Pan Yonghua of Hong Kong and China Gas: Digital Guardianship of the "Vibrant Flavors of Life" | WISE 2024 Business King

The environment is constantly changing, and the times are always evolving. The "Kings of Business" follow the tide of the times, insist on creation, and seek new driving forces. Based on the current major transformation of the Chinese economy, the WISE2024 Kings of Business Conference aims to discover the truly resilient "Kings of Business" and explore the "right things" in the Chinese business wave.

From November 28 to 29, the two-day 36Kr WISE2024 Kings of Business Conference was grandly held in Beijing. As an all-star event in the Chinese business field, the WISE Conference is now in its twelfth year, witnessing the resilience and potential of Chinese business in an ever-changing era.

2024 is a year that is somewhat ambiguous and with more changes than stability. Compared with the past decade, people's pace is slowing down, and the development is more rational. 2024 is also a year to seek new economic momentum, and the new industrial changes have put forward higher requirements for the adaptability of each subject. This year's WISE Conference takes Hard But Right Thing as the theme. In 2024, what is the right thing has become a topic that we want to discuss more.

Hong Kong and China Gas has a history of 162 years and has undergone many transformations. Now, under the tide of AI and dual carbon, it is exploring a transformation path for traditional industries.

In the wave of technological change, how to provide users with safer and more convenient services is a common problem that the gas industry needs to solve.

Pan Yonghua, Senior Vice President of Hong Kong and China Gas' Extended Business and Mingqijia, believes that solutions such as AI need to consider the landing in the scenario. Although there are many corresponding solutions in the fields of AI and others, there are also some challenges in the actual landing. As a scenario party, Hong Kong and China Gas is willing to work with partners to improve the digital platform, which is also the focus of future extended business exploration.

Pan Yonghua, Senior Vice President of Hong Kong and China Gas' Extended Business and Mingqijia

The following is the speech record of Pan Yonghua, edited and sorted out by 36Kr:

I personally like the theme of this year's 36Kr WISE Conference very much. The Chinese version is "The Right Thing", and the English version is "Hard But Right Thing". For our traditional enterprises, what we are doing is also "Hard But Right Thing".

Let me first introduce to you who "Hong Kong and China Gas" is. It is estimated that many guests and friends may not have heard of this name. As a large energy enterprise, Hong Kong and China Gas has a history of 162 years. In 1862, Hong Kong and China Gas lit the first gas lamp in Hong Kong.

With the development of the times, the energy industry is also changing. When electricity becomes the main energy source for households, the gas industry will face transformation. At the end of the 19th century, we embarked on a new extended business, or an innovative transformation path, which is what we commonly use now, open flame cooking, which is the first transformation of Hong Kong and China Gas.

Later, we came from Hong Kong to the mainland and provided gas services to mainland household and industrial and commercial users through the "Towngas" brand.

So now, what new directions do we have? Now, in addition to providing gas services as terminal user services, Hong Kong and China Gas is also striving to innovate, transform and upgrade around the more than 40 million household users and 400,000 industrial and commercial users accumulated over the years.

First of all, with the business development in recent years, Hong Kong and China Gas has covered more than 130 cities in the mainland, and nearly 300 customer centers serve users.

Under the influence of trends such as the downward trend of the real estate industry, the basically stable yield of the gas market, the urgent need to improve the industry service level, and the country's 3060 dual carbon policy, in fact, Hong Kong and China Gas is transforming in two major directions:

1) Developing extended businesses around more than 40 million household users;

2) Green energy.

The brand of the extended business segment is called "Mingqijia". We use a unified digital platform to provide more comprehensive one-stop life service solutions for ordinary people and household users through more than 300 customer centers and door-to-door channels. The business link ranges from products and services with a strong correlation to gas to those with a weak correlation, and from low-frequency products and services to high-frequency products and services. For example, in the mainland, for the household users within our service scope, the Towngas Bauhinia under Mingqijia is a very good gas appliance brand, and its products are recognized and loved by the people for their safety and service characteristics.

The business coverage ranges from the kitchen scene to the home scene and then to daily consumption. For gas enterprises, safety is always the first priority. Therefore, we also hope to provide safety services for the people through value-added products and services based on the digital platform. What features does such a digital platform have? We have built the Mingqi Cloud Platform, including three clouds: Gas Cloud, Smart Kitchen Cloud, and Life Service Cloud.

