On April 17, Weimeng Group (2013.HK) officially released its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report, focusing on core topics such as “Continuously improving corporate governance,” “moving towards a sustainable climate and environment,” “striving for sustainable employment relationships,” “sustainably accelerating business development,” and “contributing to a beautiful and sustainable society”.
The report shows that Weimeng Group's sustainable development achievements have been recognized by various sectors. In 2023, Weimeng was selected as an excellent case in the “ESG Research Report on Listed Companies in China (2023)”. The report has been published continuously for six years and is one of the most authoritative annual reports in the field of social science; Weimeng's new WOS business operating system can reduce the cost and increase efficiency of enterprises, and was successfully selected as the “2023 ESG Innovation Practice Case for Listed Companies” in the “Securities Times”; Weimeng's “Village-Enterprise Joint Construction and Cooperation to Develop the Country” project was shortlisted for the “2023 Outstanding Case of Social Responsibility and Social Welfare” of the Internet Network, which responds to the country's strategy for rural revitalization It is an important expression of fulfilling social responsibility; the Weimeng headquarters building is a “zero carbon building” science and technology demonstration project of the “14th Five-Year Plan” national key research and development plan “low carbon building” demonstration project.
“2023 is an important moment for the 10th anniversary of the founding of Weimeng Group. In ten years, we have taken advantage of the wind and made continuous progress from small to big, from scratch.” Sun Taoyong, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Weimeng, said, “From a new starting point, we will adhere to the core brand proposition of 'let growth continue to occur, 'so that the company's users continue to grow, data value continues to grow, channel empowerment continues to improve, corporate quality efficiency continues to grow, and model innovation continues to iterate. We will live up to the trust of our customers, partners, and every Weimeng person.”
Improve the compliance governance structure, and Weimeng's data management capabilities have reached a steady level
Weimeng always adheres to the “customer first” concept, attaches great importance to data governance and security, and regards data security as an indispensable part of corporate social responsibility. At the same time, strengthening the data security system is a key means of coping with the new global digital economy order and promoting the marketization of data elements. It is also the foundation for meeting the challenges of digital technology innovation. To this end, Weimeng has established a systematic and comprehensive data security management framework and formulated a strict set of data management systems and procedures to fully protect the data security of customers and employees. In addition, Weimeng has established two industrial investment funds, the Shanghai Weixin Venture Capital Center and the Beijing Weizhi Digital Investment Center, which focus on “network information security” and aim to help promising companies and enhance China's digital competitiveness.
It is worth mentioning that in order to strengthen compliance management within the Weimeng Group and effectively prevent and control compliance risks, Weimeng formally established a compliance committee in August 2023 and established a three-tier ESG governance structure with a board of directors, compliance committee, professional committee, and ESG working group. The daily compliance and ESG management work is coordinated by the Chairman of the Compliance Committee, and the Business Conduct Committee, the Employee Conduct Committee, the Data Security Committee, the Integrity and Self-Regulatory Committee, and the ESG Working Group cooperate to jointly implement and implement compliance and ESG related goals and policies.
The Data Security Committee undertakes five responsibilities to protect data compliance: coordinate the overall deployment of enterprise data security, research, draft and publish data security related systems; meet external regulatory compliance requirements for network data security; organize or assist in data security compliance training and provide data security compliance advice and support; evaluate and decide on risk acceptance guidelines and acceptable risk levels, approve risk assessment reports and risk treatment plans; study and decide on important matters of data security system construction, and supervise the implementation of data security system plans.
Under perfect work coordination, Weimeng successfully obtained the “Data Management Capability Maturity (DCMM) Steady Level (Level 3) Certificate” issued by the China Electronic Information Industry Federation in 2023 to ensure that the company's data security management meets international and domestic recognition standards. DCMM compliance is organized and published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and comprehensively covers the eight core competencies of data strategy, data governance, data architecture, data application, data security, data quality, data standards and data lifetime. Previously, Weimeng formally reached a strategic cooperation with Tencent Cloud and Tencent Security, and jointly established the “Private Domain Security Laboratory” to jointly cultivate nearly 100 security capacity building projects in the field of full-stack security, such as business security, basic security, and data security, to create an integrated private security solution covering the entire business process to protect the digital transformation of enterprises.
In order to improve its ability to respond to security incidents, Weimei League will also regularly participate in district-level, city-level, and national-level offensive and defense exercises. In 2023, Weimeng participated in a total of 7 security attacks and defense exercises. In order to deepen employees' understanding of the importance of privacy and data security and ensure that they fully comply with the company's security policies and measures, Weimeng regularly conducts privacy and data security training. There are a total of 12 security training sessions in 2023.
Let growth continue to occur and focus on long-term high-quality development
In 2023, Weimeng carried out a comprehensive brand upgrade and proposed a new slogan: “Let growth continue to happen.” Among them, “sustainability” is the key word, focusing on high-quality development and thinking more about sustainable growth.
The climate environment is sustainable.In order to deepen the fight against climate change and promote carbon neutrality and related work, Weimu has achieved a number of “firsts”. Weimeng published and disclosed environmental information disclosure (TCFD) reports for the first time, and conducted climate risk assessments and context analysis for the first time to identify significant entities and transformation risks associated with the company's operations, assess related impacts and opportunities, and formulate countermeasures in line with the company's strategy and development. Weimei also published and disclosed the “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report” for the first time, and scientifically calculated emissions under Scope 3 (Scope 3) based on the “GHG PROTOCOL ACCOUNTING STANDARD” (GHG PROTOCOL ACCOUNTING STANDARD) (GHG PROTOCOL ACCOUNTING STANDARD). According to the 2023 emission inventory and analysis, taking into account the company's emission sources and future plans, Weimeng plans to peak emissions in 2024, achieve the goals of reducing emissions by 50% in 2035 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.
