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Farewell to 2023 and Welcome to 2024: 37 Answers - Huxiu#

#Omnivore

Highlights#

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Currently engaged in consulting entrepreneurship. Filling the gaps for companies, whether in strategy or organization, we address whatever is lacking. Strictly speaking, we are creating a new category in the consulting industry. ⤴️ ^d72e3227

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Every year-end, we look back at the past year while anticipating the new one, year after year. 2023 was still a complex year that language struggles to summarize.

Huxiu invited 36 authors to answer three questions, reflecting on 2023 and looking forward to 2024, covering topics such as industry opportunities and undervalued companies.

• ✨ Cyber traditional Chinese medicine has become a new opportunity, and electronic placebo for the mind is thriving in the market.

• 🚀 High-quality content has become an industry moat, and one of the marketing strategies is to create content.

• 🚗 The opportunities in the automotive industry lie in new energy and intelligence, with a resurgence trend in the development of pure electric vehicles.

2023 was a year of change. At the beginning of the year, we welcomed recovery; in the middle of the year, we faced unexpected opportunities and challenges; at the end of the year, we bid farewell and reflected with emotion.

2024 is here as expected.

What will happen in 2024? Will it be better or worse? Philosophers tell us: "Everything flows, nothing stands still." The only constant in this world is change. In the face of change, we should not question it, but understand it and become it.

The more we are in the midst of dramatic changes, the more valuable calm thinking becomes. At this moment, as 2023 draws to a close, we invited 37 Huxiu authors to seriously discuss the following three questions:

1. What industry are you currently in?

2. What is the biggest opportunity in your industry in the next few years?

3. Recommend a company you believe is undervalued and explain why.

In 2023, the wave of artificial intelligence swept the globe, and discussions about it continued unabated. Will our society benefit more from AI or suffer more? Most people view artificial intelligence as a new opportunity in the industry, and how to better utilize AI will be a key focus for us.

"According to mainstream views, the biggest opportunity in the internet industry is AI. But AI is a tool and a means, not a purpose or a result. Moreover, from the current perspective, whether it is the underlying large models or fine-tuning based on open-source large models, the cost of 'making tools' (doing AI) is obviously exorbitant. Therefore, 'using tools' may be a better opportunity than 'making tools.'"

—— Comment by Shishi

In the current era of information overload, many authors deeply engaged in industry media believe that high-quality content will become an important moat in the industry.

"With the maturity of the new generation of social media (Douyin, Xiaohongshu, WeChat Video Accounts), using content for online customer acquisition has become a prominent skill. In the foreseeable future, commercial competition will be severely cutthroat, and 'creating content' is an essential marketing tool for business people across various industries."

—— Lao Qian Daily Talk (Host of the podcast "Meet")

In 2023, the tendency of mass consumption has undergone significant changes. One Huxiu author believes that social media brings niche psychological recognition, and personalized travel demands will become opportunities for industry development.

"The rise of small groups represented by 'super combinations.' The era of large groups is over, and tour guides and KOLs with personal media personas are giving travel a 'unique feel,' and the resulting premium is very high, presenting huge opportunities."

—— Mao Lin (Planning Director of a listed internet company)

Overall, expectations for next year are not optimistic, but there is still a belief that "there are great opportunities in small matters," and life is like a long river, "the flowing water does not rush ahead, but strives to be continuous."

1. Semi-Buddha (Huxiu Author)

Currently focused on investment, this year has been a complete disaster. Opening a store has not gone well, and I have incurred significant losses. My side job involves writing and doing stand-up comedy, begging for food from the client side.

The biggest opportunity I see right now is what I like to call cyber traditional Chinese medicine, mainly focusing on astrology, tarot, fate, psychological counseling, emotional counseling, and other forms of electronic placebo disguised in various ways.

I can see friends around me doing this, and their underwater revenue is astonishing, and they hardly need to acquire customers; if they do it reliably, it’s all word of mouth, and there are so many people that they can't keep up.

Moreover, the threshold for this is much lower than expected; I originally thought it required professional research, but later found that those around me are all using apps to calculate, and many users don’t even believe in this; they just want someone to talk to, and being a good sounding board is enough.

Such a ridiculous thing is actually very profitable, compared to my daily struggle to write articles and invest, it’s at least three or four floors higher.

To be honest, I don’t see any undervalued companies. You see, I’ve lost a lot this year, and it’s obvious that I haven’t found any undervalued companies.

I fully realize that I have actually overestimated myself.

I am just a lucky waste.

2. Geometry Sister (Huxiu Author)

Currently engaged in education and new business, the industry I am in acts as a weather vane, continuously growing alongside industries and enterprises that are advancing in technology and business. Every few years, I can see new and old industries changing in the data of students from schools and institutions.

Emerging and sunrise industries are experiencing explosive growth and globalization; correspondingly, decision-makers and their core management teams will have more opportunities to communicate, learn, and update their understanding, preparing for business expansion overseas; the hot industries of previous years were real estate, finance, and technology internet, but in the past two years, the profiles of students have included investment, healthcare, biotechnology, agriculture, and artificial intelligence.

The future opportunity space in the education industry will also accompany technological progress and industry integration, guiding companies and their founders and core management teams from classrooms and laboratories into factories, fields, and beyond borders.

The undervalued Chinese tech company in my mind is Baidu. As one of the kings of the BAT era, Baidu's core search business has been restructured by major apps in an isolated manner amid the technological advances of the mobile wave. This trend and impact are still ongoing. But what makes Baidu a respected and thus undervalued company is its unwavering commitment to the technological route for twenty years.

Baidu was one of the earliest Chinese tech companies to heavily invest in artificial intelligence, and it holds an important position in the core technology fields of global tech companies. From today’s perspective, this sounds correct and ordinary from the viewpoint of an observer and an armchair strategist. However, from the technological, vision, and understanding standpoint of ten years ago, it was not easy for a large company to invest all its strategic resources in voting for uncertain returns from technological progress.

Baidu has insisted on increasing the budget for scientists, laboratories, and AI teams year after year, even as the group’s overall revenue has been declining for years. This long-term vision and substantial investment in real money are particularly precious when peers are scrambling for traffic and games, and for immediate growth and user engagement.

Baidu is a severely undervalued company. Although today, from the perspective of user volume and global technological competition, they are not the strongest. Even the most popular AI products currently face controversy at the application level. However, for a company that has steadfastly followed the technological route since its inception, in terms of the product value of promoting technological progress, it has already gone further than most of its peers. Baidu has unseen technological accumulation that cannot be seen in financial reports and user data. When the next wave of technological revolution arrives, it can represent Chinese enterprises in global competition.

This year, I started doing a serious job related to "AIGC." My position was created due to the explosion of ChatGPT, and it has shown me a lot in a short time, which is a very magical experience.

I believe many people, like me, have started a new life stage due to the resurgence of large models and AI this year. At the same time, my colleagues and I have encountered many people whose stable jobs have been challenged; even if they have not been completely replaced, their workload has significantly decreased. Overall, is our society benefiting more from AI or suffering more?

Perhaps we cannot give a simple answer, just like replacing "AI" with e-commerce; many people have built businesses in their communities and expanded nationwide; but some physical stores have been forced to close. The aftermath of e-commerce's impact on society is likely that the specific projects and skill requirements of people's work have changed, but society as a whole remains as stable as before. Society has absorbed and adapted to this dramatic change. AI will be similar.

I am currently focusing on the application of "AIGC + general entertainment/media," where text-to-image is bringing the most significant changes to this vertical field. In the not-so-distant future, it is evident that text-to-video and text-to-3D will be our primary focus.

Based on the general pattern observed since the beginning of this year, it takes about six months on average for a paper or closed-source technology to reach a level of completeness or effectiveness usable in the open-source community. In early December, besides Pika releasing version 1.0, Alibaba, ByteDance, and Microsoft all published papers on algorithms for converting images to videos, with several theoretical breakthroughs in the field of video generation. At least by mid-next year, we can observe whether industrial-level video and 3D generation methods will emerge.

