Digital economy development is on a fast track, and global direct investment in the digital transformation will reach $5.5 trillion from 2019 to 2021, said Kitty Fok, managing director of market consultancy IDC China, at the recent IDC China annual ceremony for digital transformation.

The global digital economy will see a compound growth rate of 36 percent from 2018 to 2022, she said. By 2022, digitalized GDP in the world will reach $46 trillion, accounting for 46 percent of the total economy.

The gap is widening between leaders and laggards in digital transformation, said Wu Lianfeng, IDC China vice-president and chief research analyst. According to IDC's research on global companies, digitalized enterprises can maintain over 10 percent growth in annual sales and more than a 12 percent increase in profit annually, while the non-digitalized will see flat or downturns in those indices, Wu said.

Digital transformation is not an option but a necessity, said Wu, and it's critical for a company to have a deep understanding of the latest trends in digital transformation to make strategies to win competitions for the future.

During the ceremony, seven companies and institutions were awarded excellence awards for their digital transformation this year, namely Bayer (China) Co Ltd, China Merchants Bank, China Construction Bank, State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company, P&G China, Heytea and Industrial Bank Co Ltd.