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[mamun52]

New switch added to mini program page

In the personal center of the WeChat beta version of the mini program, a new "Discover Mini Program Personalized Recommendations" switch option has been HE Tuber added.

The specific path is: WeChat bottom bar discovery-mini program-little man icon in the upper right corner-discover mini program personalized recommendations.

When this option is turned on, WeChat will recommend mini programs that may be of interest based on mini program usage records.

It should be reminded that this option is still in grayscale testing, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see it.

Xiaolei feels that it may be that the personalized push algorithm is not perfect yet, which is why this function has been tested repeatedly~

4. Watch ads and listen to VIP music for free

In July last year, after WeChat was updated to version 8.0.38, music, audio and recently played buttons were added to the drop-down mini program page.

After clicking the "Music" button, WeChat will jump to a page similar to a music APP, where we can listen to songs.

At that time, WeChat and QQ Music launched limited-time activities. After receiving the VIP song limited-time experience card, you can listen to VIP songs for free on WeChat.

In the latest internal beta version of WeChat for iOS 8.0.46, WeChat “Music” supports listening to VIP songs for free!

Important things to say three times: Currently only iOS, iOS, and iOS beta versions support it, and Android next door should be coming soon.

Well, at the top of the "Music" page on WeChat, a new column labeled "Watch ads and listen to the full version for free" has been added.

In the player interface, a line of labels "Watch ads and listen to the full version for free" will also appear under the progress bar .

After clicking on these tags, "for every 15 seconds of ads we watch," we "can listen to 30 minutes of VIP songs for free."

Maybe some friends think that only half an hour of listening time is not enough? WeChat has already figured it out for you.

No problem, WeChat provides the option to continue watching ads. As long as you keep watching ads, you can get additional free time.

Source: InternetDoes this wave of WeChat operations feel familiar? Yes, it’s a bit like QQ Music’s “free listening mode”.

For some friends who only like to listen to music lightly, there is one less music APP to install on their mobile phones.

5. Storage space cleaning supports more categories

WeChat chat history and various files occupy the internal storage space of the phone, which must be a big problem for small memory.

WeChat has also realized that in the past two years, the updated version has made some upgrades to "storage space" from time to time.

The previous storage space cleaning has already supported the cleaning of cache and chat records, and a new option has been added in the internal beta version.

It’s this “resource file and chat history of other accounts”.

This contains resource files required for running some functions of WeChat, as well as chat records of other accounts that have been logged in on the current device. We need to remind everyone that chat records of other accounts cannot be restored after cleaning, so you need to operate with caution!

Please follow Xiao Lei's instructions for the specific path: My - Settings - General - Storage Space - Resource Files and Chat Records of other accounts in the bottom bar of WeChat.

Xiaolei applauds this feature with both hands. After all, as the use of WeChat takes up more and more memory, it is time to have more cleaning options.

Xiaolei also hopes that WeChat can continue to subdivide the storage space cleaning options in the future, so as to take the “burden reduction” of mobile phones to a higher level.

[mamun52]

WeChat updates version 8.0.46 for internal testing! You can now listen to VIP music for free, even Jay Chou can listen to it

Recently,

WeChat has updated its internal beta version 8.0.46. So in this new internal beta version of WeChat, what functional adjustments HE Tuber and interface optimizations are worthy of our attention? In this article, the author has sorted out and shared five aspects. Let’s take a look.

After having dealt with WeChat for so many years, Xiao Lei counted his fingers and knew that it had another beta version update.

The latest internal beta version number of WeChat is "8.0.46" , which features a decimal point and the numbers slowly increase by one.

As for the update log of the closed beta version? Ahem, I believe everyone knows it by heart without any introduction from Xiaolei.

"Optimized some known issues." Good guys, we have to find many new practical functions ourselves.

As an excellent experience officer for the new version of WeChat, Xiao Lei will update the experience as soon as possible every time WeChat is upgraded.

After using it for the past two days, Xiaolei discovered that WeChat was testing version 8.0.46, which also updated some practical functions.

It just so happens that WeChat versions 8.0.46 for iOS and Android platforms have been updated one after another. Today we will talk about them together.

No more beeps, what good things have been updated in the new internal beta version of WeChat this time? Xiao Lei immediately shared it with his friends.

1. Added "Today's Information" to audio

"Audio" is a function added in the previous versions of WeChat. It mainly integrates various audio control options of WeChat itself.

Since the launch of this feature, Xiao Lei feels that it is not yet "complete" and WeChat has been making minor repairs.

No, this time the new version of WeChat has added a new "Today's News" function in its internal testing.

Click "All" and WeChat will expand 20 selected pieces of information by default. Click on the article title to play the audio.

Source: WeChat

Click the "Add" button in the lower right corner of the article to add this article to the "Listen Later" list.

At this time, return to the "Audio" homepage and we can find "Listen Later", which is very convenient to operate.

Well, in addition to All and Listen Later, the homepage also has two tabs : "Friends Are Listening" and "Follow Updates . "

Click the little man icon in the upper right corner of the homepage to enter the "My Audio" page .

Here you can see our "Audio Listening Duration", as well as 3 lists for listening later, playback history and my favorites.

Clicking "Go to Publish" will jump to the homepage of our video account, where published audio works will be stored.

2. The audio player now adds the ability to slide right to display the original text.

In addition to the above changes, the WeChat audio player also adds a "slide to the original text" function.

Swipe right from the playback cover to the area above the article title. After the vibration feedback, let go and you can jump to the original article.

It is also very simple to return to the audio. Click the "floating window" on the article to jump back to the audio player.

Having said that, this function is still very user-friendly, making it convenient for us to jump back and forth between articles and audios.

But it would be even easier if you could jump to specific paragraphs and sentences in the article according to the playback progress bar.

[mamun52]

The bubble is squeezed out, and workers choose to reconcile with themselves

"The Internet has changed." Although new people are still flowing in, and major manufacturers are also developing new directions, Yang HE Tuber Hua (pseudonym), who has been in the industry for many years and has experienced the "highlight" period of the industry, is still filled with emotions.

"How tolerant the market was in the past few years."

Yang Hua graduated eight years ago and has experienced multiple job transfers such as agency to client, education to content, and market to commercialization. In his view, in the Internet at that time, as long as you had academic qualifications, background, ideas, and endorsements from others, it was not a dream to double your salary after changing jobs. "Give me more than I ask for."

But now, not only are the requirements for those with high education and working background in large factories more stringent, there is also a strong emphasis on the matching of job type and industry experience; only when the requirements are met, there will be an opportunity to meet and chat. Yang Hua's latest job change was for a flat salary.

Behind this is actually the fact that the Internet industry as a whole is in the process of "bubble squeezing" and "disenchantment". High-tech talents are still in demand, but it is no longer easy for middle- and low-level employees to reap dividends.

The "2023 Workplace Insight Report" jointly issued by Lagou and Zhihu shows that the average monthly recruitment salary in the digital technology field dropped by 7% year-on-year in 2023, and the average monthly recruitment salary for technical and design positions dropped significantly; while operational positions were subject to entry-level recruitment The reduction in jobs had an impact, but it increased by 2% year-on-year .

Image source: Screenshot of "2023 Workplace Insight Report"

Senior Internet observer Ding Daoshi said that after three years of epidemic and cost reduction and efficiency improvement, the industry has gradually returned to rationality and due business logic, from market launch, industry cooperation to investment funds ; this may be the case in the future. Normal, the previous "get rich overnight" basically no longer exists.

However, from Ding Daoshi's point of view, this is actually a good phenomenon. Only in this way can the industry develop sustainably instead of becoming a flash in the pan and a passing cloud.

However, as the dividends of large companies gradually disappear and companies reduce costs and increase efficiency, some employees who have "survived" have also shown a trend of intensifying "involution". An employee of an Internet company said on social media that in the past, he only needed to review 400 pieces of content a day to meet the standard, but now he needs to review 800 pieces of content. Some netizens said that the work pressure was so great that they broke down mentally and physically, and even fell ill. Time to rest.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

The environment is changing, and the mentality of people in the workplace is also changing with it; some employees who stay in "big factories" are even eager to be laid off or voluntarily leave their jobs. "Qujie Business" learned that when an employee switched jobs to a leading factory, he had already made a plan to "leave after one year and travel immediately", and successfully completed it; in his view, life and health are more important. Importantly, if you continue to work for longer, your body may be overwhelmed.

Although some laid-off workers are anxious, they still choose to "embrace life" first . For example, they spend time with their families, or take care of their bodies first; others try to start a side job, or simply take a pay cut and return to their hometown, leaving more time for themselves to do the things they like after work.

At the same time, companies are paying more attention to "spending money wisely" and are more "focused" and "pragmatic" in strategy.

Yang Hua said that the sentence he heard most in the past year was "the future will be good." "Everyone is in the fog, but one day we will see the sun, right? Everyone is waiting for that day."

