3 6 Ke·2026-01-07 11:15Core Insights - The AI cloud market is increasingly recognizing the importance of Token consumption as a key performance indicator, often referred to as the "North Star metric" for guiding strategic direction [2][3][4] - The rapid growth of Token consumption in China reflects the swift expansion of AI applications, with daily Token consumption projected to reach 30 trillion by mid-2025, up from 1 trillion at the beginning of 2024 [1][7] Token Consumption and Market Dynamics - Token is becoming a crucial metric for cloud service providers, with major companies like Amazon AWS and Alibaba Cloud actively expanding their MaaS (Model as a Service) offerings [6][10] - Despite the rapid growth in Token consumption, it currently represents a small fraction of overall cloud revenue, indicating that the Token market alone cannot sustain the growth of the broader cloud market [4][10] - The AI cloud market is projected to grow significantly, with estimates suggesting it will reach $72 billion by 2025 and $268 billion by 2030, although the MaaS segment will still only account for about 9% of the total by 2030 [7][11] Challenges and Limitations - There are significant blind spots in current Token consumption statistics, as they primarily rely on public cloud API data and do not fully capture private deployments or other AI computing scenarios [4][14] - The decision-making process for enterprises regarding AI cloud services often does not prioritize Token consumption as a core metric, focusing instead on business value and cost reduction [26][27] Future Outlook - The potential for Token revenue growth varies among cloud providers, with some optimistic forecasts suggesting that certain companies could see Token income rise to between 4 billion and 7 billion in the next 1-2 years [11][12] - The complexity of AI cloud services means that a singular focus on Token consumption may obscure other critical factors influencing market dynamics and enterprise adoption [19][22][29] - The long-term success of AI cloud services will depend on their ability to integrate seamlessly into business processes and deliver measurable value, rather than merely focusing on Token consumption metrics [30][31]