Edit | Yuer Lake
Produced | Tide Rising Network "Yu See Column"
The craze brought by ChatGPT has not faded. In addition to some Internet and technology unicorn companies have launched AI large-model products, the vertically subdivided office software track has also begun to roll up wildly.
For example, collaborative office software DingTalk, Feishu and WPS released AI-related products in early April this year. The release timing of the three new products is also very interesting. On April 18, the 2023 Spring Nail Summit was held, and on the same day, Kingsoft Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Kingsoft) released WPS AI. Just a week ago, Feishu announced a new AI intelligent assistant "My AI".
Two months have passed, these office software manufacturers are still in full swing to optimize the functions and experiences related to their AI products, which is enough to confirm that domestic office giants have pointed to AI, perhaps not just rubbing hot spots, but "serious". It is worth mentioning that WPS, a subsidiary of Kingsoft Software, although it does not have traffic advantages like DingTalk and ByteDance, it is also very "hard" in the layout of AI large models.
However, AI large model products are only appearances, and what can really improve user experience and improve work efficiency is the AI algorithm and core technology behind it, as well as the product capabilities that make industry data play a role with the help of these underlying logic. Obviously, for WPS, which is just starting out in AI, this is an opportunity, but also an unprecedented challenge.
Deep cultivation of office software, but there are still shortcomings
It is understood that Kingsoft Software, which develops WPS office software products, was founded in 1988. After 25 years in this subdivision track, Kingsoft can be regarded as able to endure loneliness. Today, Kingsoft Software has also blossomed in this track, and has developed a series of well-known products such as WPS Office, Kingsoft Word Master, and Sword Warrior Love for individual users and enterprise users.
Among these products, the most well-known should be WPS, as the Chinese version of office software, WPS because of the appearance and function of Microsoft Office products are very similar, so it was once regarded as an office shell product, and even thought that WPS is MS Office (Microsoft Office) imitators, plagiarists.
In fact, this may be an illusion for most people, and even when it comes to the birth time of the product, Kingsoft WPS is the old qualification.
It is worth mentioning that WPS and office have loved and killed each other for many years, and there is still a relationship. Moreover, before Microsoft entered the Chinese market, WPS had already released the first version. Moreover, it was still the DOS era, Kingsoft founder Qiu Bojun and Peking University Founder released the first version of WPS, as a pioneer, WPS quickly dominated the office software market, with a share of more than 90%.
It is precisely because of this that the people of Microsoft found Kingsoft and proposed a cooperation agreement, that is, it can be interoperable in terms of file formats, WPS can open Office documents, and conversely, Office can also open WPS documents.
However, it is precisely because of this that Microsoft bundles its own Office through its strong Windows system, so that WPS is completely at a disadvantage, and its market share is also seized by Office. Coupled with the domestic users at that time, there was some idea of "admiring foreign countries", so that WPS's later brand influence was also very limited.
This history also taught Kingsoft a lesson, after the lack of market share, it is difficult for high-quality products to stand out. Facts have also proved that in this intelligent era, WPS has not only lagged behind in the traditional office track, but also faced various squeezes from ByteDance, Feishu, Alibaba DingTalk, and Tencent WeChat in the new collaborative office track, and the living space is becoming more and more narrow.
In addition to the limited expansion of market share, WPS still has the drawbacks of poor user experience and insufficient intelligence in the layout of AI large model products. For example, with feedback from users who participated in the WPS AI internal test, WPS's AI document layout and proofreading functions can provide good help, but sometimes errors occur and require users to manually adjust and modify.
In addition, WPS's AI-generated text capability is relatively weak and cannot meet the high-quality needs of some users. Behind this, it must be related to its insufficient technology, algorithms and data precipitation at the AI level. Coupled with the fact that powerful players such as Office are seizing share, and there are office software in the new era such as DingTalk and Feishu chasing fiercely, its new AI products are no longer of much use.
AI technology precipitation is insufficient, layout AI or blocked
As a deep cultivator in the office software industry, WPS layout AI is forced by the situation and has to be done. However, the difficulties and challenges it faces are also visible to the naked eye.
First of all, in the technology-intensive AI track, all enterprises that strive for AI need to face the challenges of technological innovation and R&D capabilities. However, as we all know, the technical capabilities of WPS office software are insufficient, which has always been a constraint to its function and experience upgrade.
Although Kingsoft occupied a place in the industry in the 80s and 90s, today, the demand for collaborative office is becoming more and more rigid, and the user's mobile office scene also needs the corresponding office software to have richer functions and more extreme experience.
In this regard, WPS is clearly inadequate. It is observed that Kingsoft layout WPS AI is first limited by the company's scale and funds, resulting in its AI research and development technology being inferior.
Although Kingsoft can be called the light of domestic products, its proportion of R&D expenses is not low, public data shows that Kingsoft Office's R&D expenses in 2022 increased by 23.08% year-on-year, its R&D investment accounted for about 34% of revenue, and R&D personnel in the past two years have also continued to stabilize at the level of nearly 70%.
However, limited by the company's revenue level, the absolute value of its R&D investment is obviously difficult to compare with the ecological operation platform of Feishu and DingTalk and other head collaborative office platforms.
