China's reform and opening up, after more than 40 years of development, has entered a stage of high-quality development from a stage of high-speed economic growth. The changes in the development stage have led our society to face the impact of market-oriented transformation, urbanization transformation, and digital transformation simultaneously. Digital transformation has become a powerful force driving economic and social development, following marketization and urbanization. The digital transformation of the economy and society drives the innovation of development theories, which are always driven by the need to solve major practical problems. It can be said that China is one of the countries that has been keenly aware of the major changes in world development and technological transformation earlier, and has made significant adjustments in science and technology investment and industrial layout in a timely manner to cope with this change. In recent years, China has continuously increased its investment in scientific and technological research and development in areas such as basic research, core technologies, and high-end manufacturing, and has formulated a series of policy measures to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into productivity, in order to cope with the turbulent changes in the global industrial chain and promote the upgrading of China's industrial structure. This choice is based on our understanding of our own development stage and challenges, as well as a summary of the development experience of other countries moving towards modernization internationally. China's development has entered a critical stage of overcoming the "middle-income trap" and is in a "sandwich layer": at the low end of the industrial chain, traditional "comparative advantages" such as labor supply, resource supply, and production costs are gradually weakening in the face of emerging economies; At the high end of the industrial chain, it faces technological monopolies, capital advantages, and market control from developed economies. The new stage of development that China has entered, as well as the profound changes in the international environment, have created a certain kind of driving pressure for further development, that is, it is necessary to achieve industrial structure upgrading and respond to major changes in digital transformation by breaking through a series of technological bottlenecks. The digital transformation of the economy and society is both a great opportunity and a great challenge for us. Because overall, there are still many difficulties, bottlenecks, and pain points in China's economic and social development. For example, the structure of China's economic development is still unreasonable, the innovation capability is insufficient, the development mode is outdated, the quality and efficiency are not high, the sustainability is not strong, and the shortcomings of people's livelihood are obvious. There are still various instabilities and uncertainties in the long-term operation of the economy, and there are still many imperfections in the socialist market economy system. These factors not only affect the operation of the economy and society, but also constrain the potential release of technological innovation in the modernization process. Developing new quality productive forces has become a core issue for China to further promote high-quality development. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "High quality development requires a new theory of productive forces to guide it, and the new quality of productive forces has already been formed and demonstrated in practice as a strong driving force and support for high-quality development. We need to summarize and generalize from a theoretical perspective to guide new development practices." It can be said that the proposal of the new quality of productive forces is another major theoretical innovation of Marxist development theory and productivity theory, following the theories of productive forces determining production relations, liberating and developing productive forces, and science and technology being the primary productive forces. The rapid development of new business models has a profound impact on the topics and paradigms of development research in the field of sociology. In fact, the academic community has long recognized the profound impact of digital transformation on reality and its own research. As early as 1996, two important works in the field of sociology were published in this area: one was Castell's "The Rise of the Internet Society", which is the first volume of his "Trilogy of the Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture"; Another book is Rifkin's "The End of Labor: The Decline of Global Labor and the Beginning of the Post Market Era". Both books revealed the profound changes that information and digital technology have brought to the economy and society over 20 years ago. Of course, the speed of digital transformation in the past decade and the profound changes it has brought have far exceeded the expectations of the academic community. The emergence, iterative development, and rapid momentum of new business models have also far exceeded expectations. The transformation of this new technology not only profoundly reshapes the appearance of labor employment and real life, but also has a great impact on academic research itself. For example, in the field of sociology, the study of social class structure and occupational groups has always been a core issue. Since the reform and opening up, research on "laid-off workers" has profoundly revealed the enormous changes in market-oriented transformation, while subsequent research on "migrant workers" has revealed various practical problems experienced by China's enormous social changes in industrialization and urbanization. Nowadays, the development of new business models in digital transformation is driving research on "new workers" or "new occupational groups" in the sociological community. For example, the "Survey Report on Chinese Truck Drivers" explains from a new perspective the changes in labor methods and life networks of "new workers" who are different from traditional truck drivers; The book 'Chinese Software Engineers: Work, Life, and Concepts' conducted in-depth research on software engineers, who are considered