economy development is at a critical period of transformation and upgrading,” adding that there is an “urgent need to grasp the new situation and requirements of the ‘15th Five-Year Plan’ economic and social development and technological industrial transformation.” The action plan aligns with China’s broader 2026–2030 national development strategy, which prioritizes digital economy growth and technological innovation.
Key Targets and Milestones
The action plan sets ambitious targets to be achieved by 2028. These include developing a batch of replicable collaborative innovation models, cultivating a number of “manufacturing single champion” enterprises within the platform economy sector, and releasing three batches of platform open lists. The plan also calls for selecting no fewer than 100 platform resource open scenario pilot projects and building at least 10 service platforms along with 60 deployable intelligent service application scenarios, as detailed by the Chinese Government Website.
Three Pillars of the Strategy
The action plan is structured around three core pillars: innovation synergy, ecological synergy, and open synergy.
Innovation Synergy focuses on joint research and development between large platforms and SMEs, with a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence. The plan explicitly guides platform enterprises to strengthen innovation in general large models, industry-specific large models, and AI agents. It also calls for breakthroughs in high-end chips, next-generation operating systems, and smart terminals.
Ecological Synergy addresses compliance, quality improvement, brand building, and joint overseas expansion. Notably, it includes requirements for algorithm transparency and measures to correct what Chinese regulators describe as “involution-style” competition—a term referring to excessive, zero-sum competition that harms long-term industry health.
Open Synergy calls for large platforms to open their resources—including technology, data, and computing power—to SMEs. This includes publishing platform open lists and establishing public service platforms for smaller enterprises.
Expert Perspective
Yu Xiaohui (余晓晖), President of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), offered a positive assessment of the plan. As reported by People’s Daily, Yu said: “All parties should take the implementation of the action plan as a starting point, striving to build an open, shared, multi-cooperative, and innovation-active platform economy development system, allowing large enterprises to gain ecological vitality through capability openness, allowing small and medium enterprises to release innovation potential through factor circulation.”
Analysis and Implications
The action plan represents a significant shift in China’s approach to platform economy governance. After years of regulatory turbulence—including sweeping antitrust actions against major tech platforms between 2020 and 2022—the new framework signals a move toward stability, balance, and collaborative growth.
Several aspects of the plan stand out. The emphasis on algorithm transparency and fair competition suggests regulators are focused on addressing long-standing complaints from SMEs about opaque platform rules and biased traffic allocation. The plan’s encouragement of platform companies to invest in “early-stage, small, hard-tech ventures” could reshape venture capital dynamics in China, directing more funding toward deep-tech startups.
The introduction of the “AI One-Person Company” concept—a new type of micro-enterprise powered by AI tools—reflects Beijing’s vision of leveraging artificial intelligence to enable entrepreneurship at an unprecedented scale.
What to Watch
Implementation will be key. The plan calls for the seven departments to work in close coordination, with support for regional pilot programs and ongoing monitoring and evaluation. Questions remain about how effectively the ambitious targets will be enforced and whether large platforms will embrace the open-sharing requirements or resist them.
The international dimension is also noteworthy: the plan explicitly supports platform enterprises and SMEs to “go global” together, with coordinated efforts in logistics, payments, and cloud services—a move that could enhance the global competitiveness of Chinese digital economy players in the years ahead.
As China’s platform economy enters this new phase of regulatory stewardship, the balance between fostering innovation and ensuring fair competition will remain the central challenge—and the action plan represents Beijing’s most comprehensive attempt yet to strike it.