The entertainment industry is eagerly anticipating video generation technology, which will create the next potential content pool after the short video boom, and will broaden the foundation for filming movies and animations, bringing in more cross-border new players.

It is well known that there are currently virtually no "undervalued" companies in the AI industry. However, there are still some cases that are overvalued and hyped. We are committed to restoring the full picture of the industry, freeing everyone from the notions of "explosion," "revolution," and "disruption," and clearly understanding how to use AI to enhance their work. This will also be our continued effort in the coming year.

3. Classmate Zhiyuan

Since leaving the workplace in mid-2021, it seems that my industry has changed. Previously, I worked in the e-commerce field for nearly seven years, mainly responsible for marketing. In my last job, I was in charge of TOB SaaS products at a listed company. I worked there for a year before the business was discontinued.

I have always loved writing. After leaving in 2021, I encountered a black swan event, and during that time, it was hard to find a job, so I started doing "self-media," which is essentially a public account.

After operating the public account, my career changed. Although it is uncertain whether self-media can be defined as an industry, I am currently focusing mostly on platform e-commerce and consumer goods; coupled with my previous experience in marketing, I now create content from the perspective of a "marketing observer" and provide some external brain support for clients in marketing.

I believe that self-media is a group or industry that is difficult to define clearly, especially personal accounts, which are like a container; although I write some macro perspective content, I think the characteristics of self-media are diverse.

Product-oriented self-media may be a future trend; simply put, combining content creation to provide services to B-end clients, and then developing a niche brand, similar to buyers on Xiaohongshu, focusing on interests to build brands, mainly targeting specific groups, which can be considered a small business.

The companies I have encountered are all large companies, and some mid-tier clients are in the general technology and smart home sectors, mostly at the B round+, so they are not exactly undervalued.

4. Uncle Tarmac

I personally think that our vertical category self-media is a bit presumptuous in discussing the industry and companies. I believe that every choice made by an industry or a company in this unstable world is based on the position and thinking of the manager, and the consequences of each choice must be borne and faced, whether good or bad.

If I were to express my optimism about my familiar industry, it would be about Juneyao Airlines. Regardless of the quality of its service, the inclusiveness of its leader, especially towards media and criticism, maintains an open mindset, willing to try, and dare to face challenges, which is truly rare in the closed civil aviation industry.

5. Mao Lin (Planning Director of a listed internet company)

Currently engaged in the tourism industry. As a non-standard, complex fulfillment, experience-first industry, tourism has always developed very slowly. The top three companies globally, such as Ctrip in China and Booking and Expedia abroad, were all born over 20 years ago. However, with the development of personalized, small-group, and customized demands, as well as the growth of social media like TikTok, huge opportunities are emerging in the tourism industry.

• The AI revolution brought by ChatGPT. The biggest problem with travel guides is their non-standard and complex nature, as well as their excessive reliance on human intervention; ChatGPT truly realizes personalization.
• Social media brings niche psychological recognition. Consumers' consumption habits have shifted from checking in at "traditional attractions" to checking in at niche popular "internet celebrity spots." Traditional tourism products are severely lagging behind; for example, in Zibo, by the time short videos go viral, Weibo's hot search only "arranges" it.
• The rise of small groups represented by "super combinations." The era of large groups is over, and tour guides and KOLs with personal media personas are giving travel a "unique feel," and the resulting premium is very high, presenting huge opportunities.

In January 2023, Layla, a Berlin-based AI-powered smart tourism company, was established and is severely undervalued. This company is entirely a product of AI + travel, building a chatbot based on ChatGPT and providing travel recommendations through social media like TikTok and Twitter.

This is a completely disruptive product that captivates young people and truly ushers in the era of personalized private customization globally. The company has already received investments from Andy Phillips, co-founder of Booking.com, and Barry Smith, co-founder of Skyscanner.

Of course, I am more optimistic about the application of super individuals + AI, which will allow tourism to be fully customized while also achieving economies of scale. I look forward to the emergence of such MCN organizations.

6. Judge (Senior Product Manager, Tech Author)

Content traffic and personal IP consulting, special education for children, and overseas medical consulting are several businesses I have been engaged in in recent years. Regarding opportunities, I will mainly discuss the first point. With the maturity of the new generation of social media, using content for online customer acquisition has become a prominent skill. In the foreseeable future, commercial competition will be severely cutthroat, and "creating content" is an essential marketing tool for business people across various industries.

I continuously conduct in-depth research on content production, account operation, and platform rules, providing consulting services to save clients time and costs, avoiding ineffective labor and pitfalls. I believe the opportunity in this industry lies in discovering industries and individuals with high growth potential during the service process, and I will convert short-term consulting collaborations into long-term deep partnerships through joint ventures. In fact, the other two businesses I mentioned at the beginning were discovered in this way.

Speaking of undervalued companies, this year I recommend BYD. BYD has the technical accumulation of three electric systems and hybrid systems, as well as the resources accumulated during the traditional car manufacturing era in vehicle design, supply chain, manufacturing, and sales.

Through nearly thirty years of accumulation, in the face of increasingly fierce market competition in the past three years, BYD's passenger car sales have shown exponential growth, and the cost advantages brought by technological and scale breakthroughs after reaching critical points ensure competitive product pricing and profit margins.

Moreover, as a supplier of three electric systems and hybrid technology, BYD can also enjoy the dividends brought by the high growth of the new energy vehicle industry beyond its own products, similar to Samsung's position in the mobile phone industry.

The reason I believe it is undervalued is that BYD's overseas business has also maintained the same high growth. When discussing successful cases of Chinese tech companies going overseas, people often think of Huawei, ByteDance, and Pinduoduo, often overlooking BYD's achievements as a tech manufacturing enterprise going abroad.

Secondly, BYD's three sub-brands, Tengshi, Yangwang, and Fangchengbao, have all made strides this year, completing the breakthrough from budget brands to mid-to-high-end brands.

Thirdly, given the limitations of battery technology bottlenecks on usage scenarios, I believe the hybrid vehicle market will maintain rapid growth for a considerable period in the future. BYD's new energy strategy simultaneously delves into both hybrid and pure electric tracks, benefiting from the growth of new energy vehicles and the demand for replacing gasoline vehicles.

7. Wang Wei (Game Industry Media Youfan Research Leader)

I still consider myself in the gaming industry; looking at the domestic market, realistically, only the overseas market remains.

As for undervalued companies, many years ago when "Honkai" was just released, I would have said miHoYo. When the dress-up game "Nuan Nuan" was released, I would have said Die Zhi. When "Arknights" was released, I would have said Eagle Horn. Now, after so many years, with the domestic industry in its current state, there are not many opportunities in the market, and there is no enthusiasm for investment and financing, so strictly speaking, there are no undervalued companies.

If I had to say, I think it is Game Science. It has gained enough fame with "Black Myth: Wukong." However, I believe what is undervalued is its IP capability. Its overall packaging of this product is stronger than many mature gaming companies. A friend described it as "a 4A company in the gaming circle."

Another company is Lingxi Games, mentioned in our annual product summary this year. One IP, four different product types, each done quite well, which really tests the overall capability of research and development. How they manage and control projects is truly worth observing up close.

8. You Yunting (Senior Partner at Shanghai Debang Law Firm, Intellectual Property Lawyer)

Currently engaged in the legal services industry. The outlook for the industry in the next few years is not optimistic.

On one hand, from the perspective of judicial authorities, there is an advocacy for resolving disputes through comprehensive governance, which will reduce litigation. On the other hand, due to increased regulation, companies' enthusiasm for exploring new businesses is insufficient, leading to a decrease in new business forms and a reduction in transaction volume, and non-litigation business will also decrease.

If I must mention opportunities in the industry, it may be that companies' compliance risks will increase, leading to a potential increase in demand for legal services in this area.