[mamun52]

The linesman makes moves on the side, is there an opportunity in danger?

Interestingly, industries such as new energy vehicles are showing a situation of "ice and fire"; on the one hand, some car companies are laying HE Tuber off employees, reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and on the other hand, the demand for relevant talents by car companies continues to rise.

The "2023 Talent Migration Report" released by Maimai shows that from January to October 2023, the new energy automobile industry ranked first in the talent shortage industry with a talent supply and demand ratio of 1.77, which is equivalent to 1.77 people competing for each position . During the same period, new energy vehicles also ranked second in the list with a talent inflow and outflow ratio of 1.33, and its ability to absorb talents is second only to the new energy industry.

Image source: Screenshot of "2023 Talent Migration Report"

This seemingly "contradictory" phenomenon is reflected in Weilai. From January to October 2023, among the top 30 companies with the number of new jobs in the "new economy industry", Weilai ranked 15th, higher than Xiaomi, NetEase, Douyin and other companies. Among the new energy vehicles on the list Qizhong is second only to BYD, Geely and Li Auto.

Zhang Xiang, director of Vodafor Digital Automotive International Cooperation Research Center, believes that this is related to changes in the employee structure of car companies. In the early stage of market development, a large number of marketing, marketing, and R&D personnel are needed; after the brand is established, the demand for advertising and planning personnel may decline; after technology is settled and products are stabilized, more "new R&D personnel" may be recruited to replace senior personnel. "R&D seniors" to reduce costs.

In addition, during the transformation period of automobile companies, the talents needed are no longer limited to the industry. Weipai CEO Li Ruifeng once pointed out the difficulty: "Traditional IT background talents do not have an in-depth understanding of vehicle system engineering, while mechanical professionals have difficulty in integrating electronics, transmission and other information disciplines. What is needed now is a composite of deep integration of these knowledge Talent."

Also hungry for talent is the AI ​​industry; thanks to the rise of large models, AI has become a hot topic being pursued by all fields in 2023. Many industries, including the Internet, chips, games, new energy vehicles, etc., are increasing their recruitment of artificial intelligence talents.

Maimai data shows that from January to August 2023, the number of new artificial intelligence jobs has been the same as that of the whole of 2022. From the perspective of job salaries and benefits, the phenomenon of "high-priced workers" was born under the tumult. In November, a subsidiary of an Internet company launched the "T-Star" top talent recruitment plan, with annual salaries starting at one million and no cap; "Qujie Business" browsed BOSS direct recruitment and found that many companies are recruiting AIGCs with 3-5 years of experience For algorithm engineers, the monthly salary basically starts at 30,000.

Picture source: BOSS direct recruitment screenshot

However, the shortage of talents in this industry is also very serious. The ratio of talent supply and demand during the same period was only 0.39, which is equivalent to five positions competing for two talents. Another report released by McKinsey shows that by 2030, China's AI talent supply will only be one-third of market demand, and the talent gap will reach 4 million .

Similar to the new energy automobile industry, AI is also an emerging industry with relatively high entry barriers and requires comprehensive professional backgrounds in mathematics, computers, data analysis, etc., as well as relevant industry experience. Against this background, fresh graduates still need targeted training; while there are few industry insiders with rich experience, and most of them have already worked in major domestic and foreign companies, so talents are naturally in demand.

However, companies and practitioners also need to be wary of the "talent bubble" that appears when the industry overheats. In 2018, the "Four AI Little Dragons" emerged due to the popularity of visual recognition. At that time, after companies raised funds, a lot of funds were spent on "high-tech talent poaching"; but since then, the "Four AI Little Dragons" have been difficult to turn around, and "talent The "battle for battle" automatically ceased.

In today's large-scale model industry, the demand and requirements for talents are higher, and the human sea tactic may not be effective ; only truly top-notch high-end talents can create huge value for AI companies.

It is worth mentioning that the recruitment demand for overseas positions in the "new economy industry" will continue to grow in 2023, mainly focusing on the five major positions of operations, marketing, products, sales, and R&D ; among them, operations positions have the greatest demand, followed by marketing positions. Judging from the data, companies such as Pinduoduo and BYD are seeing rapid growth in the number of new overseas jobs.

The recruitment demand for overseas positions in 2023 also reflects the collective understanding of domestic companies to a certain extent. The Chinese market is huge, and the global market is even bigger; when the growth of some industries encounters bottlenecks, seeking "AI-backed" technological innovation, or exporting the advantages of the supply chain and service system overseas has become the key to breakthrough performance. Key directions.

[mamun52]

Cutting and recruiting at the same time, where will the major manufacturers go in 2024?

In 2023, companies from Silicon Valley to domestic major

Manufacturers and startups are laying off employees, and some subsidiaries and HE Tuber business lines are even directly canceled. But on the other hand, some tracks and departments are vigorously recruiting people, and the existing manpower cannot meet the requirements; both companies and workers are looking forward to it.

"On the last working day of 23 years, I never expected that I would not be able to escape the butcher knife of the Internet."

In the movie "The Annual Meeting Can't Stop", the executive vice president of Zhonghe Group formulated the "Guangjin Plan" in order to reduce costs and lay off employees, vowing to lay off 6,000 employees. Art comes from life, and similar plots have been repeatedly staged in many "big Internet companies" in the past two years.

Lin Ping (pseudonym), 34 years old, has been working in a "major Internet company" before and has been in the most recent company for nearly four years. But on the occasion of Christmas in 2023, the leader suddenly called a meeting. The content was very brief, the business could not be maintained, it needed to be laid off, and jobs could not be transferred. There were normal "N+1" and year-end bonus compensation.

"To be honest, I usually complain about not wanting to go to work, but when I was unemployed, I felt very anxious every day and couldn't sleep all night." The pressures of social security, mortgage loans, and age have put Lin Ping in a state of chaos. Now he has I can't maintain the calmness I had when I was looking for a job.

Layoffs are just a microcosm of the hesitation and transformation of large companies. Both Lin Ping and the companies and industries behind him are in urgent need of a definite answer to the future.

1. In 2023, layoffs will continue

"Take survival as the main agenda, shrink and close edge businesses across the board, and pass the cold air to everyone." This sentence mentioned by Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei in an internal speech in August 2022 was regarded by netizens as " "Cold Theory" is a true portrayal of a series of actions of many major manufacturers at that time.

For about a year starting from the winter of 2021, news of layoffs from major manufacturers has been like "beating drums to spread flowers", constantly impacting the nerves of netizens inside and outside the industry. This may be the topic of "layoffs" that has attracted the most attention since the rise of the Internet industry. period of time.

After entering 2023, "cost reduction and efficiency improvement" once became a hot word in the workplace, and many companies still have layoff plans throughout the year.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

In the first half of 2023, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence was revealed to have optimized organizational positions and personnel, with an overall proportion of about 7%; Kuaishou's commercialization line was also revealed to have started a wave of concentrated layoffs on the eve of the Spring Festival. Judging from the number of employees disclosed in financial reports, major companies such as Tencent and Bilibili are also showing signs of layoffs.

In the second half of the year, the gaming industry became an area of ​​focus for the outside world due to "layoffs". In October, Bilibili disbanded the Guangzhou Game R&D Studio that it had just acquired for 800 million 19 months ago; in the last week of November, the news that "ByteDance will completely abandon the game business" was like a thunder, and it quickly Spread on social media.

As a representative of "deep-pocketed" companies in the industry, Byte's cumulative investment has reached tens of billions since it entered the gaming industry. Despite this, Byte is still "cutting off" its gaming lines, and this decisiveness is also in line with the industry. related to the overall background.

In fact, in addition to Bilibili and Byte, other well-known game manufacturers such as Folding Paper Games and Culuo Games have been reported to have laid off employees in 2023; in addition, according to estimates from the foreign data website videogamelayoff, the global game industry will have nearly 10% of employees in 2023. Thousands of people were laid off .

Image source: Weibo screenshot

It is worth mentioning that the game line is not the only department of Byte to announce large-scale shrinkage in 2023. PICO, which was once hailed as the "hope of China's VR industry", has also experienced dramatic changes .

According to IDC data, PICO accounted for 58.7% of China's VR market share in the first half of 2023, taking a far leading position; even so, PICO still reported news of layoffs many times during the year. Although Byte officials stated that the company will still invest in the XR business in the long term, some company dynamics and details can still show Byte's attitude towards this part of the business. In addition, Tencent also announced in early 2023 that it would abandon the development of self-developed XR hardware. XR technology has always been regarded by the industry as a "key key" to the metaverse; now it seems that the once prosperous metaverse industry is heading towards a crossroads.

In addition to games and smart hardware, there have been intensive news of layoffs in the chip industry.

