Compared with Fanxing Software Company's rapid progress last year, Building Block Software Company appears to be much calmer. It is basically no different from before, and its revenue growth is basically unchanged.
Their current situation did not exceed Zhao Yi's expectations. Although government informatization work was also being promoted at full strength, the annual budget was limited, and it was difficult to see a sudden surge in the commercial field.
Fortunately, this part of their income is enough to support their current business development, without Zhao Yi's repeated subsidies, and there is even a large amount of funds left every year.
Although the revenue growth has not changed much, the number of employees has increased significantly compared with before, and the number of employees has exceeded the 20,000 mark.
In addition to part of it being used to handle business with the government, most of the manpower is still invested in the smart city brain project, hoping to improve this project as soon as possible.
Although Zhao Yi also recognized the prospects of this project, the original purpose of establishing the Building Blocks Software Company was mainly to compete with Fanxing Software Company and avoid some monopoly issues.
However, the current state of Building Block Software Company makes it extremely difficult to compete with Fanxing Software Company. The two are not on the same level in terms of staff size or capital strength.
The only thing that can be said is that there will basically not be a big gap in the technical reserves between the two, because the people behind the two software companies are the same people. If the technology is really not enough, you can just apply for support directly.
According to Zuo Daqian's report, since Zhao Yi provided the intelligent core, on the one hand, they have actively improved the smart city brain peripheral systems and technologies, and on the other hand, they have built their own intelligent core based on the intelligent core he provided.
Although the intelligent core provided by Zhao Yi is much better, it is destined not to be exported. For the sake of future business, using conventional artificial intelligence technology to build your own intelligent core is a necessary process.
Although doing so may delay the entire progress of the smart city brain, they still have plenty of time. According to the plan, after the completion of the construction of the new city of China Housing Corporation, the smart city brain will be activated.
Although the urbanization progress of Chinese housing companies is very fast, it will take at least 5 years. It is impossible to achieve any shorter time, so at least the building block software company can be given about 3 years to improve.
However, this does not mean that the smart city brain must wait until urbanization is completed before it begins. In fact, during the construction process, the deployment of relevant peripheral systems and facilities has already begun.
It's just that these peripheral systems and facilities are temporarily unable to operate due to the lack of smart city brain core, such as various building data monitoring, road facility data supervision and monitoring, etc., all of which have already been constructed during city construction.
This is why they work so hard to invest so much energy in peripheral systems, because without the support of these peripheral systems, the various electronic facilities surrounding smart cities cannot be put into mass production.
This is equivalent to the fact that the building block software company must first formulate standards so that hardware facility manufacturers can produce their own various electronic hardware devices according to the standards. By then, when the city construction is completed and relevant systems and intelligent cores are deployed, the operation can be completed.
However, only having standards is not very convenient for testing various hardware facilities. This requires a peripheral system that is separated from the intelligent core and tests certain aspects of facilities and equipment through the peripheral system.
In fact, at this time point, it is very necessary to build smart cities, because we are now in the barbaric era of government informatization, and the interests involved are relatively simple.
If every city, every department, every institution, etc. builds its own information system, then it will be very difficult to integrate these data, and it will not even be possible to form an overall system.
Among other things, the first goal of a smart city is to improve the convenience of citizens. If it cannot even achieve this most basic goal, then the smart city will be a joke.
When people need to produce more than a dozen certificates to handle a matter, and each certificate needs to be processed on an application system, in this case, where is the convenience? At least Zhao Yi couldn't tell.
Furthermore, each government agency operates on its own without unified planning, and the waste of resources is staggering. In the final analysis, it is a waste of taxpayers' money.
Fortunately, all the companies in the country that have the strength in government informatization are his companies, and he specifically handed over this business to the Building Blocks Software Company instead of all his companies taking over this business.
It is to form a standard and overall system, rather than separate subsystems from each other and data to each other, which is no different from the previous life.
This is why Building Block Software Company, while developing smart city brains, also spares no effort in developing peripheral systems
In addition to the cash flow these peripheral systems can bring them, more importantly, before the market is divided, they must have all this in their own hands, so that there will be no problems with the smart city brain when it is launched. .
Otherwise, just wrangling will require a huge amount of energy, and you may even be stuck in one link for a year or two. Just thinking about this situation makes people's scalp numb.
