Recently, the office of Hainan Dun & Bradstreet Data Technology Co., Ltd. in Haikou has been buzzing with activity. Keyboards click as staff process D-U-N-S® Number applications (D-U-N-S Numbers), while others swiftly organize and archive corporate data.

Backed by the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP)'s policies, Dun & Bradstreet's Hainan operation is becoming an important bridge between China and global markets, helping Chinese businesses expand overseas and supporting international companies enter China.

Completing the global data business puzzle

"For foreign-invested data service providers, the signals coming from Hainan are clear," said Yuan Cheng, senior director at Dun & Bradstreet China. The Hainan FTP offers a multilayered, interconnected framework of institutional arrangements, including measures for the secure and orderly flow of data, pilot programs to further open value-added telecommunications, and steps to facilitate trade and capital flows.

More importantly, establishing its Hainan operation enabled Dun & Bradstreet to finally pursue several innovative initiatives that had been out of reach for years, clearing three key hurdles.

1. Building a strong security foundation

In 2022, Dun & Bradstreet's Hainan node for its global business data network passed China's Level 3 assessment under the Multi-Level Protection Scheme (MLPS), a national framework for information security protection.

2. Facilitating compliant cross-border data flows

In 2023, Dun & Bradstreet passed the Cyberspace Administration of China's security assessment for outbound data transfers, paving the way for its secure and orderly data flow initiative. Core services, including D-U-N-S Number applications for Chinese companies and D-U-N-S Registered® services, were subsequently relocated to Hainan. The operation gradually expanded to processing corporate data from around the world, including Hong Kong, China.

3. Transforming regulatory approvals into products and business opportunities

In 2025, Dun & Bradstreet was approved to participate in the pilot program for value-added telecommunications services and obtained an Internet Content Provider (ICP) license. It became one of the first foreign-invested companies in China admitted to the pilot program, which further opened up value-added telecommunications services. Soon afterward, the Supply Chain Evaluation Network, a business-to-business (B2B) platform, and Longyicha (Global CHA), a global corporate information platform for individual users, went live.

"With these developments, Dun & Bradstreet has completed its global data business puzzle and can now process data and conduct cross-border operations in Hainan in compliance with Chinese regulations," Yuan said.

The FTP's policies have helped the company achieve ambitions it had pursued for years. Dun & Bradstreet can now offer Chinese businesses and users powerful, convenient tools to expand overseas, while supporting global companies entering the Chinese market. It continues to explore ways to circulate data, make it usable, and turn it into productive value.

The system behind Hainan speed

"D-U-N-S Numbers provide quick access to key information about companies worldwide, including their business operations, credit ratings, and supply chain relationships," Yuan explained.

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) seeking to enter overseas markets, join international supply chains, or register on foreign platforms, these identifiers can support several paths to global expansion, including outbound investment, overseas capacity expansion, and brand development.

The biopharmaceutical industry is a clear example. Registering a drug with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires a D-U-N-S Number. Once issued, this globally recognized business identifier helps overseas regulators and commercial partners verify a company's identity. Pharmaceutical companies such as Qilu Pharmaceutical, Hainan Poly Pharm and Hainan Shuangcheng Pharmaceuticals have applied for D-U-N-S Numbers, helping their products secure marketing authorization in the United States.

The figures illustrate the scale of the service: every 10 seconds, Dun & Bradstreet supports an inquiry from one party to a trade transaction between Chinese and overseas partners. Every three minutes, an SME applies for and receives a D-U-N-S Number.

This speed, however, reflects the value of the system behind it. Yuan noted that understanding the "Hainan speed" of D-U-N-S Number issuance requires looking beyond how quickly an individual number is issued. The real achievement is Hainan’s ability to integrate corporate identity verification, identifier issuance, cross-border data processing, and global corporate information queries into a system that operates continuously, compliantly, and at scale.

The results speak for themselves. Since establishing its Hainan operation, Dun & Bradstreet has issued D-U-N-S Numbers to more than 100,000 businesses, while demand has risen 20% compared with the period before the FTP launched island-wide special customs operations.

In Hainan, it has processed data for more than 300,000 Hong Kong companies, a 40% increase in processing volume over the same period. Each year, it provides D-U-N-S Registered® services to more than 6,000 SMEs. Meanwhile, Global CHA has recorded more than one million user visits, allowing users to look up company information worldwide.

Connecting global markets through trusted data

Since the Hainan FTP launched island-wide special customs operations, demand for overseas business expansion and global data services has continued to grow.

"As a functional hub, Dun & Bradstreet's Hainan operation issues D-U-N-S Numbers at a six-figure scale and processes data for hundreds of thousands of companies," Yuan said. D-U-N-S Number issuances remain stable, while the range of use cases and the number of queries on Global CHA continue to grow.

Data security remains a fundamental requirement. In China, Dun & Bradstreet uses Alibaba Cloud's big data platform to process data, enhancing operational efficiency while protecting data within a domestic technology environment. The company is also exploring large language models to make identifying, organizing, and verifying unstructured information more efficient, improving the accuracy of information extraction.

AI is reshaping the role of data. "Whether an AI agent makes a judgment, enters a workflow, or even takes action depends on the data it can access," Yuan said. The priority now is to build a stable, trusted data layer that AI agents can rely on to make decisions, manage processes and reuse information across tasks.

A single identifier can help turn data into productive value. In recent years, Hainan's efforts to promote the secure and orderly flow of data have laid the institutional foundation for such a trusted data layer.

Building on this foundation, Yuan noted that Dun & Bradstreet plans to help AI systems access and use data reliably, while exploring an industrial collaboration platform that brings together data, skills, and AI workflows. The goal is to connect capabilities across companies and technology ecosystems in Hainan, so they can be integrated and put to use.