Ten Trends of Realizing External Value of Operators' Big Data

Source | Walking with Data

Recently, China Mobile put forward DICT strategy, showing its ambition to further expand in the government and enterprise market. In this context, it is meaningful for operators to re-explore the realization of big data. Although the "big data circle" seems a bit scary in the past six months, it has no impact on companies that conduct big data business legally and compliantly.

Below, the author gives ten trend judgments on the realization of operators' big data value in the next 2-3 years, which only represents personal views and hopes to inspire you.

1, the service boundary of the industry is constantly expanding.

Relying on the huge potential data resources of operators and the market channel resources of government and enterprises, after years of market cultivation and expansion, the big data business of operators has gradually expanded from the original industries such as finance and tourism to many industries such as government, tourism, transportation, education, commerce, recruitment and medical care.

In the promotion of ICT services of operators, there are also many business opportunities of big data services, which in turn promote the development of ICT services, because big data has a certain social brand effect in addition to commercial value, and the two can form a joint force through integration.

With the acceleration of digital transformation of enterprises and the rise of industrial internet, big data, as the future social infrastructure, will expand its territory in the industrial field together with cloud computing, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and blockchain, with almost unlimited application boundaries.

2. Enter the deep water area for industrial application.

Big data has great potential in the industry, which does not mean that operators can get much share. Although operators' big data services have made some gains in the financial and tourism industries, the drooping fruits of these industries have basically been taken away.

Take finance as an example. At present, the business of verifying authenticity and losing connection that operators cut in 4-5 years ago is still the main force for operators to realize big data. However, the financial industry did not give operators more opportunities before, during and after the loan, as operators had expected, and the expansion of many cash-based business models of operators was basically at a standstill, at least not fast enough.

In a large number of other industries, operators can only scratch the surface, and can't accumulate sand into a tower. For example, the repurchase rate of business is very low.

From a qualitative point of view, operators have a relatively shallow understanding of the industry, and a large number of industry applications wander outside the core production process of enterprises. Big data seems to be a luxury, not a necessity, and it is not sticky enough.

Taking the financial write-off business as an example, its added value is not high and it is easy to be replaced. How much has your understanding of the financial industry increased in recent years? These are all places that need to be reflected.

The author once mentioned in an article related to intelligent transportation that the operator's data is actually very promising in many fields, but it is necessary to deepen the cultivation, understand the business of this industry, be familiar with the algorithm of this industry, and constantly polish the products to get close to the core.

It can be said that the operator's big data is about to enter the deep water area of industrial application. In order to comply with this trend, operators need to establish special organizations to overcome difficulties, which is very challenging.

3. Competition with Internet companies has intensified.

The Internet should not regard operators as the main big data competitors, but operators entering this field will form de facto competition with Internet companies. Whether it is new retail, smart transportation, etc. , entrants will feel the pressure of the Internet giant.

For example, operators have to provide data services for large supermarkets, but internet companies have already taken the lead. New retail is the concept of Internet. When operators are still struggling to transform their channels, the layout of offline services of Internet companies has been planned, including big data services. When you go to Shang Chao to talk, people will talk about XX as soon as they open their mouths.

Of course, it's not just that.

Whether it is the top-down promotion strategy of Internet companies on To G or the domineering of a single procurement source such as urban brain, it shows the influence of giant Internet companies in these fields.

In order to get opportunities, operators have to use all available resources to give play to the differentiated value of their own data and look for opportunities from point to point. Practice has proved that pipeline data is of great value, but the data of giant internet companies is getting better and better, which is a reality that has to be faced.

4. Change from factor-driven to factor+capability-driven.

At present, the breakthrough of operators in realizing big data can only be said to have harvested low-hanging fruits, but the competitiveness of data products formed through simple data processing is not enough and unsustainable.

For example, in smart transportation, if the location accuracy and coverage are not enough, even the speed cannot be accurately measured, and high-quality data products cannot be made at all.

It should be said that operators have never had ready-made, high-precision location data that can reach the user level. In the future, the original location data with coarse precision may not be enough to support the business transformation of operators themselves. Operators need to fully tap the potential of existing location data, and make a more accurate location model through modeling and other means, so that basic big data can be realized.

