Zhang Jinyin, CEO of Kechuang Singularity Cloud: Data empowerment starts from the scene and finally has value, and there is no martial arts master in the mountains

Zhang Jinyin (Xing Zai) Founder and CEO of Singularity Cloud

Nearly 20 years of senior data players, 12 years of Alibaba data experience, founder of Alibaba's first data warehouse, founder of Alibaba TCIF, founder of Alibaba's big data and artificial intelligence platform "Shujia", ID Mapping and data exchange Holder of more than 20 big data patents.

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Determined
Witness the magic of big data
In the year he graduated from university, the "package distribution" system had not yet expired, but he gave up the opportunity to go back to his hometown to earn a job as a civil servant, and chose to go to the unfamiliar Suzhou to join the computer department of a large Taiwan-funded food group.

Asked why, "Although I can't see it clearly, I vaguely feel that data analysis + computer can create great value in the future."

From majoring in statistical analysis and self-taught computer science in college, to resolutely starting a business 20 years later, the principle of judgment in the face of life-level decision-making can be called simple: only face the future, only focus on the future.

In 1997, this large food group has fully implemented the information system - different from the superficial understanding of "informatization = paperless office" in most enterprises. Before the arrival of the new century, when the Internet still needed dial-up, this A food industry giant has built a mature ERP system and a database covering the entire group.

From writing ERP, to becoming the main builder of the group's database, to the leader of data warehouse construction and management... In the 7 years of this group, Xingzai witnessed with his own eyes that "a huge group will centralize the national data." The magic of analyzing on a cluster to guide business, production".

"It is no exaggeration to say that it is 5 to 10 years ahead of most companies." After many years, Xing Zai still remembers the shock brought by big data technology and ideas.

accumulation
Experience Alibaba's Big Data Road
In 2004, Xing Zai joined Alibaba. In addition to being optimistic about the Internet business model, it was also because of some mysterious fate: Ali hoped to recruit a database professional technical expert and contact Xing Zai, who was well-known in the IT community at that time. I happened to be on a business trip to Hangzhou. "The other party asked me if I could come to Hangzhou to chat, and I said it was a coincidence. I happened to be on the train to Hangzhou."

Xing experienced Alibaba's golden development period, and left a series of illustrious achievements: the founder of Alibaba Group's consumer information database TCIF, the first data warehouse founder, the first data security team leader, and the owner of ID Mapping He has more than 20 patents in big data, such as data exchange, and the first person with Ali ACM certificate...

If someone on Zhihu asks "What kind of experience is it to be surprised by a product that you have built yourself", Xing Zai must be one of the most qualified answerers. After 12 years of paying Ali, he has experienced too many moments that changed the history of China's Internet:

In 2004, Xingzai established Alibaba's first data warehouse; in 2008, Alibaba Group's business grew explosively, and the IOE framework was unsustainable. Xingzai started to promote the removal of IOE in the field of data warehouses.

In 2012, Xing Zai led the team to build TCIF (Taobao Consumer Information Factory). TCIF pulled all Ali consumer data and completed the construction of 3000+ label system. These labels are still widely used today.

As we all know, Alibaba's style of setting development goals is usually "next year is several times this year". At first, he often wondered whether his ears "got it wrong", but when he witnessed and participated in the miracle development process After that, a majestic confidence was poured into his heart, and he was full of enthusiasm to create a better future.

"It was a good time." The memory came to an end, and the line was ending with this.

lay the foundation
Alibaba Cloud Data Plus entrepreneurship, firmly believes in "inclusive big data"
"After staying in Ali for a long time, it is inevitable that you will be 'poisoned'." The so-called "poisoning" is to be infected by the legendary story of Ali's entrepreneurial team. The impulse will be motivated. At first, it was a small flame, but Ali’s story and achievements created by Ali will continue to add fuel and fuel, and finally burn until you have to do it.”