9. Chen Pengfei (Blackboard Insights)

I am still engaged in analysis and research work in the education industry. The past year of 2023 has also been the second year since the "double reduction" policy was implemented, and the impact of the policy on the industry has been enormous. But the good news is that industry practitioners have gained a deeper understanding of the policy, and the intensity and scale of implementation have become more profound, gradually returning to normal from a state of upheaval.

Our internal analysis believes that the biggest opportunity for the future development of the education industry lies in scientific education. As a developing country, China has long been constrained by the technological blockade and sanctions from developed countries. To break free from this predicament, the Chinese government and enterprises have been strengthening independent innovation and technological breakthroughs, making the importance of talent self-evident.

In recent years, the Ministry of Education and other departments have issued multiple policy opinions, systematically deploying to enhance scientific education in the "double reduction" policy, supporting integrated services, and promoting high-quality development in education, technology, and talent. Stimulating young people's curiosity, imagination, and enhancing scientific interest and innovation awareness has become an important part of quality education, integrating the promotion of scientific spirit throughout the entire educational process. Therefore, the promotion of scientific education aligns with the national development direction and has received significant policy support.

Additionally, as the post-90s generation gradually becomes the main force of parents, their education and consumption concepts are more advanced. In 2023, significant breakthroughs were made in the field of artificial intelligence, gradually permeating all aspects of our daily lives, and more and more parents are beginning to realize the importance of scientific education.

When it comes to undervalued companies, I personally believe it is Walnut Programming. As a children's programming company, it is usually difficult for those outside the industry to pay attention to such a company. I believe it is undervalued for three reasons:

(1) The capital market's activity in the education industry has significantly decreased. Although there are many players in the children's programming sector, the landscape has become relatively fixed, making it difficult for new companies to enter. The Matthew effect is evident, and investment institutions are only interested in companies that are positioned at the forefront of the industry. Walnut Programming has completed five rounds of financing since 2017 and even completed a $200 million financing against the trend in 2021. Even in the face of many uncertainties in the external environment, the numbers on the books still provide this company with a high margin for error, and its current business development is very stable, with healthy cash flow.

(2) The development of the children's programming industry heavily tests the strength of teaching staff and the teaching curriculum system. Walnut Programming began laying out training bases for teachers in multiple cities across the country early on. Interestingly, they were also one of the earlier teams in the industry to integrate AI capabilities into their curriculum system. Although the communication and explanation costs with investors were very high in the early stages, this team's combat effectiveness is still strong, and they have carved out a teaching path that is quite different from other companies, including proposing the teaching concept of practical courses this year, exploring new paths for the industry's development.

(3) The development of scientific education has not received much attention in the past. As I mentioned earlier, the industry will face unprecedented development opportunities in the coming years, especially for children's programming companies.

10. Lan Jun (Partner at Shenzhen Meisha Technology, WeChat Official Account: Blues)

Currently in the education technology industry. The biggest opportunity in the education technology industry in the next few years lies in the combination of personalized learning and augmented reality/virtual reality teaching, as well as the integration of artificial intelligence and generative content technology. The integration of these technologies suggests that we can create a more interactive, immersive, and customized learning environment.

As the global economy accelerates its digital transformation and remote education models become more prevalent, learners' demand for flexible, personalized education continues to grow. AI and AIGC will make educational content more adaptable to each student's unique learning pace and style, providing tailored courses and feedback, while AR/VR technology can offer immersive experiences that make understanding complex concepts intuitive and engaging. With the continuous advancement of data analysis technology, education technology companies can leverage learning analytics to optimize learning processes and outcomes, opening new doors for student success and educational equity.

Undervalued company: Duolingo. Duolingo has surpassed 500 million users globally, with over 40 million monthly active users, achieving profitability in Q2 2023 and a net profit of $2.8 million in Q3. Although Duolingo is already a well-known brand in the language learning field, its long-term potential in the education technology industry is often overlooked by the market.

Duolingo utilizes AI to design personalized learning paths and maintains high user engagement through gamified learning. It collects user data to continuously optimize its algorithms and course content, and this data-driven decision-making approach allows its products to evolve continuously. In the context of globalization, multilingual capabilities are increasingly valued, and Duolingo has broad growth potential in market demand. Additionally, as the company continues to expand its service range, such as entering the K-12 education market and investing in AI teaching technology, I believe Duolingo's influence in the education technology field still has significant room for growth.

There are three reasons I am optimistic about Duolingo's future development:

First, Duolingo's user growth and engagement metrics indicate that its products have strong market appeal; second, ongoing technological investment and innovation demonstrate the company's determination to maintain a leading position in the education technology field; finally, as the global demand for online educational resources continues to grow, Duolingo, as a company that has already established a strong brand and user base, has the potential for expansion and growth.

11. Yuan Wen (Co-founder of Beijing Lue Da Culture)

Currently engaged in tech internet self-media.

In the coming years, high-quality content will become an even more important moat in the industry. For example, in the recently passed year of 2023, although everyone has seen the phenomenon of "begging" for advertisements in their friend circles and lamented the difficulties brought about by tightened advertising budgets, in fact, many "small but beautiful" accounts have performed quite well, achieving near-high income levels in recent years.

One important reason is that, in the context of limited budgets, manufacturers will prioritize allocating resources to institutions and self-media that can produce good content. In the coming years, this trend will continue. As the market reshuffles and the survival of the fittest occurs, some players will fall while others will evolve.

Undervalued company: miHoYo. Its product strength is strong enough that it may become a gaming company even more powerful than Tencent or NetEase in the future.

12. Lao Qian Daily Talk (Host of the podcast "Meet")

Currently in the content industry, most businesses have a strong demand for content, but content itself is a very poor business.

The poor aspects are reflected in several points:

First, practitioners generally have a large ego, and the industry cannot be standardized at all; there is no concentration, the revenue ceiling is very low, and expansion easily raises costs, making it easy to earn a lot of noise without making money. Because there are no rewards for teams, scale, or efficiency, competition is highly encouraged. Good content needs income to cover costs.

Second, the industry is an ancient business, but while the industry is old, practitioners cannot be; the narrative of the times and public taste will change, and the industry will welcome and send off. The content industry has already been dominated by platforms, and practitioners rely on platforms. Once platforms introduce algorithms, the fate of practitioners becomes very random.

Third, the biggest opportunity lies in the emergence of new forms and new content platforms: Weibo → Public Accounts → Douyin, Kuaishou, HongB → Himalaya, Xiaoyuzhou. Posts → Articles → Long Videos → Short Videos → Audio. New emergence means new opportunities for practitioners.

Fourth, competition will intensify. As "pillar industries for the middle class" are gradually being attacked, a large number of graduating talents are forced to work in the content industry, increasing supply and intensifying competition.

But how long will the new opportunity window last? It is uncertain.

• On the length of the window: subscription-based platforms > algorithm-driven platforms
• On the ease of cold start: algorithm-driven platforms > subscription-based platforms
• Conversely, monetization methods are relatively stable: advertising, virtual/physical goods, services, self-owned product traffic

Currently observed opportunities:

• Podcasts as a new form of opportunity
• Opportunities for publishing books
• Opportunities for tool-based mini-programs

As mentioned earlier, the content industry is a poor business with no investment value. Therefore, the companies mentioned below refer to those with monetization potential: Xiaoyuzhou, Xiaohongshu, CITIC Publishing House.

13. IT Juzi Analyst (Weibo: @是 Judy 呀)

Currently engaged in the venture capital industry. Niche, and increasingly niche. The biggest opportunity in our industry in the coming years may be technology; it is the last bastion.

I believe the undervalued company is Baidu; this answer has been in my mind for several years. Baidu missed the entire mobile internet wave, which is why it has fallen to a low point. But as long as people believe that artificial intelligence is the future, Baidu will have a day to soar.

