Compared with the tepid status quo in the field of electronic signature in previous years, not only international dollar funds such as Tiger Fund, but also Internet giants such as Ali and Tencent have been frequently concerned and mentioned in recent two years.

The article is rather long, so I suggest you take your time.

Idea signature

Electronic signature is not a new thing.

As early as 1999, the legal effect of electronic contract was clearly defined in the contract law of our country, but there were not many application scenarios of electronic signature at that time.

The implementation of the Electronic Signature Law in 2005 clearly stipulated reliable electronic signatures. However, many details and rules of the law were not perfect, and the electronic signature technology at that time was not mature enough. For example, e-sign Bao, an industry veteran, used the application of electronic signature in the contract at that time. Due to the lack of application scenarios in the early stage of enterprise informatization, it was poor in usability, high in threshold and difficult to develop.

It was not until 20 14 that electronic signatures gradually entered everyone's field of vision, and some enterprises began to use electronic signatures.

I Dark Horse & Digital observation, compared with the tepid status quo in the field of electronic signature in previous years, not only international dollar funds such as Tiger Fund, but also Internet giants such as Ali and Tencent have been frequently concerned and mentioned in recent two years.

Not only that, we see that these electronic signature manufacturers frequently strengthen cooperation with giants such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Ali, UFIDA, and expand their "circle of friends".

On the other hand, the market value of American electronic signature unicorn DocuSign (an electronic signature service) once exceeded $10 billion after it successfully landed on Nasdaq in April 2065438+2008, which also brought great encouragement to many domestic electronic signature manufacturers. The idea that everyone wants to be China's DocuSign (an electronic signature service) is becoming more and more obvious.

To this end, we planned this topic and invited some investors who are concerned about the field of electronic signature to talk about the reasons and development trends of electronic signature. The influence of "friends circle" collaboration on this industry; And the significance of the development of DocuSign (an electronic signature service) to China.

1

Why does 20 14 rise?

Lin Xinhe, a partner of DCM, told iDark Horse & Digital Watch that, in essence, the signing of the contract needs to be executed by people, and the contract is legally executed. Traditionally, documents and contracts of companies, governments and other organizations need not only signatures, but also seals. If you don't have these, you will find that your contract documents are illegal and have no legal effect.

"So to sum up, there are two main points. First, at that time, the court did not have perfect legal provisions to determine that the electronic signature was legal and effective, so it was difficult to enforce and promote this matter legally.

Second, the logic of electronic signature itself is no problem, but at that time, people didn't trust this thing and thought it was unsafe. They didn't believe that it would be safe to put the company's massive document contracts in the cloud. At the same time, there is no exact landing scene to support the use of electronic signatures. It was not until the rapid development of 20 14 internet finance that this field began to rise. "

Liu Kai, executive director of Morningstar Capital, pointed out that the development of electronic signature has gone through three periods. The first period was around 2003. At that time, it was also called CA authentication system. This system is a desktop application and needs hardware support. At that time, it was a bit like the U shield that banks often see now, and the user experience was very poor.

Secondly, the scene is relatively narrow, and it is more used by customers of government and financial institutions. Third, this thing itself has a high threshold. You need an intermediary to help you verify that your system is legal and compliant, and you need to get a license. Because of these three points, CA certification system has not been widely used. Companies like e-sign Bao were born in this environment.

Around 2006, with the rise of e-commerce, the internet and e-commerce are linked together, and many enterprises need to purchase online and initiate contracts online. At this time, many application scenarios have been added to the CA system, so the signature at this time has also been upgraded to some extent.

By 20 14, with the development of mobileization and SaaS, everything began to develop to the cloud, and electronic signature was no exception. So we see that since 20 14, many players have flooded into the field of electronic signature. In addition to the transformation of electronic signature from traditional mode to SaaS mode, there are also enterprises such as Shangshang, Dafa and 1.

Based on the above point of view, the emergence of 20 14 WeChat payment and Alipay solved the last mile of the mobile Internet through payment, and the whole world was completely changed.

At the same time, with the rise of emerging technologies such as big data and cloud computing, offline commerce and online commerce began to merge, reshaping the business model of enterprises. More and more traditional enterprises realize the importance of new technology and online, and begin to change productivity with new technology, new model and new ideas.

Electronic signature adopts SaaS delivery mode, which breaks the time and space constraints of traditional contract signing, not only lowers the threshold of enterprise users, but also reduces the deployment time and cost.

