Understanding the Market | SaaS concept stocks lead in gains as reduced inference costs boost AI application popularity; institutions claim that general SaaS is the infrastructure for AI Agents
SaaS concept stocks performed strongly, with YIDU TECH rising 8.23%, WEIMOB INC rising 6.33%, KINGSOFT rising 3.95%, MARKETINGFORCE rising 3.87%, and KINGDEE INT'L rising 2.83%. CITIC Securities pointed out that the inference cost of the DeepSeek model is lower than that of GPT-4, which may drive the popularization of AI applications. Minsheng Securities believes that AI Agents will reassess software value, with a market scale reaching trillions of dollars, and general SaaS serves as the infrastructure for AI Agents, leading enterprises to accelerate their cloudification and AI transformation processes
According to Zhitong Finance APP, SaaS concept stocks are among the top gainers. As of the time of publication, YIDU TECH (02158) rose by 8.23%, trading at HKD 5; WEIMOB INC (02013) increased by 6.33%, trading at HKD 2.35; KINGSOFT (03888) went up by 3.95%, trading at HKD 36.8; MARKETINGFORCE (02556) climbed by 3.87%, trading at HKD 64.4; and KINGDEE INT'L (00268) rose by 2.83%, trading at HKD 10.18.
In terms of news, the Deepseek application developed by the domestic large model company Hangzhou Deep Research topped the free app download rankings in the Apple App Store in China and the United States on January 27, surpassing ChatGPT in the U.S. download rankings. CITIC Securities research report pointed out that the smaller parameter size of the DeepSeek model compared to the GPT-4 model also means lower inference costs, and the reduction in inference costs will be a prelude to the popularization of AI applications.
Minsheng Securities noted that AI Agents may become an important catalyst for the revaluation of software, with the target market for software vendors expected to expand to trillions of dollars in the labor market. AI Agents are also expected to enhance the consumption attributes of software, further opening up the valuation ceiling for software vendors: general SaaS serves as the "infrastructure" for AI Agents, and enterprises may accelerate their transition to cloud and then to AI; vertical applications are expected to experience several times the TAM growth with the help of AI, while also becoming an important part of the large model and general SaaS ecosystem