最近在政府、企业、互联网公司和咨询公司的语言里，“产业互联网”这个词越来越频繁出现。什么叫“产业互联网”，我并没有看到被普遍接受、准确一致的定义。例如，国内最大的互联网公司之一将SaaS、制造业数字化、行业交易平台等都统称为“产业互联网”，而另外一家电商起家的互联网巨头，则将电商称为商业互联网，将制造业数字化称为工业互联网，二者打通、加起来叫“产业互联网”。
目前国家倡导企业“上云、用数、赋智” ，因而出现了各地出现越来越多的政府搭台，技术公司唱戏的“产业平台经济”，即某个垂直产业在数字化平台上运行，各尽所能、各取所需。我见到媒体报道，西南地区一个贫困县政府支持某科技企业给县里几百家工厂安装了类似于MES系统的简单SaaS，就说是产业上云、资源共享了，这家MES SaaS公司也立马独角兽了。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
这不就是实现数字共产主义了嘛！
以我自己所在的管理咨询行业为例，如果有人说要干一个“咨询产业互联网”平台，咨询顾问都趴在平台上干活，知识存储在上面，大数据驱动，帮助顾问提升工作效率和质量；咨询公司在这个平台上找客户、找外包资源、找合作伙伴、找知识资产，而有咨询需求的企业在这个平台上对接咨询资源，无论是咨询公司还是咨询个体户……数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
我一定会说，这个想法是没干过咨询生意的外行意淫出来的。
我不看好所谓“产业互联网”的构想，这个构想有悖于企业运作的基本规律。或者说目前媒体宣传、企业鼓吹的“产业互联网”，并不是产业数字化的终极状态，因为到目前为止，我还没有看到这些“产业互联网”代表了真实可行的商业模式。
企业运作的基本规律是：不断地创新业务，找寻差异化竞争的独特性，独占信息或资源，取得竞争优势。
基于这样的判断，我首先认为，SaaS不是“产业互联网”的要素，它并不构成企业竞争优势。SaaS是企业非差异性的能力的数字化供给，例如财务、人力资源的管理数字化，以及销售、采购等运营支持，甚至是数字化办公、通讯（例如Zoom）等等，这些职能性、专业性的数字化，都是企业以云服务的方式获取公共能力，都不构成企业差异化的能力。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
其次，“产业平台经济”的前车之鉴是20年前的互联网泡沫期在欧美发达国家早炒过一轮的B2B电商，实践证明B2B电子市场（Marketplace）没有任何可行的商业模式。二十年前互联网热时，B2B电商分为两类，一类是企业扩展价值链的数字化运作，例如电子采购、渠道数字化等，这个可以认为是传统企业核心系统（即ERP）的扩展，而另一类则是建议基于互联网的交易平台。
当年的B2B市场，也被称为“行业垂直电商”，分成几类——独立第三方市场、多个企业发起的行业市场（Consortia Marketplace）、企业运作的私有市场（Private marketplace）等，比较有名的有汽车行业的SupplyOn，Covisint，消费品零售行业的额Retail Exchange、Transora，电子元器件和产品制造行业的E2Open，化工行业的ChemConnect 等。同时还产生了一些做B2B市场建设的软件公司，最有名的是CommerceOne、i2、Ariba、Sterling Commerce等。
这些行业垂直电商从2000年风起云涌，到2004年左右就烟消云散了，一些平台转型成了为企业提供数字化解决方案的IT公司，另一些平台干脆就直接破产清算了。那些软件公司也大多破产，少数靠被大公司收购而存活至今。
当年为了推进B2B，已经解决了很多技术层面的问题，例如欧美国家的企业间数字化互联早有传统，在没有互联网之前就有EDI以及基于EDI的数据交换标准，从EDI转化成互联网，无论是互联网数据传输、交换标准（例如XML 及报文格式），还是垂直行业的数据标准，都形成了体系。后来大家认为B2B不可行的主要原因是：
- 交易商品很难标准化，所以难以实现数字化的寻源、匹配和交易
- B2B交易的重点不是价格，而是价格以外的服务内容、品质标准等，这些过程很难线上化数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
- 企业自身信息化水平不高，企业的ERP等业务系统难以和平台实现连接
- 平台的中立性不够，企业不愿意将涉及到自身机密的关键业务交给平台运作
- 交易量不足，收入模式单一，不足以支撑平台运营
十多年过去了，和当年相比，今天即使互联网技术以及大数据、人工智能等新技术有很大发展，企业自身的数字化水平也有很大提高，以上大多数问题都没法得到本质性解决——互联网最大特点是信息透明，而B2B商业最大特点是交易双方信息不对称，这对“产业互联网”建立商业模式来说，就是最大的悖论。总之，这是一个看起来很美，但是谁也找不到商业模式的领域：
第三，现在不少致力于发展“产业互联网”的企业为了寻找商业模式，都在臆想用户需求，不仅是我前面讲的咨询行业平台，例如，某家做洗衣机的企业，构想以衣服为中来建立“产业互联网”、“用户生态”，涵盖了用户晒衣服的阳台的数字化，指导衣服购买的时尚搭配的数字化，以致延伸到衣服生产的纺织面料供应链、服装工厂的柔性化生产线改造…… 数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
是呀，为啥卖鸡蛋的，不可以从鸡蛋衍生到母鸡再延伸到饲料、育种，鸡毛还可以制成鸡毛掸子，再从炒鸡蛋延伸到厨师、餐厅，再延伸到收购蓝翔技校，最终建立一个围绕鸡蛋消费者的“产业数字化生态”呢？
中国的社会特性使得总有一些人设想把社会经济交由计算机控制，用技术手段来连接企业，通过数字化网络去中心化（或者说是隐形的、上帝视角的中心化），从而带来产业和社会的升级。这事儿不仅dotcom时代欧美资本家在干，苏联在七十年代就在干，他们发明计算机就是想用计算机网络来管理经济，今天咱们谈的这些“产业互联网”设想，他们50年年前就想过，这比欧美B2B还要早30年，梦总要有的，万一实现了呢？
要说真有“产业互联网”，是一个数字化社会基础设施的建设，深得人心的政府只讲投入不讲自身回报地去干，这事儿我支持；企业去参合，要真能捞到一票也好，就是别自己把自己给忽悠了——当然，也许你们本来也就是想去忽悠政府和投资人。数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
翻译：