According to Zhao Yi's requirements, the entire city's public service system only needs to log in to a website or a mobile app to handle all matters.
In addition to collecting all the data, it also needs to be able to support each other. This is one of the core functions of the intelligent core.
At that time, citizens will not need to run around for proof when doing things. The mutual support of these data will be effective proof.
Of course, smart city not only refers to matters related to government agencies, but also requires multi-city commercial public services, such as smart parking, smart water and electricity, etc., which are all part of it.
However, the current focus is still on the informatization of government agencies and the construction of super databases. Other aspects only require the installation of smart hardware. It will take a certain amount of time to truly operate.
However, Zhao Yi felt that waiting until everything was in place was not a good idea. He asked Zuo Daqian to consider building the smart city brain first and then extend it around the individual needs of the smart city.
The main reason why we haven't done this before is that we don't know who will pay for this part of the money. At least for now, no city government is willing to bear this cost. This is the crux of the problem.
As for the reasons, there are various reasons. Some governments really have no money to invest, some feel that it has not reached that level yet, and some have not seen actual results and feel a bit fanciful.
No matter what the reason is, this deadlock must be broken first. It has been more than a year since the construction of the first batch of urban construction cities by China Housing Corporation began, although not many buildings have been completed so far.
But it has entered a critical period, and building a smart city brain cannot be completed immediately, so he asked Building Block Software Company to join hands with China Housing Corporation to build smart city demonstration areas in these 10 first batch of cities.
When the local government sees the actual results, there is a high probability that they will be willing to pay for it. At least they are willing to pay for their own services. As long as this goal is achieved, it is enough.
As for the demand for urban commercial services, it is not impossible for the Building Blocks Software Company to collect the fees itself, but this will change the original intention of the Building Blocks Software Company.
Originally, Building Block Software Company positioned itself as a solution provider and did not participate in its operations. It only needed to charge the government directly. As for how the government charged, they did not care.
Now it has just become a smart city operator, but should this role be assumed by the Building Blocks Software Company or the Chinese Housing Company
If the China Housing Company is responsible, then the Building Blocks Software Company will only change its services and charging objects. If it takes on this role itself, then it will have to change its business model.
In Zhao Yi's own opinion, this role should still be handed over to China Housing Corporation, so that the building block software company will be more pure. In addition to collecting rent, China Housing Corporation will also need to assume the role of smart city operator in the future.
After Zuo Daqian heard his proposal, he was overjoyed. After thinking about it, his thoughts were instantly clear, and Zuo Daqian said that China Housing Company would be more suitable to assume this role.
Although becoming a smart city operator may bring greater benefits, the responsibilities are also very large and the number of employees must be very large. This is not in line with the positioning of a software company.
They still envy Fanxing Software Company's model. While maintaining high operating income, the number of employees should be as small as possible and the profit margin should be as high as possible. This is their pursuit.
Moreover, China Housing Corporation itself needs to maintain a large service team. If it takes on the smart city operator business, the comprehensive benefits will be higher, the profit margin may be greater, and the living cost of urban residents will be lower.
Finally, Zhao Yi asked Zuo Daqian to continue to strengthen human resources, train and recruit more R&D personnel, and if conditions permit, carry out other software R&D work to avoid hanging on a tree.
Qianxun Technology Company and Xinghan Technology Company have actually done similar things in the past year. In addition to continuing to enrich their product families, they have also strengthened the promotion of their products, and promoted them globally.
In addition, it is trying to commercialize some of its products, such as Qianxun Technology's news platform and search engine, which have begun to launch advertising business models.
Xinghan Technology Company, on the other hand, conducts advertising and promotion work on its social platforms and long video platforms, and commercializes products, which are relatively mature products with a large user base.
Even so, they only carry out limited commercialization without affecting the user experience and cannot make users disgusted.
Even so, it brought them good operating income and ended several years of pure investment. The way they advertised was also suggested by Zhao Yitian.
Therefore, without affecting the user experience, the effect of advertising is very good. Users’ experience does not deteriorate due to the appearance of advertisements. Even because of the use of artificial intelligence, the advertisements placed are welcomed and loved by some users.
Although the proportion of advertising is low, the effect of advertising is particularly outstanding, and the unit price of advertising is also very high, resulting in their operating income not being as bad as expected.
