Interface News Reporter | Hu Zhenming
Interface News Editor |
Millions of words of online novels continue to be produced in massive numbers, Chinese online (300364. SZ) is in the era of content explosion.
On the afternoon of October 13, Chinese released the AI-assisted creation model "Chinese Xiaoyao Big Model" online, saying that it is the world's first 10,000-character creation model, and the production of content products has entered the mode of "human + computing power". The large model can generate a novel story summary and chapter writing outline according to the creator's creativity and ideas, and also has a variety of auxiliary creation functions such as continuing the novel, looking at pictures to write the novel, simulating character dialogue, etc.
Previously, the large model was slightly mysterious, and Chinese rarely disclosed information about the "Chinese Easy Big Model" online. In the era of content explosion, in the face of the problem that content and IP procurement require a lot of capital investment, Chinese Online has clearly stated that it will increase investment in high-quality content, so can the research and development of AI-assisted creation models help Chinese achieve this goal online?
Content resource reserves require large investments
Public information shows that Chinese Online is one of the leading providers of genuine digital content, and has greater competitive advantages in the fields of digital content operation and IP integration development.
Chinese Online has a number of original content platforms such as 17K Novel Network, April Day Novel Network, Fantasy Universe Science Fiction Station, and Mystery Project Suspense Station, accumulating more than 5.5 million digital content resources and 4.5 million original resident authors on the Internet; On the other hand, the company continues to develop channels for obtaining high-quality digital content copyrights, has established good cooperative relations with more than 600 copyright institutions, and signed more than 2,000 well-known authors and best-selling authors.
Wu Jiang, chief technology officer (CTO) of Chinese Online, introduced that 1 million words of novels are short, some well-known fantasy novels and fairy tale novels are six or seven million words, and some novels have more than 10 million words.
In fact, in the field of online novels, the content produced by creators is endless and massive. "Quantity" is an important content reserve evaluation indicator. Chinese Online also has invested a lot in content resources, and in June this year, it released the "2023 A-share Issuance Plan to Specific Targets" (hereinafter referred to as the "Additional Issuance Plan"), which intends to raise 2.510 billion yuan, of which 1.553 billion yuan will be invested in the "IP content resource upgrade construction project".
In the investment plan of the "IP Content Resources Upgrade and Construction Project", it is proposed to invest 1.262 billion yuan in copyright procurement costs, accounting for 81.27% of the total investment of the project, and the remaining 18.73% of the funds will be used as IP derivative production costs. The planned construction period of the project is 3 years, but Chinese said online that it will dynamically adjust the project implementation progress according to actual needs. As for the economic benefits of the project, Chinese Online did not specifically demonstrate it in the additional issuance plan, but only disclosed that: "It is estimated that this project has good economic benefits." ”
Obviously, the procurement of content and IP requires Chinese to invest a lot of money and related resources online. So, after the release of the Chinese Xiaoyao model as an auxiliary tool for creation, the efficiency of creation will be improved, and more high-quality content will be produced, what impact will it have on the procurement of content and IP and related investment in Chinese Online? The interface news reporter interviewed Tong Zhilei, chairman of Chinese Online.
Tong Zhilei told the interface news reporter that AI will greatly increase the supply of content, but greatly increasing the supply will definitely produce a challenge, that is, in the era of too much supply and content explosion, it is more difficult for good content to stand out.
In the interview, Tong Zhilei believes that if the content produced by the creator becomes a head content, its value will be greater; As a result, Chinese online will invest more in quality content; The acquisition of the domestic head IP announced at the end of June this year is also the same logic, on the one hand, seeing the explosion of content supply in the AI era, on the other hand, the value of high-quality content is greater.
According to the announcement issued by Chinese Online on June 28, Chinese Online intends to acquire 51.04% of the equity of Beijing Hanmu Chunhua Animation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hanmu Chunhua") for a consideration of 138 million yuan. Hanmu Chunhua takes the operation of "Luo Xiaohei" series IP as the core, and its main business segments are divided into animation drama business, animation film business, peripheral licensing business and derivative sales business.
Zhang Ping, the founder of Hanmu Chunhua, created the image of "Luo Xiaohei" in 2010, and the first season of his animated drama "Luo Xiaohei" was launched on station B from 2011 to 2019, and the second season of the animated drama "Luo Xiaohei" was launched on station B in April 2021; In 2015, Hanmu Chunhua began the production of the animated film "Luo Xiao Black War", which was released in 2019 and achieved box office revenue of more than 300 million yuan.
