> I would say I'm still in this mindset. Numbers are hard to come by but analysts optimistically put Chinese SaaS market at ~10% of the size of the US.

Exactly it's mindset. I used pulled up 1st result when I used Google [0][1] and it is ~20%. It also forecasts huge growth potential.

[0]: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/horizon/outlook/software-a...

[1]: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/horizon/outlook/software-a...

> reflecting that SaaS in China is much more services and implementation heavy

I wouldn't read into it too much. There's creative accounting and other things involved. Also what is services and not e.g. "premium support"?

> So it feels like the direct to business SaaS's like Salesforce aren't really there and then then the selling to SaaS titans like Datadog have a much smaller flywheel to work in.

US companies struggle for many other reasons that I rather not go into but definitely not a SaaS nor China issue. I mean yes it is a China issue as in businesses need to adapt to different cultures rather than 1 size fit all but that applies everywhere.