China's SaaS development lags behind that of the United States for 10 years, and it still needs to rely on innovation, open source, M & A and other strategies | archsummit

SaaS The development of enterprises has attracted more and more attention , Some enterprises have stopped talking about SaaS The word , It's about using “ Enterprise service ” Instead of , It can highlight the service purpose and core concept of these start-ups .

Pay for an interview CTO Teacher Kong Fanyong's article , From the perspective of technicians “ individual ” Development perspective , He talked about his career and personal gains . This article will talk with Kong Fanyong , He himself from the Internet 、 Cloud computing to ToB Cognitive improvement in the growth process of enterprise services , And for China's future SaaS Some development trends and views .

before this , I have no contact with Alipay , Kong Fanyong said , Alipay is a digital intelligent procurement management company SaaS Service provider , Core products include strategic sourcing 、 Supplier management SRM、P2P Shopping mall 、 Supplier network, etc , Alipay is committed to becoming China's leading one-stop expenditure management SaaS platform . Customers include Xiaomi 、 jinshan 、 CITIC 、 China resources 、 Toyota 、 Didi and many other well-known enterprises . About SaaS Product development , And technical features , For details, please see Kong Fanyong's reply .

1 SaaS Rapid development of , Also need to borrow the east wind

Digital transformation is now being advocated at the national level , and SaaS It happens to be one of the most important carriers of digital transformation . This is also SaaS A foundation for vigorous development . Digital transformation is not just about buying which SaaS Single solution provided by the manufacturer , It involves the overall industrial upgrading of enterprises and the reconstruction of business management organization structure , Improve business efficiency by means of digital transformation , Reducing operating costs is the core of industrial upgrading . In the process of digitization , Not only need the enterprise itself to constantly absorb experience and grow rapidly , They also need to formulate the correct strategic policy of enterprise digital transformation at the critical moment , And to the implementation level .

Kong Fanyong personally believes that in addition to the contributing factors of enterprise digital transformation , There are also the following reasons ：

• The disappearance of the demographic dividend , The cost of manpower is increasing . The proportion of working age population decreases with , The wages of the urban population are rising year by year , Enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency .SaaS Subscription payment , Advantages of low deployment, operation and maintenance costs , Will be favored by enterprises .
• The impact of new crown epidemic . Affected by the epidemic , Cash flow and operating income of Chinese enterprises have been frustrated . And the traditional operation and management mode is affected , Enterprises began to look for new business management models , Looking for new growth points . for example ： Offline stores order meals online , Contactless delivery ; Online marketing , Reach consumers remotely ; Cloud Conference , Telecommuting .
• Management upgrade and improvement of batch replicability of management capability . The managers of many enterprises are not professional Internet Professionals , Do digital transformation, whether it is the reconstruction of internal operation and management structure , Or the ability of digital operation is inexperienced , This is the whole thing SaaS The main reason for market growth , Enterprises are taking advantage of SaaS The professional ability of manufacturers to improve the digital transformation of enterprises .

SaaS The development of , It is the internal and external environment that makes concerted efforts 、 From quantitative change to qualitative change . The tide of the times is urging enterprises to make digital transformation , New infrastructure 、 Cloud computing has become one of the important links of national strategy . The amount of data expands exponentially , It is highly elastic SaaS New opportunities for , Rising demand is an inevitable trend ; And the normal development of the industry will also promote SaaS Move forward steadily . In each track SaaS The benchmarking effect of leading enterprises began to appear , Manufacturers are also more sensitive to capture customer needs , Respond more quickly .SaaS Manufacturers began to look for a development model suitable for the enterprise gene from the cases of leading enterprises .

2 Profitability is a long-term goal , The short term is not the focus

Jiang Yi, managing director of Hengye capital, once said , Now? 50% Of SaaS After the product is put on the market , Proved to be completely off track . Only less than 10% Of SaaS Products can break even . have only 3%, even to the extent that 2% 、1% Our products can correspond to enterprise customers , Have a significant effect on .

In fact, this is a common phenomenon in the industry , Enterprises need to occupy the market in the early stage , At the same time, the requirements of capital for profitability are not so high . But for any industry , In the end, there may only be 1~2 An outstanding enterprise competes on the track , Or coexist . in addition , Kong Fanyong said , Big companies like Alibaba may develop their own , And some particularly small businesses may not spend money on SaaS service , The remaining user space is some medium and large customers , China has 4000 Ten thousand enterprises , If you can take this 1/4 The customer , It's also a big market .