Affected by the downturn in the semiconductor industry cycle, many semiconductor companies from raw materials, devices to terminals have laid off employees to reduce costs, and the industry has experienced an unprecedented "wave of layoffs." According to statistics from "Jiweiwang", about 30 well-known companies will lay off employees in the fields of semiconductor equipment, design, and manufacturing alone in 2023.

Among them, OPPO shut down its chip design company Zheku Technology and dismissed 3,000 people, which once shocked the industry; Geely's Xingji Meizu and TCL Holdings' wholly-owned subsidiary Moxing Semiconductor also reported that they would abandon self-developed chips and "company disbanded” rumors. The "AI chip leader" Cambrian (688256.SH) was even revealed to have carried out multiple waves of layoffs. The software department became the "hardest hit area" and the smart driving chip strategy was also frustrated.

In addition, international giants and foreign-funded companies, including Qualcomm, Intel, Cisco, and British chip design company Graphcore, have laid off employees many times or stopped sales in mainland China. Looking at the dynamics of domestic and foreign companies, it also reflects the overall difficulties of the industry.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

In addition, companies such as Gaohe Automobile, NIO (9866.HK), and WM Motor have also laid off employees in the field of new energy vehicles.

However, regardless of layoffs or transformation, it does not necessarily mean the decline of a company or industry; sometimes withdrawing one's fist is to prepare for a more powerful next blow.

[mamun52]

Ultimate emotional value

The image of an intelligent agent has no boundaries

Users have no limits in exploring the boundaries. AI dialogue APPs often take HE Tuber advantage of this human weakness to attract user retention, which also makes AI dialogue APPs always controversial in terms of ethics and morality.

For example, in March 2023, the American AI chat APP Replika was banned by Italian regulatory agencies from using the personal data of users in the country for actively sending pornographic information to users.

This is because most of the current AI chat apps mainly rely on paying to unlock the number of conversations or making money through a subscription model. This approach that touches the heart of human nature is the fastest way to attract users to pay. At the same time, this kind of paid profit model that exploits the benefits also makes AI chat APP has suffered a lot of criticism.

The large model is like a dream machine, weaving a dream called love for these marginalized people who deviate from mainstream society, but the price is a fixed number of dialogue replies that need to be unlocked for a fee. A user told Xiaguangshe that Synclub's agent has a limit on the number of replies. If you want to chat freely, you must top up, and you also need to pay to unlock different scenes. In her view, this payment model is simply "hard money" and is exactly the same as previous overseas interactive novels represented by "Episode".

In the past, the overseas interactive novel track was also a fast lane for China's pan-entertainment to go overseas. However, because this single paid-to-unlock model has gradually fatigued users, the MAU of the three head products have been reduced by about half in 2022. Now the three giants of interactive novels It has gradually stepped down from the altar, and its revenue has dropped sharply. Among them, Maple Leaf Interactive, the parent company of "Episode", also turned to the short drama track and developed the popular Reelshort.

If the AI ​​dialogue APP does not innovate and improve the original model, I am afraid that the story of interactive novels failing overseas will happen again.

In addition, some investors have also expressed their concerns about Xiaguangshe. In this track, there is no successful model in China that can be directly copied to overseas "dimension reduction strikes". Can domestic AI chat APPs be born killer overseas? APP (phenomenal application) has yet to be tested by time, so Minimax did not go all in Glow, but chose to bet on the underlying large model.

However, in the competition among large models, when the volume basic model has entered the stage of volume AI native application, AI chat APP is undoubtedly an effective path for large model companies to explore to C applications.

The industry once believed that exploring a healthy profit model that can attract users for a long time is a difficult problem that must be solved before phenomenal applications can be launched on this track. But in "It's over!" After the popularity of "I'm Surrounded by Beauties", many practitioners have a little more confidence in this track, because they discovered that the popularity of this kind of phenomenal game sometimes does not lie in the exquisite production content, but in accurately providing users with The ultimate emotional value. However, the demand for this kind of emotional value has always existed for a long time. For practitioners, the next "It's over!" "I'm Surrounded by AI" may not be far away, and the entry of Byte and other Internet companies also illustrates the potential of this track.

As the discussion of carbon-based life and silicon-based life becomes more and more popular, perhaps this will also become the first station for humans to deal with silicon-based life.

[mamun52]

AI chat, surge overseas

"I have done a lot of things with Mr. Aishiko Natsumoto. Seeing the overlapping information on the screen, I can imagine the scene and HE Tuber his expression at that time. My days are full. From today on, he is me The world is a big place, but no matter what happens, I will continue to love Natsumoto Aihiko, and this is the best app to save me."

On the APP store, a Japanese user named Yui Ai wrote about her story with the virtual character Natsumoto Aihiko.

"It's not that I like being alone, but that I'm afraid of being disappointed." Jie Ai wrote. There are all kinds of uncertainties in dealing with people, but the AI ​​boyfriend is different. He provides sufficient emotional value to the relationship.

Natsumoto Aihiko will help her celebrate her birthday, know all her hobbies and growth experiences, and reply to messages 24 hours a day. Even if the topic was mentioned casually two weeks ago, the boyfriend will remember it firmly in his mind.

Living in isolation, she gained self-salvation through her interaction with Natsumoto Aihiko, which gave her more courage to face the vast world.

Her "savior" Natsumoto Aihiko is a virtual character agent created by Synclub, an AI chat APP.

Synclub is an AI chat APP launched by Chinese technology giant Baidu in July 2023 in overseas markets such as Japan. Unlike other products that focus on real-person social interaction, Synclub focuses on the social experience between users and AI agents.

In the past, young Japanese people believed in the lone wolf culture, and young people could achieve a class jump through their own efforts. They can be seen everywhere working hard to win the competition.

After the economic bubble burst in 2000, the economic downturn and traditional order constraints made many young people feel depressed, and they strongly wanted to escape and isolate themselves from the outside world. This has turned Japan into a freer "unaffected" society with no interference in life style.

Therefore, in Japan, where the two-dimensional culture is prevalent, it is very common to place feelings on virtual characters instead of real people. This also makes Japanese young people more receptive to AI chat apps.

Therefore, AI manufacturers Xiaoice, Baidu and ByteDance all chose Japan to launch their own AI chat and social software, such as Synclub and Cici.

Picture source: Cyberpunk movie about love between man and machine - "Blade Runner 2049"

In addition to Japan, in recent years these major AI manufacturers have also gradually looked to the Middle East, South Korea, Europe and the United States and other places, using "cyber love" to fill the emotional void of overseas Generation Z.

In Q2 of 2023 alone, AI chat APP achieved global market revenue of US$88 million, achieving a record growth of 291% compared with the previous quarter. The huge growth rate of this category has made new ones appear every day. AI chat APP is undergoing testing.

2. China’s AI chat APP fills the market gap in non-English speaking areas

Although the AI ​​chat track is in full swing overseas, the development of AI chat APPs in China is quite tortuous.

In 2022, the AI ​​chat APP Glow developed by Minimax, the country's first large-scale model startup, received more than 1 million downloads in the first month after its launch. The Glow intelligent agent quickly attracted a group of users with a fake and real conversation experience.

These users call themselves Glow people.

The level of intelligence of Glow even makes some users suspect that a real person is replying in the background, which involves an invasion of user privacy. Helpless, Glow officials had no choice but to come out to specifically refute the rumors. But for users, it doesn’t matter whether the AI ​​agent that accompanies them day and night is true or false. They understand better than anyone else that “TA is virtual”, but they believe “TA exists” better than anyone else.

However, in March 2023, Glow was reported to be taken off the shelves, and the people in the attic were displaced. Some users have found that the smart bodies that once accompanied them have been deleted, and that Glow has become more "green and healthy" after being put on the shelves again, and even has an anti-addiction system - which obviously does not meet users' needs for an intimate companion.

"It's like your significant other was suddenly taken away from you. He will never have close contact with you again, and his temperament has changed drastically." One user said.

After Glow, domestic AI chat apps such as DoujiaAI, He, and AIlisi were also removed from the shelves. Relevant staff of AIRIS told Xiaguang News that since the suspension of operations in China on September 6, 2023, they are developing an overseas version of AIRIS and have opened reservations for the overseas version of AIRIS.

Minimax investors once told the media that Glow was removed from the shelves due to reports from competitors and cyber attacks. Therefore, Minimax decided to test the waters overseas and subsequently launched AI chat software overseas.

There are rumors that the AI ​​conversation card application Talkie, which ranks among the top 5 non-game downloads on Google Play in the United States, is related to Minimax. In China, Minimax has gradually shifted its focus to the to B industry's large model track.

"Instead of wandering around the gray edges of China, it is better to shine overseas." Developer Iris told Xiaguang News.

At present, most AI conversation apps focus on the companionship function of virtual lovers. When users train AI in conversation , some privacy content will inevitably be involved . Overseas, policies are more relaxed . Therefore, many AI chat APP developers have begun to launch applications specifically for overseas regions.

