2008 saw the beginning of Mingdao as a test project of MeiHua Information Co., Ltd. The initial goal was only to solve the internal communication and collaboration inside the company. The team eventually finished the initial edition of the product planning after the Chinese New Year in 2011, and the project was given the official name Mingdao. This was done after multiple phases including project planning, start-up, suspension, re-study, and re-development.

The name of the project is taken from an old saying: "Follow the Trend, Define Strategy and Direction, and Continuously Optimize Techniques”. Among them, "Follow the Trend" represents the strategic decision-making capability of the enterprise, while "Continuously Optimize Techniques" represents the professional capability of the enterprise and its staff. The middle section, "Define Strategy and Direction", which links the first and second parts, describes how to transform individual capabilities into enterprise capabilities through organizational synergy, always keep an eye on strategic goals, establish goal orientation, and eventually create a fully competitive enterprise.

Mingdao underwent a number of iterations over the subsequent 3 years, eventually maturing into the enterprise SaaS collaboration software based on the concept of social enterprise. In addition to achieving the original project goal, it also created an original business value. MeiHua made the decision to commercialize Mingdao in order to fundamentally assist more businesses in overcoming a variety of management and collaboration issues and realize the benefits of transparent dialogue and flat teamwork.

On January 7, 2012, Mingdao made its public debut, following a full year of development and internal testing.

As soon as Mingdao was formally launched, it was coveted by a variety of corporate users nationwide. The number of registrations soared, and an increasing number of users began paying for the advanced version. Well-established enterprises such as China Telecom, PICC, PetroChina, Central Wide Joint Media, Peking University, CapitaLand, Roewe Auto, Yidao Yongche, 7 Days Inn, CorePlayer, Vipshop, and Handu Group, have all become subscribers of Mingdao one after another.

A great story will always have unexpected turns, and Mingdao also went through some difficult moments when it was growing.

The collaborative SaaS market started going through significant changes in 2015. With a completely free business model, leading internet products like DingTalk, WeChat Work, and Feishu began to rebuild the market structure. Unfortunately, Mingdao was not spared from this severe hit.

Beginning in 2016, Mingdao Cloud encountered enormous difficulties in accessing and keeping customers. By the end of 2017, Mingdao had been unable to successfully position itself in its core market. Mingdao's story, however, never ended, and it tried to explore a turnaround through a significant product transformation. But the transition process was not easy, and Mingdao's attempts at human resources and vertical segments both failed.

The Mingdao team made an attempt to create a building block-like enterprise software at the start of 2018 that allows customers to create corporate apps with the usage of no-code tools. Mingdao finally released a new no-code application platform, Mingdao Cloud, in May 2019 after more than a year of development, and continued to iterate it in order to increase its sophistication. Mingdao Cloud introduced a private deployment version based on container technology in March 2020, opening the door for itself to access foundational sectors like finance, energy, and government.

As the product became more and more sophisticated, the application platform product needed to establish a unique channel model that made use of the expertise and technology of its partners to increase the value of Mingdao Cloud's products from a tool-based platform to vertical industry solutions. As a result, Mingdao started to consider a sustainable business model. The Mingdao Cloud Partner Program debuted in 2020.

Mingdao Cloud had attracted more than 200 partners after more than 2 years of development and had created a no-code partner ecosystem featured with equality, reciprocity, and consumer benefit. The benefits of the partner ecosystem have helped Mingdao make significant strides in the commercial world. By effectively converting losses into gains in 2020, securing new funding in 2021, and establishing a dominant position in the APaaS industry, the company accelerated the growth of its business.

The move from Mingdao to Mingdao Cloud was challenging. We have improved our business capabilities, honed our team's resiliency, and deepened our understanding of the Chinese enterprise software industry during this process of rebirth. The no-code approach, which can lower the cost, difficulty, and communication barriers of digital construction in enterprises, facilitate the convergence of business and IT, and enable the increasingly pervasive democratization of digital technology, has been identified by Mingdao Cloud as a new window of opportunity in the enterprise digital market. This is also the mission of Mingdao Cloud.

The story of Mingdao has neither come to an end, and new chances and difficulties present themselves every day. The Mingdao team pursues the ambition to design and create tools for business productivity. Every advantage that customers receive from utilizing the product has encouraged Mingdao to keep moving forward.

For the brand story of Mingdao Cloud, refer to "Ten Mingdao Cloud Iterations that Cross the Dead Line"written by Ren Xianghui, the founder of Mingdao