Revolutionize Your Social App with ZEGOCLOUD RTC+AI Technology
Under the impetus of digital transformation, the global social and entertainment industry is undergoing unprecedented transformation. Real-time audio and video technology, as the bridge connecting users and content, has become a key driving force behind this transformation.
With the continuous deepening of globalization, the dissemination of diversified entertainment gameplay is no longer confined by geographical boundaries. With its profound accumulation in the field of RTC, ZEGOCLOUD not only provides an all-in-one solution for the industry but also demonstrates strong competitiveness in the global market. From bustling metropolises in Southeast Asia to desert oases in the Middle East, ZEGOCLOUD’s product portfolio has reached every corner of the world, serving as a link that connects different cultures and languages.
This article will take you deep into ZEGOCLOUD’s unique technological insights into the hot regions and characteristics of the global social and entertainment industry. It will also explore how innovative products and solutions can meet the diverse needs of different markets and scenarios, empowering customers to achieve business growth.
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1. Characteristics and Scenarios of Popular Regions in the Global Social and Entertainment Industry:
1-on-1 Video Call is prevalent in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, America, and Latin America. Despite the high average revenue per user (ARPU), 1-on-1 video call faces challenges including long launch cycles, low video connection rates, high complaint rate for billings, and significant call stuttering. Mishandling these issues directly impacts revenue generation.
Live Audio Rooms are primarily distributed in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Users in Southeast Asia exhibit strong demands but lower payment levels, with a typical profile of high DAU and low ARPU. Conversely, in the Middle East, live audio room products tend to have lower DAU but higher ARPU. These users expect rich gameplay, mature functionality, and a certain level of innovation.
Live streaming exhibit completely different characteristics in popular live streaming regions such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia. In the Middle East, male hosts dominate the scene and thrive on engaging in PK (Player versus Player) interactions. Additionally, 5% of core users can generate over 90% of the revenue. On the other hand, in Southeast Asia, users gravitate towards charismatic hosts, and even hosts who specialize in mini-games can generate considerable revenue.
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2. High-Quality Real-Time Audio and Video Empowering Business Growth
Next, we will delve into the pioneering strides made by ZEGOCLOUD in various business scenarios, including 1v1 video, live audio rooms, and live streaming. Furthermore, we will explore how the integration of AI technology has paved the way for innovative business models, enabling users to enjoy a more immersive and personalized entertainment experience.
2.1 1-on-1 Video Call
The business model for 1-on-1 video call is straightforward and can be summarized in four steps: matching, order acceptance, transaction processing, and settlement. Since it doesn’t demand a platform ecosystem as complex as that of live streaming or live audio rooms, this model is particularly well-suited for deployment in densely populated regions.
Given the high cost of user acquisition in 1-on-1 video call, maximizing conversion rates at each stage becomes pivotal for fostering business growth. Through our collaborative efforts with nearly a hundred 1v1 clients, we have distilled four major typical issues and provided effective solutions.
Prolonged Launch Cycles: The primary obstacle lies in the stringent application marketplace review process, which is heavily influenced by regional policies. Consequently, in order to mitigate the challenges posed by application stores, several leading clients have turned to operating on the H5 platform since last year. Besides, from a technical perspective, the 1-on-1 video call scenario is simpler than multi-user interactions, and the WebRTC ecosystem has gradually matured. As a result, we have taken this opportunity to provide clients with the Audio and Video Call UIKit solution to accelerate their go-to-market.
Low Video Connection Rate: Users have a strong desire for immediate connections. Therefore, the video connection rate directly affects the number of prospects at the top of the conversion funnel. Based on insights from leading vendors in the Indian region, we learned that users become impatient and disconnect if the call is not connected within 2 seconds. By collaborating closely with our clients, we embarked on an incremental co-creation journey, resulting in a remarkable solution that significantly increased the connection rate. We successfully elevated it from the industry average of 70% within 2 seconds to an impressive 95%.
High Call Stuttering Rate: Tackling call stuttering is a critical aspect of optimizing real-time audio and video communication. We have identified specific measures for the 1-on-1 video call scenario, including targeted weak network flow control and video encoding optimization. Additionally, we deploy and access routes based on the distribution of users. It is worth highlighting that by integrating ZEGOCLOUD’s RTC SDK, our customers achieve 720P-equivalent performance with just 540P,, effectively reducing the network load on users. This optimization effectively alleviates the network burden placed on users.
High Complaint Rate for Billing: Billing in business operations is often based on call duration, and any inaccuracies in timing can easily lead to disputes and increase operational costs. As a foundational technology service provider, our focus is on addressing various exceptional scenarios and boundary conditions, ensuring seamless coordination between clients, servers, and even third-party NTP services to ensure accurate time calculation. To tackle these challenges, we have developed a dedicated high-precision billing solution.
2.2 Live Audio Room
The situation of live audio rooms varies slightly in each region. In Southeast Asia, a region with a large population and high user engagement, network/hardware development may vary, and many users opt for affordable Android devices. In the Gulf states of the Middle East, religious and cultural factors contribute to the widespread adoption of voice chat, resulting in high ARPU values, with PGC ecosystems dominating the market.In Egypt and Turkey, with dense populations, UGC ecosystems are popular. However, regardless of the region or model, content ecosystems play a critical role in the voice chat business. Hosts need to foster an active atmosphere to facilitate user interaction and engagement.
In this scenario, our primary aim is to tackle two fundamental challenges:enhancing the core voice chat experience through improved audio quality and seamless performance, and offering technical solutions and resources for expanding gameplay possibilities.
