丝路电商既要“硬联通” 也要提升规则标准的“软联通”

The core takeaway is that the development of Silk Road e-commerce requires not only hard infrastructure such as roads and bridges, but also solutions to soft environment issues like rules and standards.

1. Hard connectivity is the foundation: Since 2005, China Communications Services has participated in projects in the Middle East involving base stations, fiber optic cables, cross-border cables, and fiber-to-the-home, showing that digital infrastructure is a prerequisite for cross-border e-commerce.

2. Soft connectivity is the bigger bottleneck: Companies going global face challenges in policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, and financing, especially RMB cross-border settlement, as well as differences in cross-cultural, cross-device, and cross-industry standards, which are harder to overcome than hardware.

3. The way forward: Expectations are that AI or other cooperative mechanisms will encourage companies to participate in building soft connectivity, reducing the time cost of manual, item-by-item processing.

4. Practical insights: New entrants to the Middle East market can leverage locally experienced service providers to reduce information asymmetry; meanwhile, AI services, small- and medium-scale models, and agent deployments are emerging capabilities for the future.

The article offers key insights for brands looking to expand into the Middle East and the Silk Road markets: the importance of soft connectivity and localized service capabilities.

1. Going global is not just about selling products; it also requires managing differences in rules, regulations, and standards. Brands need to understand local policies, internet regulations, and cross-border network rules in advance to avoid being blocked by non-compliance.

2. Localized talent and teams matter. China Communications Services spent 20 years building a team of roughly 1,000 people in the Middle East, including about 200 Chinese employees and about 1,000 local employees, showing that deep local grounding enables better customer service. Brands should likewise build localized operations and after-sales systems.

3. Brand channel building can leverage local service providers' full-stack capabilities – from planning, design, and construction to operations and maintenance, as well as small- and medium-scale model and agent deployment – to support digital and AI-enabled operations.

4. On consumption trends, demand in the Middle East has shifted from basic communications services to AIDC and AI application services. Brands should recognize the high-end service opportunities created by the region's digital upgrade.

The article offers clear risk warnings and opportunity guidance for cross-border e-commerce sellers.

1. Risk warning: Sellers going global face not only trade and logistics issues, but also barriers in policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, and financing – particularly RMB cross-border settlement – as well as differences in cross-cultural, cross-device, and cross-industry standards. These soft connectivity bottlenecks can consume significant time and energy.

2. Opportunity: Silk Road e-commerce is advancing soft connectivity in rules, regulations, standards, and management, which means cross-border processes may become smoother in the future. Sellers should prepare in advance with products and services that meet international standards.

3. Lesson: China Communications Services spent 20 years transforming from a Middle East telecommunications engineering player into an AI service provider, showing that upgrading services in line with local digital demand shifts is key. Sellers should also monitor technological upgrade trends in their target markets.

4. Collaboration: Sellers can partner with service providers that have local experience, leveraging their accumulated knowledge of local policies, internet and cross-border network rules to reduce information gaps and enter and establish themselves in the market more quickly.

Factories can gain insights into overseas demand shifts in product manufacturing and design from this article.

1. Demand in the Middle East has shifted from basic communications infrastructure to AIDC and AI application services, indicating accelerating digitalization across local industries. If factory products involve communications, networking, or smart devices, device compatibility and international standards should be prioritized.

2. The article stresses that differences in rules, regulations, and standards are the bigger bottleneck. When exporting, factories need to address cross-industry and cross-device standard coordination, and conduct compliance-by-design and certification in advance to avoid rejection due to non-compliance.

3. Digital and e-commerce implications: China Communications Services transformed from an engineering services provider to an AI services provider offering full-stack services. Factories can consider how to combine their production capabilities with digital services – developing intelligent products or providing supporting data services.

4. Business opportunity: Long-term local teams better understand local needs. If factories want to enter the Middle East, they can seek similar localized partners to co-develop products that align with local standards and customs.

The article clearly reveals industry trends and customer pain points for service providers.

1. Industry trend: Silk Road e-commerce is deepening from hard to soft connectivity. Service providers face emerging demand to help clients resolve differences in rules, regulations, standards, and management.

2. Customer pain point: The biggest bottleneck for cross-border enterprises is no longer just infrastructure, but differences in cross-cultural, cross-device, and cross-industry standards, as well as financing issues such as RMB cross-border settlement. These require extensive time and manual effort.

3. Solution: Service providers can follow the China Communications Services model by offering AI full-stack services covering planning, design, construction, and operations, and help clients deploy small- and medium-scale models and agents, using AI capability to lower the cost of soft connectivity.

4. Service model: Product companies export goods, while service companies export construction and service capability. Service providers should build localized teams and ecosystems to help more enterprises enter and establish themselves in the market.

Platform operators can use this article to understand the deeper demands of Silk Road e-commerce on platforms and their development direction.

1. Platforms should focus on soft connectivity: Cross-border platforms not only need hard infrastructure connectivity, but also need to drive coordination in rules, regulations, standards, and management. Platforms can participate in policy communication and standard-setting to help reduce transactional friction for both buyers and sellers.

2. A reference practice: China Communications Services uses local experience to help companies reduce information gaps. Platform operators can similarly build localized operations teams or partner networks to support merchants with local policies, internet and cross-border network rules.

3. Merchant recruitment and operations: Digital demand in the Middle East has shifted from communications to AIDC and AI applications. Platforms can consider bringing in AI service providers and digital solution suppliers to enrich the ecosystem. At the same time, platforms should address financing issues such as RMB cross-border settlement and strengthen payment and settlement capabilities.

4. Risk avoidance: Cross-cultural, cross-device, and cross-industry standard differences are common pitfalls. Platform operators should establish standard coordination mechanisms to prevent merchant attrition or disputes caused by regulatory uncertainty.

This article offers industry-level and institutional observations for researchers studying Silk Road e-commerce.

1. Industry shifts: Two decades of practice by Chinese enterprises in the Middle East shows that telecommunications services are shifting toward AIDC and AI application services. The scope of digital infrastructure has expanded from network construction to full-stack AI services, and service models are moving from engineering output to capability output.

2. New issues: The biggest bottleneck in cross-border cooperation is not facilities but soft connectivity differences in rules, regulations, standards, and management – including RMB cross-border settlement, and coordination across cultures, devices, and industries. This provides a real-world case for research on international e-commerce governance.

3. Policy and regulatory suggestions: The article calls for policy, facility, and standards agreements, and for AI or other cooperative mechanisms to encourage companies to participate in soft connectivity building. At the policy level, this implies strengthening multilateral rule coordination and exploring technological means to reduce institutional transaction costs.

4. Business model reference: Companies can adopt a long-term localized team model – such as roughly 200 Chinese employees and 1,000 local employees – and use local experience and full-stack capabilities to support other cross-border enterprises. This service-provider model deserves further research.