Zhao Chong, CEO of PixelBloom (AiPPT.com): In the future, 95% of users will create PPTs in an AI-native way. | Super Opinion
As 2024 is coming to an end, the topic of AI application scenarios continues.
Many people believe that it is still too early to talk about the implementation of AI, as the technology is not yet mature. However, a very practical reason is also in front of all players. If it is not implemented and commercialized, then the continued upgrading of technology may also lose the most basic support - after all, it is recognized by everyone that doing AI is a costly thing.
So in such a contradiction, various companies have also begun to explore the best scenarios for the implementation of AI and the commercialization models that suit them. It is in this process that many people have found that in some very traditional and closed scenarios, there are instead huge opportunities. These opportunities may not be very attractive, but everyone's needs are gathered here.
AIPPT is one of such scenarios. According to the research and statistics of the QYResearch team, the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of the AIPPT industry during the period of 2024 - 2030 is considerable, indicating that the AIPPT industry is showing a rapid growth trend globally, with huge potential in the future market.
Among them, PixelBloom (AiPPT.com) is one of the leaders in the AIPPT industry. The company was founded in 2018 and is an AI office tool incubator for the global market, dedicated to creating "the next-generation AI workstation for individuals and organizations". Its AIPPT product AiPPT.com, with the powerful function of "one sentence, one minute, one-click to generate PPT", has quickly conquered a large number of users at home and abroad.
Within 4 months after the product was launched, its monthly active users exceeded one million. In November 2024, the global monthly visits of AiPPT.com approached 10 million, ranking first in the domestic AIPPT segmented market and fourth globally. It is among the top 10 of all AIGC products on the PC side in China, while the top-ranked ones are traditional giants such as Baidu, Alibaba, and ByteDance, becoming an absolute dark horse in the global AI office field in 2024.
But PixelBloom obviously does not stop there. After the great success of the product, it is still planning to expand in other content forms. For example, in response to the needs of B-end users, it develops the AIGC content center for iDesign to improve the efficiency of enterprises in content generation, management, distribution, and data monitoring with the power of AIGC, thereby meeting the needs of enterprises in different scenarios. For the needs of C-end users, it continuously iterates, develops, and empowers more than 10 content creation tools with AI capabilities, such as the 365 editor, the iDesign online design tool, AiH5, Dingdang Good Memory Readlecture.cn, Visdoc.Ai, etc.
As Zhao Chong, the CEO of PixelBloom (AiPPT.com), expressed, in the past 12 months, although we have achieved the result of more than 10 million users, we do not think this is because the team's ability is so strong, but because the arrival of AI has made a huge change in everyone's work and learning efficiency, and the user's needs have also undergone a very big change. Therefore, I believe that all applications in the future are worth redoing with AI.
And Zhao Chong has more ideas about the future changes of PixelBloom. For this reason, 36Kr and Zhao Chong also had an in-depth conversation, trying to clarify the future development trend of the AIPPT industry, as well as the reasons why AiPPT.com can be so successful and its future plans.
The following is the actual record of the conversation, edited and sorted out by 36Kr:
Q: Please briefly introduce the products and businesses of PixelBloom.
A: PixelBloom is an AI office tool incubator for the global market, dedicated to creating "the next-generation AI workstation for individuals and organizations". Its products include AiPPT.cn (domestic)/AiPPT.com (overseas), the AIGC content center for iDesign, the 365 editor, the iDesign online design tool, AiH5, Dingdang Good Memory Readlecture.cn, Visdoc.Ai, and more than 10 content creation tools with AI capabilities.
In 2023, PixelBloom launched AiPPT.cn/AiPPT.com in the AI + office field to help users "generate PPT in one minute with one click". Currently, it is the No. 1 product of the domestic AIPPT track startup company, ranking fourth globally (Chinese version) and fifth (overseas version), and among the top 10 of all AIGC products on the PC side in China.
PixelBloom has successively received investments from institutions and star entrepreneurs such as XinYuan Capital, Weimeng Media, A-share listed company Visual China, XinTian Ventures, CE Yuan Ventures, AJEE Fund, Sensors Data, XingLian Capital (Z Fund of Zhipu Ecology), 36Kr, Wang Chuan, a co-founder of Xiaomi, and Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund (Shunxi Fund and Qiming Ventures as the fund managers).
Q: On what kind of era background was PixelBloom born and developed?
A: The emergence of generative AI has completely changed the original workflow, and the global office market has reached more than 400 billion yuan. The company brand integrates product brands such as AiPPT.cn (domestic)/AiPPT.com (overseas) and iDesign into PixelBloom, precisely to seize this market opportunity. By incubating and investing in valuable products, it realizes the brand upgrade and market expansion, and builds an AI industry ecosystem.
In terms of positioning, PixelBloom operates in the organizational form of an AI office tool incubator. PixelBloom will centralize the know-how accumulated in the content tool field in recent years with a set of standard SOPs to incubate or invest in valuable products, providing all-round support in terms of traffic, funds, operations, and technology to create a new-generation office product package similar to the office three-piece suit.
Q: Does this mean that there have also been certain changes in product positioning and strategy?
A: Yes, there have been some changes in the product positioning and strategy of PixelBloom, which are specifically reflected in:
From a single product to a platform strategy: PixelBloom initially focused on providing online editing design tools to meet the design needs of users in specific fields. AiPPT.com began to expand the product line to provide more diversified office software solutions, but it still existed as a single office software company.
PixelBloom marks the company's transformation from a single product to a platform strategy, aiming to become an incubator brand of AI office tools, providing comprehensive support and resources to incubate and invest in more valuable products.
From a tool provider to an ecosystem builder: The early products, the iDesign online design tool and AiPPT.com, focused more on providing specific tools and functions to meet the basic needs of users.
