Yanhong Li: Technology can break down cultural barriers and the live broadcast market will exceed 50 billion yuan next year

Li Yanhong said that the development of China's cultural industry must "have a source and be new." China has a profound cultural tradition and a long historical inheritance. If these old and fragrant cultural "family background" are compared to the "old wine" hidden in the cellar, then in order to make these "old wine" fragrant, we need to use better technology, better creativity, better business models and mechanisms to repackage it.

Original title: The live broadcast market will exceed 50 billion next year

. When the cultural industry encounters "Internet +", how to develop China's cultural industry will encounter new opportunities and new challenges. On December 20, Yanhong Li, president of China Private Cultural Industry Chamber of Commerce and chairman and CEO of Baidu, said at the China Cultural Industry Summit that China's profound cultural traditions such as "old wine." To make old wine fragrant, it is necessary to use "new bottles" such as better technology, better creativity, better business models and mechanisms to repackage it. "In this sense, when we develop the cultural industry, we need 'new bottles of old wine', so that China's cultural industry can exert its greatest influence and radiate its greatest strength."

The IP value of China's stories should be fully explored

. Recently, the release of the movie "Where are the Fantastic Animals" has once again aroused fans around the world's memories of the magical world of "Harry Potter." Robin Li affirmed the strong IP appeal of Harry Potter. He believed,"In fact, China does not lack good stories, but there is no such cross-cultural IP as Harry Potter has an 'ecological effect'."

Yanhong Li pointed out that in fact, the four major classics of China and Mr. Jin Yong's martial arts are all very good works, but they have not produced IP with cross-cultural effects and ecological effects like "Harry Potter"."What we have done is just to take the trouble to remake film and television dramas, each edition has more 'slots' than the last, and there is no substantial expansion at the industrial chain level." He lamented this way.

Yanhong Li believes that China should learn from Hollywood in the development of cultural IP."We should really learn from Hollywood's ability to fully tap the value of IP, organize group operations, and strengthen 'ecological thinking'," Yanhong Li said frankly. Only in this way can we maximize the influence of an IP and make China's cultural IP like Harry. Porter became part of the global consumer spiritual world.

Technology has the ability to recreate culture

. In his speech, Yanhong Li also specifically emphasized the ability of technology to reshape culture. He mentioned the artificial intelligence robot monk "Xian Er" in Beijing Longquan Temple."Although this little robot only uses very simple artificial intelligence technology, it has aroused many people's curiosity about Longquan Temple, which not only makes Buddhist culture more popular, but also drives the market for 'Little Master Xian Er' and other surrounding products of Longquan Temple."

In fact, Kenji is just a simple application of artificial intelligence. At present, Baidu's artificial intelligence has made great progress in speech recognition, image recognition, natural language understanding and user portraits. Take speech recognition as an example. Currently, the accuracy rate of the Deep Speech speech recognition system developed by Baidu Voice based on deep learning has reached 97%, which has exceeded the hearing level of normal people. Therefore, using Baidu voice system, multiple application scenarios can be realized.

"Specific to the cultural industry, we can theoretically synthesize anyone's voice using the form of Text To Speech. Even if he has not said something, we can still make it and let him 'say' these words." Robin Li mentioned that some time ago, Baidu had specially synthesized Leslie Cheung's voice for Leslie Cheung's fans. It has been 13 years since Leslie Cheung passed away, and many people still miss him. Baidu used voice technology to "resurrect" Leslie Cheung and used his voice to engage in a dialogue with the audience.

For the cultural industry, technology can be used to synthesize the language and image of any star. For example, using Baidu's brain, you can synthesize actors 'portraits, voices and movements, so that you can act for actors. At the 2016 Baidu World Congress, Robin Li once told Hu Ge, spokesperson of Baidu Wallet: "I can completely imagine that one day when you (Hu Ge) decide to take on a play, you just need to sign the contract and leave the rest to Baidu's brain. It can synthesize your voice, synthesize your images, and do your actions. In the future, if you act, you just need to say Yes, and we will do the rest for you."

Technology can break down cultural barriers between groups

. In fact, cultures vary greatly between different groups, and it is difficult for people from different cultures to communicate and understand each other. However, technology can help culture break this gap in unconventional ways."Just like a football game, faced with a tight back line, technology can often deliver a good shot and help culture 'create offside', directly facing the goal." Li Yanhong said.