Coupled with the rise of internet finance and e-commerce, it gives the scene where electronic signatures can be applied, and everything has prompted this originally tepid field to enter the public eye.

So, why is the scene of Internet finance especially suitable for electronic signature?

Chen Hongliang, a partner of Yuan Jing Capital, pointed out that the natural nature of the financial industry determines that it is highly sensitive to data and requires extremely high security. Especially in the network economy, fair and credible authentication and credit services are needed to ensure the security of online transactions. Therefore, the financial industry is the most active and extensive field of electronic signature application.

2

From mutual gold to various fields, how big is the imagination space?

As we know, 20 18 is a year of frequent P2P storms in Internet finance. Does it have a great impact on electronic signature enterprises?

"It may have an impact on the repurchase rate of customers in the Internet finance industry. However, in terms of industry application, electronic signature has covered mainstream businesses including financial technology, large-scale manufacturing, e-commerce, online government affairs and so on. At the same time, the rise of emerging industries has also opened up a new blue ocean for electronic signatures. " Chen Hongliang explained.

Lin Xinhe believes that the P2P lightning storm will have a certain impact on the field of electronic signatures, mainly in two aspects: First, after the lightning storm, the P2P market began to shrink, and the demand for electronic signatures in this field also began to shrink.

However, the electronic signature has been verified in the mutual gold industry, and corporate customers have a certain understanding of it, which is considered to be a safe and reliable product and can be used with confidence. This laid the foundation for the development of electronic signature in other industries and promoted the expansion of electronic signature to other industries. Since 20 18, the expansion of electronic signature to the government and traditional large enterprises is particularly obvious.

Second, although the P2P storm will make a number of enterprises disappear and the market shrink, it will also promote the healthy development of the whole industry. The enterprises that can stay after fluctuations have relatively sound qualifications and business models, and their development is relatively stable. Moreover, these companies are willing to pay for electronic signature products, and they can no longer live on subsidies as in the past.

I dark horse & digital observation believes that everything should be divided into two parts. The negative side is the P2P lightning storm, which will have a certain impact on the income of enterprises in the field of electronic signature, especially the subsequent guarantee rate of P2P lightning storm will be reduced. On the bright side, after this thunderstorm, the internet finance industry will reshuffle, and high-quality customers will stay and continue to pay for electronic signatures.

In addition, the field of internet finance has played an exemplary role in the popularization of the whole electronic signature, which can promote industry awareness. After the thunderstorm, industry application scenarios began to extend to many fields. For example, government, tourism, education, human resources, e-commerce platform, O2O, supply chain, manufacturing and other fields.

Human resources industry, third-party employment agreement for graduates, labor contract signed between candidates and enterprises. In the education industry, in the field of college education, there are many people and scenes involved in signing contracts, and many scenes need to move offline signing contracts to online signing contracts to improve efficiency, especially in the scenes of electronic transcripts and online course selection.

At the same time, since 20 18, relevant policies and regulations have been issued in government departments, e-commerce, tourism, education and other fields. These legal provisions clearly require the use of electronic signatures when working online to improve work efficiency.

For example, 20 18 10 9 Jiangxi Province issued the Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the People's Government of Jiangxi Province on Strengthening the Construction and Management of E-government Extranet in the Province. The opinion puts forward: around major economic and social issues and government work objectives, establish a government information application system with comprehensive collaborative office as the hub, realize the interconnection of key business systems, and promote cross-regional and inter-departmental business collaboration.

Adhere to unified standards, intensively enjoy * * *, expand and deepen online office, promote the application of electronic certificates, electronic documents, electronic signatures, electronic seals and electronic files in government affairs, actively carry out video conferencing, mobile office, instant messaging and other applications, optimize government process and improve administrative efficiency. (Lead unit: Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Provincial Industry and Information Technology Commission)

In this way, the maturity of technology, the richness of scenes, the support of policies and the increasingly obvious needs of users have all promoted the mature development of the industry. It is also one of the main reasons to promote the development of the industry for manufacturers to strengthen the interaction with the "circle of friends" of giants and strengthen ecological construction.

three

What breakthrough does the player rely on?

Understandably, enterprises in any field need to use all kinds of tricks if they want to expand their market share. For example, the US Mission at the C end and * * * enjoy bicycles, all of which will play the subsidy strategy; For example, ERP, OA and other enterprise management software tend to build a channel system and expand the market in the form of push. In the field of electronic signature, it is a way of "forming gangs and expanding friends circle".

