The security boundary has become blurred and "de-security" is becoming a trend

Today's security boundaries have become increasingly blurred.

The traditional security business model is moving from single "people, vehicles, and objects" identification to a city-level management and control platform based on video surveillance.

With the continuous improvement of technology, craftsmanship, and functions, the identity of security surveillance cameras has also changed from a simple defense product to an intelligent interactive node online and offline.

Every time people pass by, they are interacting with information, which is then connected to major platforms to perform various data value-added analyses. It is one of the most core entry points for major manufacturers to leverage end users and explore IoT layout.

Under the new circumstances, the corporate positioning of traditional security giants including Hikvision and Dahua Technology has also changed from the previous "security manufacturers" to today's "Internet of Things solution providers based on video surveillance."

"Change" becomes the main theme of security

"De-security" is becoming the trend of this industry.

More than 20 years ago, when the Chinese security market was still firmly occupied by foreign companies with analog security products, Chinese companies such as Hikvision rushed in, starting with video capture cards, breaking through from the security back-end, focusing on digital signal processing solutions, and launching the battle for security digitization.

The story that follows is that foreign companies are losing ground one after another. They are conquering cities and territories along the way. In the era of analog to digital, they are engaging in price wars, quickly occupying land, and constantly eating up small fish to stand at the top of the world's security pyramid.

There will never be a solid industry.

Regardless of the market, its form will continue to evolve, decentralize, distribute, strengthen cooperation, and adapt to changes. The ultimate company will become the same as an organism, seamlessly integrated into the ecosystem and become a part of it.

The same goes for security.

Today, with the support of artificial intelligence and cloud computing, the value of the entire security industry has increased rapidly , front-end and back-end products with deep learning functions have been continuously launched, and back-end portrait big data platforms have begun to penetrate.

Under the general trend, we can see that in the process of applying solutions in actual security projects, the operating mode of existing players has shifted from previous hardware services to a combination of hardware and software; they no longer enjoy only the native value of surveillance cameras, but also the potential gold mine behind IPC.

Just like the mobile phone, television and other industries, in the later stages of industry development, the value of the hardware itself is limited and the profit margin will be further squeezed. The data value-added services behind the hardware, including advertising, finance, etc., are the profit points that various manufacturers are fighting for.

Security companies that simply sell hardware products will no longer be able to sit back and relax. While they are racing against Moore's Law, they are also forcing the former hunters to seek technological innovations that will produce qualitative changes and promote the rapid development of the information industry.

Li Ke, president of Dahua Technology, said bluntly, "Future products and sales thinking need to evolve."

He said that the traditional security market is undergoing profound changes, which are driven by technology on the one hand and industry business transformation on the other.

During this changing process, the security industry is no longer experiencing the upgrade from analog to digital and from standard definition to high definition that it has experienced before, but rather the blurring of industry boundaries and the expansion of its scope.

This poses a huge challenge to every manufacturer. The solution is no longer a combination of products, but requires understanding the customer's business scenarios. The sales model is no longer just selling products for the sake of selling products.

In an environment where technology is accelerating, security has changed from a known market to a market full of countless unknown variables.

And on this road full of unknowns, the chaotic market environment has given other entrepreneurs who may seize the opportunity the opportunity to take off.

Today, the industry is rapidly shifting from traditional security companies to a three-way battle among AI startups, ICT internet communications companies, and traditional security companies.

Previously, in the unknown dark forest, "dimensionality reduction attack tactics" with price wars as the mainstream occurred frequently, and traditional companies used this to expand their "point" share; in the future, new competitors will swoop in from higher clouds and launch "dimensionality upgrade attacks" on the "surface", and the industry is facing a reshuffle.

All things are reborn, with equal opportunities.

The battle between the three major sects

"The battle between the new and the old" is the wonderful beginning of many well-known stories. Low-key security companies will also perform this wonderful show for people over the years.

In the new security market landscape, it can be roughly divided into three major factions: the "traditional faction" represented by Hikvision and Dahua ; the "innovative faction" headed by SenseTime and Megvii; and the "platform faction" represented by Huawei and Alibaba.

Each of their "factions" has different strategic approaches.

Traditional security giants such as Hikvision and Dahua focus on the "edge", maintaining the advantages of software and hardware integration from top to bottom.

Hikvision President Hu Yangzhong once said that injecting artificial intelligence computing power into the edge will be the general trend.

Edge computing includes edge nodes and edge domain functions. By uniformly scheduling distributed intelligent device resources such as IPC and N VR , it provides video-centric perception data, real-time preprocessing, storage and transmission services near the data source. While improving business agility, real-time performance and system reliability, it also shares the concurrent pressure brought to the central node by massive data.

During the transformation period, their advantages lie in channel accumulation, massive data and a full set of product solutions. Most importantly, they have a more thorough understanding of customer needs, which will ensure that they have a better grasp of technical engineering and stability.

At the same time, they will occasionally emphasize their academic research capabilities to show that they have not been left behind in the new technological era.

The strategic approach of AI unicorns such as SenseTime, Megvii, and Horizon Robotics is to work from the outside in. They attack the cloud through algorithms, focus on IPC through chips, and thus lay out central control systems and provide services based on top-level designs.

It is foreseeable that AI startups will encounter unimaginable troubles and obstacles during their rapid growth.

If we talk about the security business in a narrower sense, it can actually be understood as the process of installing cameras and then transmitting the information back for storage and analysis.

Compared with traditional security companies, AI companies' advantage lies in analysis, while they are at a disadvantage in front-end, storage and other aspects.

At the same time, most of the funds for security project construction are invested in infrastructure, that is, front-end construction, while the back-end data analysis accounts for less than 5%. It is conceivable how difficult it is for a startup company to use 5% of its resources to leverage its opponent's 95% of the market.

In addition, these new security professionals need to spend many years to accumulate experience in design, manufacturing , and deployment in different scenarios. In the words of an industry executive, "They can't avoid or dodge any of the pitfalls and mistakes we made in the past few decades."

So does this mean they have no chance? Of course not.

The security business is mostly aimed at government and other public institutions. The best way for AI startups to survive in this high-threshold track is to learn to "find friends and discuss cooperation."

Therefore, we can see that companies including SenseTime will actively contact companies such as Alibaba, Xinjiang Lian, and Oriental Network Power in the early stages of their efforts in the security field, directly reaching the government customer groups.

At the same time, during their rapid development, they will, in contrast to traditional security companies, place more emphasis on engineering capabilities.

In fact, it is relatively easy to understand the back and forth and secret game between the two sides. If in the security market, the technical capability of the enterprise is the vertical axis, then the engineering capability is the horizontal axis. Whoever of the new and old forces can reach the midpoint of the two lines first will be able to seek a phased victory faster.

There is another group, which can be called the "platform group".

Including giants such as Huawei and Alibaba, they have clear ideas about entering the security industry. Relying on their deep accumulation of industry channels, they build their own platforms to attract more partners and create a larger pan-security ecosystem.

At present, traditional video surveillance manufacturers such as Hikvision have already accounted for most of the market share in China. If we attack them from a single-dimensional perspective based on hardware, Huawei and other manufacturers will suffer double losses even if they kill a thousand enemies.

However, if we overtake from the platform level, it may have a strong impact on the original security structure.