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Entering November, the annual "Double 11" shopping festival kicked off early this year. Consumers clicking into the live streaming rooms of e-commerce platform stores found that some hosts seemed inexhaustible, maintaining full energy after continuous live streaming for dozens of hours. They not only detailed product features but also interacted with new viewers entering the live room. However, a closer look at the corner of the screen revealed a small line of text—"Generated." It turns out that these seemingly human hosts are actually digital humans generated by artificial intelligence technology.

Some places will have digital people

Nowadays, virtual digital humans are gradually becoming the "new members" in various industries. From education to finance, from culture and tourism to media, the presence of digital humans is ubiquitous, bringing convenience to people's lives. Ji Zhihui, founder and CEO of Worldlink Technology, believes that digital humans are an important interface for human-computer interaction, and where there is a future, there will be digital humans.

In the month of the year, the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Notice on the Construction of Commercial Technology Application Innovation Centers." It mentioned that the focus should be on the intelligent direction, promoting the deep integration of artificial intelligence technology with commercial circulation and new consumption, and creating typical AI application scenarios such as digital life, smart shopping districts, and e-commerce.

Qu Weixi, Vice President of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, stated that e-commerce has become one of the core business application scenarios and is a natural soil for promoting technological iterations.

Zhijing Future's founder and CEO, Wang Zhiwu, believes that virtual humans have strong application potential in live commerce. Technologically, the replication of virtual humans in terms of voice and appearance has become increasingly mature, capable of generating real-time speech and text. In terms of cost, a single virtual camera can set up a digital human live broadcast room across all platforms, reducing salary and equipment costs. By constructing digital human multi-matrix live broadcast rooms and virtual-real fusion live broadcast systems, it is possible to create topic buzz for product marketing, provide round-the-clock consumer service, and empower brands to break through.

This year, during the "", JD Cloud's Yanxi digital humans appeared in the live broadcasts of more than brands, with a cumulative live broadcast duration exceeding ten thousand hours, attracting over a hundred million views and generating millions of interactions. During the off-peak live broadcasts over the Spring Festival, JD Cloud's Yanxi digital humans sold goods worth tens of thousands of yuan, significantly boosting the conversion rate of off-peak live broadcasts by over %.

Overall, consumers have a high level of acceptance and willingness to participate in virtual human live streaming. Consumers are not only satisfied with traditional live streaming formats but also look forward to innovative and technologically immersive interactive experiences. Virtual digital human live streaming, with its unique charm and endless possibilities, is gradually becoming a new favorite in the live streaming market.

Digital people help cross-border e-commerce live broadcasts to bring goods

In recent years, the development of cross-border e-commerce has been surging, becoming a new driving force for the growth of foreign trade. Many small and medium-sized enterprises are leveraging global supply chains, logistics networks, and digital platforms. The application of virtual digital humans in the cross-border e-commerce sector directly assists merchants in overcoming business challenges such as language, image, and time differences in live-streaming sales.

The data provided by Alibaba International Station shows that since the beginning, the number of overseas buyers watching cross-border live broadcasts online has increased by % daily, bringing a % increase in business opportunities for foreign trade merchants. This not only enriches online marketing methods but also significantly reduces the operating costs of enterprises.

Reporters investigating virtual digital human live streaming software found that Mandarin and English are the basic configurations for digital humans, with some software also offering options for languages such as Italian, Arabic, and Vietnamese.

The salesperson for a digital human live streaming tool designed specifically for cross-border e-commerce says, "We now support multiple foreign digital human avatars. Simply input the script, select the corresponding language, and within minutes, you can generate live streaming video content for e-commerce. We also support various voice tones. Additionally, we now offer real human voice-driven functionality. After uploading a recorded human audio, the digital human's mouth movements will sync with the voice, making it even more realistic."

At the Spring Canton Fair this year, Zhai Lei, the cross-border e-commerce operation manager of Zhejiang Ansheng Technology Co., Ltd., stated, "After introducing digital human live streaming, online business has become simpler and more efficient. Scenarios or transaction targets that were previously difficult to engage in have now become possible, bringing incremental growth to cross-border e-commerce business."

Wu Xinhe, Marketing Director of Shenzhen Maiwei Times Technology Co., Ltd., said, "Previously, we relied on hosts working around the clock for live selling, but now, only one staff member is needed to monitor the 'digital human'." Since the company began experimenting with digital human live streaming in [month and year], the business model has undergone significant changes. Digital human live streaming not only solves the problem of real hosts staying up late but also effectively reduces labor costs and extends live streaming hours. The company, where Wu Xinhe works, has successfully developed hundreds of new customers through centralized cross-border live streaming and has reached cooperation with agents in places like the United States.

At this year's CIFTIS, many merchants visited the digital human exhibition booths to inquire about digital human customization. "The facial features and mouth movements look very realistic, but after a while, you can still tell it's a 'fake person'," said Chen, a merchant from Qingdao, Shandong, who sells accessories. After trying out a digital human anchor, Chen decided to wait and see for a while. "Although many digital human live-streaming products can now respond to questions from bullet screens, they still rely on manual pre-setting of keywords. If there are new questions or unexpected events, human intervention is still necessary."

