Freud once put forward a view: sex is the driving force behind the development of human society.
In the business world, "sex" has always been an enduring topic.
Guanyun County in northern Jiangsu has a population of less than 1 million, but it has more than 500 lingerie factories and more than 3,000 lingerie online stores, with annual sales of more than 3 billion yuan. It has created jobs for more than 20,000 local people and once became a social issue.
In 2020, when Italy was suffering from the mask shortage, the demand for "sex products" in the country also rose rapidly. The sales of "sex dolls" increased fivefold in just one month. Among these "silicone girlfriends", 90% came from large and small factories in Guangdong.
Obviously, behind this slightly taboo "hormone track", there are actually countless "rich mines". However, due to the constraints of traditional culture and the shackles of social civilization, many people are reluctant to enter the game due to secular views.
Image source: Internet Guanyun Sexy Underwear Factory
But the emergence of "AI girlfriend" has gradually blurred this boundary.
In 2023, with the development of artificial intelligence technology, emerging industry tracks based on large language models continue to be explored, and many projects have achieved performance, and the "AI girlfriend" track is one of the "hot" ones.
In the "AI Girlfriend" service, all the appearance, personality, and character of the "girlfriend" are fictitious. There will be no infringement of portrait rights, nor will there be any offense or insult to personal dignity. Conversations, photos, videos, and even some "borderline" content are all generated by big data models, which greatly reduces the operator's moral guilt.
Image source: Artificial Intelligence / Generated by: Stable diffusion
In February this year, with the release of Sora, the “AI girlfriend” once again provided a wave of imagination. Now it is just chatting and looking at pictures, but with Sora, can we directly interact with the “cyber girlfriend” video on the screen?
What exactly is "AI Girlfriend"? Is its profit model sustainable? Today, the operation agency will talk to you about the secrets of the popularity of "AI Girlfriend" and traffic monetization, as well as the practice of "AI Girlfriend" in China.
01
The Fantasy and Chaos of "Cyber Girlfriend"
How popular is "AI girlfriend"? There may not be obvious signs in China, but it has set off a vigorous "social revolution" abroad.
In February 2023, an app called Soulmate was launched on the Internet. This is an app that allows users to build their own AI Bot.After only a few months of going online, it has achieved several thousand daily active users.
Image source: Google Play
In this app, an uncle used AI to generate his former lover and talked with him until late at night; an aunt used AI to generate her dream lover and successfully awakened the girl's second spring.
In daily life, they are parents, elders, and leaders, but under the teasing and temptation of "AI lovers", they have transformed into "love brains", contributing one recharge after another in affectionate conversations and enjoying it.
But what was unexpected was that this "sweetness" did not last long. In September 2023, this APP announced its closure. On the day the announcement was released, countless uncles and aunts were heartbroken and even cried bitterly. They even launched a "Cyber Mourning" campaign on social media to commemorate this short but beautiful relationship.
Image source: Internet
Although these behaviors seem outrageous, we must admit that the emergence of "AI dating" services has indeed changed the way people socialize to some extent. Not only uncles and aunts, but also many young people are deeply involved in it.
Among the dazzling array of "lovers", the other party has a variety of occupations, different personalities and preferences, and can even be the protagonists of anime or TV series.
And as more and more similar products are available, the services of “AI girlfriends” are becoming more and more popular.It is no longer limited to chatting, flirting, and talking about daily life, but will also intelligently generate some image photos, life photos, and some large-scale "borderline photos".
Image source: PixAI (needs to be censored)
In fact, for some developers, "borderline photos" are often an important means for them to attract traffic to their apps. These developers will register accounts for these "AI girlfriends" on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, and then post some daily updates, which will be interspersed with "borderline" copywriting and pictures, to guide users to recharge and consume in the app.
For example, the AI character "Lexi Love" created by Foxy AI has registered an account on Instagram. The character is set to be 21 years old, a model, and can chat with users 24 hours a day. She can speak more than 30 languages and has gained more than 30,000 fans since the account was registered.
