Gross domestic product (GDP) was developed 100 years ago after the First World War. It was not intended to be a measurement of a country’s productivity, but to calculate the ability and compensation amount a defeated country has to pay to the victors. Today’s GDP, however, is considered to be superficial only, as the new economy unlocked by Apple’s Steve Jobs in 2007 along with Meta, Amazon, Alibaba, and WeChat has yet to be included in the GDP calculation. It is said that the new economy accounts for 20 to 70 times of the current GDP. Therefore, the antiquated standards were yet able to reveal the actual productivity of a country.

Learn more from the full article (in Chinese only) written by Kenny Siu, Senior Advisor of AEC Group, published on Sing Pao on 16 May.