What are information services?

At present, there is no very standardized and unified definition of the information service industry. From the perspective of international trends, the information service industry can generally include the following parts: traditional telecommunications services; Internet-based businesses; radio and television; film, television, media and publishing industries; and software services.

Broad definition: On December 29, 2003, the National Bureau of Statistics issued the "Interim Provisions on the Statistical Classification of Information-related Industries", which classified the information industry into five parts: electronic information equipment manufacturing and electronic information equipment sales. and leasing, electronic information transmission services, computer services and software industry, and other information-related services. The latter three can be regarded as information service industries in the usual sense. From the perspective of industry subcategories, the information services industry includes telecommunications-related services, Internet information services, radio and television transmission services, satellite transmission services, computer-related services, software-related services, radio/television/film and audio-visual related services, press and publishing related services, Library and archive related services.

Narrow definition: The "Telecommunications Classification Catalog" issued by the Ministry of Information Industry in 2003 defines information service business as follows: through information collection, development, processing and construction of information platforms, through fixed networks, mobile networks or the Internet Businesses such as public communication networks that provide voice information services (audio services) or online information and data retrieval and other information services directly to end users. The types of information services mainly include content services, entertainment/games, business information, positioning information and other services. Information service business oriented users can be fixed communication network users, mobile communication network users, Internet users or users of other data transmission networks. In this definition, information services are a value-added business in telecommunications services. According to the current definition of responsibilities of the Ministry of Information Industry, the information service industry should include traditional telecommunications services, Internet services and software services. With the development of triple network integration in the future, it should also include radio and television.