Xinghan Technology's advertising revenue last year was 1 billion yuan, while Qianxun Technology's advertising revenue last year was 2 billion yuan. The difference between the two mainly comes from the differences in the platforms of the two parties.
Although social platforms have a large number of users and are very sticky, the amount of advertising space that can be placed without affecting the user experience is relatively low.
News platforms and search engines do not have such concerns. They only need to slightly control the frequency of advertisements, which will not have much impact. Users have higher tolerance than social platform users.
These are just the first attempts to test the waters, and they have not yet gained high recognition from global advertisers. There are not many users who place Internet ads, which is why their advertising revenue is only so small.
At least in Zhao Yi's opinion, this amount of advertising money is just like that. Compared with the hundreds of billions of advertising revenue in his previous life, it is simply not worth mentioning. At the meeting, Zhao Yi just encouraged him.
In fact, Zhao Yi also knew about their advertising situation. Other companies under his control accounted for the vast majority of the advertising, among which Shangtong Trading Company invested the most in advertising.
Anyway, Shangtong Trading Company also needs to invest a lot of advertising every year. The advertising funds they currently put on the Internet are nothing compared to their total advertising expenses.
Although there are advertisements placed by other companies, they are more cautious and only put out some ads tentatively to see how effective they are before making next plans.
According to predictions by the heads of the two companies, global advertising revenue next year will increase at least 10 times, reaching about 10 billion yuan and 20 billion yuan respectively.
Because the main work last year was not for commercialization, commercialization was just an attempt. Their main work was to promote global business, and the effect was naturally very significant.
The number of global users of Qianxun Technology Company has exceeded 1.2 billion. These users use their many Internet products through Qianxun Technology Company accounts, and the user conversion efficiency is very high.
In particular, last year's "garbled file virus" incident caused Qianxun Technology's email application volume and usage to reach a new high, almost reaching the point of monopoly.
Qianxun Technology Company has embedded its product platform into the homepage of the mailbox. As long as users open the mailbox, they can access all its Internet products.
This not only provides convenience to their email users, but also drives the daily visits of their products to a new high, bringing huge traffic to these products.
Qianxun Technology Company is now building an entire product family around the e-mail system, allowing users to use all their products just by logging in to the homepage of their e-mail account with their e-mail account.
Following the same strategy as Qianxun Technology Company, Xinghan Technology Company builds its entire system around their social platform accounts. The two have similar approaches but achieve the same goal.
In addition to commercialization, they have also tried membership commercialization of their products. This model is different from advertising and can bring more stable income to the company.
For example, the email system owned by Qianxun Technology Company has launched a membership function. Different service categories can be used according to different membership levels.
For example, if an individual is more concerned about the mailbox capacity, he or she can increase the membership level to obtain greater capacity, and at the same time, be able to use membership functions that are not available to ordinary users.
In fact, Qianxun Technology Company does not have high expectations for the personal mailbox business, because ordinary users can basically meet their daily needs, and the proportion of users who require membership services is very small.
The important source of income for their email business is corporate business. First of all, unlike personal business, corporate email business is not free. If you want to use it, you must purchase the service.
In addition, there will be various more advanced services that require additional charges. Most of these services are aimed at facilitating business operations and have high practical value, such as online document viewing, editing, digital signatures, and digital seals. Documents are tamper-proof and more.
These are just ordinary corporate email service functions. The highest level is artificial intelligence-assisted services, which provide corporate users with more convenient and efficient services and at least reduce the time they spend on emails by half.
Moreover, artificial intelligence will become smarter the longer a user uses it. It can record the user's usage habits and even help the user to send emails.
In fact, it has been proved that this business is very popular. More than 90% of enterprise users have chosen this service because they can actually improve the efficiency of the enterprise and reduce the labor cost of the enterprise.
They have 10 million companies around the world that have applied for corporate email services, and 1 billion people have applied for accounts. Basic services cost an average of 50 yuan per person per year, and artificial intelligence services cost an average of 100 yuan per person per year.
Their corporate email business alone has brought 140 billion yuan in revenue to Qianxun Technology Company, and the total revenue from the email business has exceeded 150 billion yuan.
