On November 22-24, the 16th Global Annual Meeting of the International Finance Forum (IFF) was held in Guangzhou. The Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres gave a video speech. Including Guangdong Provincial Party Secretary Li Xi, IFF Chairman Zhou Xiaochuan, IFF Co-Chairman, former Chairman of the European Council, former Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, Chairman of the 56th UN General Assembly and former Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, and former Australian Prime Minister Rudd, More than 200 leading guests, financial dignitaries and financial experts, including the co-chair of the IFF and former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, attended the annual meeting to focus on the new development trend of globalization.

At this annual meeting, eclicktech and IFF’s Silk Road International Alliance jointly released the "China’s Innovation and Development and Enterprise Internationalization-2019 China’s High-Quality Development Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") to discuss in depth the trend of economic globalization. The current situation, opportunities and challenges of the internationalization of Chinese enterprises, and put forward countermeasures and suggestions to escort the global development of Chinese enterprises.

Main point one:
The internationalization of Chinese enterprises is the general trend.
Pan-Internet companies are the main force in the internationalization of Chinese companies

The report pointed out that China is playing a leading role in the process of economic globalization, and its international influence and voice are continuously increasing. Since opening to the outside world for more than 40 years, China has become the world's second largest economy, largest industrial country, largest trader in goods, largest foreign exchange reserve country, and second largest foreign investment country. In 2018, China's GDP exceeded 90 trillion yuan for the first time, and its contribution to world economic growth was close to 30%. China's strong economic structure and foreign exchange reserves, a comprehensive opening strategy, and the demand of the global economy and markets have made the internationalization of Chinese companies inevitable.

With the practice of the internationalization of Chinese companies, a number of successful companies that are actively expanding overseas and building global value chains have emerged, such as the basic construction field represented by China Railway, PetroChina, and China Construction. Xiaomi, Huawei, The information technology field represented by Alibaba Group, as well as the traditional manufacturing fields of Haier and Geely Automobile. In the 2019 "Fortune 500" selection, the number of Chinese companies on the list surpassed the United States for the first time, reaching 129. In the "2019 Hurun Global Unicorn List", the number of Chinese unicorn companies reached 206, surpassing 203 in the United States. China and the United States own more than 80% of the world's unicorn companies.

To a certain extent, the scale of foreign investment also reflects the degree of internationalization of Chinese enterprises. According to data from the Statistical Bulletin of China's Foreign Direct Investment, since 2013, China's foreign direct investment flow has always been among the top three in the world, and China has changed from a net investment importer to a net exporter. What is more noteworthy is that among them, non-state-owned enterprises represented by Internet companies and the retail industry have become an important force in foreign direct investment: the stock of investment by non-state-owned enterprises has increased from 19% in 2006 to 50.9% in 2017. For the first time, the proportion of investment stock surpassed that of state-owned enterprises.

The report pointed out that pan-Internet companies based on software and information technology are the main force in the internationalization of Chinese companies. After more than ten years of development, Internet companies are currently an important force in China's new economy; "Internet+" companies are potential stocks, and the two are collectively referred to as "pan-Internet companies." Different from the past, the internationalization of pan-Internet companies has distinctive features: first, the Internet has created a borderless market, low-cost, and information-based services; secondly, traditional industries are mainly commodities going to sea, and pan-Internet companies have realized the transformation of service going to sea . In addition to relying on their own efforts to expand product market coverage, Chinese pan-Internet companies have also begun to rapidly expand their international influence by increasing investment in foreign companies, mergers and acquisitions, or cooperation with upstream and downstream companies in the foreign industry chain.

Main point two:
China’s innovation model is recognized by the world,
Pan-entertainment products are rapidly emerging,
Cross-border e-commerce and "Internet +" are the future growth track

The "going abroad" of Chinese companies is not a new topic. What is the status quo of the internationalization of Chinese companies today? What are the opportunities and challenges facing different industries and markets? The report summarizes the status quo of the internationalization of Chinese enterprises in six areas.

Status Quo of Internationalization of Internet Companies

1. China's innovation model is recognized by the world. With the innovative application of artificial intelligence, big data, and Internet technology in China, innovative business models in the field of life services such as travel, tourism, payment, and shared goods have gradually formed, and the emergence and development of life service Internet pan-application products have been promoted . In this context, as China's innovative business model is recognized by the world, "Copy to China" has gradually changed to "Copy from China".

