2024/08/06 12:06
AIGC's money was first earned by Meitu
2024/08/06 12:06
Author|Tao Ran Editor|Wei Xiao
Meitu in the first half of 2024 has made a lot of money.
On July 24, Meitu announced on its official website that thanks to the company's "generative AI technology to enhance the power of imaging and design products" and "rapid global development", its image and design product business, which is mainly charged through the membership subscription model, achieved sustained rapid growth in revenue in the first half of the year.
The characteristics of the high gross profit margin of this business ultimately brought about a high increase in net profit.
How high? Compared with the same period last year, the expected growth is not less than 80%.
This is a bit unexpected and exaggerated - if you want to ask who is the company that will make the most money with AI in 2024, even if the amount alone is not the highest, in terms of efficiency and cost performance, Meitu will probably be at the top of the list.
According to a research report released by Everbright Securities, Meitu, which is deeply engaged in AI technology, is currently "one of the few companies that has made profits at scale through AI".
When its peers are still in the stage of high-investment R&D, what did Meitu do right?
Image generation has always been an area of high hope for all applications involving AIGC.
A small part of the content industry is waiting for AI mapping technology, and it is hoped that AI mapping can replace the image library materials to save copyright purchase costs.
And the bigger part is in e-commerce - whether it is a new individual seller or a senior store owner who has been in business for many years.
The former has just entered the industry and has limited resources, and it is time-consuming and laborious to make more exquisite product drawings by himself, and the effect is not necessarily good. However, they have an urgent need for the exposure of products on the platform. AI, which can create product images with a sense of design in batches, is a shortcut for these newcomers.
And those large stores that have been in business for many years also need the efficient productivity of AI to prepare according to the different needs of different users and different hotspots at different times, so that their products can keep up with the changing rhythm of the environment as much as possible.
These areas of urgent need have also become the most convenient way for AI technology to monetize – closer to the application and therefore closer to the money.
The Meitu design studio is just right for this kind of rigid need.
In fact, Meitu Design Studio is not a new product released after the innovation of AI technology, it was released as early as March 2022, and the AI painting capability was also launched at the end of that year. Despite the popularity, it is not very effective at the commercial level.
In 2023, the demand for graphic goods in the e-commerce field will explode on platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, and a large number of bloggers will begin to appear in the live broadcast room to teach users how to use the software for AI mapping.
Statistics show that the number of monthly active users of Meitu Design Studio has expanded to 18 million in the past year, which even exceeds that of Doubao and Wenxin Yiyan. The product revenue exceeds 100 million yuan, which is enough to rank among the front rows in the AI vertical field.
At the end of last month, Meitu Design Studio launched a new team version that can be used for multi-person organization collaboration, upgrading from a simple design tool to a design + collaboration model, which seems to be intended to become DingTalk and Feishu in the image field.
In short, the current Meitu is facing the B-side.
Meitu is not popular because of AI, and many of the company's "Meizitou" apps have always been popular products in the aesthetic economy.
QuestMobile, a data statistics agency, released the "2024 China Mobile Internet Semi-Annual Report" a week ago, and the data shows that the Meitu App under Meitu ranks first in the domestic image beautification track in terms of user scale.
In fact, since QuestMobile released its series list in 2016, the Meitu App has always been at the top of the track, and the company's other product, BeautyCam, has also been in the front row of the photography track for many years.
However, user size is one set of data, and paying users are another set of statistics. Although the user base of Meitu's products has always been considerable, among them, white prostitutes, who can only contribute advertising revenue, account for a large proportion.
The problem is that it's hot, but it's not profitable.
Since its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2016, Meitu has continued to lose money from 2016 to 2021, with annual net profits of -6.261 billion yuan, -197 million yuan, -1.255 billion yuan, -397 million Hong Kong dollars, -41 million yuan and -45 million yuan respectively.
At the same time, there has been a significant decline in the number of users: between 2013 and 2016, the monthly active users of Meitu's apps quickly climbed from 88 million to 456 million. But by the end of 2021, that number had fallen to 230 million, nearly halved.
The new story that Meitu needs is taken from AI and used on the B side.
According to statistics from relevant institutions, in mid-2023, Meitu released five AI applications, including WHEE, an AI video creation tool, WinkStudio, a desktop AI video editing tool, DreamAvatar, and RoboNeo, as well as a large visual model of MiracleVision.
In addition to the Meitu design studio mentioned above, the upgraded product matrix adapts AI technology to user needs in the fields of live streaming, e-commerce, and design from point to point.
E-commerce scenarios are areas closer to money, and B-end users are more willing to spend money on AI.
Judging from the latest financial report, the results of this game are obvious. In fiscal year 2023, Meitu's total revenue is RMB2.7 billion, an increase of 29.3% over the same period last year. The adjusted net profit attributable to the parent company was 370 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 233.2%.
Among them, the revenue of imaging and design products was 1.33 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.8%; advertising business revenue was 760 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.5%; The revenue of the beauty industry solution business was 570 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.1%.
In terms of AI, the company revealed that about 83% of the hundreds of millions of images and videos processed by Meitu users every day use pan-AI functions. And this part directly corresponds to the 1.33 billion brought by the "image and design product business" based on the paid subscription model.
In addition, the payment of more than 9.11 million paying users - C-end users, a year-on-year increase of 62.3% and a record high, is also improving.
At least at the data level, AI has revitalized Meitu, which has stalled growth.
The good news is that after entering 2024, Meitu's monetization in the AI field is still optimistic.
According to statistics, as of May 2024, 87% of paying users use AI functions and 41% use generative AI in Meitu products.
Recognized AI applications have become the reason and purpose for users to pay.
In addition, the number of Meitu's global VIP members also reached a record high of 10.63 million in mid-June this year, an increase of nearly 50% over the same period last year.
However, at the same time, apps such as Magic Duck, Light Camera, Awakening Camera, and Canva, which compete with core C-end apps such as the Meitu App and BeautyCam, have also temporarily become the top performers in the circle at different times this year.
As a leader in the track for many years, Meitu has found its missing acceleration through AI. But the chasers behind him also see AI as an opportunity to turn the tables.
The round of hand-to-hand combat may be coming.
Source |AI Blue Media Hui Author|Tao Ran
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