Therefore, when Hu Xiaoming (the flower name Sun Quan), the then president of Alibaba Cloud, said to him in 2015, "You want to lead the team to start a business", Xing Zai nodded without hesitation.

Behind the brilliance of success is countless misery, Xingzai felt the hardships of starting a business almost immediately: In April 2015, Xingzai left the Xixi Park, which has both technological hardware foundation and comfortable living facilities. "In Yunqi Town, the office furniture is all new, the smell of decoration has not yet dissipated, and it is even more pungent under the sun... The only benefit is: the days are too dull, everyone can only focus on Career, the daily entertainment activity of the year was to walk around Yunqi Town with partners to discuss how to empower Ali's capabilities to the society.

The birth of Alibaba Data Plus was due to the overall planning of the commercialization of the Alibaba Data Platform Department (CDO). At that time, the CDO had broken the data silos within Alibaba, and used rich data analysis and mining tools (such as TCIF, data, etc.) in the Alibaba system. Rubik's Cube, Taobao Index, etc.) meet the diverse needs of each sub-unit, but Ali hopes to empower the external society with the data skills accumulated for ten years.

As the vanguard of Ali's corporate service strategy, Suga has lived up to its mission:

The first revenue was achieved on May 18th, and the development platform (D+Base instance) was successfully deployed on May 26th. As of July 31st of the same year, 9 external studios have completed online settlement, January 20, 2016 On March 1, 2019, the company built the most complete big data value system in the industry and officially released it at the Shanghai Summit of Yunqi Conference...

The consecutive battles and victories of Shujia have also strengthened Xing's inner belief: inclusive big data, so that the whole society can enjoy the reform dividends brought by data technology.

At the end of 2016, after witnessing Tmall Double 11 breaking the e-commerce record again, Xing Zai decided to leave Ali and move from the greenhouse of internal entrepreneurship to the cruel winter of external entrepreneurship.

trial
Where is the data? The "cloud + terminal" mode breaks through the bottleneck
In a tea room in the West Lake Mountains of Hangzhou, Xing Xing had a discussion with his partner who started a business together, and named the new company Qidianyun. While imagining a bright future, he calmly anticipated the risks and difficulties that may be encountered.

Xing Xing decided to leave Ali, because he hopes to get out of the Internet industry and serve the real industry that has countless possibilities. "I hope to work on the land of the real industry and help customers use data to irrigate fertile fruit", the metaphor of fruit , which has become the most commonly used image since the founding of Singularity Cloud.

However, under the ocean of entrepreneurship, there will always be vortexes and giant beasts hidden outside of cognition: the clever woman of Singularity Cloud, whose original vision was to "enable physical merchants to have Taobao-level data-based operation capabilities", has to do it again and again. Facing the embarrassing dilemma of "countless cooking".

Soon after the official website of Singularity Cloud was launched, a customer found them through a message on the official website, hoping to become a data center. This customer is a traditional enterprise with thousands of stores across the country, with an annual turnover of between 10 billion and 20 billion. Singularity Cloud was excited, and was fully committed to preparing for a good start - however, this customer only had 300G of data.

"What is the concept of 300G? A laptop can fit it."

In the Internet industry, there is never a shortage of data, and data structure is the default condition. However, when entering the offline scene, there is almost no consumer data that is the most important, and most of the existing data are unstructured views, images, and sounds.

"'Cloud + terminal' was the best solution we thought at the time to form a data closed loop for physical businesses." Xing Zai recalled, "'Cloud', that is, the part of the data center, we are very good at; That is, intelligent hardware, which is indeed separated by five oceans compared to the field we are familiar with.”

After realizing the difficulties, there are many strategic opinions in the team of "creating a new way" and "saving the country by curve", but Xing Xing has no choice to escape, "we will make it without data."

In the early spring of 2018, along with the deepening of "cloud + terminal", smart retail products were officially released, which coincided with the new retail trend, and Singularity Cloud was once misunderstood as a "new retail technology service provider"; Yes, in October of this year, Singularity Cloud appeared in the image of a data middle-end service provider and officially released the "AI-driven data middle-end". Some media called Qidao: "Singularity Cloud Completes Strategic Transformation"...

