Author | Huang Yu Editor | Liu Baodan Last year, thanks to the success of the "Speeding" on iQiyi, the company has had a difficult time recently. On the one hand, the explosively popular TV series is on hiatus, and on the other hand, the derivative concert of the variety show "Plant Some Goodness" has been criticized for "free offline but paid online." According to Wall Street News, the second Wheat Field Music Festival, produced by iQiyi's reality show "Plant Some Goodness," was held on June 6th. Some viewers had previously received free offline tickets through official activities, while online viewers, even iQiyi members, had to pay RMB 12 for viewing, and the viewing period was valid until June 14th. This differentiated pricing model has caused dissatisfaction among many viewers, who question that iQiyi's move is "cutting corners." In response, iQiyi's customer service said, "You can buy tickets to watch the concert live according to your own needs, and the edited content of the concert will be launched on the main platform in the future." In fact, this is not the first time that long video platforms represented by iQiyi have been accused of "cutting corners." In recent years, membership grading systems, early access, and inventory restrictions have often caused user backlash, in addition to paying extra for derivative programs. The differential pricing model reflects the growth anxiety faced by long-form video platforms such as "i优腾."

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Kunlun Tech, evaluated by the outside world as a "master of chasing trends", has now set its sights on the hot short video industry.

On November 10, Kunlun Tech announced that its AI short drama platform SkyReels will officially launch in the USA on December 10. This is an important step in Kunlun Tech's global AI strategy, marking further expansion in the global AI entertainment market.

SkyReels is the world's first integrated video large model and 3D large model AI short drama platform released by Kunlun Tech three months ago. According to the introduction, this platform integrates script generation, character customization, storyboarding, plot, dialogue/BGM, and film synthesis, greatly simplifying the production process of high-quality AI videos.

In short, SkyReels is not a platform for short drama content provision but a platform for short drama creation.

It not only integrates Kunlun Tech's self-developed large script model SkyScript, large storyboard model StoryboardGen, 3D generation model Sky3DGen, but also integrates the industry's first innovative platform WorldEngine that deeply integrates AI 3D engine with video models.

Kunlun Tech pointed out that SkyReels not only provides powerful creative tools for professional content creators, but also greatly reduces the threshold for AI short film creation, making it easy for non-professional users to get started. The production form of AI videos and short films has been validated by the market, with huge commercial potential.

In order to better enter the market, SkyReels has been continuously iterated and upgraded in the past few months. For example, in script generation, SkyReels has enriched a massive collection of popular creative templates; in character generation, the development team has added a large AI actor library.

In addition, SkyReels has added special features such as 3D interactive editing, AI full-body motion assistance, actor teaching library, actor wardrobe, and character customization capabilities.

In Kunlun Tech's plan, in the next few months, SkyReels will further enrich content and improve user experience through cooperation with local content creators and production teams in North America. At the same time, the platform will actively explore cooperation opportunities with major media platforms in North America to achieve wider market coverage.

After ChatGPT sparked the wave of AI large models, Kunlun Tech, with the 'Tiangong large model,' became one of the first domestic companies to join the 'Battle of the Hundreds of Models,' vigorously promoting 'All in AGI and AIGC.' Now its business covers multiple areas including information distribution, social, entertainment, metaverse, games, and AIGC.

However, with significant investment in AI large models, Kunlun Tech must find a more reliable commercial path for AI monetization as soon as possible.

Financial reports show that in the first three quarters of this year, Kunlun Tech achieved revenue of 3.828 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.00%. Meanwhile, research and development expenses increased by 84.47% year-on-year to 1.144 billion yuan during the same period, and non-GAAP net profit attributable to shareholders decreased by 546.4% year-on-year to -0.241 billion yuan.

In addition to large-scale models, social, gaming, music, and search, the short video industry can become a new direction for kunlun tech's AI business to target, due to its huge development potential. It is important to know that in recent years, relying on the rapid development of short videos, short dramas, with their small size, short duration, and fast pace, have become very popular.

The latest released "China Internet Development Statistics Report" shows that the user scale of short videos has accounted for 52.4% of the overall internet users. According to relevant statistics, the market size of short videos in 2023 reached 37.39 billion yuan, an increase of 267.65% compared to 2022, and is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan by 2024.

Not only in China, but the trend of short videos is also sweeping the globe, ushering in a vigorous development. According to the "2024 Short Video Overseas Marketing White Paper" released by TikTok for Business, the short video trend is rapidly expanding globally, with the overseas market's short video app downloads soaring over the past two years, and the market size surpassing the billion-dollar level. It is estimated that the overseas user scale of short videos will reach 200-300 million in the future, marking a new form of entertainment gradually establishing its position globally.

The white paper also points out that the USA is currently the largest market for the overseas expansion of short videos, ranking first in user viewing time and app store revenue. In the American market, short videos have rapidly become one of the mainstream content consumption forms. At the same time, the preference for content diversity in the US market also provides broad creative space for short videos.

Moreover, compared to domestic users, the high willingness to pay and consumption capacity of overseas users have brought enormous commercial potential to SkyReels.

At the same time, overseas markets have always been the main battlefield for kunlun tech. The financial report shows that in the first three quarters of this year, kunlun tech's overseas business revenue further increased to 89.68%, up 5.62 percentage points year-on-year;

However, both domestic and overseas large-scale model manufacturers are constantly accelerating model iterations, and it is not easy for domestic large-scale models and AIGC applications to stand out.

Analyst Xu Shengjun from Jianghai Securities pointed out that the competition in the large-scale model field is relatively fierce, and it will still be a continuous process of customer verification to determine which large-scale model can succeed. Currently, China is in a stage of intense competition with many players, and the final competitive landscape is not yet clear.

For Kunlun Tech, challenges such as the high training costs of large models and the instability of talent teams may all be issues.

On November 9, Kunlun Tech also announced that Yan Shuicheng will no longer serve as the director of the 2050 Global Research Institute, but will instead become an honorary advisor to Kunlun Tech. It is important to note that in September last year, Kunlun Tech's 2050 Global Research Institute was formally established, and AI expert Yan Shuicheng was invited to be the first director.

According to Kunlun Tech, the new director of the 2050 Global Research Institute will be officially announced shortly, and the team is currently focusing on cutting-edge research on large models and project implementation.

This AI competition is bound to be a marathon, and Kunlun Tech has a long road ahead.