China Mobile's 2023 is a breakthrough year, with operating income exceeding the trillion yuan mark, profits hitting a record high, 5G construction dominating the world, computing power network initial scale, business performance and other assessments are excellent.
Especially recently, China Mobile at MWC2024 talked about the future development of the communications industry and the construction plan of a digital and intelligent society.
This is the foundation of the current development, the past achievements can be the foundation for the future, but it is also a burden, after all, it is easy to "make a hundred feet", and it is difficult to "go further"!
On the basis of the results in 2023, based on the assessment requirements of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission for the best enterprises, China Mobile's goal in 2024 is still "two growth and four improvements": "two growths" - good revenue growth and synergistic growth of profits, and "four improvements" - improvement of development quality, improvement of scientific and technological innovation capabilities, improvement of investment efficiency, and improvement of personnel efficiency. Basically the same as in 2023.
So how will China Mobile accomplish this goal in 2024? I think the key lies in one word: Tuo!
At present, China Mobile has formed a business system with CHBN+VG as the core, which can be said to basically achieve full coverage of the fields and industries that China Mobile can provide services, and the next thing to face is the expansion of business depth and breadth.
Here are some areas of business that I think have a lot of room for expansion:
1. Computing network business:In 2024, China Mobile should further dig into the scenarios, build demonstration projects, promote the development of the computing network business market, and form a stable monetization channel for computing network resources. Of course, if it can become an important component and main carrier of the national computing network, the future of the computing network business is limitless.
2. AI+ business. In one year, China Mobile released a number of large models, including the large model of Zhongqing base, the large model of government affairs, the large model of customer service, the large model of network, the large model of enterprise call, and the large model of Chuanliu Travel. Internally, these large models can promote the intelligent upgrading of the operation and management model, but more importantly, externally, they can provide high-level intelligent business applications around the needs of digital and intelligent transformation of production, life and governance, which also has a huge market space, especially in combination with China Mobile's original resource endowment, which is attractive to all walks of life and can also play a valuable role.
3. Data business:Needless to say, China Mobile's advantages in data are currently on the way to data monetization, for example, the Wutong big data platform can provide valuable information and insights for many fields such as finance, tourism, and transportation; For example, DSSN provides low-cost, efficient, and credible "data logistics" services. These have a wide market space and monetization capabilities.
4. Middle office business:China Mobile's capability center has brought together nearly 1,000 high-quality capabilities such as artificial intelligence, Beidou high-precision positioning, and large-scale data collection. The next step is undoubtedly to build China Mobile's capability platform into a capability platform for thousands of industries, and provide digital and intelligent transformation solutions for all walks of life.
5. Security business:Network information security is one of the highest jobs at the current domestic level, from a business point of view, security is a trillion-level market, China Mobile originally had its own relatively strong network security capabilities, coupled with the recent acquisition of Venustech, as well as independent research and development of security capabilities, is the strength to make security a business service solution, to provide services for all walks of life.
6. Large-scale business. At present, live broadcasting, cloud gaming, cloud VR and other services are popular, and the demand for high-quality content is booming.
7. Satellite Internet business. After the release of Huawei mate60 last year, China Telecom's satellite communications were out of the limelight, in the second half of the year, China Mobile significantly accelerated the deployment of satellite communications and satellite Internet, from the current wind direction, China Mobile satellite communication related licenses, I estimate that it should be fast, once the license comes down, this is a new business for China Mobile.
China Mobile is the world's largest mobile network operator, there is no one, just look at 5G, China Mobile 5G base stations 1.9 million, a proper global brother. However, at the same time, it should be pointed out that China Mobile still has a lot of lessons to make up on the network, and it still needs to further expand its network capabilities, which is not only the current development need, but also the future layout needs.
1. All-optical backbone network:China Mobile needs to further build a reliable, stable, visible and manageable all-optical network, which is the basis for China Mobile to expand the industrial Internet, which should be a focus of China Mobile's current network construction.
G Private Network:China Mobile already has a certain scale of 5G private networks, but it still needs to further accelerate the implementation of 5G RedCap and 5G LAN capabilities for cross-domain networks, such as "plug-and-play" 5G express lines and "one-hop to the cloud" 5G direct connection and other lightweight services.
g-a：5G-A is seen as a further evolution and enhancement of the 5G network that will unlock the greater potential of 5G technology, after China Mobile announced that it will launch the world's largest commercial deployment of 5G-A in more than 300 domestic cities in 2024. This deployment will include the commercialization of a number of 5G-A network technologies, such as synaesthesia, passive IoT, network intelligence, XR enhancement, and industrial Internet. These technologies will help improve network performance, expand coverage, and enhance network capabilities, laying the foundation for 5G adoption in production industries.
g：In 2024, one of the important and urgent tasks of China Mobile is to accelerate the research and development of 6G, achieve breakthroughs in 6G theory and technology, lead international standards, and cultivate 6G independent and controllable industries in advance. It's a heavy task.
The domestic communication market has been supersaturated, this is a fact, but if you jump out of the domestic border, look at the overseas market, you will find that there is still a huge room for growth outside, the current 5G is still exclusive to a few countries, most countries are still in the 4G or even 3G stage, the construction of information infrastructure is seriously backward.
In recent years, China Mobile has been actively promoting the construction of international information infrastructure, continuously optimizing the layout of resources along the "Belt and Road" and the world, and continuously deepening the interconnection between China and the world. As of 2022, China Mobile International has deployed 36 business points around the world to provide digital intelligence services to customers around the world.
Based on the present and looking at the future, China Mobile should give full play to the leading comparative advantages of China's digital economy, focus on 5G, cloud network and other advantageous areas, and actively promote the extension of China's solutions and capabilities overseas.
Considering geopolitical factors, we may not have the luxury of replicating a China Mobile in overseas markets, but at least we can make overseas markets a strong growth point in revenue, which is not too difficult.
In recent years, China Mobile has significantly increased the pace of foreign investment, in 2016 the establishment of China Mobile Investment Company, under the establishment of 2 direct investment entities and 3 ** platform, the annual investment in the past few years is not less than 20 billion yuan, the cumulative investment of more than 500 enterprises, the scale of investment of more than 190 billion yuan, the scale of assets under management of more than 250 billion yuan. In particular, in 2023, it will complete a number of major strategic project investments such as Dahua Co., Ltd., Postal Savings Bank, and Phoenix Media, with an investment amount of nearly 60 billion yuan. Judging from the data of the financial report, China Mobile's foreign investment has contributed very much to the overall profit of China Mobile, estimated to be close to 15 billion yuan, and the income from investment alone is about the same as the overall profit of China Unicom.
At present, China Mobile has invested in more than 150 enterprises in the key computing industry fields such as chips, semiconductors, and quantum communications. This is very helpful for China Mobile's joint industrial strength to become bigger and stronger. A striking example is Venustech, after the acquisition of Venustech, China Mobile's competitiveness in security-related projects in the government and enterprise market has at least improved a notch.
It is my consistent view that the workforce structure of China Mobile is differentiating, but how to make employees in different lines and positions work together to support the long-term development of China Mobile is the key issue that China Mobile is facing at present and in the next few years.
How to mobilize the enthusiasm of employees, stimulate the vitality of employees, and improve the work efficiency and creativity of employees is the key issue to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises, especially before the current new quality productivity project, how to cultivate employees' sense of innovation and innovation ability, and develop new products and services, which is an important task of China Mobile 2024.
In 2023, China Mobile has climbed to a peak, on this peak, the road ahead is steeper, the wind is more urgent, and in 2024, it depends on how China Mobile continues to develop the situation.