[Early Look at This Week's Edition] Investors Retreat from SaaS Track: Can AI Large Models Save Enterprise Software Services? (AI Translation)
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- Investors who once believed China's market could produce SaaS giants like Salesforce and Adobe are withdrawing from the sector after years of unsuccessful investments and severe valuation declines. Chinese SaaS companies struggle with high sales costs, lack of standardization, and an inability to scale, often remaining at the level of outsourced or customized software services.
- The Chinese SaaS industry is experiencing a freeze as long-term dollar investments disappear, with AI investment taking over the previous focus on SaaS. In 2023, there were only two significant funding rounds for Chinese SaaS unicorns, marking a new low in overall financing numbers and volumes since 2014.
- Amidst this downturn, some see AI integration as a potential new direction for enterprise software services. Large models can reduce costs and delivery time significantly, offering standardized solutions that attract capital. However, challenges remain in establishing barriers to entry due to the diversity of open-source models and competition from big tech firms leveraging AI to restructure their software products.
文｜财新周刊 刘沛林
By Caixin Weekly's Liu Peilin
此前一直对标美国SaaS（软件即服务）巨头，坚信中国市场能长出Salesforce、Adobe的投资人，在多年投入无果、标的估值严重缩水后，正在加速撤离这一赛道。
Investors who have long benchmarked against U.S. SaaS (Software as a Service) giants, firmly believing that the Chinese market could produce counterparts to Salesforce and Adobe, are accelerating their exit from this track after years of fruitless investment and severe shrinkage in target valuations.
“从2022年到现在，最难时就剩一两个月就发不出工资了，裁员又要一大笔补偿金，所有员工福利、加班工资、年终奖都砍掉，只剩下50多人做项目交付，抓项目、抓回款才勉强活下来。”一家成立于2017年的SaaS公司创始人告诉财新。
"From 2022 to now, the toughest times left us with just one or two months' worth of payroll. Layoffs would require a hefty severance package, so we cut all employee benefits, overtime pay, and year-end bonuses. Only about 50 people remained to deliver projects. By focusing on securing projects and collecting payments, we barely managed to survive," the founder of a SaaS company established in 2017 told Caixin.
SaaS被认为是最贴合云计算的软件交付形式，用户通过互联网使用基于云的应用程序，比如电子邮件、日历、企业软件等。因其在线化、标准化，可快速部署、迭代，用户黏性高、边际成本低，商业模式多采用订阅制。如此理想化的设计之下，这俨然是一桩长期、稳定的现金流生意。
Software as a Service (SaaS) is considered the software delivery model that best aligns with cloud computing. Users access cloud-based applications such as email, calendars, and enterprise software over the internet. Due to its online nature and standardization, SaaS can be rapidly deployed and iterated upon. It features high user retention, low marginal costs, and often employs a subscription-based business model. Under such an idealized design, it ostensibly represents a long-term, stable cash flow business.
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