And Xiao Xia, who shops online all year round, told reporters that she doesn't care whether the live stream introduces products by a real person. "Many flagship store live streamers just introduce products, and there are usually not many viewers, unless there are exclusive discounts for the live stream, I generally don't watch product live streams."

Sales representatives from Shiu Technology stated, "Some small shops lack the capability to hire live streamers, so they use virtual digital humans to go live, thus completing the entire product sales scenario." Certain e-commerce platforms prioritize recommending products that have live streaming enabled or provide traffic倾斜 to live broadcast rooms in search results. Virtual digital human live streaming actually offers a consumption entry point, which, to some extent, helps merchants expand their customer acquisition and lead generation channels, achieving the goal of attracting traffic and enhancing efficiency.

As for the concerns of many merchants, such as "Is the digital person realistic?" and "What if consumers realize it's a digital person hosting the live stream?", the salesperson mentioned above believes: "Ultimately, live streaming is just one form of sales scenario, and whether it's a real person or not is not the key. If consumers can purchase products at a more favorable price in the live stream, or if they stay a few seconds longer through this channel, the purpose of digital person live streaming is achieved."

According to data from iiMedia Research, only 20% of consumers believe that virtual digital humans influence their purchasing decisions. Among the factors affecting consumers' willingness to buy, the quality of the product (68.7%) is the most important, followed by the product's discount level (58.3%) and the variety of goods (57.6%). Therefore, despite the many advantages of virtual digital human live streaming for sales, the intrinsic conditions of the product still dominate in influencing consumers' purchasing decisions. When using virtual hosts for live streaming sales, businesses should fully consider these factors and adopt appropriate strategies to enhance consumers' willingness to purchase.

Or will lead the live broadcast to bring goods to the second half

As per Tianyancha's data, the number of enterprises related to "digital humans, virtual humans" has reached over 380,000, with more than 100,000 new additions in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 63.3%. While the virtual digital human industry is booming, journalists have also noticed that the companies offering virtual digital human services in the market are of mixed quality, and the digital humans they produce are uneven in quality. When merchants customize digital human models, if they use real names, voices, and images without the consent of others, they may be suspected of infringing upon others' personal rights. Technologies related to cloning voices and voice synthesis also carry the risk of infringing intellectual property rights.

In addition to legal risks, multiple e-commerce live streaming platforms have also imposed restrictions on low-quality digital human live streaming. In this month, WeChat Video Account revised the "Implementation Rules for Video Account Showcase Talent 'Publishing Low-Quality Content'," for the first time defining virtual live streaming as a violation, categorizing the act of "using plug-ins or other tools to generate virtual images for live streaming" as non-authentic live streaming, and adding rules against the purchase and sale of virtual human live streaming related tools.

As an important platform for e-commerce livestreaming, Douyin emphasized in its "Platform Rules and Industry Proposals for AI-Generated Content" released in a certain month that content creators should clearly label AI-generated content to help other users distinguish between virtual and real. In practical applications, Douyin often categorizes virtual digital human livestreams as low-quality broadcasts, thereby reducing traffic or directly banning them.

In this context, some virtual digital human companies have shifted their business focus to short video production, offering customized digital avatar services for knowledge-based self-media creators such as lawyers and doctors. These creators use virtual digital humans to produce short videos without the need for a real person to appear on camera, enabling them to output videos in bulk.

The profit model of virtual digital human generation software on the market currently consists of two parts: one is to provide annual membership software services. After downloading the software, businesses can directly produce videos using the digital human images included in the system, or they can additionally purchase virtual digital human video generation time. The other part is to offer customized virtual digital human image services for enterprises or individuals. Baidu Intelligent Cloud's Xi Ling, through self-developed voice and visual technologies, can replicate a digital human anchor with a one-to-one accuracy in less than a minute after a user uploads a real person's video. Enterprises can customize exclusive virtual digital human images based on their brand characteristics and needs, to fulfill tasks such as customer service, guidance, course training, and brand promotion. These highly customized images can better align with the brand image, enhancing brand recognition and appeal.

In [Month], a national standard project titled "Technical Requirements for the Basic Capabilities of Information Technology Customer Service-Type Virtual Digital Humans," led by SenseTime, was approved for initiation. It is reported that "Technical Requirements for the Basic Capabilities of Information Technology Customer Service-Type Virtual Digital Humans" is the first national standard in the field of virtual digital humans. It aims to specify the reference framework, basic functional requirements, and performance requirements for customer service-type virtual digital humans, and is applicable for guiding the design, development, testing, application, and management of interactive virtual digital humans represented by customer service-type virtual digital humans.

In the era of artificial intelligence, the role of digital humans is indispensable. As an important application scenario under the development of large model technology, digital human technology is the future industry of integrated innovation and application of new generation information technology, and also the advanced form of the integration of digital economy and real economy. In the future, the gradual establishment of standards for multi-application scenarios of virtual digital humans will help to regulate and promote the healthy development of the virtual digital human industry.

Text/Li Guheng

Editor/Yan Mi, Li Guheng

Review/Time

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