What is the difference between the Industrial Internet and the Industrial Internet?

From "Consumer Internet" to "Industrial Internet"
The Internet was born in the United States in 1969. At that time, its name was not Internet, but ARPANET, which was just a small-scale inter-school private network.

Later, in the 1980s, with the maturity of TCP/IP technology, the Internet gradually developed into a global network, and it has the title of Internet.

At the end of the 20th century, the Internet ushered in explosive growth, which changed the lifestyles of countless people and created many Internet giants, such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and China's BAT.

At that time, the Internet was not as powerful as it is now due to the limitations of computer software, hardware and communication technology. When people access the Internet, they can only send e-mails, browse the web, browse forums, play some online games that look extremely rough now, and watch some low-resolution recreational videos.

After entering the 21st century, some Internet companies with a keen sense of smell discovered that the role of the Internet should not be limited to life and consumption, but should also be used for production and creation.

In other words, the Internet should not only be used for "playing", but also for "improving productivity". Therefore, these Internet companies put forward the terms "Industrial Internet" and "Internet +".

From the perspective of Internet companies, the "traditional Internet" that everyone used at that time should be called the consumer Internet to be precise.

The consumer internet revolves around consumers. Its main function is to help people obtain a better consumption experience in terms of basic necessities of life, social entertainment, etc.

After 2007, the early mobile Internet, which rose together with smartphones, is actually basically a consumer Internet. Online games, video dramas, e-commerce shopping, and mobile payments are all consumption scenarios for residents.

The Industrial Internet, on the other hand, serves enterprises and aims to "reduce costs and increase efficiency."

The early application of the industrial Internet was very simple. Internet companies used the Internet (building websites, e-commerce, and SEO optimization) to help B-end (enterprise) users open sales channels and increase sales.

Later, the Industrial Internet began to slowly penetrate into all aspects of business operations, such as supply chain management, production management, channel management, finance, personnel, etc.

Today, through ICT (information and communication) technology, industrial enterprises are empowered to realize the integration of information, resources, and funds, reduce ineffective costs, and improve the operating efficiency of the industry. This is the real industrial Internet.

The difference between "Industrial Internet" and "Internet"

It is worth mentioning that although "Industrial Internet" and "Internet" are often confused, there is still a difference between the two.

"Internet" can be understood as "Internet all walks of life". What it emphasizes is connection, which is to play the optimization and integration role of the Internet in the allocation of social resources. For example, "Internet education" is based on the information exchange capabilities brought about by Internet connections, weakening information gaps, and allowing education companies to quickly reach users with their services.

"Industrial Internet" is different. In addition to emphasizing the connection function of the Internet, it also emphasizes the deep integration of Internet technology and specific industries-the Internet penetrates into the bone marrow of enterprises, improves management, processes, systems and processes, and enhances industrial efficiency.

In short, the "Industrial Internet" is higher and the "Internet" is slightly lower.

The Rise of the “Internet of Things”

At the beginning of the 21st century, while the industrial Internet was slowly developing, another emerging thing also began to rise, that is, the Internet of Things.

The earliest model of the Internet of Things is the sensor network, which was born on the battlefield of the Vietnam War in the 1960s. At that time, the United States put a large number of sensors on the Ho Chi Minh Trail to monitor the delivery of supplies by the North Vietnamese army.

In the 1980s, David Nichols and others from Carnegie Mellon University in the United States invented a remote monitoring automatic Coke machine, which is considered to be the world's first Internet of Things device. But in fact, the concept of the Internet of Things (Internet of Things) was officially proposed in 1999 (from Professor Kevin Ashton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

The emergence of the Internet of Things has opened the door to a new world for mankind. People have discovered that in addition to the need for connections between people, there is also a need for connections between people and things, and between things. This interconnection of everything can create greater value.

How should we understand the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things in a narrow sense refers to the Internet of Things technologies, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Cat.1, NB-IoT, etc. that are gradually becoming popular.

The Internet of Things in a broad sense refers to the Internet of Things scenarios and industries. Use the Internet of Things technology to strengthen the collection of data, control the terminal, form a data flow, and serve the application of the industry.

Usually, when we refer to the Internet of Things, it is more technical. After the emergence of the concept of the Internet of Things, from the perspective of connected objects, the Internet is divided into the Internet of People and the Internet of Things.

Note that although the Industrial Internet uses more IoT technologies, the Industrial Internet ≠ the Internet of Things. Similarly, consumer Internet ≠ Internet of People.

"Industrial Internet" vs "Industrial Internet"

On November 26, 2012, General Electric Company (GE) of the United States released the white paper "Industrial Internet: Breaking the Boundary between Wisdom and Machines", which first proposed the concept of Industrial Internet (Industrial Internet).

white paper cover

At the time, GE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt said:

"The internet has changed the way we use information and communicate, and now it can do so much more. By connecting intelligent machines and eventually humans to machines, combined with software and big data analytics, we can break new ground in physics and materials science. limits, and change the way the world works."

It can be seen from this that the Industrial Internet is a further extension of the concept of the Internet. The connection objects, users, and usage scenarios of the Industrial Internet are completely different from those of the Consumer Internet.

In GM's white paper, the Industrial Internet is referred to as the Industrial Internet.

Industry, as we all know, means "industry, industry, industry, manufacturing". Industrial, usually as an adjective, means "industrial, industrial, used in industry, industrially developed". According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, industrial also has a noun meaning, mainly referring to industrial production and service (industrial production or service).

General Motors, as we all know, is an industrial manufacturing company. Therefore, when it was named, it must have industry in mind.

But we should also know that the scope of the concept of industry is obviously much larger than that of industry.

According to the "National Economic Industry Classification" (GB/T 4754-2017) promulgated by our country, industries are divided into three categories. To put it simply, the primary industry is agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, and the secondary industry is mining, manufacturing, energy, and construction. The tertiary industry refers to industries other than the primary industry and the secondary industry.

The scope of the tertiary industry is very wide, including: service industry, wholesale and retail industry, transportation, warehousing and postal industry, accommodation and catering industry, information transmission, software and information technology service industry, financial industry, real estate industry, leasing and business Service industry, education and health, culture and entertainment, etc.

Industry is one of the components of the secondary industry, and its share in the national economy has dropped to one-third (32% in 2019). The digital transformation we are talking about now definitely does not only refer to the industry, but to the entire industry.

Therefore, logically speaking, the Industrial Internet in many news reports and articles that you see on the Internet should be called "Industrial Internet". There may be two reasons why it is called "Industrial Internet". One is that the term "Industrial Internet" has been "occupied" by some Internet companies in advance, and the other is the name of our country's competent authority, which is called "Ministry of Industry and Information Technology". ...

I personally think that the name of the Industrial Internet has some influence on the popularization of the Industrial (Industrial) Internet. Many ordinary people see and hear about the Industrial Internet, and instinctively think that this is a matter for companies in the industrial field and has nothing to do with them. In fact, the Industrial (Industrial) Internet is closely related to each of us. Every industry must follow the path of informatization, digitization, networking, and intelligence, and must pay attention to digital transformation.

The industry is larger than the industry, and the industry Internet can be approximately equal to the industry Internet

All in all, if you see the term Industrial Internet, your first reaction should be: Is it the Industrial Internet in a narrow sense? Or the generalized industrial Internet?

If it is only related to industrial manufacturing, it is in a narrow sense. If it includes not only industrial manufacturing, but also the application of the primary and tertiary industries, it is in a broad sense.

do you understand?