In the language of governments, businesses, Internet companies and consultancies, the term “industrial Internet” has been popping up more and more recently. I don’t see a universally accepted, accurate and consistent definition of what the “industrial Internet” is. For example, one of the largest Internet companies in China calls SaaS, manufacturing digitization, industry trading platform and so on the “industrial Internet”, while another Internet giant started from e-commerce refers to e-commerce as the commercial Internet and manufacturing digitization as the industrial Internet. The combination of the two is called the “industrial Internet”.数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
At present, the state advocates that enterprises “go to the cloud, use data, and give wisdom”. Therefore, there is an “industrial platform economy” in which more and more governments take the stage and technology companies play the opera, that is, a vertical industry runs on the digital platform, each of them does his best and gets what he needs. I saw media reports that the government of a poverty-stricken county in Southwest China supported a technology company to install simple SaaS similar to MES systems in hundreds of factories in the county. As an industry cloud and resource sharing, this MES SaaS company became a unicorn immediately.
This is digital communism!
Take the management consulting industry where I work as an example. If someone says to build a “consulting industry Internet” platform, consultants work on the platform, where knowledge is stored and driven by big data to help consultants improve work efficiency and quality. Consulting companies look for customers, outsourcing resources, partners and knowledge assets on this platform, and enterprises with consulting needs can connect consulting resources on this platform, whether consulting companies or self-employed people…数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
I would say the idea was dreamed up by laymen who had never been in the consulting business. I do not like the idea of an “industrial Internet”, which goes against the basic laws of business operation. In other words, the current “industrial Internet” promoted by the media and enterprises is not the ultimate state of industrial digitalization, because so far, I have not seen these “industrial Internet” represents a real and viable business model.
The basic law of enterprise operation is: constantly innovate business, find the uniqueness of differentiation competition, monopolize information or resources, and obtain competitive advantage.
constantly innovate business, find the uniqueness of differentiation competition, monopolize information or resources, and obtain competitive advantage.
Based on this judgment, I first believe that SaaS is not an “industrial Internet” element, it does not constitute a competitive advantage for enterprises. SaaS is the digital supply of non-differentiated capabilities of enterprises, such as the digitalization of financial and human resources management, as well as operations support such as sales and procurement, and even digital office, communication (such as Zoom), and so on. These functional and professional digitalization are enterprises to obtain public capabilities in the way of cloud services, which do not constitute the ability of differentiation of enterprises.
