China's cross -border enterprise service "Siege City": heat disappears, it is difficult to break the circle

Author:36 氪 Time:2022.07.03

Even if the Chinese enterprise service wants to make a better and more popular product, it is necessary to become a truly global company first.

Wen ｜ Chang Weiqian

Edit ｜ YOMI

Source ｜ 36 氪 Go to sea (ID: wow36krchuhai)

Cover Source ｜ UNSPLASH

Any lively track will attract many service providers, and the cross -border field is no exception.

In the past two years, China's cross -border track has continued to expand, and cross -border service providers have also ushered in a period of high -speed development. According to the statistics of iResearch, only 38 financing of SaaS, including marketing SaaS, ERP SaaS, and supply chain SaaS last year had 38 financing.

This is just a small epitome of the cross -border service provider industry.

"Since the first round of cross -border heat in 2014, there are actually some service project financing, but it has never been so hot for 21 years." An industry practitioner described.

However, the premise of corporate service prosperity is the prosperity of the industry.

Under the influence of a series of internal and external factors this year, the popularity of cross -border enterprise uniforms gradually disappeared. It is also a cross -border e -commerce SaaS track. There are only 9 financing projects that have been disclosed this year.

The founder of Langhan Technology Baron analyzed the reason for this kind of "lively and no longer" to 36 氪. The benefits of the business have also declined. "

At the macro level, the ceiling of the cross -border enterprise service track is not low, and China also has a leading engineer bonus. However, from a micro perspective, Chinese cross -border enterprises have not produced ideals, and most of the participants are in a state of confusion about future.

Note: Since there is no uniform meaning in the industry, this article temporarily represents a service provider focusing on serving Chinese enterprises in China; if there is no special explanation of "global enterprise uniforms" The headquarters or founder team is located in China.

When the liveliness belongs to peace

In theory, cross -border e -commerce service providers can be said to be one of the most advanced groups in cross -border enterprise uniforms.

However, a report by Iri Consulting shows that the market size of China's cross -border e -commerce SaaS track in 2021 was only 7.3 billion yuan. In comparison, Shopify, which is also an e -commerce SaaS, was equivalent to about 31 billion yuan in revenue in 2021, which is 4 times that of the entire Chinese cross -border e -commerce SaaS market.

In an interview with 36 氪 to go to sea, the bottleneck of the cross -border enterprise service market can be roughly summarized -not matching the supply demand, which brings homogeneous competition, which in turn causes service providers to fall into a vicious cycle of revenue.

Take the more mature and stable cross -border e -commerce ERP SaaS as an example.

For small and micro sellers, most ERP SaaS provides too many functions and cumbersome, and the big sellers have considers that information security and system stability are mostly self -built. This means that ERP SaaS is not in the market for the small sales incremental market, but there are not many opportunities to leave the service providers. Many manufacturers have to snatch resources between selling customers.

"ERP SaaS is basically charging according to the annual single -volume, the larger the value of the customer, the higher the value of the customer, but even if a small part of the service provider has the opportunity to do KA, it is a problem for the customization requirements to land. Too big, the current volume of Chinese manufacturers is very passive. "The person in charge of the product of an ERP SaaS manufacturer said to the sea 36.

Although there are light ERP and heavy ERP inside the ERP SaaS track, the differences between similar ERPs are not large due to the same similarity and short development time of service providers.

If the functions provided by the service provider are almost the same and the cost gap is small, then the head service provider is likely to occupy the main market. Over time, most of the service providers in the track have fallen into the "strange circle" of the narrow and homogeneous competition in the customer circle.

According to iResearch statistics, ERP SaaS's overall user retention rate is only about 60%. With the global SaaS industry benchmark, the customer retention rate of Salesforce 2022, which serves large enterprises, is 92.75%, and SLACK customers with small and medium -sized enterprises are close to 95%.

At the same time, cross -border trade regulations of various countries are gradually strengthening, and mobile e -commerce platform Wish mentioned: "Overseas supervision is strengthening, especially in terms of data privacy, product security and tax policies, such as recently effective German producer responsibilities extended extension (EPR) Compliance requirements. "This means that companies involved in international trade will make higher requirements for service providers accordingly.

The problems of low product market matching, homogeneous competition, and strengthening supervision are not only troubled by the ERP SaaS track. Almost all service providers focusing on serving the sea companies can feel more or less. A logical approach, but simple cross -border services are not a healthy and good market.

One day, cross -border service providers still need to be involved in real globalization.