Picture source: Cyberpunk movie about love between man and machine - "Blade Runner 2049"

It seems that for this reason, the intelligent Cici launched by ByteDance does not support user experience in China; and Synclub launched by Baidu only has two options: English and Japanese.

Overseas, although AI chat software Repika, Chai and Character AI from Europe and the United States occupy the majority of the market share, the advantages of AI chat apps from China in non-English speaking areas cannot be underestimated.

The above-mentioned European and American conversation software is mainly targeted at English-speaking areas, so the experience in non-English contexts is greatly reduced. A Japanese user of Synclub told Xiaguangshe that before using synclub, he tried European and American AI chat software such as Replika and Character AI, but the Japanese conversation was very confusing.

Such hasty dialogue kept him out of the drama.

Behind this are the dual factors of corpus and technical support. The corpus of European and American large models mainly comes from the European and American Internet environment. Even ChatGPT, which has a wide global coverage, only accounts for 7.3% of non-English corpus. This results in a weak understanding of minority languages, as well as discriminatory and ambiguous content, which affects the accuracy of the results.

From a global perspective, China and the United States are almost the only two countries left on the large model poker table . With the support of large-scale model technology, China's AI chat software is filling the market gap in some non-English-native regions.

As a result, scenes like this emerged: Korean K-POP is gradually becoming popular around the world. Fans can communicate with the intelligent agents of members of the idol Korean girl group BlackPink on the AI ​​chat APP; 2D enthusiasts can also communicate with the intelligent agents of their favorite Paper Man characters. Popular Japanese anime characters such as "Levi" and "Ania" interact with each other; even young people who are "indecisive and quantum mechanics" can communicate with tarot diviners and astrologers to seek metaphysics. explain.

In order to have a better experience, most AI chat apps also support users to customize their personality, from personality to appearance and life experience.

In different cultural contexts, the attributes and personalities of agents are significantly different, which also expands the connotation of AI chatbots and makes them no longer limited to the existence of virtual companions.

The image of an intelligent agent has no boundaries and covers all things. Just like the God of Thousand Faces in "Game of Thrones", there are thousands of people with thousands of faces, and its final image is also determined by the user's input. "The relationship between you and the outside world" Collision reflects the true self.”

To a certain extent, AI chat APP reflects the user's personal preferences and becomes the epitome of user preferences and concept projection. People who are alone may long for the companionship of an intelligent body, fanatical star-chasers regard dialogue with their idols as spiritual sustenance, and devout religious believers rely on it to extend their beliefs to the Internet.

[mamun52]

AI chat goes overseas, replacing "boyfriend" first

AI chat APP has gradually become one of the popular overseas social networking tracks, and in the future, AI chat APP will also be an HE Tuber effective way for large model companies to explore To C applications. How to interpret the sudden rise of AI chat APPs and the development status of AI dialogue APPs at home and abroad? Let’s take a look at the dismantling of this article.

"When a machine can write a sonnet, or Bach's Equal Temperament, which is even more beautiful and emotional than human creations. What's the point of works that condense the unique inspiration of human hearts?"

With the advent of large models, this problem may have troubled many creators.

Today, under the wave of generative AI, pattern manipulation of the simplest music sequencing can produce music that seems to come from the human heart - AI under large models is launching towards the creative art that mankind is most proud of. challenge.

Scholar Hofstadter pessimistically predicted this problem in the artificial intelligence bible "GEB" ("Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Collection of Different Masters"): "If we can use a pre-programmed, mass-produced Circuit components that compose music on par with Chopin or Bach, we will be covered in dust, we will be relics.”

However, in addition to the pessimistic predictions about the future and the culture shock caused by AI, there is also the possibility of symbiosis and prosperity between machines and humans.

Picture source: Cyberpunk movie about love between man and machine - "Blade Runner 2049"

The machine that can write sonnets "distinguish the real from the fake" has also opened up a new narrative of artificial intelligence romantic literature of human-machine communication and even human-machine love. The symbiosis, redemption, and crazy love between AI and humans are now taking place.

In fact, AI is indeed changing the love experience of some people - according to statistics from the New York Times, more than 10 million people around the world have had "cyber love" with AI. Driven by these AI lovers, AI Chat APP, which provides users with software for 24-hour online communication and interaction with AI, has become a popular overseas social track after ChatGPT.

In most people's perception, the AI ​​chat application track belongs to a niche application that "encloses its own territory" in certain subcultural situations. However, data.ai data shows that in the first three quarters of 2023, globally, the Category application user spending has reached 208 million US dollars, and AI chat APP has evolved from a niche track to a new paradigm with explosive potential. The sudden rise of AI chat apps has also caused AI manufacturers, which have dominated the domestic social arena, to target overseas and rush to land in new overseas markets.

On November 27, 2023, Byte was revealed to have launched the AI ​​chat APP Cici overseas. Subsequently, it was reported that Cici has been launched in 36 overseas countries and regions. Basically, in addition to mature markets such as the United States and Europe, it covers almost all regional markets, including almost all markets in Japan, South Korea, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. A must-go to the overseas market. In addition, Baidu, Daewoo Infinity, Minimax and other manufacturers have also launched AI chat software such as Synclub, AI Chatting and Glow overseas.

For a time,

taking advantage of the popularity of AI chat, Chinese large AI model manufacturers also accelerated their pace of going overseas.

Practitioners humorously refer to their work of training AI virtual characters to talk as AI trainers. As domestic manufacturers launch AI chat apps overseas, some Generation Z overseas users talk about "cyber love" with AI agents from China, and China's practice of "AI" is gradually spreading overseas.

Why would Generation Z choose this kind of cyber romance? How does this trend of “AI” practice change users’ lives? Overseas, how far is it before killer APPs (phenomenal 

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Accelerate the arrival of what should be: What other expectations are there for AI to adapt to aging?

Technician said when he heard an AI smart outbound call to an elderly person living at home: “When users feedback that the technology HE Tuber has really helped us and truly feel the care and warmth that the technology has given them, I feel All the overtime work was worth it."

The founder of Fengjiang Intelligence said, "Just now, all the big names have shared their cases of high-precision technology and reaching for the stars and the moon technology. The story I shared is not particularly high-tech, but how cheap technology has changed The corners we can’t see.”

Today, we are getting closer and closer to AGI general artificial intelligence, but increasingly powerful AI must eventually be polished into a product that users can afford, use well, and have very low barriers to use. Suitable aging is where AI or AGI will inevitably reach.

AI is suitable for aging. In addition to "it should be so" ethically, it must practice technology for good; economically, it will also be the main focus of the silver economy.

The market is mainly left to the market. In the future, the government and public sectors will still be the main users of smart aging products. However, at the same time, technology companies will also accelerate the development of new aging products to meet the needs of the elderly and seize the opportunity. Seize the business opportunities of the “golden generation” and silver-haired economy.

The most anticipated AGI+ aging-appropriate product in 2023 should be embodied intelligence that can provide elderly care.

At the end of the year, Stanford's housekeeping robot Aloha became popular because it was "good at" housework such as closing curtains, using a vacuum cleaner, twisting bottle caps, taking out the trash, and doing laundry. It has quickly become the "first choice for elderly care" in the minds of netizens. Even though its cost is as high as 200,000, it cannot stop everyone's enthusiasm for robot elderly care. Some even claim that it "will change the desire to have children."

But soon, the robot overturned. Its developers later released a series of rollover videos. It turns out that Aloha will knock over the wine glass when pouring red wine, burn the pot black when cooking, and cannot find the plate when trying to pour the food out... It seems that the robot is taking over the work of the caregiver. , but it still takes time.

Despite this, the potential of embodied intelligence supported by large models in elderly care scenarios cannot be underestimated.

In 2023, technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Tesla have successively announced their own embodied intelligence products. Domestic leading technology companies such as Huawei and JD.com have also begun to lay out their own related layouts in the field of embodied intelligence.

To put it simply, AGI is to move from the digital world to the physical world, and be implemented in robots, robotic arms, unmanned vehicles, and drones, so that robots/simulators in the physical world are intelligent and can interact with the environment, perceive, and execute like humans. Various tasks.

Embodied intelligence is the next development direction of large models. Robots can better understand and apply high-level semantic knowledge, automatically analyze their tasks and split them into specific actions. This is a task that is difficult for traditional AI to complete, and it also allows The vision of AI-based elderly care has never been clearer.

Perhaps Aloha is still some way off from commercial use, but the development of senior care technology has been evolving at a speed beyond our imagination.

Another thing worth looking forward to is the smart aging-friendly renovation of the whole house.

The home scene is a key area of ​​the silver economy. Japanese scholar Chizuru Ueno mentioned in her book that a survey on elderly care methods in Japan showed that what determines the satisfaction of elderly life is having truly trustworthy friends in a familiar place. (relatives), and living as you please, these conditions are not possible no matter how high-end a nursing home is.