2. China's pan-application market has entered a stage of mature development and has strong competitiveness in most overseas markets. In terms of global trends, pan-application products have gradually expanded from functional applications such as system tools and efficiency tools to content-based applications such as beautification tools, social applications, and life services. From a development perspective, global tool App developers are mainly from China, and pan-application products from Chinese developers in the newly launched App have obvious advantages. In addition, China's pan-application products are well-known and large in the emerging markets. The beautification tool application is favored by the world.

3. Pan-entertainment is rising rapidly, and internationalization will become the next explosive point for the growth of China's pan-entertainment products. Pan-entertainment products include games, live broadcasts, short videos, etc. As per capita disposable income rises, China's pan-entertainment market is growing rapidly. According to Frost & Sullivan data, the scale of China's pan-entertainment market reached RMB 326.4 billion in 2018, with a compound growth rate of 28.5% from 2014 to 2018. In the pan-entertainment market segment, games continue to occupy the highest share and continue to grow steadily; China’s overseas live broadcast platforms are mainly distributed in countries along the “Belt and Road”, of which Southeast Asia and South Asia are the main promotion markets; short videos meet diversification and fragmentation The demand for reading and entertainment has risen rapidly around the world in the past three years. As China's pan-entertainment market matures and its scale growth gradually stabilizes, internationalization will become the next explosive point for the growth of China's pan-entertainment products.

Fourth, China's cross-border export e-commerce will usher in a new wave of outbreaks; in the future, the cross-border e-commerce B2B model may usher in the "second spring". At this stage, China's cross-border export e-commerce target markets are concentrated in developed regions with high network penetration and complete logistics facilities, of which the United States accounts for 17.5%. The Middle East has the highest penetration rate of cross-border e-commerce in the world, and the proportion of cross-border e-commerce in Africa is not high, but it accounts for the largest proportion of e-commerce users. With the increase in Internet penetration in emerging markets such as the Middle East and Africa, and the strengthening of online and cross-border consumption habits, China's cross-border export e-commerce will usher in a new wave of outbreaks. At the same time, China's cross-border e-commerce is currently dominated by the consumer-oriented B2C model. In the future, the cross-border e-commerce B2B model may usher in the "second spring".

Internationalization status of "Internet+" enterprises

The report pointed out that for small and medium-sized enterprises that did not have global investment and supply chain construction in the past, "Internet +" can promote the transformation and upgrading of the industry, while also helping them to achieve more efficient internationalization, and at the same time accelerate the market response speed and make deeper progress. Level market mining, for example, Internet + clothing, Internet + cultural and creative, Internet + finance. In addition, the "Internet +" transformation of manufacturing, education, logistics, medical and other industries has also achieved some results, and at the same time, it is also realizing an international strategic layout in different ways. With the increasing demand for “Internet+” digital transformation in various countries, “Internet+” companies will win a broader market space in the future when they go overseas.

Main point three:
Speed, cost and professionalism
Become an important consideration for the internationalization of enterprises,
Give birth to professional one-stop corporate international services

Internationalization helps Chinese pan-Internet companies to open up the international market, but opportunities and challenges coexist. The internationalization of companies cannot be blindly optimistic. It is necessary to recognize the challenges in many aspects including law and politics, market strategy, management and integration, and process control. The internationalization of China's pan-Internet companies requires comprehensive planning. The understanding and management of challenges by companies are directly related to the success or failure of companies' internationalization. Therefore, it has also promoted the development of international third-party service providers. Third-party service providers for corporate internationalization are both important support and beneficiaries of China's pan-Internet companies. Related services include marketing and marketing, finance and risk, operation and supply chain, talents and skills, strategy and management, technology and security, etc.

With the increase in the number and pace of internationalization industries and enterprises, the importance of internationalization opportunities has gradually become prominent. Speed, cost, and professionalism have become important considerations for pan-Internet companies to formulate internationalization strategies. The service requirements of third-party service providers for the internationalization of pan-Internet companies have also expanded from a single service to multiple services. This demand has given birth to one-stop international services for vertical industries, and has gradually become an important consideration for the selection of service providers in the process of corporate internationalization. This trend has also prompted the original international third-party service providers to actively improve business diversification.

As the world's leading enterprise internationalization intelligence platform, eclicktech focuses on providing overall corporate internationalization solutions for industries such as mobile apps, mobile games, cross-border e-commerce, Internet finance, medical care, and tourism. So far, it has provided services to more than 2,000 customers around the world, including Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, Huanju Times Group, Global Tesco, Zhiyu, SHEIN, Uber, Paytm, Lazada and other well-known companies.