14. Liu Yu (Partner at Zuihua)

I am currently engaged in the self-media industry, and 2023 marks my 12th year in the media/self-media industry, witnessing the sunset of portals and the rise and fall of the self-media industry.

The self-media industry will continue to undergo significant changes and differentiation in the coming years. The compliance requirements for content will become increasingly strict, and commercial monetization will be more uncertain due to the larger environment. If there are still opportunities, it may be video—creating video accounts/Douyin accounts. While content is indeed important for self-media, clients' budgets, placement logic, and placement direction are even more important. Short videos have become the most important information acquisition channel for audiences, and clients will naturally pay more attention to short video channels; changes in budget allocation may benefit those who can produce high-quality, influential videos with enough followers.

An undervalued company, I think, might be Huawei. Although Huawei is currently thriving, making strides in the fields of mobile phones and smart cars, and no one dares to underestimate it, I personally believe that people may still underestimate its strength and technological reserves, as well as the support it has received.

Although Huawei is currently thriving, making strides in the fields of mobile phones and smart cars, and no one dares to underestimate it, I personally believe that people may still underestimate its strength and technological reserves, as well as the support it has received. The Kirin 9000S has already proven its resilience, and the emergence of this chip is the result of years of accumulation and the support received over the past three years. The capacity issue no longer seems to be a bottleneck, and 7nm is currently the mainstream capacity for GPUs/computing cards. The Kunpeng 910B is the only domestically produced high-performance GPU that has been mass-produced and is controllable. In the current environment, it may receive more orders and support, as large models require a continuous supply of GPUs, which cannot simply be achieved by hoarding thousands of units.

In the smart car sector, Huawei has been laying out in the hardware field, promoting the cost reduction of components like lidar, integrating basic components and operating systems, and being able to produce chips, which gives it an advantage over new forces and even traditional car companies, especially since there are many high-net-worth customers who recognize the Huawei brand. In terms of technological strength, brand power, and pricing power, few car companies can compete directly.

Huawei's technological reserves are too strong and deep in many fields, covering a wide range of industries, and it has received support from various sectors. This treatment is difficult for other tech companies to reach. It is like a giant; whether you like it or not, when it stomps its foot, the entire tech industry trembles.

15. Hardy (Operation Manager at a Health and Wellness Training Company)

Engaged in the health and wellness industry, the biggest opportunities in the health and wellness industry in the coming years may lie in the following areas:

(1) The development of the elderly care industry: With the aging population, the elderly care industry will become an important growth point in the health and wellness industry. In the coming years, as the elderly population increases, the demand for elderly care services will continue to grow, including nursing homes, home care, rehabilitation care, and other services. Moreover, people's awareness and emphasis on health are constantly increasing, and the demand for medical and health services is also upgrading. From simple medical services to comprehensive physical and mental health management. Health and wellness companies can seize this opportunity to provide professional, high-quality elderly care services to meet market demand.

(2) Technological innovation and application: Technological advancements will continue to have a profound impact on the health and wellness industry. In the coming years, the application of technologies in areas such as smart healthcare, remote diagnosis, and health management will become more widespread. Health and wellness companies can leverage these technological means to improve service efficiency and quality, enhance user experience, and meet consumers' demands for convenient and personalized services. At the same time, the application of big data, artificial intelligence, and other technologies will help companies better analyze and predict market demand, providing consumers with more precise services.

(3) The development of community and home care: As the degree of social aging deepens, the demand for community and home care is increasing. These services can provide more convenient and closer services to residents, meeting the needs of elderly individuals at different levels and with different requirements.

(4) Professional and personalized services: Future medical and health services will become more professional and personalized. Based on the specific situations of different elderly individuals, customized services will be provided, including health management, rehabilitation training, nutritional guidance, etc., ensuring that elderly individuals receive comprehensive care in medical and health services.

I recommend Guzi Yihu Company. Guzi Yihu is an institution focused on providing health and wellness services, covering rehabilitation, nursing, nutrition, and other aspects. Currently, its service area is mainly in Henan Province, and it has entered 91 medical institutions within two years of establishment, serving over 5,000 users.

Here are some reasons:

Service innovation: Guzi Yihu focuses on service innovation, providing personalized home care services to meet the diverse needs of different clients, helping it stand out in a competitive market.

Professional technology: Guzi Yihu has a professional medical team, and this professional capability can provide high-quality services.

Clear market positioning: Guzi Yihu has a clear market positioning in more segmented industry services, avoiding placement in less profitable areas like real estate and hardware construction, making it easier to achieve profitability. For example, focusing on home care services, etc.

Collaboration and alliances: Guzi Yihu actively establishes partnerships with other related institutions and enterprises, such as collaborating with medical institutions, communities, and governments to jointly promote the development of health and wellness services. This collaborative model helps achieve resource sharing and improve efficiency.

16. Mingyu (Senior Author in Technology Media)

Currently engaged in the media industry, responsible for business reporting in the technology internet sector.

My current feeling is that the technology media industry is facing more risks than opportunities. Many well-known technology media outlets emerged around 2012, products of the mobile internet innovation and entrepreneurial wave. Technology media have witnessed the entire process of companies like Didi, Meituan, and ByteDance growing from startups to giants, as well as the demise of many trendy companies.

The current wave of mobile internet innovation and entrepreneurship has basically ended, and the competitive landscape among a few large companies has stabilized, leaving only some localized battles. The innovation and entrepreneurial wave brought by AI and hard technology is not as intense as that of the mobile internet, and many technology media practitioners are entering a period of confusion. If I must mention opportunities, I believe that innovations in business models and AI industrialization based on individual or small groups relying on platform economies deserve the technology media industry’s attention.

I believe the undervalued company is Chizi City. It mainly serves overseas users, and many domestic users are not familiar with this company and its products. Chizi City’s MICO is a live streaming application primarily targeting markets in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, North America, Japan, and South Korea. It has entered the top 10 of the social app sales charts in over 100 countries and regions' App Stores and is a major source of revenue for Chizi City. Other products under its umbrella, such as YoHo, TopTop, and SUGO, have strong social attributes and growth potential. Additionally, Chizi City has acquired Blued. In the first half of this year, the company's revenue and profit maintained a growth rate of around 100%, and its performance has increased 2-3 times compared to when it went public, while its stock price has dropped by over 40%, indicating that the company's value deserves reevaluation.

17. Li Yan (Creator of Tianfang Yantan Self-Media, Member of Chengdu Writers Association, Member of Chengdu Science and Technology News Society, Author of "Being a Person")

In 2023, I entered my tenth year in the written content industry.

This year has felt very fast, so fast that I don't want it to end. There are still many things I want to accomplish this year, but I see them nailed to the "unfinished" pillar of shame.

2023 has been busy, but I can't say I've made money, as the A-share market's defense of 3000 points has been quite bloody. However, I still have confidence in the written content industry, in today's world where human attention and writing ability are generally declining, high-quality written content is becoming increasingly scarce.

The times and people also need good written content. We have too many film and television works whose scripts cannot even tell a basic story, and too many live streamers whose scripts are reduced to "mechanisms," "benefits," "123 get on board," "family members"… Without distinctive and differentiated competitive advantages, many enterprises, institutions, and social organizations struggle to arrange for someone to write an announcement, resulting in numerous loopholes.

Even generative artificial intelligence, which uses big data for training, learning, and evolution, is not sourced from humans, right? Even though the ever-evolving large models can now create decent written content, they still lack the personalized thoughts, genuine emotional experiences, and spiritual creativity that high-quality written content workers possess.

Of course, diving into the generative AI-based written content industry is the biggest opportunity in this industry for the next few years. It is entirely possible to provide large model services that eliminate the basic written content workforce. At the same time, it can offer beneficial attempts to improve efficiency and assist innovation for high-quality written content workers.