Electronic signature manufacturers strengthen strategic cooperation with giants such as Ali, Tencent, SAP, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Microsoft and UFIDA. In order to enter their ecological circle, we can cooperate with upstream and downstream to provide electronic signature products and services.

In this way, we will expand our market share through the cooperation between upstream and downstream industrial chains. Once the "circle of friends" is expanded to a certain stage, cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises will lead to fission, enterprise performance will be improved, and even monopoly will occur.

For example, e-sign Bao has reached cooperation with many large-scale applications under Ali, and its business contents include issuing asset certification documents on Alipay, launching electronic contract business in Alibaba Cloud market, launching ant blockchain contract with Ant Financial, and signing contracts with nails. At the same time, e-sign Bao is also in-depth cooperation with domestic software giants such as UFIDA to integrate the infrastructure of electronic signature into enterprise information construction.

Fafa has established strategic cooperative relations with Microsoft, SAP, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Kingdee, UFIDA and Mingyuanyun. Through the ecosystem of system integrators, e-signature/e-contract services can be quickly extended to customers in the industries they serve, and eco-partners can quickly improve the information level and risk control ability of customers in contract and signature management.

Ssc and Oracle NetSuite have reached a strategic cooperation on SDN, and the two sides have joined hands to build a service ecosystem. SSC has developed an electronic contract application based on Oracle NetSuite platform, and has served more enterprises in China through Oracle NetSuite. In addition, Shang Shang has also reached strategic cooperation with industry giants such as Microsoft, Apple and WPS.

So, why do these companies do this?

Liwei Chen, a partner of Oriental Fuhai, told iDark Ma & Digital Watch that DocuSign (an electronic signature service) was established in 2003, which is similar to the time when the domestic electronic signature industry (e-sign was established in 2002) was born. At the beginning of industrial development at home and abroad, they were quite similar, and they all experienced the initial tepid years. Of course, the individual user market in the United States is much more mature than that in China, and a large number of individual customers are using the convenient services provided by electronic signatures for free.

However, since 20 10, head manufacturers in industries such as DocuSign (an electronic signature service) began to explode in business. It is understood that the entire American electronic signature market achieved revenue of 30 million US dollars in 20 10, 250 million US dollars in 20 14, and exceeded 65,438+in 2065,438. At the same time, by 20 1 1 year, there are not many players in the whole market, and DocuSign (an electronic signature service) alone accounts for 60% of the market share, and the head effect is obvious.

Why is it developing so fast?

"Let's take a look at the shareholder structure of DocuSign (an electronic signature service), including Google, SAP, Microsoft, Salesforce, KPCB, Accel Partners, BainCapital, Intel and Samsung, which are mainly divided into three categories: software companies, venture capital and industrial giants. Through the ecosystem of these shareholders, DocuSign (an electronic signature service) has strengthened the interaction and cooperation between upstream and downstream, continuously expanded the circle of friends, and gradually turned electronic signatures into infrastructure services for enterprise informationization. "

For example, the Sign platform of DocuSign (an electronic signature service) is embedded with Microsoft's Office365 platform, including Outlook, Word, SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server 20 13. In this way, users can easily complete the process of electronic signature without leaving the platform of Office365 when working together.

According to DocuSign (an electronic signature service), Microsoft has a comprehensive data platform and cloud platform, which can provide products, services and solutions based on open standards. In addition, Microsoft also has a strong technical support team and developer ecological community, which can help DocuSign (an electronic signature service) to better focus on the improvement of technology and product solutions after strategic cooperation and financing.

On the other hand, DocuSign (an electronic signature service) uses API interface to enable users to integrate their signature functions without changing the icon of DocuSign (an electronic signature service). The relatively vigorous development of DocuSign (an electronic signature service) is largely due to the role of API.

In this way, using the "circle of friends synergy effect" and API interface, DocuSign (an electronic signature service) covers a wide range of industries, which can be said to extend its reach to almost every industry. In leading industries such as science and technology, medical care and financial services, DocuSign (an electronic signature service) has gained more large customer markets.

According to Docusign prospectus, among the top 10 technology companies in the world, 7 are using DocuSign (an electronic signature service); Among the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in the world, 18 is using Docusign's service; Among the top 15 financial services companies in the world, 10 are using Docusign's services.

"After the formation of the network synergy effect of DocuSign (an electronic signature service), its market share has been continuously improved, and even a monopoly effect has gradually formed. However, the journey of this network effect takes time to accumulate. One is the extension of eco-partner expansion, and the other is the connotation of head customer expansion. After your network effect reaches a certain number of enterprise users, it will gradually form. Once formed, this market share growth rate is irreversible. "

Who can take the lead in the domestic market?

