In today's turbulent business environment, with frequent black swan events in the international political landscape, globalization, which has injected strong growth momentum into the world economy in the past, seems to be being challenged. For decision-makers in Chinese companies, one of the unavoidable questions is:Do we still want to go out?
The research data shows positive signs. After a sharp decline in early 2020, the world's merchandise volume has reached more than 110% of pre-pandemic levels by mid-2022. The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) latest 2023 growth rate will remain at a modest 24%, then accelerate to 35%。
In addition to the resumption of growth in volume, the "depth" of globalization has also increased unprecedentedly. Steven A., New York University's Stern School of BusinessProfessor Altman mentioned in the Harvard Business Review article that the process and depth of economic globalization are mainly measured by indicators such as **, cross-border capital flows, personnel flows, and data transmission.
In terms of capital flows, international business investment has also recovered rapidly after the initial decline in the pandemic. Foreign direct investment (FDI) hit a trough in 2020 but returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. The amount of payments involving the use of foreign IP continued to grow, while the share of cross-border M&A transactions remained stable. The pandemic has dealt the hardest blow to international movements, but cross-border exchanges are in full swing. According to the latest UN**, the number of global cross-border exchanges in 2023 will be only 5% to 20% lower than the pre-pandemic level, and the cross-border flow of information has reached a new high due to the epidemic, driving the growth of cross-border information exchange and services**. 」
The above data shows that globalization has not hesitated in terms of volume and depth, but has shown great resilience after encountering blows. This is undoubtedly good news for Chinese companies and brands aiming to be in the global market.
At present, the domestic competition is becoming increasingly fierce, with the gradual saturation of the market, the demand continues to be weak, in order to compete for market share, the competition between enterprises in various industries is becoming increasingly incandescent. But at the same time, we see that market competition has also promoted the accumulation of enterprise advantages, and in such tempering, a number of outstanding Chinese enterprises have been cultivated. The products or services of these companies are already competitive enough in the international market, and according to investor Masayoshi Son's time machine theory, these brands have the ability to quickly replicate and expand their business in the international "lowland market".
Although Chinese enterprises actively participate in global competition and are urgently seeking overseas growth points, at the same time, a large number of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises and traditional manufacturing enterprises often face some common challenges when exploring overseas routes, such as market information asymmetry, large language and cultural differences, and lack of cross-border financial support. There are both opportunities and challenges, and companies need to plan well before expanding into global deals. In the past many cases of enterprises going overseas, we have seen that without proper overseas planning, enterprises will not understand the local market and consumers, resulting in product backlog or insufficient inventory, and even cause greater losses, and even miss the opportunity to enter the local market.
In order to help enterprises solve the pain points and difficulties in the global development process, China Construction Bank launched the "CCB Global Matchmaker" B2B cross-border intelligent matching platform in December 2019, which integrates multiple resources and builds an open and shared ecosystem with "technology + data", providing domestic and foreign enterprises with cross-border** and investment business opportunity release, intelligent matching and comprehensive service solutions. Through platformization, CCB has encapsulated its internal capabilities into B2B services, empowering more Chinese enterprises, so that they can avoid the cost of "reinventing wheels" and access the global market efficiently and cost-effectively. Over the past four years, CCB has continuously innovated its service model by relying on the "CCB Global Matchmaker" platform, opened up new channels for financial services, and better contributed to the stability of the global industrial chain, the stability of the world's largest chain and the smoothest international network.