Excluding photography and comics, merely discussing written content work in news involves reporting in three genres: news, communications, and commentary. Artificial intelligence has a significant trend of replacing news reporters. However, for communications and commentary reports that require personalized perspectives, independent thinking, and spiritual expression, even if large models can simultaneously replicate the works of all top news reporters in history in a second, they cannot produce timeless classic reports that intervene in reality and touch hearts and souls.

In 2023, I created numerous communications and commentary reports in the internet technology industry, and while there may not be many high-quality ones, I still need to work harder. However, during this process, I encountered many frontline companies. Among them, JD.com has been undervalued this year, with its stock price having hit rock bottom.

If the economic downturn leads to the so-called "consumption downgrade," benefiting platforms like Pinduoduo, then the recovery of consumption and the economic rebound will be even more favorable for JD.com. Additionally, users in the sinking market who have just started engaging in online shopping will inevitably tend to choose shopping platforms with better quality and service guarantees after continuous comparisons.

China's economic development still has strong momentum, and the domestic economy is expected to continue recovering in 2024. JD.com’s quality and service guarantees have always been well-regarded among Chinese users. Since 2022, JD.com has proposed a low-price strategy, hoping to offer users more favorable prices based on quality service guarantees, which will attract more users seeking high cost-performance products.

Although JD.com is undervalued, its supply chain capabilities are strong enough. With over 10 million SKUs in self-operated products, JD.com has an inventory turnover period of only 31.7 days, and its fulfillment cost rate has dropped to 5.8%, both of which are industry-leading levels.

Two retailers widely recognized for their strong supply chain capabilities, Costco and Walmart, have inventory cycles of 30.4 days and 45.5 days, respectively. Notably, the number of SKUs they manage is only 5,000 and 50,000. Cost efficiency is fundamental to the survival and development of enterprises, and the cost efficiency advantages brought by the supply chain remain JD.com’s greatest moat.

In terms of service, JD.com is also changing. Like Taobao and Pinduoduo, it has started offering "refund only." Based on JD.com’s performance in the 2023 618 and Double 11 events, the outperformance of JD.com’s procurement and sales, and the rebound trend revealed in JD.com’s financial reports, expectations for JD.com’s performance in 2024 are quite high.

In fact, the only constant in this world is change. Do not question change; understand it and become it. The more we are in the midst of dramatic changes, the more valuable calm thinking becomes. Being able to produce thoughts in written content is even more precious.

18. Han Zuli (Founder of Sute Ark)

At the end of 2023, I left a large company and plunged into the data technology sector. Some say this is going against the wind, but we believe it is the industry gearing up. My adventurous journey stems from insights into two key factors:

First, the data industry is undergoing a supply-side reform. We are witnessing an increasing amount of high-quality, valuable data in the market, which not only changes the accessibility of data but also provides new possibilities for its application and interpretation.

Second, the digital transformation of enterprises is deepening. As more and more companies seek to enhance production efficiency through data, data technology has become crucial. These companies need not only data but also the ability to gain business intelligence from it.

These two factors together facilitate our transition from the information age to the digital age. The information age is characterized by the electronic and networked transmission of information, while the digital age is marked by the omnipresence of data and algorithm-driven intelligent decision-making.

In 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a landmark event that not only showcased the immense potential of artificial intelligence but also heralded the infinite possibilities of future technologies. In this context, the significant opportunities in the technology industry stem from the three elements of artificial intelligence: algorithms, computing power, and data.

First, industry large models: The continuous breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have once again elevated technological productivity, and companies using AI technology will enjoy deeper dividends from technological breakthroughs, while those not using AI technology will also have opportunities to embrace new technologies for new development opportunities. Therefore, more large model applications in various industries will become better opportunities in 2024.

Second, data products: Benefiting from the increased level of social informatization, data has become increasingly vast and diverse. How to skillfully combine data for application in new algorithms will be a new market opportunity.

Third, high-density computing clouds: New algorithm breakthroughs combined with increasingly vast data have led to exponential growth in computing power consumption. Traditional cloud computing can no longer meet these demands, and the market has a strong demand for high-density computing clouds.

Thus, all upstream and downstream companies related to artificial intelligence are currently undervalued. Upstream companies include small high-density cloud computing companies, data technology companies, CDN networks, and so on, while downstream new biotechnology companies and service industrial manufacturing companies, etc.

19. Sun Jing (Host of "NoNoise")

Currently engaged in the content industry, focusing on observations in the technology and consumer sectors.

What are the biggest opportunities in the industry in the next few years? In the technology sector: cost reduction and efficiency enhancement services, achieved through AI and digitalization; in the consumer sector: cost-performance business.

I believe the undervalued company is Meituan: although Meituan's stock price has dropped to over 80 yuan, transforming from a former stock king into a target of capital, the company's foundation remains relatively stable, and its basic competitive moat—the delivery system built by over 6 million couriers cannot be shaken in the short term, and this system is expected to build new high walls in the instant retail business that Meituan is currently focusing on. Another easily overlooked point is Meituan's capabilities on the B-side, such as merchant systems for commercial infrastructure, supply chain integration, etc.

From an overall industry perspective, although the growth of takeout has basically peaked, the local life market, including in-store services and travel, is large and fragmented, and competition with Douyin cannot yet be described as a zero-sum game. Of course, competition will inevitably affect Meituan's profitability, but assessing a company's value requires multiple dimensions, not just single financial data.

From the macroeconomic perspective, under the pressure of recovery and conservative consumption expectations, e-commerce platforms and brands face greater pressure, while a significant portion of local life business consists of essential, high-frequency categories, which are likely to recover faster.

20. Wu Lixiang (Founder of Entertainment Capital Theory)

Currently engaged in self-media in the entertainment industry. AI has a significant impact on the entertainment industry, whether in reducing costs or potentially influencing the secondary creation ecosystem, and it may even affect the IP licensing model.

Overall, the long video field is undervalued. For example, in the short video field, film and television have always been the largest category. The short video views and watch times of "Now Departing" are not inferior to those of long videos, but a good commercial model has yet to be found. If a good model cannot be found, it may significantly affect the effective output of long videos in the future.

21. Miao Ge (Changlei Capital)

In the Chinese VC field, I have unknowingly been in entrepreneurship for over three years.

Over the past three years, we have traversed the pandemic but have not welcomed the prosperity of the VC industry. We, as VC practitioners, analyze the hottest tracks and the most attractive projects daily, but few seriously analyze the VC track itself.

Fundraising in VC has become increasingly difficult. On one hand, influenced by economic and industrial cycles, local financial LP funds must remain local, and many times VC investments have turned into 招商外包 (investment outsourcing), making VC investments less pure. On the other hand, IPO exit channels are tightening, and private capital LP funds have not returned to the private sector, making fund exits a heavy topic.

We see that the penetration of state-owned capital in the VC market is gradually increasing, while the market share of private fund managers is declining. Although the market has left less cake for private fund managers, from another perspective, fewer people are eating this cake, and the quality of the cake has improved. So whoever can persist will be the "last one standing."

In the coming years, the VC field will continue to shuffle. After twenty years of development, the domestic VC industry in China will become increasingly mature, and the LPs in the market will also become more mature. Every crisis is a natural selection.

Leading technological innovation in modern system construction is the guiding direction of the Central Committee's economic work meeting and is also the consensus of the current VC landscape in China. In the coming years, primary market investments in science and technology will focus more on disruptive and cutting-edge technologies driving industrial advancement; growth-stage investors will pay more attention to the high-quality enhancement of key industrial chains and the resilience and security levels of supply chains.

Persisting in technology investment is the only choice for domestic VC in China.

The flowing water does not rush ahead; it strives for continuity.

22. TC Chiang Mai

I am currently in a semi-retired state, doing Airbnb, renting out my and my friends' houses in Thailand, barely qualifying as a semi-freelancer.

From the current perspective, my industry is still considered a marginal one; as long as the government does not prohibit or restrict it, that is already a benefit. If we really talk about opportunities, it still depends on the situation in China; this year, there has been too much unfavorable information from Southeast Asia and Thailand, and the number of Chinese tourists has decreased significantly. Of course, it could also be due to domestic economic issues. In short, if China is doing well, tourism in Thailand will also do well.

