Text/Wang Yunhui
A few days ago, AsiaInfo Technology (01675. HK) once again handed over a beautiful financial report.
Full-year revenue, gross profit and net profit all achieved double-digit growth, and revenue growth accelerated.
Thanks to excellent performance, in the past two years, the stock prices of a large number of technology giants have plummeted, and the stock price of AsiaInfo Technology has risen from 6.5 yuan in the third quarter of 2019 to the current 12.7 yuan (15.8 yuan in the middle).
My observation on this is:
【1】
The current achievements of AsiaInfo Technology are not surprising.
In essence, this is the result of the giant's full transformation in the past 5 years.
From July 2016, Gao Nianshu became CEO and proposed that AsiaInfo Technology should "be a software service company with products", to the end of 2019, AsiaInfo Technology fully established a new strategy of "one consolidation, three development", and even in the past two years, the comprehensive implementation and continuous promotion of this strategy.
It can be said that AsiaInfo Technology has completed a strategic turn of great significance after 5 years:
From a software service company that mainly provides infrastructure support for communication operators, it has changed to a digital intelligence full-stack capability provider.
This process can be roughly seen as two stages:
From 2016 to 2019, we mainly practiced internal strength and momentum, completed the productization of our own capabilities, and comprehensively optimized management, processes and execution. (See "The Year of Change for AsiaInfo Software")
From 2019 to 2021, it will start to take off and start to develop for emerging businesses. (See "Three New" Acceleration: Some New Changes Worth Noting in AsiaInfo Technology)"
In this sense, the leapfrog development of AsiaInfo Technology in the past two years is not an accidental bumper, but a "strategic victory" after accumulation.
【2】
In the 2021 annual report, The performance of AsiaInfo Technology has a very obvious "scissors difference".
The traditional BSS business, which accounts for 77.3% of revenue, has an annual growth rate of only 1.7%.
The "three new businesses", which accounted for 22.7% of revenue, increased by more than 100% for two consecutive years.
Overall, the revenue contribution of the "three new" business has reached more than 90%.
For many companies, such a "scissor difference" often means great pressure on performance growth. Because the main business is growing slowly, while the new business is growing fast, the base is small and the uncertainty is large.
But for AsiaInfo Technology, it is a positive signal.
The reasons for this are:
1. The development speed of BSS business and three new businesses has changed, and AsiaInfo Technology has long had strategic planning, and the development speed is also in line with or even better than the strategic expectations.
2. Such changes are in line with the transformation needs of AsiaInfo's overall strategy and the trend of the external environment.
3. Most importantly, AsiaInfo Technology has made full preparations for the transformation of such a business growth engine through 5 years of preparation and exploration, and has made a smooth start.
【3】
According to AsiaInfo CEO Gao Nianshu, so far:
DSaaS digital operations:
Revenue in 2021 was approximately RMB730 million, up 107.5% year-on-year, accounting for 10.6% of operating income.
In 2021 alone, it will help operators in more than 10 provinces to develop nearly 100 million C-end customers.
The business model has been continuously innovated, and significant progress has been made in the business of user and content operation services, government big data construction and operation integration services, and enterprise private domain traffic operation solutions.
Vertical industry and enterprise cloud migration:
Revenue in 2021 was approximately RMB425 million, up 135.6% year-on-year.
At present, there are 132 customers, an increase of 55.3% from 85 in 2020.
At present, it mainly focuses on five industries such as government affairs, finance, postal services, transportation, and energy, providing products and solutions for typical application scenarios, and has made significant progress in many industries.
It has carried out in-depth cooperation with cloud service providers such as Alibaba Cloud, HUAWEI CLOUD, Baidu Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Tianyi Cloud, Mobile Cloud, Unicom Cloud, and China Electronic Cloud.
OSS network support system:
Revenue in 2021 was approximately RMB413 million, up 66.7% year-on-year.
Give full play to the advantages of technology-neutral software vendors, actively participate in the construction of operators' network intelligence and network management system, provide customers with global virtualization, global intelligence, and globally aware products, and help operators achieve the support capabilities of service domains and network domains.
Cooperation with the three major operators has achieved representative success stories.
For example, China Mobile's "2+5+N" network management system, self-wisdom network, cloud-network integration, and network digital twin;
China Telecom's new generation of cloud network operation business system, cloud-network integrated automatic driving, network orchestration;
China Unicom's SDN, 5G network slicing, 5G private network intelligent operation, network digital twin, and so on.
【4】
The question now is, next, can The high growth of AsiaInfo Technology be sustained?
The strategic objectives proposed by AsiaInfo technology in 2019 are:
The "three new businesses" continue to grow, and the overall growth has become the main engine driving the growth of AsiaInfo Technology' performance.
It is estimated that by 2025, the annual operating income will reach 10 billion yuan, and the revenue of the "three new businesses" will account for about 50%.
In the following two years, the actual development of AsiaInfo Technology has been in line with expectations.
It is worth noting that in the face of opportunities and challenges in the process of strategic advancement, AsiaInfo Technology has also continuously adjusted its response at the tactical level.
For example, the latest national strategy "counting east and counting west".
According to Gao Nianshu, AsiaInfo Technology has been in close communication with some node cities, hoping to provide more and better technical support for "East Number West Counting" through joint ventures and services.
For example, in order to better promote the three new businesses, AsiaInfo Technology also has new countermeasures in capital and management.
Previously, AsiaInfo Technology has announced the acquisition of iResearch consulting in January this year to enhance its capabilities in strategic planning, industry research, user research, data insight and consulting planning, thus evolving into an end-to-end full-stack capability provider for the entire digital industry from top-level planning, design and development, delivery and implementation, integrated operation to after-sales service. (See "The Deep Logic of AsiaInfo's Acquisition of iResearch: Entering the Deep Water Period of Digitalization, This Trend Is Worth Paying Attention to)"
After the acquisition, the original consulting team of AsiaInfo Technology, as well as the data operation products, teams and markets of the DSaaS business, are also oriented to the iResearch consulting system, and there are corresponding organizational adjustments.
According to a person from AsiaInfo Technology, in the face of the high growth trend of "three new businesses", the organization and process optimization of AsiaInfo Technology in more business areas has also been continuously carried out.
The overall conclusion is:
Internally, AsiaInfo Technology is ready for new business and is still iterating on innovation.
Externally, with the beginning of the "14th Five-Year Plan", the digital economy has become a new driving force for the high-quality leap forward of the mainland economy, and has also given AsiaInfo the opportunity to accelerate its development.
Therefore, for AsiaInfo Technology, which is accelerating, the high growth in the past two years is actually just the beginning.