Fan Shuo believes the human demand for multi-dimentional information brings monetization opportinities in smart advertising. Moviebook, previously listed on NEEQ, reportedly plans to file listing application to STAR Market.
Fan Shuo (樊硕), the vice president of technology of Moviebook (影谱科技), spoke at Global New Economy Conference on 2019 (全球新经济年会) on June 12. A Chinese company in intelligent video technology, Moviebook dedicates to AI + entertainment. At the conference, Fan Shuo discusses the development of content advertising and how AI revolutionizes the industry.
The content industry could be perceived as developing from text to image, as the user demand advances through time. Dominant content companies transition from web portals such as Sohu.com, Sina.com, 163.com(NetEase) to image-oriented social platforms such as BAT, Weibo, and Twitter, etc. Visualization is a hot topic in the rise of the new content economy, in accordance with the human appeal to multi-dimensional information.
Advertising evolves from early stage banner ads to the current pre-roll and mid-roll video ads. Technology nowadays makes it possible to automatically generate images, integrating content into ads and meanwhile turning ads into content, by which Moviebook could affect customers subtly and gains monetization opportunities.
Fan Shuo mentioned that intelligent advertising solves four pain points for brand advertisers.
Lack of exposure opportunities: Traffic platforms are facing the following dilemma: extending the length of pre-roll ads increases revenues but decreases monetization opportunities because of inferior user experience; at the same time, paid members wouldn't see the advertisements. By inserting ads into online video contents, it increases the exposure rate and avoids embedded ads being cut.
High cost of traditional advertising: The cost of implanting traditional ads is higher, while smart advertising helps advertisers to lower cost and achieve better ROI by providing region-specific, auto-generated advertisement in forms of texts, images, videos and banners.
Needs for brand resonance: Some brand advertisers demand certain advertising scenes and casts. Intelligent ads automation embeds ads into specified contents, resulting in a resonance of ads with the content environment.
Measures of effectiveness: It's hard to measure and control how effective in reaching users.
AI-enabled ads not only accurately deliver ads but also monitor the output, allowing examinations of effectiveness by checking monitoring, clicking, and conversion rate.
According to Fan Shuo, tech companies can be divided into three levels: basic infrastructure, applicable functions and user interactivities. Companies focusing on user interaction tend to have higher valuations, while other companies could end up being merged.
He believes infrastructure technology like AI could empower the whole industry. Taking advertising as an example, firstly, AI advertising changed the whole cost structure where shooting is no longer needed. Second, it enables record retrieval and data control. Third, it achieves customization.
AI would be broadly applied to different areas including smart manufacturing, fintech, new retail, and smart security, says Fan Shuo. Moviebook is expecting more possibilities.
As a startup founded in 2009, Moviebook has closed multiple series of financing. The founders include strategic investor SenseTime (商汤科技) and Soft Bank China Venture Capital (软银中国), CCB International(建银国际), etc. Last year, it raised more than CNY 1.3 billion through series D funding round, making the largest amount of financing received by Chinese video technology companies.
The company was listed on NEEQ (新三板) in 2016 but announced terminating stock listing this January. It is reported that Moviebook is to file listing application on SEE STAT Market.