Although the improvement of location accuracy is a small step, it is a big step to realize foreign big data. If the location is accurate, the operator's understanding of people's entire offline life will be accurate, regardless of passenger flow, road network, OD and so on.

Now it is good for operators to take the first step by relying on data resources, but it is not enough to rely on resources to drive. The ability must come and take over, and the prospects for realizing big data of operators who have no ability to bless are dim.

Therefore, operators will realize big data in the future no longer by lying down to make money, but by transforming from the original data-driven to the data+capability dual-driven. This ability includes talents, technology, data, products, operations and so on, which is beyond doubt. But if you just shout slogans and dare not explore and try, you may not even have a chance to improve your ability.

5. Continue to strengthen the big data cooperation ecology.

The realization of big data involves a series of contents such as platform, data, modeling, products, solutions, channels, consulting, operation and security. From the bottom up, operators can't rely entirely on themselves, and they need to establish a cooperative ecology.

From the business point of view, the lack of channel partners and industry solutions is a very realistic challenge for operators. The biggest pain is that I don't know where the business opportunities are, and I don't know if the data or products I want to do have a future. Operators can't instantly turn the existing account manager team into a sales team of digital products, after all, the knowledge structure requirements are different.

Although it can be promoted by MVP, the cost of one party's interview error is there, and the operator has no capital endorsement. On the other hand, the time cost is a bit high. Now many operators have partner recruitment plans, which is a good attempt, but there are still too few qualified partners.

From the perspective of openness, Monternet of China Mobile once created brilliance, but the slogan of openness is not casually shouted. You should establish a set of standards, clearly tell others what your ability is, and then how to obtain it conveniently.

For example, when we showed the city laboratory products at the Internet conference, we found that there were still so many people who were surprised that operators could still do this, indicating that we still have a long way to go on the road of opening up.

When I first visited Alibaba Cloud's website, I was deeply impressed by its good experience, and then the regular marketing push at least showed that it was intentional. For example, when I first applied for Tencent Cloud domain name, the telephone survey of Tencent Cloud customer service was also timely.

Therefore, whether it is possible to establish connections with a wider range of partners, whether it is possible to establish an open platform and whether it is possible to ensure the security of information largely determines how big the cake for operators to realize big data can be.

6. The trend of obtaining high-quality production capacity through centralization will be strengthened.

Due to historical reasons, operators' big data is actually stored and operated by provinces, which is completely different from the natural centralized and unified data genes of Internet companies. Although some operators have made a lot of efforts in centralization, there are still some gaps compared with Internet companies.

Although the localization of some products in various provinces has brought flexibility, it has actually caused repeated development. This model has no problem in the innovation stage, but the biggest problem is whether the provinces have enough resources to ensure the continuous optimization of products. No matter from the point of view of data or operation, we need certain intensive mechanism to ensure efficient and low-cost operation.

But this is only one aspect.

On the other hand, compared with the Internet, due to the fragmentation of data, the premium ability of products made by operators based on the data of a single province is not high, and they can only serve specific regions and will be at a disadvantage in many competitions. For example, there are many applications based on location data for operators at present, but why are there few online data implementations?

This is not only a simple https problem, but also because customers' demands for online data are basically national, and there is no concept of region, which makes operators lose many opportunities for breakthrough.

Therefore, it is always a strategy for operators to quickly copy their big data to the whole network after innovation in a province, and innovation based on centralized data is a key to enhance product competitiveness.

7. The DICT strategy of operators will make big data get greater support.

With the development of digital economy and the progress of industry digitalization, there is a strong demand for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. Operators and cloud service providers are strengthening the collaboration of cloud, network, terminal and edge, and launching an intelligent solution of "cloud+network +DICT" to help enterprises achieve deeper digital transformation.

Business-to-business market of operators is the focus at present, and cloud +DICT(DT+CT+ICT+IDC) is the key, which means that all kinds of resources will gradually tilt towards DICT in the future. Big data needs to seize this opportunity to promote the large-scale development of big data business by integrating DICT, which is called "taking advantage of the trend".

In addition, at present, the three major operators have announced the commercialization of 5G, and China Mobile has also released the "5G+" plan, including the "5G+AICDE" plan, which uses 5G as the access mode to connect with artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data and edge computing.

