At least until the second half of this year, domestic AI large-scale model products have already opened up in overseas markets. The leader is MiniMax, a large-scale model unicorn company from Shanghai.
Recently, MiniMax's video generation application Conch AI has triggered intense discussions among users overseas. Most of these user feedback focused on their surprise and admiration for the video quality, stability, and detailed character performances generated by Conch AI.
Since OpenAI released the sora demonstration video at the beginning of this year, AI-generated videos have become the most lively track in the field of large models this year.
MiniMax released its first Vincent video model abab-video-1 on August 31 this year. It is another Chinese artificial intelligence company with a video generation model after Kuaishou, ByteDance, Zhipu, etc. At this point, MiniMax has a model layout from text to speech and video generation.
According to a set of data released by MiniMax itself, within one month after its video model was launched in Conch AI, the number of visits to the Conch AI web version in September reached 4.97 million, a year-on-year increase of 867.41%, ranking first in the AI product list (web) globally in September. Ranked first on both the growth rate list and the domestic growth rate list.
A reporter from the "Kechuangban Daily" learned from a Minimax insider that within a month after Conch AI was launched, the Tusheng video model supported API calls.
Among the large-model startups this time around, MiniMax’s greatest perception to the market is also its slightly different nature. It is the company’s success in overseas markets. Compared with the current situation of how other companies are still struggling for commercialization, MiniMax’s This kind of success is almost astonishingly fast.
Recently, some media reported that MiniMax told investors that the company’s net income this year would reach US$70 million, which is already a high forecast among AI startups that have been difficult to commercialize. Most of this revenue comes from advertising on its C-end AI social product Talkie.
In response to these data, as of press time, MiniMax had not responded to inquiries from reporters from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.
However, when the video model was released more than a month ago, Sheng Jingyuan, general manager of MiniMax's international business, made it clear when answering questions from the media that MiniMax is now one of the few large model companies in China that can talk about commercialization, product and model driving. It is even possible to become a self-financing and profitable company in a relatively short period of time.
Sheng Jingyuan believes that MiniMax is currently halfway up the mountain. If it is successful, it will soon reach a positive business cycle. It is hoped that through technological breakthroughs and product commercialization, it will feed back technology, rather than thinking about what else is there. The money will come to invest.
Currently, China's AI startups face a challenge in the local market: how to generate enough revenue to cover the high computational costs of model training.
In the past year, the popularity of financing for large models has begun to decline, and the speed of capital inflow has gradually slowed down. There is less money for external support. If they want to survive, these AI companies must "look inward." Compared with the domestic market where competition is fierce and the willingness to pay is not strong, overseas is a more effective market for increasing revenue and profitability.
Another representative product of MiniMax overseas is Talkie, an AI social product launched in 2023. It is now a star product of AI social overseas.
Public data shows that Talkie’s global monthly active users have reached 11 million, of which more than 50% are from the United States. Other markets include the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and Canada. There is not a big gap between the number of jobs this month and the 14 million of Character AI, the leading AI social product.
Sheng Jingyuan said that when overseas users have better paying habits and the product is good enough, more resources will be used to promote overseas. Overseas markets will have their own set of strategies, which are relatively straightforward and can be monetized faster.
The CEO of a large model business company in Shanghai told a reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that his company’s AI products currently deployed on the device side are mainly sold overseas, and overseas currently account for 50% of the company’s business share. However, the CEO also made it clear that although domestic AI products represented by Talkie and Conch AI have blazed a new path overseas, the actual costs are still difficult to cover.