Secondly, the seriousness of data security and privacy issues faced by AI manufacturers is more serious than in the office software track. As one of the software products frequently used by salaried people, WPS layout AI large model will inevitably require a lot of data processing and storage, which may involve user data security and privacy issues, and may even lead to the leakage of some companies' trade secret information.
Therefore, WPS needs to take effective measures to protect users' data security and privacy, such as strengthening data encryption and permission management. At the same time, this will inevitably increase the operating costs and technical difficulty of WPS, and add obstacles to its further efforts.
Third, in the increasingly involuted office software track, major players not only fight technology, but also experience. As user needs become more and more personalized, the requirements for the use of office software experience are also unprecedentedly high, so it is obviously not easy for users to reverse their "prejudice" against traditional office software such as WPS after users have become accustomed to the "forced" use of DingTalk, WeChat or Feishu because of the company's attendance needs. In recent years, the user's payment habit for office software has not been fully developed, which is the best proof.
The commercialization capacity is insufficient, and the layout of AI may be difficult to add to the cake
It is undeniable that since the PC era, mainland Internet users have been deeply rooted in the use of free software. Therefore, all tool software products, whether 2B or 2C, the willingness to pay has not been high, the stickiness of paying users, and the renewal rate is even lower than "pitiful".
Relevant data shows that WPS users are very willing to pay, and this is under the premise that the unit price of their membership is not high. For example, according to Kingsoft Office's financial report, even in the case of the explosion of online office demand during the epidemic in 2020, the number of paying users of WPS is only 16 million, and the overall payment ratio is less than 4%, which is a low payment ratio.
In fact, in addition to office software, even some entertainment video and audio platforms with relatively rigid user needs are difficult to solve the problems of low user willingness to pay, low loyalty, and poor stickiness. At the same time, WPS also faces the problem of genuine usage, compared with the current market pirated, cracked version of Office is basically extinct, and most office products, users have been pre-installed when buying computers. Obviously, this is also a fatal blow to WPS.
It is understood that WPS also often participates in large-scale e-commerce promotions such as Double 11 and 618 to discount member prices. But Microsoft, on the other hand, is not only expensive, but also never discounted. It can be seen that there are hard wounds in its commercialization ability. According to its past financial report data, as of the first quarter of 2022, the average growth rate of the previous seven quarters was below 20%.
From this point of analysis, it is difficult to find new growth points for WPS. On the one hand, as a purely tool-based office software, WPS does not have the social attributes of Tencent and WeChat, nor does it have the perfect office ecosystem of Alibaba DingTalk, so although the number of members is huge, there is a ceiling for user activity.
Through the mobile terminal, WPS is basically the standard configuration of users, and the university education population of 218 million people is probably the ceiling of WPS. And its growth space, the follow-up may only be to follow the overall education and cultural level of the society, and continue to improve the penetration rate. Therefore, when WPS is still lacking in terms of AI layout technology, products, experience, etc., its new intelligent functions may not be able to add points to its originally not strong commercialization capabilities.
In fact, Kingsoft is not without precipitation in the field of AI. In the early years, Kingsoft Office's self-developed document image recognition and understanding and document conversion technology has reached the world's leading level, and OCR (optical character recognition) and machine translation technology level ranks first in China.
In addition, Kingsoft Office also actively explores the next-generation human-computer interaction experience combined with AIGC (artificial intelligence generated content) and LLM (large language model) technology, and integrates in scenarios such as document translation, listening and reading, Chinese and English proofreading, speech and audio transcription, intelligent assisted writing and typesetting, intelligent analysis of table data, and one-click generation and beautification of PPT to provide users with convenient and high-quality intelligent service experience.
However, the application of AI models involves a large amount of user data and privacy information, and needs to comply with relevant laws, regulations and privacy policies. Kingsoft WPS may need to establish a sound data protection mechanism to ensure the privacy and security of users. However, once the platform is over-regulated, it will directly harm the user experience.
Similar information security incidents are not without precedent. At the beginning of July last year, WPS online collaboration products were overturned. First, some Weibo users suspected that WPS had some kind of sensitive word harmony mechanism, and their claim that files stored on cloud disks and local areas would be deleted caused heated discussions, although WPS clarified that it was because "forbidden others to access the link according to law", and then did not do so. However, it is enough to show that users' demands for stability and privacy in document editing are increasing day by day, which also indicates that in the new era of online collaborative office and AI intelligent office, a new battle for technology and user experience has quietly begun.
epilogue
Under the influence of the wave of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship, there are more and more small and medium-sized enterprises, and the market demand for more personalized and flexible office is becoming stronger and stronger. Therefore, the office software market is also in urgent need of smarter office software. Kingsoft WPS is certainly in line with the trend of the times by laying out AI and catering to the new era of AI large models.
However, limited by multiple factors such as its business ecology, technical strength, and revenue scale, just relying on AI that everyone is deploying, I am afraid it will be difficult for WPS to smoothly win back a game in the second half of the office software track. In any case, I hope that this "veteran" of the office software track can be in the second half of the market competition, and can not grow old and go to the next city.