Regarding undervalued companies, I haven't been in the industry for long and have paid less attention. But if I had to mention one, I wonder if Tencent counts. It seems that Tencent is currently underestimated by many people because they do not know where the next growth point lies. However, I believe that as long as the moat of social networking remains, Tencent, as an aircraft carrier, can rise in the next windfall at any time; the question is which windfall it will be, and no one knows.

23. Li Chunhui (Editor-in-Chief of Entertainment Hard Candy)

Currently engaged in the entertainment industry. Back in 2013, my colleagues and I were boasting at the dinner table about being able to achieve IPO-level projects in three years, but in 2023, I can't think of any big opportunities, only some small teams making small profits.

Short dramas in mini-programs still have opportunities before being strictly regulated, as the monetization chain is short, and stimulating content and humanity's insatiable curiosity are infinite. Even large companies are investing in this field.

Male-oriented sweet pet genres seem to have real opportunities. Not only is there the "Dying" effect, but it also seems to have significant limitations and randomness. According to the data report from Yuewen's web literature, male-oriented sweet pet genres have ranked first in compound growth rates for five consecutive years. If we compare it to female content, women, after being disappointed with reality, first invest in romance, then in danmei, and finally in anti-love brain without CP. Men, due to their insufficient attention and sensitivity to gender relationships, may just be entering the first stage and are in need of gender-swapped versions of "Meteor Garden."

An undervalued company is iQIYI; the past year has proven that only long videos can create phenomenal content and topics that capture the attention and understanding of the entire society. ==The hot topics generated by short videos are too fleeting, which is also the demand of its platform.== The demand for long videos is to extend the content lifecycle, which allows for monetization scale and benefits the industry, still holding potential. It seems that the concept of IP is out of fashion now, but the industry has only just begun to scratch the surface in the past two years.

In terms of costs, as long videos tighten their belts and gradually gain upstream discourse power, their cost reduction and efficiency enhancement are becoming a reality. Not only is the investment per episode reduced, but the overall market supply has also significantly decreased in the past two years, yet the audience has not diminished, indicating that there are enough dramas, and each drama has more opportunities to be seen.

In terms of monetization, as live streaming and sales peak, the shortcomings of short and quick effect advertisements are becoming apparent, and there may be a return to brand marketing, which is beneficial for the advertising business of long videos. At the same time, with the strengthening of the long-tail effect of dramas, the popularization of diverse payment forms such as pay-per-view, hot drama concerts, and peripheral products is expected to increase the ARPU value of long videos. For example, the "Heroic Drama" that became popular in 2023, combining interactive drama models for investment, is not unimaginable. In short, many of the profits from long videos in the past have been earned by others. For instance, stars not only have high salaries but also have been made famous by long videos, yet they cannot share in the stars' subsequent business income. Now, these situations are changing.

iQIYI is the most innovative company in long videos, leading industry innovation from the past to the present.

24. Chen Jing (Director of Visual Technology R&D in Asia)

Currently engaged in R&D in the artificial intelligence industry, focusing on visual image and video recognition-related businesses. The biggest hot topic in the industry is undoubtedly AIGC, which can be divided into two main areas: GPT language large models and image and video generation.

GPT is still in the stage of an arms race, burning money. The seven giants with the largest market capitalization in the US stock market have all seen their valuations soar by 50% to 240% in 2023, driven by breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, but the large models themselves have not yet generated direct massive profits.

In the field of image and video generation, there are already financially successful entrepreneurial projects like Midjourney in the industry, which achieved over ten million users and $100 million in revenue within a year without investors. Startups like Pika have also gained considerable attention through AI video generation.

Personally, I believe that the application opportunities for AIGC lie in image and video generation, as it can significantly reduce content costs in the image and video-related industries. In contrast, the text generation capabilities of GPT are too flawed in logic, making it more challenging to realize significant economic value than imagined. However, the multimodal capabilities of GPT large models, such as text-to-image and text-to-video, present immense opportunities.

I recommend Alibaba as an undervalued company; it has considerable R&D strength and significant investments, focusing on the long term. However, in recent years, its business has faced significant blows, with its e-commerce business being snatched away by Pinduoduo, Douyin, and other competitors. Its market capitalization has fallen below $200 billion, less than a quarter of its peak. However, if Alibaba can leverage its user base and extensive business lines, combined with its software and hardware development capabilities, and breakthrough core algorithms in artificial intelligence, it should find significant development opportunities.

25. Huang Xiaojun (Head of "Whale Research Brand Laboratory")

I am currently running a brand marketing communication consulting agency, which can be considered part of the consulting services industry.

As a secondary track, opportunities arise from the primary track. This year, we have seen consumer downgrades and slow economic recovery, leading many brand owners to lower their future marketing budgets. Previous reports indicated that among samples from over 200 companies across more than 20 domestic industries, their overall marketing budget growth for 2024 is projected at 11%, the lowest increase in the past seven years.

Brands are struggling, and third-party services that serve brands are also facing difficulties. However, from my visits to over 30 companies last year, I found that many older entrepreneurs or second-generation successors are enhancing their awareness of branding.

Many regional brands want to become national brands when there are opportunities in the industry; when oligopolies are severe, they want to deepen their local presence and capture local users' minds.

Many traditional brands are contemplating how to truly transform their trademark logos into brands, thinking about how to connect directly with users instead of just linking with distributors and franchisees.

Many entrepreneurial brands are starting to pursue profits instead of scale, returning to small and beautiful or niche brands. Here, I have a new proposal: to create scenario brands, just like how Tiger Sauce initially focused on takeout, small brands want to create a niche in family settings, etc.

Moreover, many of these brands are located in North China and Southwest regions, which were originally brand deserts. They were mostly upstream companies with supply chain advantages, but now their brand awareness is awakening, yet they are somewhat at a loss about how to build their brands.

From an overall perspective, while big opportunities may be hard to find, there are many opportunities in small matters.

By communicating and sharing with the aforementioned brands, genuinely helping them achieve brand initiation from 0 to 1, there are indeed certain opportunities.

In this context, large service institutions may overlook them, as the budgets are genuinely limited. However, it is sufficient to sustain a small service team to provide personalized services, rather than the modular and process-oriented outputs of large institutions.

I believe the undervalued company is Jinye Foods, a hawthorn snack company with an annual income of 1 billion, the leading brand in mid-to-high-end hawthorn products.

The hawthorn industry has little technical content; the key to management lies in how to communicate with users, how to build lean production, and how to achieve organizational development. This company learns from Inamori Kazuo, excelling in corporate culture and the Amiba organization. Once the market strategies gain traction, its organization will withstand real pressure tests, leading to explosive performance, a classic case of thick accumulation and thin release.

26. A Unique Eric (Commercialization Sales Operation at Xiaohongshu)

Currently working in the commercialization team of content media, belonging to the online advertising industry.

My personal judgment is that in the coming years, grass-planting advertisements will become the fastest-growing marketing track. The fact that Xiaomi has entered the new energy vehicle market indicates that after the completion of the industrial upgrade of China's manufacturing industry, the domestic consumer goods market is accelerating the trend of "import substitution." Whether it is the defensive marketing of foreign capital or the rise of domestic consumer goods companies, both provide sufficient market space for grass-planting advertisements.

Moreover, as consumer demands become increasingly segmented and the trend of decentralized marketing flow intensifies, influencer content marketing is evolving rapidly from advertising in Douyin's entertainment short dramas to reputation marketing based on quality content, and this emerging reputation marketing paradigm lacks a comparable platform in both China and the US, making it the forefront of online advertising models.