But Xing is very clear in his heart that new retail is by no means the end point pursued by Singularity Cloud. "What Singularity Cloud wants to do is an AI-driven data center."

against
Black swan strikes, use data intelligence to support government transformation
In Feng Qingyang's speech that year, the most difficult part to understand was that "I was walking on thin ice every day", "He still said that when Ali was at his most brilliant, I thought at the time, is this person Versailles?"

Until he got on the boat of starting a business, Xingzai realized the true meaning of that sentence. Under the seemingly thick and strong ice surface, cracks were everywhere.

At the end of 2019, Singularity Cloud negotiated a new round of financing, TS has been signed, and the two parties agreed to officially start the financing process after the Spring Festival.

The ghostly appearance of the new crown epidemic has caused "people to be stunned". Even if they try to return to Hangzhou, they can only take the three heavy blows brought by the epidemic: the first blow, the customer does not go to work, and the sales cannot run. Customers, the new orders for the whole quarter were zero; the second punch, the payment returned to zero, the customer also faced difficulties, began to save cash flow, and the due payment was repeatedly delayed; the most fatal third punch, "Investors Said I had to wait."

Under the series of blows, in just a few months, the Singularity Cloud, which is developing rapidly, was pushed to the brink of a cliff: cash flow was urgent.

Xing Zai calmly analyzed the possible future trend of the epidemic, decided to mortgage the property for emergency, and also received the support of Liu Ying (flower name: Princess), the co-founder and COO of Singularity Cloud, and the two real estate certificates lent money from the bank. , to extend the life of the singularity cloud for two months.

Luck always favors those who do the right thing: as early as the beginning of its establishment, Singularity Cloud has served some government projects, and the long-term accumulation of data middle-end attributes enables it to build applications agilely and quickly.

This is where the turning point comes: in order to fight the epidemic, Yuhang District, Hangzhou needs to quickly build a government affairs system with strong data capabilities. With technical strength and business understanding, we can complete the development of the enterprise resumption platform in 24 hours, and continue the lifeline of the enterprise, and complete the construction of the emergency material supply and marketing platform in 72 hours, helping the citizens to win the battle to ensure the supply of masks.

I can still remember such a picture when I walk today: On the way to and from the government office every day, I pass the viaduct that is almost congested on weekdays, but was almost empty at that time. At the time when the epidemic was the most rampant and the operation of enterprises was the most difficult, Singularity Cloud survived by relying on agile technical capabilities, high-quality delivery and long-term accumulated industry experience, and even achieved profitability in the first half of 2020.

When it comes to customer success, that's another big point of pride in Xing.

Achievement
Help customers succeed and create a miracle of 235% retention rate
The 100% success of the data middle-office project is not a sales word, but an iron law set for the singularity cloud. The belief that supports him in setting such strict rules stems from a seed planted many years ago: technological entrepreneurship must stand at the intersection of technology and business.

"Don't be arrogant about technology, don't say how good you are, Alibaba's data intelligence technology has been leading the industry for 10 years, and it can enable 10,000 machines to be used as a server. How many customers need this ability? They need to solve The problem and their scene value are our real service goals.”

Therefore, when "product is king" became the main theme of To B service, Xingzai also added a hard indicator behind it: ensuring customer success. For this reason, Singularity Cloud has set up an implementation team at the beginning of its business to ensure that customers can use it; not only that, Singularity Cloud also clearly provides consulting services to help customers build a complete blueprint for digital transformation, "especially for those ultra-large customers. , he may not care about your products and technologies, but only care about his future plans for digital transformation, what to do in the first year and what to do in the third year, and then map this blueprint to the products and services we provide. Only by conforming to the ideas of customers can we be driven by customer value.”