Integrate superior resources
Inject new momentum into small and medium-sized enterprises going overseas
CCB's advantages are obvious to all, with branches and subsidiaries of commercial banks in 31 countries and regions around the world, and nearly 200 overseas institutions at all levels. In the interview, the person in charge of the relevant business of CCB said, "In the process of providing financial services to local commercial institutions, CCB has accumulated a large number of customer resources and supply and demand clues. The form of platform aggregates the data and information of banks in domestic and foreign markets, creates a flexible communication and negotiation field through modern technological means, and efficiently matches supply and demand. Although cross-border matchmaking services do not belong to the traditional financial business, with the development of international ** and the growth of customers, the demand for financial services will naturally increase, so as to cultivate high-quality and high-growth potential customers. ”
In addition, based on the matchmaking platform, CCB has created the "CCB Global Matchmaking Festival" in the form of "centralized resources of domestic and foreign institutions, centralized docking of domestic and foreign customers, and centralized display of domestic and foreign business opportunities", which will promote more cross-border ** and investment cooperation intentions in this more direct activity scenario.
In September 2022, the first CCB Global Matchmaking Festival brought together nearly 400 enterprises from 21 countries and regions and organized more than 200 one-on-one online meetings with the theme of supermarket supply and procurement matchmaking. For example, Daoxiangcun Food Group, a time-honored brand in China, found suitable business partners through this "supermarket matchmaking festival", successfully went to the Southeast Asian and Australian markets, and let potential buyers in more countries and regions around the world have a new understanding of Chinese pastries through roadshow promotion. Also participating in the matchmaking festival are well-known enterprises from China's Shounong, Guolian Aquatic Products, Yiwu Commodity City, wineries from South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Spain, Hungary and other places, as well as special agricultural products enterprises in Southeast Asia. The strong lineup has attracted many well-known supermarkets and service providers at home and abroad. After the event, the continuous promotion of supply and procurement docking also made the participating enterprises full of expectations and confidence in the future matchmaking festival.
In 2023, CCB will make persistent efforts to pool the superior resources of domestic and foreign institutions to help domestic and foreign enterprises expand their markets and find partners, and help enterprises efficiently achieve cross-border cooperation intentions and orders. At the same time, it innovates the form of matchmaking festival activities, shifts from industry division to regional division, and deeply combines regional development characteristics to carry out local theme activities. From October to November, the "2023 CCB Global Matchmaking Festival" was held in Hubei, Jiangsu, Chongqing and Shenzhen, with the themes of "Jingpin Goes to Sea", "Smart Construction of Suzhou Trade", "Chongqing Construction Land and Sea" and "Intelligent Manufacturing in Shenzhen", focusing on showcasing local high-quality business resources, so as to more accurately match cross-border needs. This year's matchmaking festival attracted more than 440 enterprises from more than 20 countries and regions along the "Belt and Road" and the RCEP region to participate, organized more than 160 one-on-one negotiations, reached more than 50 cooperation intentions, and 44 enterprises signed contracts at the event site.
After four years of operation, the CCB Global Matchmaker platform has more than 240,000 registered corporate users from 51 countries and regions, and has published more than 180,000 cross-border business opportunitiesNearly 300 digital exhibitions and cross-border matchmaking activities have been held, with more than 20,000 enterprises participating. It has been connected to 20 provinces and cities and more than 20 international "single windows" and more than 20 public service platforms, and has achieved two-way interconnection with 11 domestic and foreign platforms, with a total of more than 1,500 matching intentions.
Build cross-border financial bridges
Help national tide brands go overseas to find increments
The leisure snack industry, where BESTORE is located, has long faced the problem of homogeneous competition. In the face of the increasingly "volume" of the domestic market, the company is determined to further explore new business opportunities and pay attention to new overseas market opportunities on the basis of the balanced development of omni-channel. However, due to factors such as limited channel resources and cultural differences, the company faces many difficulties in finding overseas target customers, conducting business negotiations and signing contracts. In the face of this challenge, how to achieve efficient, low-cost, safe and convenient docking with overseas customers, so as to expand the scale of foreign trade business, has become an urgent problem for BESTORE to solve. During the "2023 CCB Global Matchmaking Festival", with the efficient and pragmatic support of CCB's global overseas institutions, BESTORE participants had a number of potential customers from the European Union, South Africa, Russia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and other countries and regions, and had in-depth discussions on cooperation opportunities to enter the local market. For example, in its exchanges with French buyers, the company found that French companies pay more attention to the history and responsibility of their partners, rather than just the size and number of stores. These insights, which are different from traditional perceptions, have enabled BESTORE to have a deeper understanding of the business culture of the European market, and provide a new perspective for brand development for future business promotion.