One cloud is the gas service for ordinary people and industrial and commercial users, and we put it on the Gas Cloud. In the middle is our Smart Kitchen Cloud. What is the difference between this Smart Kitchen Cloud and those of other kitchen appliance and home appliance enterprises? We will reflect the differentiation of Mingqijia Smart Kitchen Cloud from other brands from products such as smart gas meters, smart alarms to smart kitchen appliances. The third is the cloud that provides non-gas service-related extended business product clouds for the C-end. Based on these three clouds and the big data platform, we will protect the "flavor of life" of the people.

From the perspective of the Gas Cloud, our customer service platform was mainly used for the entire customer service billing system in the past, supporting the multi-dimensional scenarios at the front end, including offline and online. We use TCIS as the carrier for the back-end systems of Alipay, WeChat, including our own mini-programs and official accounts.

However, we can also see that the overall level and quality of customer service need some new means and technologies to support. Therefore, we are also constantly researching and developing and upgrading intelligent customer service solutions, and we are also looking for more partners to improve our capabilities in AI.

I have seen many entrepreneurs in the AI industry, including digital human entrepreneurs, who have mentioned some solutions, but the most important thing for these solutions is to be implemented in the business scenarios. I think we may be the scenario party.

The second thing I want to talk about is the Smart Kitchen Cloud. Our kitchen scene is smart. There are several differences in the smart kitchen:

In order to fully ensure the information security of users, we implanted the "Towngas Core", the first RISC-V IoT security chip in the gas industry, into the gas meter when it is connected. At the same time, we also implanted the Towngas Core into the gas meter, alarm, and gas appliances, so that the kitchen equipment has a smart brain. From gas-related to smart kitchen, safe home, and smart home, we also hope to take this as a breakthrough to create a unified AIOT platform in the future to serve our more than 40 million household users.

We have also communicated with some other partners. In fact, what everyone is lacking is safety services. Products are actually easy to find, but services are actually very difficult. In fact, for Mingqijia, what is most distinctive is that we will provide a one-stop solution from the platform, safety alarm equipment, operation and maintenance services, back-end equipment detection, and overall monitoring services for the people. This is also our unique feature.

In addition, from the perspective of online/offline integration, the Life Service Cloud provides the people with an integrated solution for gas payment services, online shopping malls, and smart device connections. Another dimension is that for the transformation of the traditional gas industry, the empowerment of employees is very important. Why? In fact, we have more than 10,000 door-to-door service employees across the country. How can we enable them to use digital tools to improve their door-to-door efficiency, and at the same time be able to be used in scenarios such as smart security checks, while also taking into account other aspects, and according to the objects of their door-to-door services, including possible safety hazards in customers' homes, propose corresponding solutions, such as helping everyone to make appointments for the installation of gas and gas appliances, placing orders on behalf of customers, and other services. This is also the innovation we are making in the digital aspect. Currently, 14,000 door-to-door employees across the country can use such tools to improve the door-to-door efficiency and the service experience for the people.

Whether it is the current large model or digitalization, data is actually the core. For us, we are also integrating the back-end IT system and the entire digital system data, hoping to better support our intelligent management and operation. Here I list several scenarios, one from the perspective of decision-making, and the other is the intelligent security check, that is, the door-to-door service. Although we are now using some AI tools, there is still more room for improvement in the overall recognition rate, efficiency, and experience, including scenarios such as intelligent customer service and intelligent marketing. We will also work with partners to upgrade our digital platform, so as to help Mingqijia become a trustworthy family life butler. This is the exploration of Hong Kong and China Gas in the extended business.

Another innovative direction is green energy. In addition to the layout in renewable energy, we have also incubated the unicorn company EcoCeres in biomass fuel, which is engaged in green methanol business and hydrogen energy pilots. At the same time, driven by the Group Chairman Dr. Lee Ka Kit, we are also doing some things to support more entrepreneurs in the field of smart energy innovation.

Finally, I would also like to give a shout-out for the fourth TERA-Award Smart Energy Innovation Competition, which will be launched in Hong Kong on December 13. Welcome entrepreneurs in fields such as hydrogen energy, renewable energy, and AI-enabled energy to participate in our competition. Thank you all!