IMILE founder Rita said: "Cross -border is originally a global business, not a regional business. For example, the customer of cross -border logistics service providers is global. If we only serve a small network, then there are more A strong network logistics company will replace us. "But the dilemma of reality is that most Chinese cross -border service providers have developed shortly and the team lacks international background. "But how to operate in a wider global market has become a problem that needs to be overcome.

Another choice of jungle competition

Liu Song, vice president of pingcap, regards globalization itself as a must -have lesson for Chinese cross -border services. , All need to exercise yourself through globalization. "

This is a road that must be clearly explored in practice and actual combat. As of now, many global enterprise uniforms with Chinese genes have appeared. Real -time interactive cloud service merchant sound network AROGA, enterprise -level open source distributed database pingcap pingcap , International E -commerce B2B SaaS developer Aftership, IMile, Cross -border logistics service provider.

Their commonality points to "global operations", that is, important branches such as headquarters, founders, or research and development are located in the country, and have a localized team in overseas markets.

Their models may be a reference for China's cross -border services.

Generally, "global operations" include two modes. One is to establish different functions in different regions, such as setting up a customer service team in India and forming a production and research team in China; the other is to set up a company containing all functional teams in each region.

"No matter which solution is adopted, follow -up needs to solve compliance and market issues by local teams." Teddy founder Teddy introduced to 36 氪 to the sea.

In an interview that went to sea at 36 氪, most of the global service managers believed that organizational structure and corporate culture were essential for the "global operation" model.

Teddy believes that the key to breaking the situation lies in people. "First of all, the core management needs to have a global DNA; second, overseas local teams must have a person who knows the local market to develop the market, and a person who is familiar with corporate culture to ensure the company's culture The consistency; finally, the CEO needs to put the right person to the right market, and then choose to believe in them. "

Liu Song, vice president of Pingcap, is that the core of the enterprise that builds global operations is to set up the top -level culture that integrates China and the West, respect the autonomy of the local team, and increase the transparency of organizational management. "Whether it is domestic or overseas, global companies need cross -cultural bond employees to enhance the transparency of the company's strategy and culture, so as to ensure the efficiency of a global operation."

Generally speaking, companies departing from China and "global operations" have stronger global adaptability, but behind it requires a highly international management team. Not all cross -border enterprise service companies are suitable Global operation.

For the majority of Chinese enterprises, it may be a more secure way to polish products in the domestic market, waiting for the opportunity to mature, and then go to overseas markets. This path is also closer to the real service of "going to sea" in the true sense.

For example, the Labor Management SaaS manufacturer Gaiya Workfield, in 2015, Gaiya Workers followed the Ates photovoltaic to Thailand and Vietnam, and then followed Ou Yingrui to Japan, South Korea and India. Oversea customer. At present, Gaiya Workers has about 1,600 customers at home and abroad.

The "China Local-Ocean Enterprise-Overseas Native Overseas" route is worth learning from the Gaiya Workshop. Recently, some cross-border enterprise uniforms have tried to verify the product verification in cross-border enterprise service tracks, and then launch similar local products overseas.

36 氪 went out to the sea and learned that before the cross -border e -commerce ERP SaaS store, the secret secretly launched the local ERP Saas Bigseller in Southeast Asia. Recently, the shop secretary said that Bigseller has achieved certain commercial results in Southeast Asia. number.

Tell a worldwide story

What can be observed is that cross -border enterprise uniforms are trying to break through, and going to sea has become a new break point.

A survey report from Zhongqiao Consultation also shows that Chinese companies are going to sea from TOC to TOB migration. The coverage areas include universal enterprise -level services such as corporate resource planning, customer relationship management, collaborative office, human resources, etc. Operation and maintenance management, database and big data analysis and other under -level applications.

"Whether it is TOB or TOC companies, dare to define itself as a global company as a ability, and it is also a destination that all companies should have in the future. Even if you want to make a better product that makes Chinese people like Globalization company. "Liu Song, vice president of Pingcap, summarized.

A clear logic is that if the long -term goal of Chinese enterprises is to tell world -class stories and provide world -class products, what should be pursued at the moment can solve most of the common problems, rather than limited themselves to a certain country. Or area. Of course, it is undeniable that the difficulty of choosing a true "going to the sea" or the difficulty of globalization cannot be underestimated. Major test.

There is no shortcut to kill the siege. Imile founder Rita believes that "those who can survive this process must be core competitive companies, such as top technology, high -level corporate culture and organizational collaborative capabilities, or bring to the industry to bring the industry Innovation and innovation. "

It is not easy to achieve these standards, but it is also this kind of pressure and difficulties. It may be able to force Chinese enterprises to accelerate the reconstruction and self -construction, and take a healthier and long -term development track with a more professional and stable posture.

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