This summer, the movie "Warcraft" was like a dark horse, setting a box office record of nearly 1.5 billion yuan in the China market. In fact, as a classic game IP,"Warcraft" only has part of its own viewers, while other viewers are attracted by the "Baidu Brain" promotion plan. Before the release of "Warcraft", Baidu and Legendary Pictures had negotiated a cooperation. The specific method was to use the "user portrait" technology in artificial intelligence to divide movie audiences into three categories: one is a diehard believer of Warcraft, who will definitely go to see the movie even if he is not promoted; one is a swaggering crowd in the middle, who can be influenced; and another is a group who will not go to see it no matter how much publicity it is promoted. Among them, the second type of wavering group is the real target group of film promotion. Aiming at this group of people,"Warcraft" carefully designed a promotion plan, which ultimately increased the box office by 200% than expected. "In this process, technology helped Warcraft penetrate groups that were not interested in it and expand its influence. This is the beautiful 'goal' after receiving technical help and cultural success in 'creating offside'." Li Yanhong said.

The online live broadcast market is

developing diversified cultural forms such as video and live broadcasts. Li Yanhong said that current users 'needs for cultural consumption are becoming more and more diverse, and they also prefer things with personality, which has given birth to the rise of new forms and new platforms for the cultural industry. Everyone must feel that online live broadcasts are particularly popular this year. According to data released by the Ministry of Culture, the market size of online performances, that is, live broadcasts, in the first half of the year was 8.26 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 209.3%. By the end of the year, we estimate that it may exceed 20 billion yuan, and it is still developing in a blowout state. The market size that online live broadcasts may reach next year is optimistic to reach 50 billion yuan. What kind of concept is this? The film industry has developed for decades, and the scale of one year is two to three billion yuan. In just one or two years, live broadcasts can easily surpass the cultural forms of the past.

With the emergence of emerging online platforms such as live streaming, it has indeed given new vitality to some cultural works. For example, the phenomenon of "bullet screen" accompanying live broadcast platforms. Li Yanhong mentioned this year's "hit" documentary "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" and used "contrasting cute" to describe the collision between it and Station B."Practitioners in the cultural industry need to rethink the platform. An unexpected market is very likely to be hidden in places where you think it's 'impossible'." At the same time, as a leader in domestic artificial intelligence technology, Li Yanhong also emphasized the technical effect of the cultural industry."Faced with a tight defensive line, technology can often deliver a good shot and help culture 'create offside'."

With the advancement of technologies such as voice, image, natural language understanding, and user portraits, the role of artificial intelligence will go far beyond that. "This incident inspires us that cultural industry practitioners may need to rethink the display forms and display platforms of cultural works, not set limits for themselves, and not feel that this is impossible or that is impossible. An unexpected market is likely to be hidden in you. Where you feel 'impossible'."

China's cultural industry needs "old wine in new bottles."

Li Yanhong concluded that the development of China's cultural industry must "have a new origin." He said that China has a profound cultural tradition and a long historical inheritance. If these ancient and fragrant cultural "family background" are compared to cellars of "old wines", then in order to make these "old wines" fragrant, we need to use "new bottles" such as better technology, better creativity, and better business models and mechanisms to repackage them. "In this sense, when we develop the cultural industry, we need 'new bottles of old wine', so that China's cultural industry can exert its greatest influence and radiate its greatest strength."

Robin Li believes that China should learn from Hollywood, but not completely copy Hollywood's paradigm. Robin Li believes that China's cultural industry should strive to transcend the Hollywood paradigm: "Although we say we must learn from Hollywood, we must always remind ourselves while learning that learning is for ultimate transcendence."

In fact, the foreign cultural industry is very proactive in new technologies. This year's AR game Pokemon Go is a phenomenon-level AR product. This product uses the classic cultural IP of "Pokemon" and adds technology."Old wine in new bottles" eventually became popular around the world. Many otaku and otaku went outdoors to catch pokemon. Li Yanhong said,"In contrast, we don't respond quickly enough to new technologies. We can only follow in the footsteps of others."

He said that as China once again becomes one of the most powerful countries in the world, China should produce innovative cultural industries that match this status. Li Yanhong called on contemporary entrepreneurs to work together to create the cultural influence that a strong country should have and help China's cultural industry tell the "China story."

Editor: yvette