It is worth mentioning that Weimeng's new headquarters building is an ultra-low energy consumption building. The foundation work was completed in 2023. It is expected to be capped at the end of 2024 and put into use in 2025. This headquarters building is one of the first in Shanghai and the first ultra-low energy consumption project in Baoshan District. It can save about 1.6 million kilowatts of electricity and reduce carbon emissions by about 1,338 tons every year, and is expected to reduce building energy consumption by at least 15%.
Corporate governance is sustainable.During the reporting period, Weimeng established the Integrity and Self-Regulatory Commission to strengthen integrity supervision and management, formulated the “Weimeng Group Integrity Management System”, “Conflict of Interest Management System”, and “Administrative Measures on Gift and Gift Deposit Handling”, improved the “Weimeng Group Report Management System”, and clarified the red line of integrity. Employees are required to sign the “Employee Integrity Management Agreement”, and the signing rate of the supplier's “Weimeng Group Integrity Management Agreement” has reached 100%. By carrying out a number of integrity activities and organizing multiple integrity training sessions, we vigorously raise employees' awareness of integrity. As early as 2022, Weimeng joined the “Enterprise Anti-Fraud Alliance” and the “Sunshine Integrity Alliance” to enhance exchanges and communication with other companies.
The business strategy is sustainable. Weimeng's strategic layout has always been guided by its mission and vision, thoroughly analyzing the external environment and internal resource capabilities, and then deciding how to enter new fields, whether through mergers and acquisitions, or independent research and development. When considering its own development, the company is also actively seeking a healthier industry environment and seeking a win-win development situation. During the reporting period, Weimeng's strategic investment in Aoqiwei Information Technology Co., Ltd. through the “asset+cash” approach was a successful attempt. By integrating the benchmark customer resource pool and digital experience, it gave full play to the synergy and jointly developed the digital catering market.
Actively promote the healthy development of the entire industry and drive transformation and progress through investment
As a leading enterprise in the field of digitalization, Weimeng has actively participated in the construction and improvement of industry standards with ten years of practical experience and technical accumulation, continuously put forward constructive suggestions and opinions, and contributed to the healthy development of the entire industry.
In 2022, Weimeng was invited to join the Shanghai Information Standardization Technical Committee Standards Working Group - WG3 Data Circulation and Digital Trust Working Group. In 2023, Weimeng Group participated in the formulation and release of two group standards, “Commercial Enterprise Digital Transformation Capability Maturity Model” and “Commercial Enterprise Digital Transformation Capability Maturity Assessment Method”. Among them, the latter was also selected as one of the top ten typical cases of the Shanghai Group Standard. Weimeng also collaborated with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and the China Advertising Association to formulate three group standards, including the “Internet Advertisers' Personal Consultation, Notification and Consent Guidelines,” “AI-based Automatic Marketing Video Generation Service,” and “Digital Marketing Technology Virtual Digital Human Driven Technical Requirements”.
In addition, the Shanghai Standardization Pilot Demonstration Project “Enterprise Decentralized Digital Transformation Standardization Pilot”, was successfully approved as a municipal key project. The project aims to establish a standard system, prepare standards, implement and evaluate standards in the field of digital transformation, and continuously improve standards according to changes in the internal and external environment. Through the pilot project, four standard systems will be established: a general basic service standard system, a service provision standard system, a service guarantee standard system, and a corresponding job standard system. Summarize and consolidate innovative achievements, replicate and promote successful experiences, comprehensively enhance the industry's digital transformation capabilities, and enable sustainable enterprise growth.
In order to promote cooperation between schools and enterprises to achieve high-quality development and establish a new cooperation model integrating industry and education, Weimeng Group and the Sydney Business School of Shanghai University jointly signed the “Industry-University-Research Cooperation Base Agreement”. Weimeng's business development is highly compatible with the talent development goals of Shanghai University's Sydney Business School. Through this in-depth cooperation, Weimeng hopes to achieve a win-win situation between schools and enterprises, meet the actual needs of enterprises and industries, inject new vitality into the college's subject construction, system reform, and talent training, promote the college's development to a higher level, and make positive contributions to cultivating more outstanding talents and promoting industrial innovation and development.
Investment projects not only help digitize the industry, but also have the potential to disrupt the industry and change the current imbalance of resources in some industries. Nanjing Chuangyi Huaying Weimeng New Industry Equity Investment Fund is an industrial fund under Weimeng that focuses on investing in promising SaaS projects and enterprises. By building an enterprise ecosystem cooperation system, we promote business collaboration and deep empowerment, provide customers with more comprehensive and integrated solutions, and promote the maturity and progress of China's SaaS service market.
epilogue
From 2013 to 2023, Weimeng invested more than 2.5 billion dollars in R&D from only 16 partners to over 4,500 employees. Over the past ten years, Weimeng has always insisted on being customer-centered, and is also forging ahead in rapidly changing markets and technology development.
Although the SaaS circuit is currently experiencing a trough, the wave of digitalization trends in China and around the world is irreversible. Weimeng has certain industry advantages in various aspects such as talents and teams, products and technology, services and experience, market share, and capital markets. The essence of SaaS is the compounding of time and cycles. The wave of technology represented by cloud computing, big data, and AI is reshaping thousands of industries. Domestic and international markets still nurture unlimited opportunities for innovation and development. Only by “sticking to the distance and returning to value” can we get through the economic cycle.