By Yao Xueqing, People’s Daily
When Li Tao, the software department supervisor at Sevice — a security technology company based in Jiangsu — opened Wuxi’s AI industry service platform, he navigated straight to the “Token Supermarket” on the homepage. He logged into his account to check usage metrics and his remaining balance.
Li’s company specializes in intelligent security, with software development as its core business. “Since last year, AI has handled 85 percent of our software development workflows,” Li said. The company needs to purchase tokens from various large language model platforms, with fees calculated based on usage.
Initially, the company’s demand for tokens was limited, and the cost was almost negligible. But as computing needs grew rapidly, monthly expenses increased. Different large models have different capabilities and applications, Li said. Companies not only have to cope with rising costs, but also manage and maintain multiple accounts and switch between different models, he added.
In May this year, Wuxi rolled out this city-level “Token Supermarket.” Li Tao visited the platform the very day it went live. Lined up on its virtual “shelves” were over 20 mainstream large models, covering nearly all those widely adopted by enterprises.
Thanks to the platform’s centralized procurement, most offerings are available at favorable rates. Even more convenient, users need only a single registered account to call upon different large models on demand.
The company immediately decided to register with the “Token Supermarket” and top up its account. Li did the math: with a monthly recharge of 20,000 yuan ($2,963), more than 30 engineers can use 4 billion to 5 billion tokens. The complimentary concurrent-access benefit package has also enabled more than 30 employees to work efficiently in parallel.
As a result, the company has cut research and development costs by nearly 30 percent, shortened software development cycles from two weeks to less than one week, and increased efficiency by 50 percent.
Why did Wuxi launch such a “Token Supermarket,” and what makes it unique?
According to Zhu Yiqing, deputy general manager of Wuxi Digital New Infrastructure Co., Ltd., which operates the platform, token usage is growing rapidly, but companies still face challenges such as high costs, complicated management of multiple AI model accounts and difficulties in calculating expenses.The “Token Supermarket” was developed to provide a one-stop purchasing platform and has already served more than 50 enterprises.
Its customers include not only companies like Li’s that purchase tokens to assist with daily office work, but also many enterprises that buy tokens as “bulk raw materials” for further processing and development.
Dramasmaker, a startup developing AI-powered animated storytelling production tools, is one such customer. The company was founded in August last year and spent more than six months independently developing a one-stop animation production system, which entered the testing and production phase in May of this year, said general manager Wei Jianfei.
The company needs to purchase large amounts of tokens, resulting in high costs. During the early startup stage, this placed considerable pressure on its cash flow, Wei said.
Zhu noted that the “Token Supermarket” can also be connected with financial services, with financial products to be integrated into the platform’s payment system.
Notably, staff members of the “Token Supermarket” are currently sprucing up its virtual premises: alongside an existing “brand zone,” a new “local-source offerings zone” has been rolled out.
According to Zhu, Wuxi’s computing-power industry is developing rapidly, with 19 intelligent computing centers now up and running, most of which deliver computing power for immediate sale.
Tokens generated by these intelligent computing centers are listed on the “Token Supermarket,” bringing cost-competitive options for users. The platform also bolsters the local computing-power sector while serving small and medium-sized enterprises.