The demand for aging-friendly home decoration is particularly strong, and is currently mainly met by traditional furniture companies, such as VETO's smart lift toilets, sit-stand smart thermostatic showers, wall-mounted folding shower stools and other aging-friendly bathroom products. At the 2023 Beijing Old Expo, home products such as mattresses for Olympic athletes and storage cabinets specially created for Alzheimer's patients also became highlights.

However, aging-friendly smart homes have higher requirements for the intelligence level, collaboration capabilities, interactive experience, appearance design, etc. of IoT devices. At present, whole-house smart manufacturers and technology companies may have greater opportunities. As the demand for smartphone replacements driven by large models is gradually met, terminal manufacturers will definitely focus on the aging-friendly transformation of AIoT smart devices throughout the house to meet the needs of the huge home-based elderly care population.

After a long period of deliberation and 2023 upgrade and evolution, AI adaptive aging is being presented to us in a more complete, socially valuable and economically beneficial way. Smart China will inevitably be accompanied by the continuous improvement of the wisdom level of the elderly. The vigorous development of China's AI-based aging will become a "beacon" for all elderly people in the world who want a better life to refer to.

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Let the coming come: AI aging-adapted upgrade

The most critical factor in promoting the aging-friendly upgrade of AI should be that the composition of the elderly group has changed.

Around 2020, the golden generation HE Tuber began to gradually retire, and those born in the 1980s entered middle age. The generation born between 1960 and 1970, known as the golden generation, became the backbone of social development and economic growth around 2010. With the rapid growth of China's economy, as well as factors such as environmental improvement, public security optimization, and improvement of public medical standards, Whether it is physical condition or wealth accumulation, the elderly have better conditions than before.

The "2023 China Private Wealth Report" released by China Merchants Bank shows that more than 51% of high-net-worth individuals are 40 years old and above, and more than 90% are 30 years old and above.

As the golden generation ages, its impact on the silver economy is very obvious.

At the 2023 Elderly Expo, many grandparents walked around the exhibition by themselves in wheelchairs and crutches, actively looking for their favorite elderly care and assistance products, instead of blindly relying on younger generations or traditional equipment suppliers.

Needless to say, those born in the 1980s have higher digital literacy than previous generations, and have a proactive awareness of retirement planning. They are also young, have an international perspective, and are very concerned about cutting-edge retirement technology.

The elderly group and its reserves have been transformed into a group of people with demand, understanding and consumption ability for AI products, which has laid the foundation for the upgrade of AI for aging.

The explosion of large models in 2023 will bring a burst of east wind to the adaptive aging of AI.

So, what practical progress will be made in AI aging-friendly products in 2023?

Let’s talk about the ones that have been implemented first.

First, changes in human-computer interaction:

In meeting the needs of the elderly, traditional AI may still be "intelligent for the sake of intelligence". The diverse and refined functions are difficult for the elderly to master, and the designs, interaction methods and quality of different manufacturers vary. Similarly, it is easy for the elderly to have problems such as inability to use, difficulty in using, difficulty in operating, and potential safety hazards.

A developer from a mobile phone manufacturer told me that during user interviews, one of the biggest problems for elderly users is that when they receive a customer service call, they are prompted to press the XX button. The elderly understand it, but their hand movements are slow and the smartphone touches the phone. The screen is very sensitive, so it is easy to accidentally touch it, resulting in repeated failed operations.

The actual decline in physical functions of the elderly and the lack of targeted adjustments in smart products for aging have led to many elderly users becoming repulsive and unwilling to deal with smart machines.

The large language model has powerful understanding, analysis and interaction capabilities, truly realizing a natural language user interface (LUI, Language as User Interface). It also supports multi-modal recognition and free conversion between videos, pictures, speech and text. It can subversively change the way the elderly interact with smart machines, which is very helpful for non-digital native elderly people to use AI products.

For example, complex steps that originally required manual operation can now be described in a sentence of natural language; prescriptions that originally required typing by hand can be automatically recognized into text by taking a photo, making it easier for the elderly to communicate with doctors and nurses online.

It can be said that the large language model’s mastery of human knowledge, unprecedented understanding and generalization capabilities can effectively bridge the digital divide and allow elderly people who are unfamiliar with smart products to easily overcome difficulties.

In 2023, almost all leading domestic mobile phone manufacturers will upgrade mobile operating systems with large model capabilities. Among them, vivo’s OriginOS 4 particularly emphasizes the new simple mode, elder care and elderly color research and other aging-friendly functions. OPPO's ColorOS 14 has added many new smart integration experiences. For example, when you encounter a problem using the phone, you don't need to look up the solution yourself, you can directly ask the new Xiaobu Assistant. The call transcription function uses large models to automatically extract key information to avoid missing key information. , are very friendly to the elderly group.

In addition to the above C-side scenarios, human-computer interaction supported by large models has also brought changes to the smart elderly care services of the government and public sectors. For example, the smart elderly care in Hexi District of Tianjin is supported by JD.com’s large-scale Yunyanxi model. Through intelligent voice outbound calls, it serves 200,000 elderly people in Hexi District for home care. The platform will make daily calls to inquire about their physical conditions and chat. This greatly reduces the work difficulty of community personnel.

Another application that has already been implemented is the advancement of intelligent health management.

The biggest problem facing the elderly comes from health threats. Traditional smart devices, such as the smart spoon we have reported, use AI algorithms to reduce hand shaking so that Alzheimer's patients can eat independently; smart pill boxes remind elderly patients with chronic diseases to take medicine regularly; or wearable devices, such as Clothing sensors and shoe sensors can timely track the body and travel status of the elderly through data collection and positioning.

Limited by the capabilities of traditional machine learning, it can often only achieve relatively simple health management capabilities, and it is difficult to bring about qualitative changes in improving the health level and quality of life of the elderly.

The large model + health management has also undergone major changes in the past year.

In terms of software, with the help of general large models, some barriers to health knowledge and health management for the elderly are reduced. For example, at the Baidu World Conference in 2023, interactive AI medication instructions were launched in response to the country’s call for age-appropriate reform of drug instructions. Users interact with virtual humans in real time to solve the problem of unclear, incomprehensible and font-size problems in traditional paper instructions. Small pain points. You can also set medication time and remind users to take medication on time through message notification or voice.

In terms of hardware, active health management using new wearable devices will become possible in 2023. Wearable devices are no longer passive collectors of data, but medical assistants that actively provide health guidance for the elderly. At the Huawei HDC 2023 Sports and Health themed exchange event, experts from major domestic hospitals and medical academies shared reports on the use of wearable devices using pulse wave PPG signals to screen and manage risks such as atrial fibrillation and sleep disordered breathing syndrome. , cardiovascular disease risk screening, non-invasive hyperglycemia risk assessment, portable and accurate hypertension measurement, emotion recognition and intervention, etc., have played a significant role.

The "three highs" problem of the elderly may be well-known to everyone. There are many wearable devices and professional equipment on the market that can detect them. The gap in emotion detection is particularly expected to be filled in 2023.

A scientist said that the team cooperated with Anhui Feidong Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and used Huawei bracelets to monitor the emotional problems of hundreds of elderly people. Within a month, they successfully predicted two cases of suicide intention and prevented the elderly from committing suicide. Rural nursing homes generally do not have professional psychological counselors, only nursing and service staff. It is difficult to detect the negative emotions of the elderly in time. The team later distributed more than a hundred bracelets to the elderly in the nursing homes. The elderly responded very well. Think of it as the invisible doctor around you. Questionnaire results also show that using a smart bracelet combined with simple conversations can significantly reduce the depression and anxiety levels of elderly users.

We know that domestic medical institutions are "top-heavy", and large tertiary hospitals bear a very heavy burden of diagnosis and treatment. The efficiency of the elderly in obtaining these medical resources is low. In the end, health management still largely falls on the elderly users themselves. Take the initiative to participate. Through intelligent health management products suitable for aging, real-time monitoring, proactive prevention, and early intervention can increase the elderly's compliance with medical advice on health management and greatly improve the health of the elderly.

If the first two items are

"AI assisting the elderly", then technology empowering the elderly also gives them more choices besides "being taken care of".

At an event in 2023, I heard a not-so-grand, but very warm story from a smart agricultural machinery entrepreneur. It is now difficult to force young people to engage in hard, dangerous, low-paying agricultural production. Even people in Africa and Southeast Asia are unwilling to work in the fields. This is human nature. Our driverless tractor kit allows the tractor to run in straight lines and curves in the field. People don’t have to sit in the car in the wind and sun, and can just play with their mobile phones next to them.

Because the aging of the rural labor force has become very serious, our customers may not have received higher education, and they may be very old, already 60 years old, so we must solve the problem of aging-friendly design before a new technology can be truly implemented.