I think Alibaba is an undervalued company. Despite Pinduoduo's strong momentum, e-commerce is still a business without significant network effects. The operational levels at various stages, personalized recommendation capabilities, and cost structures of traffic will all have a significant impact on business competition. Alibaba has over 20 years of accumulated e-commerce ecosystem, as well as deep accumulations in cloud computing, logistics, finance, and other supporting areas for e-commerce. I believe that after Pinduoduo's growth rate slows down, Alibaba's valuation will still revert to its reasonable level.

27. Yu Dongqi (Founder of a Consulting Company)

==Currently engaged in consulting entrepreneurship. Filling the gaps for companies, whether in strategy or organization, we address whatever is lacking. Strictly speaking, we are creating a new category in the consulting industry.==

The biggest opportunity in the industry in the coming years is to truly see the needs of enterprises, starting from their needs to find solutions, and becoming a company that can genuinely solve problems for enterprises.

Historically, the most mature consulting fields in China, like advertising and marketing, have limited companies that can clearly segment skills and cover most enterprise needs. Moreover, such consulting companies often start from their professional skills.

I have a certain professional skill, and I sell it to enterprises in need. Such consulting companies are like specialized doctors—those who prescribe medicine only prescribe medicine, and those who perform surgery only perform surgery.

However, sometimes enterprises cannot determine what problems they are encountering. They may only feel certain symptoms—perhaps a lack of growth, not making money, or even the boss being too tired. At such times, when enterprises cannot identify symptoms, they need a general practitioner to first complete the diagnosis before deciding whether to prescribe medicine or perform surgery. However, there are no mature providers of general practitioners in the consulting industry in the Chinese market. This is the opportunity I see.

The undervalued company: Meituan.

Most people judge a company based on the results of a momentary competition. However, running a business is a marathon. If this is a 10,000-meter marathon, the result of a momentary competition is like me running 800 meters while my competitor runs 1,000 meters. But there is still a long distance ahead and countless new opportunities. In a marathon, speed is more important than position, and acceleration is more important than speed.

For businesses, competitive results are merely positions. The company's capabilities represent speed. The iteration and growth speed of the founder represent acceleration.

When community group buying was in fierce competition, Meituan was learning from Amazon, and it was still investing a lot of energy in building capabilities. I believe that in the long run, building capabilities will be more effective than direct competition in winning this marathon.

28. Huxiu Author Huxiu148

As a "Huxiu friend," reflecting on 2023, I borrow a line from Jia Zhangke's film "Always Swimming Until the Sea Turns Blue," which expresses my personal state of mind while also aligning with my views on certain matters.

(1) Career change: As a veteran in logistics and supply chain management, I have worked in the logistics and retail distribution industry for over a decade. In 2023, I entered the chemical industry in the role of market sales personnel and am still adapting to my new role.

(2) The characteristics of the chemical industry lie in two aspects: first, it is a traditional industry with long cycles; second, the major customer groups in the industry are all "not short of money." This industry feels like an equilateral triangle, giving a sense of stability, symmetry, and unbreakability!

(3) My understanding of external business development trends is limited; I am more focused on the retail distribution industry. The overall development trend of the domestic retail distribution industry appears to be continuously declining. Analyzing the operational models of various enterprises, I have not seen any forward-looking model changes. In the ranking of market capitalization for e-commerce enterprises, Pinduoduo, Alibaba, JD.com, and Meituan, Pinduoduo's market capitalization surpassing Alibaba represents a change in the market.

In the long run, Alibaba's potential is undervalued for the following reasons:

First, the rapid development of domestic e-commerce enterprises over the past twenty years is a result of changes in Chinese society and individual development needs; it is not a stable state, and there will be significant changes in the future. Current changes in market capitalization do not indicate issues; everyone is at the same starting line.

Additionally, I would like to mention my perspective on social changes, stemming from nearly four years of experience in rural e-commerce entrepreneurship, combined with my own rural sentiments. My thoughts on the contradictions between urban and rural areas have been fixed in my mind since around 2012, lingering without resolution, until I found some answers in Jia's film and Yu Hua's sighs.

Second, there are still about 900 million market groups in China that are in the sinking market. Even Pinduoduo, which claims to have developed in the sinking market, has limited actual influence. Alibaba began entering the sinking market around 2014 but chose a different strategy, combining Taobao, Rural Taobao, Tmall stores, and Cainiao stations. However, this path ultimately failed.

I believe that the key to success in the sinking market lies in the upgrading of the distribution end, which involves multiple factors such as business resources, logistics, supply chain networks, and finance. As the earliest successful e-commerce enterprise in China, Alibaba has significant advantages over other companies in terms of its vast data foundation, operational experience, resource integration capabilities, and government relations.

29. Shi Xianqin (Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Tonglu County Cultural Tourism Investment Group Co., Ltd.)

Currently engaged in the large cultural tourism industry, focusing on the operation of scenic spots, hotels, travel agencies, and other supporting service providers.

2023 is the first relatively complete tourism year after the pandemic was lifted. According to calculations from the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, during the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, the number of domestic tourist trips reached 826 million, a year-on-year increase of 71.3% on a comparable basis, and a 4.1% increase compared to 2019; domestic tourism revenue reached 753.43 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 129.5% on a comparable basis, and a 1.5% increase compared to 2019. It is predicted that the total number of domestic tourism trips in 2023 will reach 5.407 billion, and domestic tourism revenue will reach 5.2 trillion yuan, recovering to 90% and 91% of 2019 levels, respectively. Although the number of tourists and the average spending per customer have nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, the tendencies and expectations of mass tourism consumption have undergone significant changes.

First, the travel radius has noticeably shrunk, with a decrease in outbound travel and a recovery in domestic travel. Second, weekend short trips have become mainstream, with spontaneous off-peak travel on the rise. Third, family travel and individual travel are on the rise, while group travel is declining. Fourth, income growth does not equate to profit growth, with a clear trend of consumption differentiation. Fifth, the pursuit of personal satisfaction has become more important than pleasing others, with diverse motivations and personalized demands coexisting.

These changes in cultural tourism consumption tendencies, such as Citywalk, special forces-style travel, and the prevalence of "it's not that I can't afford a down jacket, but a military coat is more cost-effective," actually point to one thing: most people's incomes have declined, and their confidence in future economic security has diminished. Therefore, mass tourism consumption is increasingly pursuing so-called "cost performance," with a decreasing recognition of brand premiums, and tourism is becoming more focused on personal substance. This reflects the collapse of the so-called "middle-class lifestyle" that mainstream media has been promoting; one hundred million people do not represent a group of 1.4 billion. With the significant reforms in the real estate market, the phenomenon of "middle-class poverty" has only shattered the illusions of many people regarding the middle class. "Advanced consumption" is powerless in the face of the "family economic crisis," and mass consumption is increasingly returning to rationality, returning to the self, and returning to nature.

Therefore, for the large consumption industry, borrowing from Miura's concept of consumption eras, I believe that the domestic market is transitioning from a low-end version of the "third consumption era" to a low-end version of the "fourth consumption era."

The undervalued company is Miniso. It should be noted that Miniso has not been listed for long, so there is no long historical performance to observe, and its stock price has fluctuated significantly over the past year, peaking at 59.85 yuan and dropping to 19.74 yuan. Personally, I believe this is not about being undervalued or overvalued; the current static P/E ratio of Miniso is 26.58, and the P/B ratio is 5.44. Everyone interprets the same numbers differently, and I recommend companies that are said to be long-term and capable of traversing cycles for the following reasons.

(1) During periods of economic downturn, mass consumption focuses more on cost performance, and stores similar to "Japanese 100-yen shops" will emerge. Miniso is the leader in this segmented field; of course, it is not strictly a "one-yuan shop," but is positioned as a more cost-effective "light luxury."

(2) Miniso is not just a retail and wholesale company; it is also a content creation company with its own content creation and marketing promotion systems.

