Li Zheng, Partner of 36Kr: The Strategy Release of 36Kr New Economic Service Platform | WISE 2024 King of Business

From November 28 to 29, the two-day 36Kr WISE 2024 Business King Conference was grandly held in Beijing. As an all-star event in the Chinese business field, the WISE Conference has now reached its twelfth session, witnessing the resilience and potential of Chinese business in an era of constant change.

2024 is a year that is somewhat ambiguous and characterized by more changes than stability. Compared to the past decade, everyone's pace is slowing down, and development is becoming more rational. 2024 is also a year in search of new economic momentum, and the new industrial changes have placed higher demands on the adaptability of each entity. This year's WISE Conference is themed "Hard But Right Thing", and in 2024, what is the right thing has become a topic we are more eager to discuss.

On that day, Li Zheng, Partner and Vice President of 36Kr, brought the theme sharing of "36Kr New Economic Service Platform Strategy".

The following is the speech content, edited and sorted out by 36Kr:

Special thanks to everyone for coming to our conference at the end of each year. The two-day event agenda has reached the final stage. As you all know, the 36Kr platform's WISE Conference every year provides some exhibition opportunities for all enterprises to talk about the current and future situation of their industries. It is a very public welfare platform.

But today I want to make a little sharing. If you have paid attention to the conference these two days, you should be able to see that great changes have taken place in our entire economic and social environment in the past two years. Whether it is 36Kr itself, or the relationships between our partners, clients and us, many changes have occurred, and our products have also undergone many changes. In the final session today, I would like to take a little of your time to share our thoughts and ideas with you.

Everyone can feel what the economic situation is like today. Many data have been presented today. Generally speaking, it is still very promising. Although our GDP is 4.8% under the new caliber, people may feel that the decade of super-high growth may have begun to pass. But the information I present later is very encouraging, which is also the reason why many entrepreneurs, startup friends, and investors will come to share these two days.

Li Zheng, Partner and Vice President of 36Kr 

First, the competitive structure of the market will change. Our data comes from the latest data of the State Administration for Market Regulation. In the past few years, the private economy has actually become a very important growth point of momentum, and the private economy is a very important driving force.

Second is our industrial structure. The high-tech part is much higher than the average level. The average level may be about 3%, and the proportion of the high-tech part is close to 10%. 36Kr has always been very concerned about the investment direction. Our past growth may be more than 3% year-on-year, and the investment in the high-tech direction has also increased by about 10%.

There is also the globalization model. Everyone may talk a lot about going global. We use a term called from export to going global. In the past, our industrial chain was trade-oriented. Later, the overall retail went global. Today, many brands with considerations for the supply chain are exporting their overall overseas capabilities, and the growth of going-global enterprises is very large.

Finally, there is the technology-driven transformation. The R & D investment of enterprises has increased to 77% in the overall social R & D investment, that is, more than 3/4. Another feature of today's society is the industry that everyone is talking about. 36Kr has also comprehensively shifted from the venture capital primary market to the industrial stage, so you will see that we are doing industrial services.

In the past, 36Kr was very good at enterprise financing. In the past, the financing requirement of enterprises was to simply receive money. Later, in addition to money, some resources were also required. But today, what do enterprises need to consider for financing? It includes industrial resources, market expansion, customers, and supply chain optimization. These are things other than money that financing enterprises want today. This is high-quality development and industrial synergy.

For example, in terms of going global, in the past, going global was very simple. It was trade-oriented. I taught you to open a store on Amazon, helped you with overseas payment, local warehouse, etc. But today, going global will add many new things. For example, local operation. Our going-global service today can provide local operation for going-global manufacturers, whether it is independent site or platform operation, local marketing, etc.

Last year, we experienced the problem of the Amazon war. Financing and going global are still those terms, but the industrial synergy we need is no longer on the same dimension. Just now, we also shared some parts including talent recruitment, equipment procurement, and factory leasing. In the past, for factory leasing, people said that it was good as long as it was cheap. Now, industrial policies are required, as well as support, the upstream and downstream supply chain, and convenient transportation factors.

In this situation, 36Kr is willing to move forward hand in hand with everyone in the industry. It is not just our brand influence, content, and communication. In addition to developing our own capabilities, we can also find very high-quality partners in the industry to work with. Next year, we will have two major sections. 36Kr will continue to strengthen in the field of communication, divided into domestic and foreign communication. Another section will increase industrial services, also divided into domestic and foreign sections. The foreign section may be a little less, but I don't think it matters.

Li Zheng, Partner and Vice President of 36Kr

In the future, we will explore the energy of business super individuals through our content and business capabilities. We use AI to make full intelligence, and you are welcome to experience it in the mini program. In addition to the Asia, Europe, and the global markets that we have developed ourselves for the overseas part, we have also established a joint venture with the US and Hong Kong Capital Watch to influence the local market. For the industrial part, in addition to the well-known research institute and enterprise service evaluation, there will also be some offline services next.

Currently, we are building the 36Kr going-global platform and have selected several 36Kr going-global service centers nationwide. There are also marketing and service agencies in Germany. It can realize the two-way tour of bringing German enterprises to China and taking Chinese enterprises to Germany. At the same time, it can also help everyone directly hold a series of activities such as exhibitions and investment promotion meetings in Germany. This is a system that we have built together with 36Kr partners.

In simple terms, we have changed from the past venture capital's first media, from the advantages of the startup company service ecosystem and content columns, to a new business service hub, which will bring the best commercial service team, the most valuable strategic partners, and output a diverse business service platform. Therefore, the services that 36Kr will bring to everyone next year will become very numerous.