Image source: Instagram Lexi Love homepage
Don’t underestimate these more than 20,000 fans. According to data from the AI company, this “girlfriend” receives more than 20 marriage proposals every month. Some users even contact the company just to “meet” their lover.
At the same time, this girlfriend not only harvested the men's feelings, but also harvested their wallets. According to company data,This "girlfriend" earns about $30,000 a month, or about RMB 210,000.No matter which country she is in, Lexi Love can definitely be regarded as a top "sea queen".
In addition to "hatching" this kind of "Internet celebrity girlfriend", many Internet celebrities also choose to "take advantage of what is already there" and find an AI company to "clone" themselves, so that the AI version of "themselves" can reap the benefits of their own traffic to the greatest extent.
For example, American internet celebrity Caryn Marjorie used her own voice and photo to "clone" herself, and chatted with fans as a "virtual girlfriend". Whether it was talking about troubles or flirting, she could speak freely. Caryn Marjorie and the company behind her also made a lot of money from this product.In just one week, he earned $71,600.
Image source: Instagram Caryn Marjorie's homepage
It is said that this company has also reproduced AI Steve Jobs, AI Taylor Swift, and even AI Trump...
Through the above cases, it is not difficult to find that the development speed of overseas "AI girlfriend" services is very fast. It not only has a wide audience group, but also has considerable commercial monetization.
So the question is, since there are already relatively mature exploration and monetization practices abroad, given the current domestic technological and regulatory conditions, can we replicate the business opportunities of "AI girlfriend"?
02
How do "AI girlfriends" make money?
First, let’s take stock of the monetization models of “AI Girlfriend”, which can be mainly divided into three types.
1) The paid package model has been explored in China for a long time
"Paid time packages" are basically the most basic and main source of income for "AI girlfriends". Take the "clone" Caryn Marjorie we just mentioned as an example. The charge is $1 per minute, which is also a relatively recognized price among external network peers.
This charging model is not new. The domestic market has long explored and developed this model. For example, the services of playing games and chatting with others are both paid time packages.However, in the "AI Girlfriend" mode, only one-time code development is required, and then the database and model are maintained, which eliminates the need for real-person commissions and the gross profit will be relatively higher.
2) "Soft Porn"Service, high profits but high risks
As we talked about at the beginning, behind the "dating" attribute, "sex" is the key to driving the booming development of this industry and it is also a topic that cannot be avoided.
Just like the industry of playing games and chatting with others mentioned above, there are inevitably some gray areas. "AI girlfriend" is no exception. In addition to using "soft pornography" pictures to attract traffic, developers also customize and generate "soft pornography" pictures for users, which is the key to attracting user repurchases and extending the user life cycle.
But at the same time, this is also the most "unfavorable" part of developing such products in China. How to satisfy the "emotional value" of users while meeting the needs of supervision is a topic that needs to be discussed in depth.
3) She is both an “AI girlfriend” and an “influencer”
I don’t know if you have noticed that in the past year, a lot of “digital internet celebrities” have emerged on the Internet.
For example, the blogger named @小姨妹 in the picture below, at first glance, is a single mother who shows off her beauty and figure. But if you look closely at the content of the video, you will find that her skin is too delicate and her expression is rather stiff. It can basically be determined that it was generated by AI.
Although she is a "digital internet celebrity", her ability to bring goods is no worse than that of a real-life anchor. As of February 19, @小姨妹 has garnered 1.1 million followers. According to New List data, as of February 19, her estimated sales in the past 30 days were 50,000 to 75,000 yuan. There are also many similar AI bloggers.
This makes people think that the process of creating an "AI girlfriend" is actually the process of creating an IP. If you can use "making friends" as a traffic entrance, and then build an "AI girlfriend" into an "AI Internet celebrity", not only will you have highly active users, but with the blessing of the "lover filter", it should be easier to bring goods.
The above three models are what the operation agency has observed to be the more mainstream and mature monetization models in the current "AI Girlfriend" service. This has also led many people to choose "AI Girlfriend" as a side job or even a business direction.