(3) Miniso is a global company with relatively strong risk resistance. According to the 2023 financial report, its revenue for the fiscal year was 11.473 billion yuan, with domestic revenue accounting for 66.68% and overseas revenue accounting for 33.32%. As of September 30, 2023, the total number of stores reached 6,115, with 3,802 in China and 2,313 overseas.

(4) In an era of efficiency-seeking consumption, especially with the rise of e-commerce, ordinary consumers are returning to the basics, needing better face-to-face services, wanting to truly touch, see, and try things. Miniso is positioned at the opportunity period of consumption reform.

30. Gong Changliang (Huxiu Author, real name: Zhang Liang)

Currently working in short video marketing services, training, incubation, guidance, and management services, etc., and have experienced repeated reflections. From the early days of knowledge payment to now focusing on services, and even the next step of developing management operations and brand incubation, this shift from virtual to real is a comprehensive consideration of industry development opportunities, time efficiency, and future market space.

Leveraging our own thoughts on the industry, e-commerce, or sales and customer expansion through new media, will remain an important development opportunity in the next 3-5 years. At the same time, we are also very concerned about whether new technologies can bring about the development of new platforms and the rise of new models. From a business perspective, we believe there are three directions worth focusing on:

(1) High cost-performance daily consumer goods, in the context of consumption downgrades, low unit price and high-quality products, especially daily consumer goods, will be worth focusing on in the next stage.

(2) Services for refined living, similarly influenced by the broader environment, for home decoration and home furnishings, long-cycle, large-investment renovations will be replaced by more economical models, enhancing living and quality of life through soft decoration and other means.

(3) Private domain operations and customer management, although the development of the private domain has been jokingly referred to as building a few groups. However, cultivating loyal customers and the need for long-term repurchase, the private domain remains a very important direction. Especially in reshaping customer value based on the enterprise's own business lines and service lines, this is the essence of private domain operations. Transforming oneself according to customer needs is no longer just a slogan.

Lastly, from current observations, whether it is AI or other hardware technologies, they are not sufficient to bring about disruptive changes to existing short video or live streaming platforms. While we eagerly anticipate a new opportunity to quickly enter new platforms and capture the first wave of traffic dividends, reality has been quite disappointing.

From an industry perspective, I have always believed that Xiaohongshu is an undervalued company or platform. Many people view it through the lens of whether it can become the second Douyin. Of course, currently, from a data perspective, the two are not on the same scale. However, compared to other competitors of Douyin, such as Kuaishou, WeChat Video Accounts, and Bilibili, Xiaohongshu seems to be an outlier.

From the perspective of practical commercial application, especially in first- and second-tier cities, Xiaohongshu's user performance even surpasses that of Douyin. Many people expect Xiaohongshu to follow Douyin's commercialization path, but I personally believe that while the end of traffic is e-commerce, it is not necessarily all about the Douyin model.

Xiaohongshu should better interpret interest-based e-commerce. From our observations, Xiaohongshu users' search actions and behaviors are more proactive; I don't want you to think, I want to think for myself, which is likely to be more precise and have a higher conversion rate than simple algorithmic recommendations.

Furthermore, young users seem to prefer Xiaohongshu more, or future paying users are more likely to favor this platform. Personally, I am more worried about Xiaohongshu becoming like Douyin, as that would lead to a mechanical and somewhat boring experience of endlessly scrolling up and down.

31. Xiao Gai (Chief Content Officer at Mowen Xidong)

I work in the content industry, focusing on tools related to creators. The company is called Mowen Xidong, and the product is Mowen Notes. Why did I choose this direction for entrepreneurship? The logical reasoning is as follows:

(1) With the development of media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Kuaishou, and Bilibili, more and more "masters" will emerge, who are liked, admired, respected, and followed by people. In addition to live streaming sales, creating one's own content products is also a way to monetize.

(2) Moreover, throughout history, "learning from people" has always been the best way to learn. Since Confucius, some reputable individuals in China have had disciples. Disciples are essentially students who enter the hall, learn from masters, and seek true knowledge.

(3) At the same time, as material life gradually becomes abundant, the new generation of young people is increasingly valuing spiritual life. Digital content is an important part of spiritual life.

(4) We aim to provide these masters and disciples with a convenient tool where they can freely create and consume content. Beyond being a tool, we are also a content investor, providing seed funding to creators with content capabilities but lacking startup capital.

Substack is a good benchmark and is also a company we believe is currently undervalued. Why?

(1) We are in an era where content production exceeds consumption. Faced with a large amount of content, platforms like Douyin, public accounts, and Xiaohongshu categorize and push content to users based on demand through recommendation algorithms, completing the matching of producers and consumers.

(2) However, recommendation algorithms also have their problems. Now we can see that to cater to recommendation algorithms, creators are forced to write content that algorithms favor to gain more traffic. Recommendation algorithms do not necessarily promote the production of good or rational content. On Douyin, many expressions are deliberately pushing emotions.

(3) We believe that beyond the towering tree of recommendation algorithms, there should also be smaller trees like Substack that can grow. It does not rely on recommendation algorithms but rather on traditional paid subscription relationships like newspapers. If you buy my content, I will write good content; it’s that simple.

(4) Substack's functionality is quite simple: it allows creators to create free or paid columns on the platform, and readers pay to subscribe to the creator's columns, after which they receive emails to read the articles in the subscribed columns. The platform collects a service fee of 10% to 20% from the subscription fees.

(5) It builds a tool, a simple model, making the slogan "content is king" easier to implement. This content can be articles, photos, podcasts, videos, and its extension is vast.

32. Li Haoyang (Squirrel AI)

The underlying technology we started developing nine years ago uses artificial intelligence in education to create a virtual super teacher for primary and secondary school students, providing one-on-one teaching. Two years ago, we began applying this technology to learning machines, and this sector has suddenly become extremely crowded this year. The sales of Baidu's learning machines have already surpassed those of smart speakers by ten times, and iFLYTEK's learning machines rank first in revenue among its business segments. Huawei's learning machines have been advertised through Baidu's video ads, while Xueersi, Zuoyebang, and Yuanfudao have heavily invested in live streaming and targeted marketing.

This industry has great potential. With 200 million primary and secondary school students in China, parents are currently hesitant to let them access computers for fear of gaming and video distractions. If we consider an average learning machine priced at 3,000 yuan, it represents a market scale of 600 billion yuan. Currently, the top market share is only 500,000 units annually, and it has just begun.

Squirrel AI's learning machines are the most expensive in the industry. While Baidu, Huawei, Yuanfudao, and Zuoyebang average around 3,000 yuan, and Xueersi and iFLYTEK around 5,000 yuan, Squirrel AI's learning machines have reached an average price of 9,000 yuan, with a growth rate exceeding 300% this year, rising from 23rd in the industry to 4th. The basis for this growth lies in the personalized teaching experience provided by artificial intelligence and the industry-unique patented technology of deep neural network knowledge tracking and MCM capability models, which can fill knowledge gaps from years ago in students' learning difficulties, thus solving current issues of repeated failures to learn.

The emergence of large models has accelerated the algorithmic capabilities of personalized learning, and the opportunities in the industry stem from effectiveness.

The most undervalued company, in my opinion, is BYD. In the future, China's autonomous driving will require vehicle data, and BYD's highest sales in the industry will yield the most data. Autonomous driving is a winner-takes-all scenario, so just like the transition from batteries to electric vehicles, autonomous driving will bring geometric returns to BYD.

33. Fan Yang (Entrepreneur, Investor, Host of WeChat Official Account "Fan Yang")

This year, I have multiple identities, incubating a cutting-edge technology company in artificial intelligence + biotechnology, while also looking at investment opportunities in AI, biotechnology, and neuroscience with friends overseas. In my spare time, I operate my own media and community, and I prefer to see myself as a learner and explorer.

The biggest technological opportunity in the next decade is the next generation of advanced artificial intelligence. The current "LLM artificial intelligence" represented by ChatGPT is in a transitional phase. I believe the next generation of AI will surpass "AI represented by DeepMind," not only