In the face of "so much emphasis on service, how to avoid over-customization", Xing Zai has his own unique view: "Don't believe in martial arts novels, old forests, martial arts secrets, and invincibility in the world, that is impossible, and a real martial arts master must be It is based on actual combat. No product is perfect when it is born, and it must be continuously polished and iterated in the scene. Starting from the customer scene and ending with the realization of customer value, we continue to accumulate in this process, and our products have also received real growth."

The strict self-discipline of "100% success of the data middle-end project" has won high recognition from customers. Singularity Cloud has achieved a miraculous retention rate in fiscal years 2020-2021: 235% - customers who pay 100 yuan in 2020, 2021 Year is willing to pay 235 yuan to continue to use the singularity cloud.

The talent concept of "straight men"
Three types of people are resolutely not, and employees are encouraged to make suggestions
He has been in business for 6 years and has overcome many difficulties. Xingzai believes that the biggest credit is the team that always completes the tough tasks every time they encounter difficulties. He often says, "Singularity people are the most valuable asset of Singularity Cloud". In the midst of the great difficulties of starting a business, even if it is not the first, it will definitely not be able to escape the TOP 3, but Xingzai has built a team that can fight and fight by relying on the "three nos" that have been summed up for many years. Victorious Iron Army:

"I am a 'straight man', and I am determined not to recruit three types of people: people who are involved in small groups, people who have something to say to their faces and who do not talk behind their backs, and people who are full of negative energy. Singularity Cloud has only large circles, There is no small circle, you can only slap the table in person, not stab in the back, you just want to solve the problem, and you can’t see everything is the problem.”

In the past 6 years, the team size of Singularity Cloud has expanded from fifty to sixty people in the first year to nearly five hundred today, but the team's centripetal force has not declined due to the expansion of the scale. "The most common thing I tell my partners is that we must be alert to the disease of big companies. I hope that Singularity Cloud can always maintain a state of low friction and low internal friction."

To this day, no matter how busy the work is, the management of Singularity Cloud still maintains the response mechanism of directly answering employees' questions, and every staff meeting has a fixed part of answering employees' questions. The interviewer must stand up to everyone’s test, and the answer must stand up to everyone’s supervision.”

future
Business integration, serving millions of customers
Since its inception, Singularity Cloud has doubled its revenue every year. As of November 2021, Singularity Cloud has served more than 600 core customers, and the customer repurchase rate has increased year by year.

"This is a good track. The opportunities of the times, the needs of customers, the investment of friends and businessmen, and the overweight of giants all make this market more dynamic." Xing Zai said frankly, "But we are committed to the road of data middle and Taiwan, and more Most of it comes from Singularity Cloud's observation and understanding of Chinese enterprises in the DT era - 'Industry-Data Integration' is a rigid demand for enterprise services in the DT era, and this is exactly what we, as an independent third party, can provide for enterprises."

The concept of "integration of industry and data" comes from "integration of industry and finance". In the IT era, the core of enterprise management is financial management. However, in traditional financial management, business and financial data are disconnected, and finance often obtains data after the fact, but cannot respond to business changes in a timely manner, and it is impossible to predict, serve, and lead. Establish a financial integrated information processing process driven by business events, integrating business and finance.

The "business data integration" understood by Singularity Cloud is to establish a data integration processing process driven by business scenarios, integrate business and data, and allow data to truly record and reflect business status.

In the DT era, the overall optimization of the cloud computing industry chain, the explosive growth of massive data, the increasingly fierce market competition put forward high requirements for the lean operation of enterprises, and the increasingly high cost of data storage urges enterprises to "require performance from data". Data no longer only plays the role of recording, retrospective, and post-event analysis, but has also begun to be expected to predict the future and respond quickly to uncertainties.

"The vision of Singularity Cloud is to accelerate the transformation of customers to data intelligence. By 2030, it will help 10,000 customers realize the best practices of data intelligence, and help 1 million customers have the ability of digital transformation."