As we all know, in the development of the new retail industry, channel information is king. In the negotiation with Hong Kong manufacturers, CCB assisted in contacting key decision-makers from Hong Kong manufacturers, speeding up the negotiation process in the supermarket sector. In the highly matched matching, the company will enter markets such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Hong Kong and Australia.
The relevant person in charge of BESTORE said that CCB's rigorous style and efficient and pragmatic working style have enabled enterprises to fully enjoy the benefits of efficient matching of resources and information, and more effectively promoted the cross-border docking between enterprises and potential customers. The large number of cooperation clues brought by the "CCB Global Matchmaking Festival" has enabled the company to achieve substantial gains in the process of going overseas, exceeding expectations.
Insight into market needs
Open up new channels for overseas business
The 2023 CCB Global Matchmaking Festival - "Jianzhen Intelligent Manufacturing" theme event attracted many international high-tech industry enterprises for exchanges and cooperation. More than 160 representatives of Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao enterprises attended the meeting, and more than 50 overseas enterprises from more than 10 countries and regions were connected. On the basis of the early matchmaking, Konka Group, UBTECH Technology, Incus (Shenzhen), Feidao Technology and other Shenzhen smart modeling enterprises have carried out centralized communication with overseas enterprises, and some enterprises have successfully signed contracts.
UBTECH, a high-tech innovation company from Shenzhen, stands out with its unique full-stack robot technology capabilities, and is not only one of the few companies that can achieve mass production of servo drives from small torque to large torque, but also the birthplace of the world's first commercially successful commercial bipedal life-size robot, Walker. But the aroma of wine is also afraid of deep alleys. Although the global epidemic has made more and more people realize that robots can do many things instead of people, how to open up new business opportunities and achieve new growth has become the primary issue of UBTECH and other enterprises.
In the early stage, after learning about UBTECH's development needs, CCB arranged one-on-one communication and docking for UBTECH with six overseas enterprises at the matchmaking festival. Through the global market information obtained by the matchmaking festival, the company plans to expand its business to markets such as Hong Kong, Macau, Southeast Asia and Australia, and cooperate with catering companies, large banks and schools, etc., to establish a new bridgehead for the diversified development of the business. Wu Peng, Deputy General Manager of UBTECH's Overseas Sales Department, said: "The CCB Matchmaking Festival is a platform that helps us actively seek new customers around the world and conduct closer one-to-one connections with all walks of life. We look forward to further deepening our collaboration with CCB in the future, especially in decision-making and procurement processes in areas such as robotics and artificial intelligence, and jointly explore a wider range of business opportunities." ”
Innovative service model
Create a second growth curve for banks
In fact, there is a precedent in the world for financial institutions to help domestic enterprises explore overseas markets. Professor Zhang Xiaotao, Dean of the School of International Economics and the University of Finance and Economics, once wrote an article describing in detail the logic of the interaction between the internationalization of the Japanese banking industry and the internationalization of the real economy
The tentacles of overseas direct investment of enterprises extend to the first level, and the tentacles of domestic financial services extend to the first placeThe internationalization of the financial industry promotes the in-depth development of enterprise internationalization and improves the business performance of enterprises. This not only promotes the high-quality development of OFDI, but also enhances the development level and international competitiveness of the financial industry. 」
CCB's "Global Matchmaker" platform has gone one step further, combining its advantages as an international bank with digital technology to open up a new path – through cross-border matchmaking, CCB has not only built a new channel for acquiring, retaining and retaining customers, but also opened up the "second curve" of international business development in addition to financial business. Whether financial institutions can rely on such innovative explorations to integrate more closely with the real economy and obtain new development opportunities in the process, CCB's case provides a useful attempt. 
Content**: China Construction Bank.
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