From the perspective of the industry as a whole ,SaaS During the growth period, the company's revenue tends to grow rapidly , But generally there is no profit or even loss of revenue , It's mature SaaS The profit margin of the company can be reflected slowly . Like today, Alipay chooses the track of digital procurement , The future is a trillion market space , This market space belongs to the blue ocean market , This track will certainly appear in the future 1-2 An industry giant ,SaaS Our profit also needs to be based on the complete ecological chain of products .

Under the current pattern of China's Internet industry ,BAT etc. ToC Internet technology giants began to intervene in the enterprise service market , Through mergers and acquisitions 、 Cooperation and other ways began to layout their own enterprise service ecosystem , With its strong technical strength 、 Brand advantage and traffic entrance , This limits the development space of some start-ups , So the future of China SaaS Enterprises must build their own moat , Create technical barriers to their own products .

3 SaaS Technical features of the product

Maybe someone will ask ,SaaS Products and ToC Compared to our business , No need to carry high concurrency 、 Scenes such as large traffic , What are its technical features and challenges ？SaaS The technical challenges of the product cannot be compared with ALI 11 So much traffic compared to concurrent scenarios , but SaaS Some large enterprises served by the products, such as Xiaomi , It's also common for thousands of people to use it at the same time , This concurrency is relatively ToC It will be small , But yes. SaaS The stability of the product is very high , In case of unavailability , The impact on enterprises is huge . The second is security , Especially on the public cloud , Data security related to multi tenancy , Need to think about .

in addition , In architecture design , Need to consider SaaS High scalability requirements of products , Because every customer wants customized needs , therefore SaaS The application should solve these problems through scalability in the existing architecture , This requires in-depth thinking on the architecture .

Kong Fanyong said , Solve scalability problems in the future , Will be based on APaaS Ability , Realize form customization through low code platform , Process engine , Customize the process to meet the customized needs of customers . This is what Kong Fanyong is best at as a technical person .

4 What is the selection of digital procurement system

The selection of digital procurement system is more difficult , More test the selection ability of enterprises . that , What is the selection of digital procurement system ？ Kong Fanyong believes that , The selection of digital procurement system mainly includes the following points ：

• Professional ability ： Evaluate a SaaS Service products , See if there is any professional functional person in the team . For example, from GE、SAP、 lenovo 、 Tyco 、 Procurement and supply chain experts of first-class enterprises such as Kuangshi , Very familiar with this major .
• Technical capability of products ： Product function 、 Whether the applicability can meet the stability of the system 、 Reliability and safety requirements . If not satisfied , Have R & D capability , This also needs to pay attention to the scale and strength of the manufacturer's production and research team .
• With the development of enterprises, it is necessary to , In the future, enterprises are using SaaS The product may be expanded to use more functional modules . In response to complex changes in the market , Enterprises use SaaS The software needs to have good scalability .
• Service capability, ： Whether pre-sales or after-sales , Be professional enough ： pre-sale （ Sales, etc ） The professional quality of personnel is high 、 Can take out “ Stand up ” Solutions for . after-sales （ Customer success, etc ） Be able to solve customer problems in time , Help customers use the system , And integrate into the business scenario , Let the business grow . Whether there is a sound service system , Ensure the successful delivery of the project and the success of subsequent customers , Let customers from SaaS Continue to reap value from services , This is also very important .
• Customer Stories ： Through the manufacturer's official website 、 The official account and other channels , Learn more about the customer cases they have served , Take a look at the number of customers 、 Scale and industry depth , Is there anything your company can learn from , Whether the manufacturer is professional enough in this field , Whether you have a lot of experience . For example, the products of Alipay are sold by Xiaomi 、 jinshan 、 CITIC 、 China resources 、 Toyota 、 light 、 Didi and many other well-known enterprises widely use , This also releases a good market signal —— Products are being recognized by more customers .