Secondly, the lesson of “industrial platform economy” is that during the Internet bubble 20 years ago, a round of B2B e-commerce was promoted in developed countries in Europe and the United States. Practice has proved that there is no viable business model in B2B Marketplace. Twenty years ago, when the Internet was hot, B2B e-commerce was divided into two categories. One was the digital operation of enterprises to expand the value chain, such as e-procurement and channel digitization, which could be regarded as the extension of the traditional enterprise core system (i.e. ERP), and the other was the proposed Internet-based trading platform.数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
party markets, Consortia Marketplace, Private marketplace operated by enterprises
B2B markets, also known as “industry vertical e-commerce”, were categorized into independent third-party markets, Consortia Marketplace, Private marketplace operated by enterprises, etc. Well-known examples include SupplyOn and Covisint in the automotive industry, Retail Exchange and Transora in the consumer goods retail industry, E2Open in the electronic components and product manufacturing industry, and ChemConnect in the chemical industry. At the same time, some B2B market construction software companies were created, the most famous are CommerceOne, i2, Ariba, Sterling Commerce, etc.
These industry vertical e-commerce started to boom in 2000, but disappeared around 2004. Some platforms transformed into IT companies providing digital solutions for enterprises, while others simply went bankrupt and liquidated. Most of those software companies have gone bust, and a few have survived by being bought by big companies.数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
In order to promote B2B, many technical problems had been solved. For example, there was a long tradition of digital interconnection between enterprises in European and American countries. EDI and EDI based data exchange standards existed before the Internet, and EDI was transformed into the Internet. Or vertical industry data standards, have formed a system.
The main reasons why B2B is not considered viable are:
Trading goods are difficult to standardize, so it is difficult to source, match and trade digitally数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
The focus of B2B transactions is not price, but beyond price, service content, quality standards, and so on. These processes are difficult to make online
Enterprise’s own informatization level is not high, enterprise ERP and other business systems are difficult to connect with the platform
The neutrality of the platform is not enough. Enterprises are reluctant to entrust the key business involving their own secrets to the platform
Insufficient trading volume and single revenue model are not enough to support the operation of the platform
More than a decade has passed. Compared with that time, even though Internet technology, big data, artificial intelligence and other new technologies have developed a lot today, the digitalization level of enterprises has also been greatly improved, most of the above problems cannot be fundamentally solved. The biggest characteristic of Internet is information transparency. While the biggest characteristic of B2B business is information asymmetry between the two sides of the transaction. This is the biggest paradox for the “industrial Internet” to build a business model. Anyway, this is an area that looks beautiful but no one can find a business model for:
Third, in order to find business models, many enterprises committed to the development of “industrial Internet” are imagining user needs数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
Third, in order to find business models, many enterprises committed to the development of “industrial Internet” are imagining user needs. Not only the consulting industry platform I mentioned earlier. For example, a washing machine enterprise envisages the establishment of “industrial Internet” and “user ecology” based on clothes, including the digitalization of the balcony where users can hang their clothes. The digitalization of fashion collocation guiding clothing purchase extends to the textile fabric supply chain of clothing production and the flexible production line transformation of clothing factories……
Yes, why can’t the selling of eggs be derived from eggs to hens and then extended to feed, breeding, chicken feathers can also be made into feather dusters, and then extended from scrambled eggs to chefs, restaurants, and then to the acquisition of Lanxiang Technical School, and finally establish an “industrial digital ecology” around egg consumers?
The nature of China’s society has always led some people to envision putting the social economy under the control of computers, connecting enterprises with technological means, and bringing industrial and social upgrading through the decentralization of digital networks (or invisible, God-viewed decentralization). They invented computers to manage the economy through computer networks. They thought about the idea of “industrial Internet” 50 years ago. Which was 30 years earlier than B2B in Europe and America. There must be dreams, but what if they come true?数字化转型网szhzxw.cn
If there is an “industrial Internet”, it is the construction of the infrastructure of a digital society. And the popular government will only talk about the investment and no return. I support this. If companies want to participate, it is good to get a vote, but don’t fool yourself –. Of course, you may also want to fool the government and investors.
本文由数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）转载而成，来源：GEORGE陈果；编辑/翻译：数字化转型网宁檬树。
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