Leading Innovators Say Regulators Must Tread Lightly

Mobile phones, tablets, wearables, internet finance and other new technologies are driving and changing entire industries, creating challenges for regulators which are struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of technological change. How regulators can encourage innovation while ensuring proper regulatory oversight was a key topic discussed on the closing day of the eighth Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China.While technology can be used for nefarious means – such as the way the Islamic State is currently distributing propaganda via social networks – Rapelang Rabana, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Rekindle Learning, South Africa, said the positives far outweigh the negatives. “The inclusive nature of the internet is far more compelling to me than any of the negatives,” she said. But the negatives and the positive are both creating challenges for regulators.

Nathan Blecharczyk, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, Airbnb, said one way to encourage more innovation is for regulators to adapt faster to changing circumstances. “The challenge for policy-makers is how to go through that in a smooth way. We all want more sensible rules. Nobody is saying there shouldn’t be rules around the future of technology, but we should also recognize that the world has changed and we should rethink what is sensible from the ground up,” he said, adding that it is always easier for regulators to say “no” to new ideas.Gao Jifan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Trina Solar; President, China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA), People's Republic of China, said regulators can bring credibility and trust to the internet space, but added that companies have the capacity and talent to move much faster. “Sometimes internet players are out-regulating the regulators,” he said.The panellists agreed that some of the most exciting technological innovation is happening in places like Africa, where the regulatory framework is still being developed. There have been inroads into a number of fields, such as mobile finance. Paul E. Jacobs, Executive Chairman, Qualcomm, USA, and a Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2014, said: “A lot of innovation will happen in developing and emerging markets precisely because there is a lower regulatory burden.” Ultimately, though, some aspects of internet regulation are not for technologists to answer. “To what extent are people willing to be surveilled? Those are political questions more than technology questions.”