On the other hand, in the domestic market, Liwei Chen continued, I won't judge whether 20 19 is an outbreak year, but it must be a year in which the electronic signature industry is growing rapidly and the market structure is initially determined.

"After several years of development, there are currently three market patterns, but this is not the final pattern. Everyone is still in the game competition stage. The core point of the game is two aspects: income scale, customer structure and customer quality, and the "circle of friends" effect. But in the final analysis, it is still a question of income scale. As we all know, in the domestic enterprise service industry, the head enterprise's revenue exceeding 100 million is a sign that this industry has entered a period of rapid growth.

At present, the electronic signature industry has also entered this stage. For example, E-sign Bao is the first enterprise in this industry to enter the "Billion Club", which is a milestone in this industry. In the next three years, the Matthew effect of this industry will become more and more obvious. In the next few years, as these three companies expand their circle of friends and strengthen ecological construction in order to expand their market share, if one company is slow, it may fall behind, and even the market will have a monopoly pattern.

"It is difficult for us to see a sub-industry with network synergy like electronic signature in the domestic enterprise service market, which also determines that the electronic signature industry has great market imagination. Few products served by enterprises can spontaneously produce fission through customers. This product and industry attribute also determines that expanding the "circle of friends" has become the core strategy of every electronic signature company, and this unique attribute also determines that Internet giants like Ali and Tencent will definitely pay attention to this industry when implementing the TO B strategy. Just as WeChat and Alipay have changed the entire payment industry, electronic signatures will definitely promote the process of digital transformation of the entire enterprise. " Liwei Chen said.

Chen Hongliang agrees with this statement. "I think this problem is divided into two parts: the first part refers to the independence of the electronic signature itself. Because the electronic signature needs to be fair and has the attribute of a third party, the independence of the electronic signature itself will be more obvious, which is also one reason why DocuSign (an electronic signature service) can rise. Because the society needs a third party to verify the authenticity and validity of its contract, this independence is determined by the electronic signature business itself and will not be completely lost because of the "circle of friends".

Second, it refers to the channels and ways of electronic signature penetration. No matter through some large SaaS platforms or companies like Ali, Tencent and Oracle Bone Inscriptions, electronic signatures can be infiltrated through such large platforms, and users can be reached very effectively through the existing enterprise service platforms, thus educating these users to become users of electronic signatures and forming a certain network effect. "

Liu Kai said that in terms of industry attributes, electronic signature is an area with particularly strong network synergy, which is rare in the whole TO B industry.

"As a head enterprise, if you use electronic signatures, then the upstream and downstream suppliers of this enterprise need to use them. If you don't use it, you may be eliminated by the ecosystem of this enterprise.

Its professionalism is also reflected in the fact that a mature subdivision field contains many upstream and downstream industrial chains, which will enjoy many things. If one party uses an electronic signature, others will follow suit, just like a passport. If you don't use it, you can't cooperate smoothly.

Moreover, these giants are platform companies and have good customer resources. When they enter this ecology, they can cooperate with their eco-enterprises.

Secondly, both Oracle Bone Inscriptions and SAP are brand endorsements, and the strategic cooperation between electronic signature enterprises and them will further encourage corporate customers to use their products. "

four

Don't copy foreign models, but base yourself on your own national conditions.

Generally speaking, there is still a big gap between China electronic sign manufacturers and DocuSign (an electronic signature service). At the same time, the electric sign market in China needs further cultivation, which is of course a long way to go. With the successful listing of DocuSign (an electronic signature service) and the continuous efforts of electronic signature manufacturers, the electronic signature market in China will continue to grow at a high speed.

However, for manufacturers in China, the story of DocuSign (an electronic signature service) is worth learning and learning, and it should also have its own innovation and improvement, because there are great differences in policy environment and market environment between China and the United States. Imitation may make the company survive, but innovation can make the company great.

We know that in the early years of SaaS, there were many voices like Salesforce in China, Workday in China, Zendesk in China and so on. They all tried to learn from foreign excellent models and try their style of play, and all ended in failure.

In essence, China and the United States have different market environments and different enterprise development paths, which cannot be used as a sample of imitation learning. It is still necessary to combine the specific national conditions of China, understand the real needs of enterprises, and find different ways to play according to the genes of service providers, so as to create their own high barriers.

"It's hard for me to judge how big this market is. But in a word, all future contracts and signatures need to be digitized, which is an infinite space. " Lin Xinhe finally concluded.