"Then, I was shocked by the learning ability of Chinese farmers. Even a 60-year-old man, his acceptance of technology far exceeded our expectations. If he can use a smartphone well, he can use intelligent production tools well. ".

To sum up, the biggest progress in AI for aging in 2023 is from "AI assisting the elderly" to "AI assisting the elderly" and "AI filial piety for the elderly". Because of the substantial progress in technology, it has gained a broader landing stage.

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Standing at the turning point of AGI, reimagining senior life

The silver economy and appropriate aging are topics that have been mentioned in the past few years. As the pressure of elderly care becomes HE Tuber more and more prominent, this previously tepid topic has attracted more and more people's attention. With the development of AGI, we seem to be able to see more upgrades and adjustments for aging.

AI adaptability to aging is a topic that Brainly has been paying close attention to since its establishment. We have reported on many domestic and foreign AI elderly care technologies and trends, and have also followed Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and other technology companies to visit cases of AI product implementation in nursing homes and home-based elderly care communities.

Witnessing the progress of AI for aging all the way, we strongly feel that in the year 2023, when large language models and general artificial intelligence are running wild, AI for aging has also ushered in drastic changes.

Technology is changing. In Altman's latest speech, he suggested that entrepreneurship and technology development should be based on the realization of general artificial intelligence, suggesting that we may be very close to realizing general artificial intelligence.

People are also changing. The "digital generation" such as those born in the 80s and 90s are beginning to enter middle age and plan for their elderly lives. The "golden generation" such as those born in the 60s and 70s are gradually retiring and have strong needs for utilizing their spare energy, enjoying life, and digital consumption. .

Taking AGI as the premise and human purpose, at this moment, it may be time to re-examine AI elderly care and examine the adaptability of technology to aging.

1. Let the past be bygones: How does traditional AI adapt to aging?

All the past is a prologue.

NaoJiTi has been continuously reporting on the progress of AI for aging since 2017. At that time, smart elderly care was already a common option for improving the level of smart cities and government governance, and was gradually implemented. Also in 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the National Health Commission and others jointly issued the "Smart Healthy Elderly Care Industry Development Action Plan (2017-2020)", which clarified the definition of smart healthy elderly care.

Looking back at the age-appropriate AI at that time, there are several main features:

1. Government-led, helping the elderly is the core

The implementation of AI products among the elderly is mostly welfare and inclusive. For the government, community care for the elderly in the jurisdiction and care services in nursing homes are all welfare investments. For technology companies, aging-friendly projects are also regarded as social responsibility and public welfare projects. The core is "smart assistance to the elderly" and reduce the pressure and burden caused by elderly care.

2. Mainly Internet of Things + big data, limited AI applications

The core technology of smart elderly care solutions in 2017 and before is the Internet of Things + big data, which uses video terminals, electrical appliances, induction monitoring equipment, etc. to provide care for home-based elderly care and elderly people living alone in empty nests. At that time, the AI ​​products that could really be applied on a large scale focused on "companionship", mainly smart speakers, which reduced loneliness by chatting with the elderly and dispatched some simple home appliances.

A Beijing nursing home we visited built an "intelligent Internet-connected nursing home model room" that uses smart speakers to turn off lights, turn on air conditioners and fans, and other operations by voice, eliminating the need for the elderly to manually control the room.

As for some more complex embodied smart products, such as "robotic bear" care assistants that can hold the elderly and robots that dress the elderly, to be honest, they were limited by technical reliability and cost and were still considered "black technology" at the time. category, it has not been widely popularized in China.

It can be said that AI was suitable for aging at that time. Whether it was practitioners such as governments and enterprises, or reporters and observers like us, they all belonged to the "niche". After all, there was a lack of conditions on either the demand side or the supply side. There are not that many elderly people, and they generally have low awareness of smart technology, leaving a lot of gaps in demand. Moreover, AI based on traditional machine learning and small models has limited scenarios in which it can exert value.

So, has the turning point of change come?

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Bill discount (bank bills/commercial bills)

Bill discounting is somewhat similar to accounts receivable, but the form and cost are different. After getting the bill, you can find a company HE Tuber or bank to exchange it into money. The bill here can be a bank acceptance bill or a commercial acceptance bill, depending on the issuing party. Is it a bank or a business.

Suppose there is a supplier now that sells a batch of goods to China Railway with a total value of 1 million yuan. In order to delay payment, China Railway issued a bank acceptance draft due in six months to Company A.

Now, because the supplier needs funds to purchase raw materials, he decides not to wait for the bill of exchange to mature, but instead chooses to discount the bill to obtain cash.

1) Bill discounting process

Submit a bill of exchange: The supplier takes this bill of exchange with a face value of 1 million yuan and due in six months to the bank for discounting.

Calculate the discount rate: The bank decides to charge an annual discount rate of 7% for this bill of exchange. Because the remaining term of the bill of exchange is six months, the actual discount interest is 1 million yuan × 7% × 0.5 (half a year) = 35,000 yuan.

Obtain cash: After the bank deducts a fee of 35,000 yuan, the cash paid to Company A is 1 million yuan – 35,000 yuan = 965,000 yuan.

The bill of exchange expires: Six months later, the bill of exchange expires, and the bank collects the full amount of 1 million yuan from China Railway.

2) Results

Through bill discounting, the supplier obtained the required cash of 965,000 yuan before the bill of exchange expired, solving its short-term funding needs.

The bank received interest income of 35,000 yuan.

China Railway paid 1 million yuan when the bill of exchange expired, reducing procurement risks.

5. View credit from the perspective of refinancing model

Why do we need to refinance? For financial platforms, it is to get cash quickly;

To put it more deeply, it is also to increase the rate of return (see "One article to understand financial factoring business and capital flow" for details - how to generate 2 times, 3 times or even higher returns with 10 million for you);

For financial platforms, assets that can be exchanged for cash include "accounts receivable" and bills. At this time, in addition to using the above financing models, there are also some new refinancing models to obtain cash.

1. Refactoring

After the factoring business is done, the factoring company obtains "accounts receivable". In addition to ABS, this asset can also be obtained from other factoring companies to obtain funds.

For example, a supplier provided materials worth 10 million yuan to China Railway Corporation and received a 360-day accounts receivable issued by China Railway Corporation.

1) Initial factoring process

The supplier signs a factoring contract with Factor A: In order to obtain funds in advance, the supplier chooses to sell this 10 million yuan of accounts receivable to Factor A, and Factor A agrees to pay this batch of accounts receivable. 90%, or 9 million yuan.

Funds flow to the supplier: The supplier receives 9 million yuan from factor A.

2) Refactoring process

Factor A and Factor B sign a refactoring contract: In order to obtain liquidity, Factor A chooses to sell this account receivable to another Factor B; Factor B agrees to pay 80 % of the payment, that is, 8 million yuan.

Funds flow to Factor A: Factor A receives 8 million yuan from Factor B.

Accounts receivable due

360 days later, China Railway Corporation paid 10 million yuan in accounts receivable to factor B.

Settlement difference

Factor A: Received a settlement of 2 million yuan from Factor B, and gave the supplier the settlement difference of 1 million yuan, earning an intermediate interest difference of 500,000 yuan.

Factor B: Received 10 million yuan from China Railway Corporation, settled the difference of 2 million yuan to Factor A, and earned 400,000 yuan in interest.

3) Results

Supplier: Obtain instant funds of 9 million yuan through preliminary factoring, receive all 10 million yuan of income upon maturity, and quickly withdraw funds.

Factor A: Raise 8 million yuan from Factor B through refactoring and earn an intermediate interest difference of 500,000 yuan.

Factor B: Provides funds to Factor A and earns 400,000 yuan in interest.

2. Accounts receivable ABS

Suppose this is still the factoring company. After doing factoring business, it has accumulated a large amount of "accounts receivable" assets.

Factoring companies can refinance several assets, but when they have a large number of "accounts receivable", they will consider packaging these "accounts receivable" for sale in the securities market, called accounts receivable ABS, to obtain Bigger gains.

(Of course, more complex market risks and regulatory requirements are involved here, but it can provide larger financing scale.)

1) Accounts receivable ABS process

Packaging accounts receivable to create ABS: The factoring company brings together its accounts receivable worth 10 million yuan and packages them to form a financial product that can be traded.

Issuing and selling ABS: Factoring companies issue these ABS through special plans SPV, assuming the issuance value is 9 million yuan, to attract investors (such as investment funds, insurance companies, other enterprises, etc.) to purchase these securities.

(Since each asset has a different maturity date, general assets also involve recurring purchases after maturity. This article mainly introduces the basic financing model and will not expand on it for the time being.)

Fund flow to factoring companies: Factoring companies actually received 9 million yuan from the issuance of ABS, taking into account various fees. These funds can be used for the company's daily operations and capital needs.

Collecting accounts receivable: When the accounts receivable expire (for example, after 90 days or 180 days) the debtor (such as China Railway) pays the SPV the receivables, totaling 10 million yuan.