03
The "AI girlfriend" that is not too far away from reality is also earning a "high salary"?
It is obvious that it is difficult to survive in China by relying on "soft pornography" to be an "AI girlfriend".
Now we are faced with a very contradictory problem. If the "AI dating" product you designed only has the function of "pure chatting", it will easily become a "pseudo-demand".
There are similar products in China now, which are launched in some more vertical channels under the banner of "homebody welfare" and "removing restrictions". Users are initially attracted to it, and they must have recharged with the mentality of "opening a blind box". But after chatting for a few hours, they found that the content they expected did not appear, and they must have uninstalled it with a curse, and users were lost.
Therefore, how to retain and increase user activity within the "limitations" of review is the key to whether the "AI Girlfriend" can be successfully replicated in China.
1) The “Internet celebrity clone” model is a feasible strategy
Under the existing constraints, it can be determined that "Internet celebrity cloning" is a good method, because for the identity of an Internet celebrity, the IP itself carries a large amount of traffic, and further interaction with the "goddess" is naturally what every fan expects.
This is a bit like live broadcast rewards. Many bosses spend a lot of money, and what they want is nothing more than the attention and favor of the anchor. But for big anchors, small gifts in the live broadcast room are often ignored. But AI will not do that. As long as the recharge is completed, it will be online 24 hours a day, and it will not keep people in suspense or use cold violence. It can meet the demands of more civilian fans.
It is worth noting that there are already pioneers of “AI influencers” in China.AI Hanzang Forest" is one of the most popular ones. It can reply to messages immediately, make video calls, and even use emoticons, which makes people feel very immersive.
Image source: New Wisdom
In terms of pricing, there is a basic version at 6 yuan/month, which only supports the function of instant reply to messages, and an upgraded version at 30 yuan/month, which not only allows video calls anytime and anywhere, but also unlocks AI services such as tarot divination and inspiration, and even more private services such as exclusive circles of friends.
Image source: Internet
Assuming that 5,000 advanced users subscribe to the service every month, the monthly salary of "AI Hanzang Forest" will be 150,000 RMB, and the annual salary will easily exceed one million. From a developer's perspective, the income is also very considerable.
2) Injecting playfulness into “love” is not a bad option
While searching for information, the operating company also discovered another very interesting product called "Honghong Simulator".
Different from the "hormone track" which is full of taboos, the product design of "Honor Simulator" is more interesting and more like an interactive game. The purpose of the game is to make the "girlfriend" happy as much as possible and persist in a sufficient number of rounds. It once became popular in the industry.
Image source: Honghong simulator
Although this work is not that sophisticated, the successful popularity of "Honghong" has opened up a new direction for development, which is also the idea originally mentioned by the AI wave: applying AI dialogue models to games.
In the product design of "Honghong", each simulated scenario is like a challenge, weakening the "gender topic" and focusing more on the fun of interaction. After all, flirting is also a kind of fun in love. Following this line of thought, you will find that there are many ways to open "AI Girlfriend".
Image source: Honghong simulator
For example, by combining AI dialogue and AI drawing functions, adding love scenes such as simulated love, simulated travel, and meeting parents, users can have a stronger sense of immersion and purpose. Just like the success of "It's Over! I'm Surrounded by Beautiful Women", it is not necessary to add a lot of "borderline" content. The simulation of love experience can often arouse the appetite of the public.
04
Conclusion
After seeing a large number of soft-pornographic "AI girlfriends" abroad, we have fallen into a big misunderstanding, that is, we think that the business model of "AI girlfriend" can only work if the element of "two sexes" is added.
In fact, if you raise your perspective to a higher dimension, you will find that there are still many needs for subdivision. After all, even in a normal relationship, the topic of "gender" is not all of love. Romantic, exciting, and innocent love scenes can all open up a subdivided track.
In terms of technical difficulty, AI technology is like an elephant dancing, which gets faster and faster. The existing big data models can fully meet the technical requirements of such a simple product. Therefore, how to use ingenuity to build a unique product design is the key to determining whether the product can stand out.