as' new white-collar workers' or' code farmers', and used the characteristics of an emerging occupational group to depict the changes in the digital age workplace; The World of Riders: A Social Survey of the New Professional Group places the rider group in the perspective of the new generation of migrant workers and young people, aiming to present the characteristics of the rider group in terms of employment, family, consumption, social attitudes, and to understand the values and lifestyles of the new professional youth from the perspective of intergenerational sociology. The number of workers in the new employment form, mainly composed of "new workers," is growing rapidly. According to statistics from the All China Federation of Trade Unions in 2023, the number of workers in the new employment form nationwide has reached 10.37 million. The research on "new workers" in the digital age is also reshaping scholars' research perspectives and paradigms, such as analyzing the impact of increased labor autonomy and the control of labor by algorithms and flow from the perspective of production politics; Some studies the transformation of labor space from fixed space to mobile space and virtual space from the perspective of work organization; From the perspective of career concepts, there are also studies on the rebalancing of job autonomy, personal value realization, and employment instability. In short, while studying, understanding, and interpreting digital transformation and rapidly changing new business models, the academic community also innovates research paradigms and methods by adapting to these changes. Accurately grasping the innovative vitality and new challenges of new business formats is still a new thing, with rapid development and changes. It is necessary to accelerate development, stimulate innovative vitality, and provide momentum for economic growth; It is also necessary to standardize development, limit negative impacts, and leave enough space for future efforts. For example, in terms of employment, on the one hand, many new occupations generated under the "traditional occupation+Internet" model provide abundant jobs and absorb a large number of employed people. Under the severe employment situation, the new employment form has fully played the role of "reservoir". Innovation in various industries and fields has not only stimulated the innovation vitality of the industry, but also cultivated new growth space. On the other hand, we also see that in many employment fields, especially in the factory manufacturing field, with the rise of labor costs, the trend of machines replacing labor is becoming increasingly apparent. Algorithms and traffic control over labor also bring new issues of protecting workers' rights and interests. The excessive "unmanned work" in some fields has also raised concerns about employment. For example, in the field of consumption, the rapid development of online shopping has formed new consumption growth points, created a large number of new consumption demands, greatly expanded the boundaries of service consumption, and enriched and facilitated people's lives. However, online consumption has had a significant impact on physical store consumption, changing the traditional employment model and bringing a series of new issues regarding consumer rights protection. The development of any new technology will have two sides. But digital transformation and the development of new business models are inevitable trends in economic and social development, and we must seize opportunities and follow the trend. The characteristics of active innovation, technology intensity, and leapfrog integration in new business formats not only put forward higher requirements for their practitioners, but also create more development space. New business models typically adopt flexible and flexible work arrangements, such as remote work, flexible working hours, and freelance models. These personalized models allow workers to manage their work time and space more autonomously, effectively organizing work and life, and improving work efficiency and satisfaction. The new business model also encourages workers to continuously improve their professional skills and knowledge levels to adapt to rapidly changing market demands and technological advancements, which helps to enhance their adaptability and innovation capabilities. The new business model also focuses on stimulating the creativity of workers and promoting the emergence of new business models and service methods. The new business model has features such as digitization, intelligence, and precision, greatly changing traditional production and management methods and significantly improving labor efficiency. The new business model relies on the implementation and application of various advanced technologies and intelligent devices, which can improve the utilization efficiency and investment accuracy of labor materials. It monitors market dynamics and feedback in real-time through online platforms, and takes corresponding measures to enhance the added value and market competitiveness of products or services. The new business model also utilizes intelligent supply chain management to accurately adjust supply and demand balance, control product quality, and reduce management costs. The labor objects under the new business model have been further expanded, including tangible raw materials such as natural resources and artificial processing, as well as intangible labor objects such as data, brands, knowledge, and patents. In many cases, the rise of new digital industries such as e-commerce, cloud computing services, and digital content creation has injected innovative vitality and development momentum into the real economy, enhancing overall economic benefits and social development levels. As a populous developing country and an Eastern powerhouse with a long history and cultural tradition, China seems to be embracing the changes and digital transformation brought about by new technologies with a more positive attitude. In this situation, we need to have a clear understanding and carefully study the various social problems that this new great change may bring, and be prepared to respond in all aspects. Author: Li Peilin (Researcher at the School of Sociology and Nationalities, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)