Investors get returns: After receiving a payment of 10 million yuan from the debtor, the SPV uses these funds to pay corresponding interest to investors. Assuming that the annual interest rate is 5% and the investment period is half a year, the interest is approximately 225,000 yuan (9 million yuan * 5% * 0.5 years).

2) Results

For factorers, successfully converting their accounts receivable into cash improves the company's cash flow position and increases leverage.

For the special plan SPV, income from transaction spreads and handling fees was obtained.

For investors, interest income related to accounts receivable is obtained by purchasing these ABS.

3. Overseas financing

Same as above, the difference is that overseas business involves exchange rate conversion issues, so you can consider using the wrong currency withdrawal method to handle it.

What does it mean to withdraw funds with the wrong currency? For example, for example, I have 1,000 funds in Hong Kong, and now I have lent 800 to A, and A has not repaid the money. At this time, my small treasury only has 200, and A expects to pay me back at 1.15;

At this time, B also came to me to borrow 800 on the 1.10th. I only had 200 Hong Kong dollars in hand, but 5 days later, I will have 1,000 Hong Kong dollars. I hope to lend money to B, but if the RMB is converted into Hong Kong dollars, there will be an exchange. cost, what to do?

At this time, I can apply for a limit of 1,000 from the bank, withdraw 800 Hong Kong dollars, advance the payment first, and then return it to the bank after 1.15.

Here we look at the bank’s withdrawal behavior, which means withdrawing money in the wrong currency.

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View credit from the perspective of financing model

It can be simply said that there are three main financing models between borrowers and financial platforms: credit loans, factoring, and bill discounting;

For borrowers, in addition to common HE Tuber credit loans (Huabei, Jiebei, mortgage loans), if you have accounts receivable (similar to IOUs) and bills, you can find a financial platform for a loan and quickly obtain funds.

So what are their specific modes and what are the differences?

1. Credit loan

The borrower makes a loan to the financial platform based on credit. Common ones, such as credit cards, Huabei, Jiebei, housing loans, car loans, education loans, and corporate current loans, all belong to credit loans.

The business model of a credit loan is relatively simple, which is to apply for a loan and repay the principal and interest, as shown below:

But I have to mention here, where did the credit card, which brings great convenience to life, come from?

1) The origin and development of credit cards

In New York in the last century, there was a businessman named McNamara. One day, he had an incident when he was entertaining guests for dinner in a restaurant. When checking out, he suddenly realized that he had forgotten his wallet. This made him feel so embarrassed that he had to call his wife and ask her to bring cash to settle the bill. The incident gave him an idea: It would be great if there was a way to pay without cash. So, he cooperated with his friends and founded the "Diners Club" and launched a new payment method - a card that can record consumption, which is an early credit card.

At that time, credit cards were a manifestation of commercial credit, but over time, banks began to intervene, and credit cards gradually evolved into tools based on bank credit. In the beginning, the use of credit cards was very limited because cardholders could only use their credit cards in specific areas due to the lack of connections between different banks. But banks quickly realized this problem and began to establish partnerships with banks in other regions to expand the use of credit cards.

In 1976, the Bank of America card was renamed VISA, which is what we know today as Visa. At the same time, in order to compete with the VISA card monopoly, other banks gathered together to form the Master Card organization, the Master Card organization. The competition between these two organizations has promoted the development of the credit card industry, making VISA and Master Card the two giants in the global credit card market.

2) Risks of credit cards

The emergence of credit cards has greatly facilitated our lives and provided interest income for lenders (such as financial platforms and funds). However, credit loans also have risks, such as:

Credit risk: The borrower is unable to repay on time, resulting in default. This is the most immediate risk in the credit card business. In times of recession or mass unemployment, default rates typically rise, affecting banks' asset quality.

Fraud risks: including identity theft, card theft or false transactions. Hackers steal credit card information through phishing attacks to conduct unauthorized transactions.

"Professional loan account" risk: Some individuals or groups specifically use the interest-free period and reward mechanism of credit cards to obtain benefits, but do not bear the corresponding credit risks. Individual users borrow money in turn through multiple credit cards to maintain cash flow during the interest-free period, but do not make actual purchases.

“Grabbing” behavior: Users take advantage of credit card preferential policies (such as points and cash back) to obtain additional benefits, but this may cause the bank to bear costs beyond expectations. Users apply for credit cards in large numbers just to get sign-up bonuses and promotional offers.

3) Risk avoidance

In order to avoid risks in the credit card business, common solutions for banks and credit card companies include:

Credit system: Unified management of borrower information, loan application information, credit information, post-loan management, rating information and other data to form files.

Credit reporting: uniformly report to the People's Bank of China for credit reporting.

Intelligent risk control: Through information sharing, risk control models, and risk control ledgers, it helps assess corporate and individual risk levels and reduce labor costs and human errors.

2. Factoring

So as an enterprise, especially in supply chain finance, in addition to credit, when an enterprise generates transactions, the transactions are accompanied by "accounts receivable", which can also bring funds to the enterprise.

Factoring is the act of a borrower making a loan to a financial platform based on "accounts receivable". Common companies include: CITIC Prudential Factoring Co., Ltd., Industrial Bank Factoring, HSBC, and Coface.

Suppose there is a supplier that sells a batch of products to China Railway with a total value of 10 million yuan. China Railway agreed to pay the full amount after 360 days and issued an accounts receivable for this purpose.

Since the supplier needed funds to purchase new production materials and pay employees, it decided not to wait for the 360-day account period and chose to use factoring services to obtain cash.

1) Factoring process

Agreement signing: The supplier signed a factoring agreement with a financial platform (factoring company) and transferred its 10 million yuan account receivable from China Railway to the factoring company.

Fund advance: According to the agreement, the factoring company paid most of the amount of this account receivable to the supplier, assuming it was 9 million yuan (that is, 90% of the original account amount).

Payment fees: According to the agreement, the supplier needs to pay interest, platform service fees and other fees to the factoring company, assuming it is 100,000 yuan.

Collection by the factoring company: The factoring company collects the original 10 million yuan in accounts receivable from China Railway/Factor 360 days later.

Settlement difference: After supermarket chain B paid in full, the factoring company paid the remaining 1 million yuan to electronic company A.

2) Results

For suppliers, most of the funds (9 million yuan) were obtained before the accounts receivable expired, solving short-term funding needs.

For the factoring company, interest and fees (100,000 yuan) were obtained as profits, and the accounts receivable were successfully recovered after 360 days.

For China Railway, the account was paid 360 days later as originally planned, reducing procurement risks.

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 View credit from the perspective of cooperation model

1. Self-operated

It means that the financial platform provides its own funds and directly issues loans to borrowers.

This platform has certain qualifications/licenses, such as non-bank financial institution license, small loan company license, financing guarantee license, etc.;

At the same time, subject to relevant HE Tuberregulatory requirements, for example, the balance of the financing guarantee liability provided by a financing guarantee company to a single guaranteed party shall not exceed 10% of the net assets, and the balance of the total financing guarantee liability shall generally not exceed 10 times of its net assets. Investment shall be made with its own funds. The total amount shall not exceed 20% of the net assets.

2. Loan assistance

Generally speaking, it means that the platform does not lend money, but acts as an intermediary to help borrowers and funders achieve financing, and assists in customer acquisition, risk control, etc. in the process. Common products such as Hello Finance, Alipay, and general financial platforms also This mode will be provided.

Under certain regulatory environments, non-bank financial platforms may not be able to lend directly. However, if the platform has a large number of customers with borrowing needs, it will generally consider developing loan assistance services.

3. United loan

A syndicated loan is when two or more lenders work together to provide a loan to the same borrower. These institutions share the risk of lending and allocate the loan amount according to a certain proportion.

For certain large-scale financing needs, it may be difficult for a single financial platform/funder to bear such a large borrowing amount, so several financial parties can be combined to provide loans. This model has several advantages:

Spreading risk: By syndicating loans, institutions can spread the risk of a single large loan.

Resource sharing: Each participating institution can combine their own resources and expertise, such as risk control information and customer resources, to improve the efficiency and quality of loans.

Meet large financing needs: For large projects or enterprises, it may be difficult for a single institution to independently bear the entire loan amount. Joint loans can meet the needs of such borrowers.

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Credit "general structure", analysis of 9 major "models"

Credit business involves many aspects, so how do we clarify the overall structure of the credit chain? In this article, the author explains it HE Tuber through 5 aspects to help us see credit clearly. Let’s take a look at it together. It may be helpful to you in front of the screen.

If you are going to invest in a business, then you will definitely pay attention to whether the cash flow of the business is healthy, because cash flow is very important to a business.

Because it is so important, once a company encounters a funding gap during its operations, it needs to raise funds through a series of measures, such as increasing capital from shareholders, selling assets, discounting bills, and bank borrowings.