PixelBloom is committed to building a complete AI office software ecosystem, not only providing tools but also providing support such as traffic, funds, operations, and technology to help partners and startups grow.
From the local market to the global perspective: The early products mainly served the domestic market, while PixelBloom has a broader global perspective, aiming to connect global users through AI technology and provide office solutions across regions and cultures.
From product-driven to data-driven: The early products relied more on the iteration and optimization of product functions, while PixelBloom pays more attention to the collection, analysis, and application of data, driving product innovation and business decisions through data to better meet user needs.
Q: In the domestic C-end market, it can be felt that AiPPT.com is really popular. It allows users to see the possibility of AI generating PPT, so it is recommended as a "PPT magic tool" in various channels. In the nearly past 2024, what achievements have been made in China and overseas respectively?
A: AiPPT.com is currently the No. 1 product of the domestic AIPPT track startup company, ranking fourth globally (Chinese version) and fifth (overseas version), and among the top 10 of all AIGC products on the PC side in China. Overseas, AiPPT.com has launched more than 10 language versions, and its users cover more than 180 countries and regions. From the perspective of business data, AiPPT.com has achieved single-product profitability and is also one of the few AI products in the top 10 in China that has achieved commercial implementation.
In terms of ecological cooperation, AiPPT.com has won the favor of more than 1000 + enterprise partners with its flexible open interface, standardized product component functions, and excellent user experience.
From AI infrastructure manufacturers to the AI application layer, the AiPPT.com ecological cooperation network has achieved all-round coverage, including: Zhipu Qingyan, Kimi (Dark Side of the Moon), AMD, Intel, Lenovo, 360, DingTalk, People's Daily Online, and other representative companies in various industries, all choosing to access the capabilities of AiPPT.com to empower their users and employees.
Q: What are the data indicators that your internal team values the most?
A: Including market share, user growth rate, user category mind occupation, activity, retention rate, and commercialization results, etc.
Q: Your team is known for its operational growth. Can you provide some experience to emerging entrepreneurs from the perspective of obtaining traffic?
A: The first logic is to occupy the user's mind. We considered category monopoly when naming the product - the brand name is the category name. For AI to write PPT, use AiPPT.com or the same-named APP. Therefore, on the one hand, our brand communication efficiency is much higher than that of our peers. On the other hand, when our peers promote their products, it is also equivalent to helping us promote the category and brand.
The second core point is to occupy all demand entrances. In this regard, we need to use an ecological approach to embrace all major companies. Our product was launched in August 2023, and in October, we opened our API. For example, we packaged and output the AiPPT.com online editor, a large number of exquisite PPT templates, and the 500 million copyright illustrations of our shareholder Visual China to partners in all user scenarios.
There are several types of partners in this area. The first type is large model manufacturers such as Zhipu Qingyan and Kimi. The second type is hardware manufacturers, such as Lenovo and Honor. The third type is chip manufacturers, such as AMD and Intel, allowing users to still use the AiPPT.com application in an offline environment. There are also many Internet giants, including 360 and DingTalk, as well as many vertical industry partners, such as People's Daily Online.
Many overseas players are also using our API. For example, a very popular AI search product Felo in Taiwan, China, South Korea, and Japan recently. After users use AI search to generate an outline, they can click a button to turn the outline into a PPT.
There is also a rather interesting product with Chinese characteristics, "AiPPT.com Government and Enterprise Edition". There are 7.8 million civil servants, 30 million institutional staff, and 50 million employees of state-owned enterprises and central enterprises in China. They have special requirements for writing PPTs, such as the need for a corpus of mainstream values and the content of various leaders' speeches.
Therefore, we launched the "AiPPT.com Government and Enterprise Edition" in cooperation with People's Daily Online. People's Daily Online provides the corpus, and the product adds a content review function to filter out a lot of information about politically sensitive words to ensure that the generated PPT is problem-free.
At the same time, we have also solved the problem of data security. As everyone knows, maybe every push of People's Daily Online's official account has a reading volume of "100,000 +", and they also have a complete sales system in various places, which can directly reach the local competent departments. We deploy all services on the People's Rongmei Cloud to ensure data security.
Q: How did you choose the target group initially?
A: PixelBloom mainly focuses on the huge user group of 1.5 billion white-collar office workers worldwide. This group has a strong demand for office efficiency and intelligence, and a stronger willingness to pay.
Q: From the perspective of the business model, how should the launch of PixelBoom as the brand of AI Venture Studio be summarized?
A: PixelBloom has nearly 10 million monthly traffic, which can be directly empowered to all partners, and at the same time, it can also mobilize the traffic of external channels, such as Zhipu Qingyan, Kimi (Dark Side of the Moon), Doubao, Lenovo, Honor, etc.
In addition to traffic support, PixelBloom can provide AI entrepreneurs with a complete set of business solutions including product development, operation methods, pricing strategies, etc. I can even serve as the part-time CEO of these enterprises for 3 to 6 months to help them achieve results quickly.
In terms of the internationalization strategy, PixelBloom plans to combine AiPPT.com with the template market and utilize the resources of Visual China as a strategic shareholder to give full play to its advantages in PPT material templates. It is expected that the overseas market revenue will exceed the domestic market in 2025. Thailand is the first stop for PixelBloom to go overseas. Through in-depth cooperation with Focus Media Thailand, it has initially opened the brand awareness of AiPPT.com to overseas users.
Q: In the previous conversations, it can be felt that one of the strong points of your team, in addition to efficiently incubating products, is to generate traffic and convert it. This is also the most urgent ability that overseas enterprises need. What have you done in terms of going overseas?
A: AiPPT.com has been vigorously laying out the overseas market since the middle of this year. It has set different placement strategies for different markets in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.