Can SME services become a new blue ocean for operators' revenue growth?

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a "small and medium-sized enterprise development conference", the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology SME Director Liang Zhifeng said that small and medium-sized enterprises are the main force of digital economy development, but also the main battlefield of digital transformation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will continue to deeply implement the special action of digital empowerment of small and medium-sized enterprises. As the main force of digital infrastructure, operators are always at the forefront of promoting the digital transformation and upgrading of small and medium-sized enterprises.

SMEs accelerate their transformation and power the digital economy

At present, the wave of digitalization is coming, and a new generation of digital technologies represented by artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud computing, and big data is changing with each passing day, giving birth to a new form of economic development of the digital economy. iResearch report predicts that by 2022, the scale of the digital transformation service market for small and medium-sized enterprises will reach 330.1 billion yuan, and it can be said that the future digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises is of great significance to promoting the development of China's digital economy.

As early as last December, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a press conference and issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Promoting the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises", indicating that it would implement the "Digitalization Promotion Project for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises", give play to the important role of small and medium-sized enterprises as the main force in the development of the digital economy, and continuously consolidate the important position of small and medium-sized enterprises as the vanguard of digital industrialization.

This time, the "SME Development Conference" held by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also proposed that infrastructure will be moderately advanced, such as 5G, big data centers, etc., to promote the implementation of 102 major projects in the "14th Five-Year Plan", releasing the signal that China will support small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve digital transformation at the level of building "new infrastructure" in the future, and inject new momentum into China's digital economy.

Operators empower SMEs for digital transformation

The purpose of the digital transformation of SMEs is to deepen the application of digital technologies in production, operation, management and marketing, and operators, as the main force of digital infrastructure, continue to empower SMEs to digitally transform. In the past 2021, the three major operators have completed the task of reducing the broadband and private line tariffs of small and medium-sized enterprises by another 10% in the government work report of the Fourth Session of the 13th National People's Congress.

In terms of China Telecom, as early as 2020, it implemented the Warm Spring Action to help small and medium-sized enterprises go to the cloud; in 2021, it will give full play to the advantages of 5G customized private networks to help small and medium-sized enterprises digitally transform, and Shanghai Telecom launched the "Digital Transformation Solution for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises" at the "Wing Wisdom Unlimited, Cloud Creation Future" digital transformation solution promotion conference for small and medium-sized enterprises held in 2020.

In terms of China Unicom, it cooperated with Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud to launch the "Cloud Light Up China" activity, focusing on the county market, scale development and batch replication of lightweight, standardized and simple delivery products, and providing "cloud + network + X" integrated solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises.

In terms of China Mobile, it has launched a digital solution - "Mobile e-Enterprise" to small and medium-sized enterprises, providing functions such as cloud migration, marketing and management. In addition, China Mobile has also recently built a "5G live broadcast room" to help more than 100 small and medium-sized enterprises in Suzhou successfully complete "cloud recruitment".

Operators have taken many initiatives to continue to serve small and medium-sized enterprises

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Information and Communication Industry" proposes that the function and positioning of the information and communication industry is a strategic, basic and leading industry for building a new national digital infrastructure, providing network and information services, and comprehensively supporting economic and social development. It shows that operators will play an indispensable role in the digital infrastructure of the whole society and should continue to help SMEs achieve digital transformation.

On the one hand

Operators should assume the responsibility of central enterprises and contribute to increasing the intensity of benefiting enterprises, from speeding up and reducing fees, helping to go to the cloud, and increasing financing support. In the past 2021, China Telecom has given preferential policies for broadband and private line services to small and medium-sized enterprises to speed up and reduce fees, helping all kinds of enterprises to digitally transform.

On the other hand

Operators need to provide integrated solutions for the digital transformation of SMEs to facilitate SMEs to "go to the cloud and use data to empower intelligence". For example, China Telecom provides a "package" of overall information services based on cloud, network, 5G, big data and artificial intelligence for various small and medium-sized enterprises such as retail, supermarkets, and catering, helping all kinds of enterprises to digitally transform.