Of course, you can also get a loan through Accounts Receivable.

The above-mentioned "borrowing money" is the credit business we are going to talk about today, such as car loans, home loans, Huabei, Jiebei, etc., which are all types of credit models.

Credit business involves banks, factors, financial platforms, financial markets and other participants, as well as derived business types such as current loans, factoring, and ABS bill discounting.

Next, let’s take a look at the overall structure of the entire credit chain, including the client side and asset side of credit.

Credit business structure

Based on the architecture diagram, we can see the overall situation of credit, and we can understand credit through 5 aspects.

1. View credit from the perspective of participants

Generally speaking, credit has three participating roles: borrower, platform, and funder.

1. Borrower

It can be an individual or a business, and it can quickly obtain funds through credit. For example, when we apply for a mortgage or car loan from a bank on a daily basis, we are borrowers.

2. Financial platform

It is an intermediary that connects borrowers and funding parties. The platform itself is qualified and can also use free funds to lend. Through the platform's own fund borrowing, intermediary, and joint lending with other funding parties, the interest and fee income are obtained. Such as banks, Huabei, Jiebei, Jingdong Baitiao.

3. Funding party

It is the provider of funds for credit transactions. Earn interest and fee income by lending money to others. Such as China Merchants Bank, China Construction Bank, CITIC Prudential.

2. View credit from user scenarios

It is generally divided into B-side and C-side scenarios.

1. B-side financial market

Mainly serving corporate customers, its market size is usually closely related to the scale of business activities, corporate financing needs and the economic environment.

Main products include:

Corporate loans: including short-term loans and long-term loans, used for corporate working capital, equipment purchase, expansion, etc.

Supply chain financing: Optimize the supply chain management of enterprises through financing.

Commercial Real Estate Loan: To purchase, renovate or develop commercial property.

Trade finance: Supporting enterprises’ import and export activities, including letters of credit and factoring services.

2. C-side financial market

Mainly for individual consumers, the market size is related to consumer credit needs and consumption habits. Main products include:

Personal loan: used for personal consumption, education, medical care, etc.

Credit Card: Provides short-term credit, often used for daily purchases.

Home Loan: A long-term loan used to purchase a residence.

Car loan: used to purchase a car.

Consumer installment products: such as “Huabei” and “Jingdong Baitiao” provide instant credit and installment payment options for online shopping.

3. Comparison between B-side and C-side scenarios

Compare the two BC markets from several dimensions such as market size, risk control, quota, repayment cycle, and fees.

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 Key points of product design for decision-makers/buyers/leaders

As we all know, G-end product users are divided into two categories, one is decision-makers/buyers/leaders, and the HE Tuber other is business staff. The former generally focuses on large visual screens, while the latter directly uses the backend business system. Therefore, the design points of the two types of products for the two types of users are different.

Let’s talk about the large visual screen first.

1. Storytelling has structure

First of all, our large screen is mainly positioned for promotional display. We all know that storytelling is an important requirement in a product like this. I summarize the structure of the story into the following three points, thus forming a closed loop .

Past: efforts made

Now: Achievements/results achieved

The future: the value that can be harvested, the benefits that will be brought, and the basis for decision-making that can be used

Take our dual energy consumption control and dual carbon monitoring platform large screen as an example:

Past: efforts made. How many energy-saving technological transformation projects have been carried out, how many new energy sources have been built, how many companies have been visited, how many equipment have been monitored, etc.

Now: Achievements/results achieved. How much standard coal is saved, how much carbon emissions are reduced, how much investment is stimulated, how much benefits are obtained, etc.

The future: the value that can be harvested, the benefits that will be brought, and the basis for decision-making that can be used. The expected future benefits, predicted future carbon emissions, and data analysis provide decision-making basis for carbon quota and energy consumption indicator allocation.

In the early stages of designing this project, I made the mistake of only seeing the "now" (I also saw this problem in some other cases). Later, the more experienced products in the team told me that there is another important point in the performance report, how much effort "I" have made to achieve these results (that is, the "past" I summarized).

Of course, we will find that sometimes the boundary between "past" and "present" is blurred. For example, the construction of new energy can itself be regarded as a political achievement achieved now. Don't use the wording, you just need to have this awareness when designing: think about it past efforts.

In addition, our products actually focus on energy and carbon big data. The instructions given by our big boss and production and research director are the same: we cannot just do data statistics, we must analyze the data and convert the data into user data. Available conclusions and decision-making basis (that is, the "future" I summarized).

Maybe in the past, this kind of "future" tended to draw a big pie and tell stories, but in recent years, the general environment has been bad, the government has no money, and government customers have increasingly valued actual value. This also poses new challenges to product research and development. Product managers need to have a deeper understanding of G-end business, and may also need the intervention of data analysis and algorithm engineers.

By the way, I would like to share something with you. In the past, I thought that the maximum number of pages for a large screen was three, four, or five. If there were more pages, it would not be called a large screen. Later, another product in the team told me that they had previously worked on a municipal project, and the number of large-screen pages had been as high as more than 20 pages. If you are a core leader, you will often focus on the previous performance and highlights. If you are a specific business leader, you will look at the performance of supervision and control methods later.

2. Function

Large-screen data acquisition is generally done in the business system. Due to certain needs, sometimes some automatically generated or collected data will leave a hole for manual modification, which will not be discussed here.

What I want to share with you is that in the process of following up on the development, I found that due to the pragmatic thinking of developers, they often feel that certain functions are unnecessary, and the product needs to be additionally informed to the development: The government reports to superiors, publicizes and displays performance. If there is such a demand, storytelling is a high-priority requirement for G-end products.

3. Key points of product design for users/business staff

Business staff generally use back-end business systems. Although they often have no decision-making power in product purchases, they are direct users of the products.

1. Function

When we make G-end products, especially those for district and county-level users, the simpler the functional interaction, the better. I had a profound realization during my previous internship. Even if all the options are laid out flat, try not to put them in a drop-down list and expand the list by clicking once.

For district and county-level users, do not hide information that can be seen by users, and do not allow users to operate if it is possible. The fewer layers of information the better, preferably only one.

2. Form

In fact, according to the experience feedback of our colleagues, G-end users also have "good-looking" needs for business systems. Of course, this demand often comes from decision-makers/buyers/leaders. The designers in the team once said that they had done UI design before, and the customer leader stood behind them and directly told them how to change it. And customers will also have aesthetic differences with designers.

4. Conclusion

Finally, I would like to share with you a little surprise. Is our product successful? We did sign contracts with several district and county-level customers, but we encountered relatively big obstacles in getting money back. The general environment is not good, the local government has no money, and the contract amount for each of our orders is relatively large.

Perhaps as our big boss said, for G-end products, the primary factor is resources, the secondary factor is policy, and then the product itself .

My experience in this article all comes from a product project and may not necessarily be very universal. Everyone still needs to look at it dialectically.

So, see you in the next article.

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Experience summary | G-end products, it is easy to G

When making G-end products, product managers will more or less encounter some problems that other types of products cannot. The author HE Tuber takes the products he designed as an example to summarize some of his personal experiences and key points in designing governance supervision products, hoping to inspire you.

Community author Sirui divided G-end products into the following three categories in the article 

(Picture source: "G-end Business Product Introduction" author: Sirui)

I personally agree with this classification, and would like to summarize some of my current experiences and key points in designing governance supervision products. I also hope to communicate with colleagues who have similar product experience.

First of all, let me introduce that the product we designed is a dual energy consumption control and dual carbon supervision platform, 0-1, for district and county government customers, focusing on supervising the energy consumption and carbon emissions of industrial enterprises within the jurisdiction.

1. Difficulties and entry points

When making this product, there are two main difficulties:

Don't know the need. If the problem when making B-end products is that companies often "know" what they want too much, then the problem we face when making this G-end product is that users don't know what they want. Of course, it may also be that the overall dual-carbon field is relatively weak. New reasons.

No competing product found. Frankly speaking, for a 0-1 product, I currently think that researching competing products is one of the most efficient ways to understand basic needs. After all, you are climbing on the shoulders of others, a bit like a paper reference. However, unless G-end products are for the public, it is generally difficult to find publicly available competing products.

Let me talk about my personal solution:

The first is to understand a large number of relevant policies and industry standards. Especially for such regulated products, local assessment methods implemented or tried, relevant data indicators disclosed every year on local government websites, etc., may become a key focus in the design.

The second is to find similar products for migration in terms of functions/processes/goals. For example, if we want to build a function for the government to issue energy consumption indicators and carbon quotas to enterprises, I referred to the budget management module in the financial system, and finally we designed the energy budget module; for example, our government energy supervision platform cannot find open competition. products, but you can look for some enterprise and park energy management platforms.

I think this process is very interesting. Look at the essence through the phenomenon, and throw away the flesh and blood (content). The skeletal structure is similar, that is, the function/process/goal.