In the 5G era, the connection between people and things and things will generate more types of data. The denser base stations in 5G mean higher positioning accuracy, and the more diverse forms of 5G services mean that the data content in the pipeline will explode. Operators' ability to describe customer behavior will be further strengthened, and every vertical 5G industry application will be inextricably linked with big data, which is good for the development of operational big data.

8. Increasingly strict data security requirements are both challenges and opportunities for operators.

Although operators have a huge amount of data, many provincial companies have not substantially developed big data services, many of which are based on security considerations. Even in the operator provinces that are carrying out big data realization business, compliance and legal operation are the bottom line for them to carry out big data business, and operators are relatively conservative in business innovation of big data.

In fact, all the new big data services that operators can carry out at present need to go through extremely strict internal legal and security multi-channel audit, coupled with the constraints of various security management norms issued by industries, groups and provinces, as well as regular security inspections, so that operators' big data services have experienced internal rounds of security baptism since their birth.

20 19 keeps fermenting various information security incidents, which makes the big data circle seem to be treading on thin ice, but it still severely cracks down on all kinds of illegal operations and black market transactions. In fact, after a new round of dishwashing, the business environment faced by operators may be better than before, and data may become more scarce. After all, data transactions on the black market in the past will lead to the phenomenon that good money drives out bad money. Of course, this is just a guess.

What is certain is that the tightening of information security control in the future will make the innovation of big data business more challenging. However, it has always been the mainstream to legally tap the value of big data and help China's high-quality economic development. Although operators will face security challenges, they will also have more opportunities.

9. The exploration of TO C services by operators' big data will not stop.

Internet companies burn money in the early stage of their TO C business. After all, consumers are profitable. Internet companies have a lot of valuable data after having high-experience products and certain basic users. At this time, big data is useful, which in turn empowers business development. This is the essence of Internet companies applying big data.

Operators naturally have big data, but the practice of realizing big data still tells us that the data dimensions of operators are still not rich enough, such as the lack of consumption data, while giant Internet companies continue to accumulate more dimensions of data through the enrichment of applications.

In fact, the data dimension expansion of operators is basically at a standstill. If it is not improved, the data advantage of operators will gradually become smaller in the near future, which will eventually affect the competitiveness of products.

At present, operators have set up many professional companies, such as Mi Gu of China Mobile. Some people will question whether these companies can make money. Let's not think about this problem from a strategic point of view. Even from the perspective of big data, the expansion of these companies will make operators have more data, which is very valuable. Recently, China Mobile Jinke Company was established. There is no need to explain how important the payment data is to DT, so it has far-reaching significance.

In fact, if you are a big data product, which one doesn't have the dream of ordering TO C? It is hoped that operators can create a truly popular and applauded to c product based on their own resource advantages and the differentiated characteristics of big data.

10, operators' requirements for big data processing capacity with low value density will be greatly improved.

The operator's DPI data has typical characteristics of big data, with potential but low value density. However, these data are the most precious data of operators besides location data. Many people say that this data actually has no application scenario in the implementation of operators, or it must be called https, which is a layman's view.

With the advent of the 5G era, effective mining of DPI data is one of the core basic tasks for operators to realize big data.

First of all, the technology of DPI is originally for network optimization. For example, many fields are worthless for data realization. Can you consider a more cost-effective treatment? This requires operators to conduct targeted research, such as collecting data in the pipeline with high efficiency and low cost from the perspectives of customer insight, precision marketing and value realization.

Secondly, the characteristics of massive, low-latency and unstructured data of 5G will further promote the progress of data storage, processing and analysis technology. Even the current 4G, the delay from collection to application is relatively high, and it is difficult to meet the requirements of scene marketing, and the retention period is very limited.

Finally, the value density of 5G big data will be further reduced, and the ability requirements for AI will be higher. Even with the current 4G data, the operator's NLP and other capacity reserves are not enough, and it is necessary to fill the shortcomings as soon as possible.

Of course, the above ten trends are only the author's personal judgment, limited by his own ability and vision. There must be many shortcomings mentioned above, so it would be better if the author could arouse some thoughts.