The research and development of AI-assisted creation also requires a large investment
In the additional issuance plan released in June this year, Chinese Online also plans to invest the funds raised in the "digital content intelligent upgrade construction project based on new technology" and "data middle platform and comprehensive information system technology upgrade construction project", respectively, investing 731 million yuan and 126 million yuan, from the project construction content, these two projects and the just released "Chinese Xiaoyao model" have quite similarities.
The digital content intelligent upgrade construction project based on new technologies will intelligently upgrade the digital content production and generation methods, and further expand the application of AIGC technology in vertical fields. The upgraded AIGC technology has a larger network structure, more parameters, can learn and process more complex and advanced laws and tasks, and can play a considerable role in the field of digital cultural content creation.
Since the intelligent upgrade of digital content will increase the speed of updating content data Chinese online, the additional issuance plan also includes the data middle platform and comprehensive information system technology upgrade construction project, and it is planned to carry out a comprehensive technical upgrade of the data middle platform from three aspects: architecture layer, tool layer and capability layer, which is an upgrade of the basic capability level and the underlying technology.
It is reported that on October 13 Chinese the "Chinese Xiaoyao Big Model" released online was called the world's first 10,000-character creation model. Tong Zhilei, chairman of Chinese Online, said that the Chinese Xiaoyao model is an AI aid for creation, and in the production of content products, it will enter the "manpower" mode from the "manpower" mode to the "manpower + computing power" model.
Specifically, from the conception of the story, the setting of the world view, the arrangement of the plot, the writing of the content, and even the dialogue of the characters, the production of illustrations, and even the judgment of the quality of the content, the Chinese Xiaoyao model can provide authors with AI functions to assist creation throughout the creation cycle, allowing writers to spend their time, energy, and talent in more important places (that is, the ideas, thoughts, etc. that most need human wisdom).
At the "Chinese Easy Model" press conference, Wu Jiang, Chinese online CTO Wu Jiang, demonstrated how to use the Chinese Xiaoyao model for novel creation. Chinese the big model can output a few words of creativity and ideas input by the creator as a story summary, and then complete the chapter outline of a novel, and then generate a novel of more than 10,000 words. Wu Jiang also demonstrated how to use the Chinese Xiaoyao model to create a novel with a single picture, as well as to continue the novel, simulate character dialogue and other functions.
Wu Jiang said that Chinese Online has opened the use of the Chinese Xiaoyao model to some creators as one of their tools for content creation. Chinese Xiaoyao model as a newly developed AI-assisted creation tool, there is still room for improvement and perfection, Chinese Online will maintain R&D investment.
The interface news reporter noted that the "Chinese Easy Model" released this time was rarely seen in the announcement disclosed by Chinese online before; As for the historical research and development and investment of the large model, the relevant person in charge of the company did not give a detailed introduction to the interface news reporter, nor did he provide relevant exact information.
According to Chinese Online's 2022 annual report, the main R&D projects at that time included four projects: "Sentinel Chain Data Rights Protection Platform System", "AI Anchor", "Fifth Realm System Management Software" and "Interactive Visual Reading and Related Projects".
However, Chinese Online said in its 2022 annual report that AIGC provides content producers with a new generation of intelligent creation tools, from story synopsis, role simulation, and plot continuation in story writing, to independent creation and one-click generation in graphic and text combination, video creation, and content creation is leapfrogging from the "human" era to the "computing power" era; Through active exploration in the field of AI, Chinese has 3 AIGC products in application.
In the 2023 semi-annual report, Chinese disclosed online: "At present, the company's self-developed digital content intelligent generation model effectively improves the quality of novel creation while retaining the ability of versatility, and realizes functions such as auxiliary creation and continuation of novels, as well as chatbots based on role setting." ”
In 2022, Chinese Online's R&D investment was 136 million yuan, compared with 123 million yuan and 119 million yuan in the previous two years, respectively, and the investment scale did not change significantly, accounting for about 11% of operating income. After the capitalized amount of R&D expenditure appeared in 2020 with 20.8 million yuan (accounting for 16.88% of R&D investment), it was 4.3578 million yuan in 2021 and 2.4338 million yuan in 2022, respectively, and the proportion of R&D investment decreased to 3.65% and 1.79%. In the first half of 2023, Chinese Online's R&D investment was 50.8035 million yuan, down 25.92% compared with the same period of the previous year.