If it weren't for the supplement of this business, if their other businesses wanted to expand rapidly around the world, they would need Zhao Yi to invest huge funds to support them. Now, not only do they not need Zhao Yi's financial support, but they will be able to turn over good profits.
Their e-mail enterprise business has developed so well mainly because no other company in the world can compete with it. Whether it is security, convenience or efficiency, they are ranked first in the world.
In particular, artificial intelligence services are the first in the world in the field of email business. Other email companies that want to copy do not have the technology, so they are downgraded to crackdowns.
In this era, the Internet has just developed. Many companies are considered good if they can write a beautiful web page. Such high-tech things are far from their strength.
The majority of Xinghan Technology Company's operating income does not come from advertising revenue, but from their cloud computing services. Not to mention the operating income generated by other companies around the world, the business brought to them by brother companies is enough for them to eat and drink. .
For example, all Internet applications of Qianxun Technology are deployed on their cloud computing platform. This is mainly due to trust, and it can also significantly reduce hardware investment costs and maintenance costs.
Qianxun Technology Company alone needs to pay Xinghan Technology Company 10 billion yuan in cloud computing platform usage fees every year. Otherwise, it would be able to meet the needs of so many users around the world. This is all the credit of Xinghan Technology Company's cloud computing platform.
In addition to Qianxun Technology Company, a heavy user, Shangtong Trading Company is also a heavy user of cloud computing platforms. Their e-commerce platform runs on the cloud computing platform of Xinghan Technology Company.
Others, such as Fanxing Software Company's cloud deployment business, Lingchen Technology Company's global service node deployment, Golden Shield Technology Company's global security service business, etc., all use Xinghan Technology Company's cloud computing platform services.
Together with the use of other enterprise users around the world, it has brought a total revenue of 100 billion yuan to Xinghan Technology Company. In addition to hardware investment, Xinghan Technology Company's platform maintenance costs are actually very low.
Because they have also launched a fully intelligent maintenance system, using artificial intelligence to achieve automatic maintenance goals for the entire platform, significantly reducing labor costs and increasing the stability and security of the platform.
Moreover, the use of artificial intelligence brings great convenience to users in deploying services. Deploying services on their platforms and deploying services on the hardware they purchase are completely two different things.
For example, when we deploy our own business, we need to install various software in different orders, and we also need to consider load issues, etc., which requires very high professional knowledge.
However, using the cloud computing platform of Xinghan Technology Company, you only need to upload your own business system program to deploy business. All other aspects are automatically completed by the platform's artificial intelligence, and the performance is no worse than that of senior professionals.
This is also the reason why Qianxun Technology Company puts all its business on Xinghan Technology Company's cloud computing platform, because in doing so, they only need to be responsible for the software part, and they do not need to worry about the hardware part and deployment and maintenance part at all.
This will significantly save Qianxun Technology Company’s labor costs and hardware investment costs. This is why Qianxun Technology Company can develop global business and achieve such impressive results with less than 20,000 employees.
Moreover, these overseas employees are basically promotion personnel and sales personnel. There are almost no technicians and maintenance personnel. They are basically engaged in research and development at the headquarters.
However, due to the excessive investment in hardware investment by Xinghan Technology Company in the early stage, and the continued investment in other businesses, it has not achieved profitability on the whole. However, according to the current situation, it can achieve substantial profits this year.
If everyone had many concerns about deploying their business on cloud computing platforms before, then international giants such as Qianxun Technology Company, Fanxing Software Company, Shangtong Trading Company, etc. have all chosen the cloud computing platform of Xinghan Technology Company.
This sets a good example for other companies. People have a follower mentality. This is even more true among companies. Companies with relatively weak strength will unconsciously follow the footsteps of giant companies, and some have even followed suit.
Just like in the previous life, because Alibaba does not use any technology, other companies will also feel that there may be problems or defects in that technology, and will unconsciously exclude this technology when making technology selections.
What's more, the superiority of Xinghan Technology's cloud computing platform is obvious. As long as everyone who has used it speaks well of it, these factors combined will have a huge boost to the business development of Xinghan Technology's cloud computing platform.
According to Zhao Yi's estimate, the annual turnover of the global cloud computing business can reach about 400 billion yuan. There is still a lot of room for growth in the future. I hope Xinghan Technology Company will continue its efforts. (End of chapter)