5 China SaaS Enterprise development opportunities —— The small and beautiful track hides opportunities

at present , Whether in China or the US market , Universal SaaS Still in the mainstream , However, it seems that the general-purpose model with comprehensive functions SaaS, It may not meet the needs of users in specific industries . And the industry vertical type focusing on subdivided fields SaaS, But the customer needs are better understood , Deeply solve the pain points of the industry . Besides , Industry vertical SaaS With its sharper real-time capture and processing capabilities , Be able to give customers more agile feedback , It can bring cost reduction and efficiency increase to enterprises , Reflect the value of the product .

Industry vertical SaaS The company needs the precipitation of industry service experience , We need to really find the pain points and needs of the industry , We need an excellent after-sales service team . This requires the founders to have a full understanding of their own industry resources , Have a good understanding of the current situation of the industry , In order to create products that meet the market and customers .

On the whole , Industry vertical SaaS Although the ceiling is more common in the track market SaaS low , However, its potential market penetration is still low , There's no head Unicorn yet ; And its market subject is the innovative business department of small and medium-sized companies and large companies , It has great information transformation potential , The market has enough room for imagination , Startups still have the opportunity to overtake on corners .

stay ToC This field , Tencent wechat connects people , In the face ToB All industries , The core SaaS Companies can also through the relationship chain 、 Supply chain or financial chain connects the whole industry , Connect enterprises to enterprises . The success of SaaS Products also need to build their own complete ecological chain , I believe this is our industry SaaS The company will eventually embark on a new path . Cross industry connectivity will face greater challenges , Facing the same challenges, there are greater opportunities .

By looking at the markets in the United States and China , I think China SaaS The company will create a business model , Or charging mode , Or bring value to customers , Will work with the United States SaaS The company is very different , China SaaS The overall complexity of the company may be higher , Especially for the private cloud mode delivery of medium and large customers , Compared with the public cloud, it has a certain implementation cost , More directly help the digital transformation of industrial Internet in our industries .

6 China SaaS Enterprise development strategy —— innovation 、 Open source 、 Vertical and horizontal

Compared with... In the United States SaaS Development , China lags far behind the United States 10 year , In the United States Salesforce、Adobe The market value exceeds 2000 Billion dollars , Last year, there were... In the United States 27 home SaaS The listed company , At present America Top50 SaaS The average market value of the company 384 Billion dollars , And China is listed SaaS There are only a handful of companies , And its market value is generally 10 billion , The revenue gap is relatively large , China's revenue of more than 100 million SaaS There are only a handful of companies , At present, UFIDA has the highest market value, exceeding 700 Billion , UFIDA is good at 2015 In, we transformed from traditional software to do SaaS.

Of course , What can't be ignored , Cloud computing started relatively early in the United States , And its rapid development of informatization , In the United States 20 century 60 In the s, we entered the information society , The time for Chinese enterprises to use the Internet on a large scale is 21 century . The United States SaaS The enterprise covers many segments , Ecological perfect , The scale effect is remarkable , Form a head monopoly . China SaaS Its development also started relatively late , Probably 70% Of SaaS The companies were founded in 2015 year ～2017 Year .

Although compared with the United States , China's potential market, whether incremental market or stock market, still has a large scale , But because China's enterprise informatization started late , The degree of informatization fails to match the growth rate of the company's volume , The improvement of enterprises' willingness to pay and the impact on SaaS It still takes some time to cultivate your usage habits . But benefit from the construction and popularization of information infrastructure, including public cloud , And enterprise digital transformation and development , Believe in China's future 5 year SaaS There will be a golden age of development .

Combined with Chinese characteristics , Kong Fanyong thinks that the future of China SaaS Development should adhere to the following strategies ：

• Deep tillage industry , Improve their own technology and innovation strength . Develop... Suitable for the Chinese market SaaS product .
• Take advantage of the opportunity of the fading demographic dividend and the improvement of cloud services , From compliance 、 Efficiency improvement 、 Increase revenue and reduce expenditure SaaS service .
• Development APaaS platform , Support enterprises and third parties to do more independent development . eliminate SaaS Disadvantages of low degree of customization .
• Big data 、 AI is integrated into SaaS product , Optimize cloud service application scenarios and interactive experience , Make its market penetration stronger , The profit model tends to be diversified .
• Head SaaS Manufacturers increase M & A or investment . Vertical mergers and acquisitions PaaS,IaaS Layer manufacturer , Self built public cloud ; Horizontal merger and acquisition of other business segments , Increase their own monopoly ability , Build product ecology .