- Enhancing audio quality and smoothness
Voice chat is typically a real-time activity, and when a user in a noisy environment joins the chat and activates their microphone, it often degrades the overall experience of the entire room, particularly in Southeast Asia where this scenario is more frequent. To address this issue, we have leveraged AI models trained on relevant language data to upgrade the performance of noise reduction and echo cancellation, surpassing the capabilities of traditional algorithms that can only handle steady-state regular noise.
Smoothness is another essential aspect of experience, particularly in weak network environments. The key lies in the accuracy of weak network detection algorithms, optimization of encoders, and design of transmission protocols. Our solution ensures smooth communication even in network conditions with up to 70% packet loss. Moreover, we have achieved a reduction of over 30% in audio bitrate compared to the industry average, while maintaining the same subjective quality.
2. Broadening the range of gameplay possibilities
Live Audio Room+Karaoke: In voice chat scenarios, it has become commonplace to incorporate additional entertainment content alongside casual conversations. The popular combination often involves integrating singing and mini-games into voice chat sessions. To cater to these preferences, we have developed relevant solutions in these areas.
Live Audio Room+AI Voice Changer: Adding effects and enhancing voices in voice chat scenarios is a fundamental capability, and AI technology takes voice modulation to the next level of richness and amusement. On one hand, it enhances the attractiveness of broadcasters’ voices and encourages more users to participate. On the other hand, voice transformations can be monetized or used as interactive gifts, providing a fresh and exciting gameplay experience.
We have integrated AI voice modulation capabilities into our SDK, making it easily implementable with just a few lines of code. Furthermore, in addition to the resources provided in the voice library, customized voice tones can also be tailored.
2.3 Live Streaming
The live streaming industry has evolved into a highly matured state, particularly in Southeast Asia and the six countries of the Middle East and Gulf region. Apart from PK( (player-versus-player) between streamers, localized content ecosystems play a vital role. The integration of karaoke, mini-games, voice changer, and other elements mentioned earlier has taken on diverse forms within the live streaming scene. Additionally, streamers play a pivotal role in the live streaming business and are often considered as integral as the content itself. User demands for enhanced viewing experiences and improved live streaming quality have been on the rise.
Our primary objectives revolve around tackling two key issues in this scenario as below:
- Latency Concern
Ensuring the quality of critical live streaming events often requires us to optimize and monitor various aspects, such as weak network performance, latency, synchronization, and stuttering. With the accumulated advantages and scale of RTC technology, we have crafted an independent live streaming solution tailored to the shared demands of high-quality live broadcasts. This solution excels in offering outstanding resilience to weak network conditions, ultra-low latency, high synchronization, and minimal buffering interruptions.
2. Video Quality Concern
A common demand in most live streaming apps revolves around emphasizing the video quality. The key to addressing this issue lies in enhancing video quality without imposing additional burdens on users’ devices, especially in Southeast Asia. Moreover, cost control is crucial. To meet these requirements, we provide an optimized solution that covers all device models and network conditions, offering low-code, high-definition coverage to enhance video quality.
2.4 Regulatory compliance of content
Compliance is the lifeline in the social and entertainment industry. Different regions have their own set of regulations and enforcement standards.To ensure smooth business operations, it is crucial to understand professional terms and know how to make improvements. Particularly in content moderation, we have collaborated with partners to establish a comprehensive access system that covers all aspects of content, including audio-video interactions, instant messaging, and information flow. This system is designed to adapt to the requirements of business audits.
Download Now：2024 Global Social&Entertainment Industry Monetization Solution
3. RTC+AI Companion
In addition to the mature social gameplay mentioned above, AI companion, as a popular emerging product category, are increasingly ingrained in the daily lives of users.
By March 2024, AI companion products ranked just behind AI assistants, AI search, and AI design tools in terms of total user visits. Offering various interactive modes such as text, images, audio, video, and games, these AI companions have sparked a desire among users to have a virtual AI friend.
With the upgrade and deep development of GPT-4o, AI is getting closer to being human-like. AI voice assistants, AI companions, digital human customer service, AI interviews, and more are quietly emerging. To this end, ZEGOCLOUD aims to help customers build immersive and seamless interactions with AI companion:
Instant Message Interaction: Supports AI-generated images and content moderation. It enables multimodal interaction through various message types, including text, images, and voice.
Voice Chat Interaction: Multiple voices are rendered with a natural and smooth flow, and additional functionalities such as voice activity detection (VAD), ultra-low latency interactive experiences, and real-time voice control are supported. Users have the freedom to interrupt the speech of the AI Digital Human during a chat, just like communicating with a human. This facilitates real-time communication and instant exchange of feedback and new ideas.
Video Interaction: AI Digital Human’s lip movements perfectly align with its voice, creating a natural expression and an interactive experience that feels almost real-time. It supports multi-turn conversation memory, enabling seamless “callbacks” similar to human conversations. Additionally, the appearance of the AI Digital Human can also be customized by clients.
4. Conclusion
ZEGOCLOUD pioneers agile innovation, constantly seeking new scenarios and benefits. As the AI era unfolds, we lead the way in exploring the untapped potential and advantages of integrating RTC and AI technologies. We actively engage with the industry, sharing our achievements and delivering superior real-time interactive experiences to users, empowering our customers’ business growth with unparalleled quality.
Download Now：2024 Global Social&Entertainment Industry Monetization Solution
