The “Golden Opportunity” for the Emerging S2B2C Business Model is Expected to Lead to Significant Upside for Huitongda Network (9878.HK)

With giants such as Alibaba and Tencent continuing to invest heavily in S2B2C industry empowerment, the model is once again becoming a trending and attractive idea. Tencent’s Pony Ma predicted that “the opportunities in the consumer market may soon be depleting, yet there is still a bright future on the business side!” AliResearch  also expressed similar views, stating that "The golden opportunity of the next decade will be the S2B2C model!" Behind these two giants' shared understanding lies the ongoing transformation of China's industrial internet, moving from "asset-heavy sales" to "asset-light empowerment."

As a pioneer of the S2B2C model in China's lower-tier markets, Huitongda Network (9878.HK) began its forward-looking initiative more than a decade ago. It has since built a platform serving 21 provinces nationwide and over 250,000 B-end member stores, becoming a rare reference point of an industry-empowering platform with its "light assets, high value-added, and strong cash flow" characteristics.

Unlike the traditional B2B model, the core of Huitongda's S2B2C model lies in two-way empowerment. Supported by the dual-engine growth of a "reverse + streamlined + digitalized" smart supply chain and "AI + SaaS", it has achieved a comprehensive upgrade in efficiency from factory to store.

Firstly, as an industrial platform connecting the downstream 250,000 family-owned businesses in rural areas ("small Bs"), and the upstream thousands of brand factories, suppliers, and service providers ("large Bs"), Huitongda is able to promote new supply chain models such as "demand-driven procurement and production" and "integrated production and sales" through the digital transformation of the entire urban and rural circulation, thereby driving cost reduction and efficiency enhancement in every link.

Secondly, its "AI+SaaS" strategy has been empowering both member stores and other players along the industrial chain. Huitongda has fully upgraded its "Qiancheng Cloud AI" large language model, connecting it to mainstream AI models such as Qwen and DeepSeek, and reaching a full-stack AI cooperation with Alibaba Cloud. More than 20 self-developed AI agents have also been fully commercialized since May this year, helping member stores to improve the overall efficiency across product selection, marketing, inventory management, and other aspects by more than 30%.

On top, Huitongda leverages its "industry+capital" dual drivers to replicate its 15-year experience in the S2B2C model to accelerate growth and create new business opportunities. This includes expanding into the personal care industry, as well as tapping into recent consumer trends such as instant retail and hard discount.

S2B2C is not just a business boom, but a long-term trend. Huitongda, with over a decade of dedicated development, has built a triple moat consisting of "platform + technology + supply chain capabilities. Guided by the logic of “asset-light, strong empowerment”, Huitongda has already transformed 250,000 township-level stores into platform terminals, forging network effects and rich data barriers. As consumption upgrades and digitalization accelerate in the 20 trillion yuan (approximately US$3 trillion) lower-tier markets, the S2B2C ecosystem Huitongda has built will become a scarce resource and an important infrastructure. The company not only possesses cyclical resilience, but also continuously makes advances in AI empowerment, supply chain optimization, and capital market synergies. With such, the company is poised to become a benchmark in the Industrial Internet era.