Image source: Generated by Unbounded AI

"Which consumer AI applications will Chinese people spend most money on in 2024? The answer may be the AI ​​love input method", Diandian data shows that the ARR of leading products has reached tens of millions of yuan or even higher.

"Love Keyboard" was launched on June 25, with monthly revenue of US$480,000 and cumulative revenue of US$1.8 million, or RMB 13.14 million;

"Mi Xiaoyu" on June 13 "Lovekey Keyboard" was launched on February 25th, with monthly sales of US$520,000, and cumulative revenue of US$1.96 million, or RMB 14.31 million; "Lovekey Keyboard" was launched on February 25, with monthly sales 170,000 US dollars, with cumulative revenue of 3.69 million US dollars, or 26.94 million yuan;

If you have no concrete perception of the above income data, you can simply compare the top AI applications. “Miaoya Camera”, which represents the commercialization ceiling of the previous wave of domestic consumer-level AI applications, had a monthly revenue of US$1.12 million on the mobile terminal at its peak, but has now dropped by 94%, with a cumulative revenue of US$2.61 million since its launch, which is slightly lower than “ Lovekey Keyboard"; for AI Bot products such as Doubao and KIMI, the general consensus is that domestic users have no willingness to pay, and because users stay for a short time, they are criticized for limited advertising monetization space. The AI ​​love input method may not be a category in the mainstream vision, but it took the lead in completing the verification of market demand in China.

Old wine in new bottles? "AI Wingman" with Chinese characteristics

The essence of AI Love Input Method is an "AI Wingman" in an input method shell. Its main function is to help users Generate appropriate replies in online communications with ambiguous partners, lovers, etc. The first time the White Whale Editorial Department paid attention to AI wingmen was in overseas markets. In 2023, overseas products including Rizz and Plug AI will be launched one after another. Different from the input method scenario where domestic manufacturers enter, most overseas "AI wingmen" require users to jump Go to the app and implement the function by uploading images and pasting text. Although the latter is a little more troublesome, its monthly activity performance is very good. In the Top 100 AI application list released by a16z in August this year, Rizz ranked TOP49 in the mobile monthly activity list, ranking slightly higher than AI search upstart Perplexity.

Rizz ranked 49th in the monthly active list of mobile AI applications announced in August this year | Image source: a16z

Similar demand for “answering calls” also exists in the domestic market. Open Douyin and Kuaishou, and you can see a large number of highly popular videos similar to "love talk". Ambiguity may be the most sensitive part of an emotional relationship, a stage that requires the most strategies. An inappropriate reply may cause the relationship between the two parties to stagnate or even break up. People involved in it need to seek help from the outside. And this may also be a rare consumer-level AI category whose domestic revenue is better than overseas. Bit data shows that the peak monthly revenue of overseas "AI wingmen" is about US$300,000, which is lower than the domestic revenue of the head AI love input method. revenue.

DianDian Data only captured the data of the "Lovekey Keyboard" iOS side, with the peak monthly revenue of about US$700,000｜Source: Diandian Data

Domestic AI love input method follows A set of roughly similar product design ideas, retaining the ordinary keyboard to meet the user's basic input needs, and then using separate functional partitions to implement the "help and return" function, making switching easy. Normally, users only need to paste the other party's speech into a specific dialog box, and then select the desired reply style to automatically generate a reply. The styles include humor, gentleness, high emotional intelligence, ambiguous pull, etc. In addition to "banghui", many products have also added functions such as "reply rewriting", "opening statement generation", "invitation speech generation", "confession speech generation", etc., to meet users' online chat needs in almost all aspects.

The "help back" function page of several top AI love input methods｜Image source: Diandian Data

As expected, it meets the market demand and is matched with a more frequent opening scene , it may indeed be the reason why the income of domestic “AI wingman” is higher than that of similar overseas products. However, after the actual test, the author's doubts have not been dispelled, because the subjective feeling is that many of the responses have a strong human-machine feel, and it is difficult to imagine how such product performance can leverage revenue. At the same time, the AI ​​love input method has always been characterized by card payment and high pricing. The general design is that users have to choose whether to pay after 3 replies for free; the lowest weekly/monthly subscription price is 38-48 yuan. (Subscription membership for domestic mainstream audio and video software is generally only in the 15-25 yuan range). There is no annual subscription. You can use it for free for life by paying a price ranging from 128-198 yuan. It seems difficult to place an order without being impulsive. .

In the actual test, the author set the user's gender to male. When inputting "I slept all afternoon", the AI's reply suggestion was, "Hey, are you charging? After charging all afternoon, Then the power must be full now"; faced with "Going to take a shower", AI The reply was "Go quickly! I'll wait for you, Princess Xiangxiang~" Of course, the feeling itself is an absolutely subjective thing. For example, the author's first impression when seeing these responses was that they were greasy, and the quality of the responses was not up to par. close. However, a comment in the comment area of ​​a certain product pointed to a new direction of thinking. He said that for people with 0 social skills, the product is easy enough to use; but for people with social skills, it is more important. I am here to help you reply, you can be lazy.

The comment area of ​​a certain AI love input method

p>In a category dominated by male users, who is placing orders for love?

First of all, it needs to be clear that the AI ​​love input method is a category dominated by male users.

According to Diandian data, the proportion of male users of “Mi Xiaoyu” has reached nearly 80%, and the proportion of male users of “Lovekey Keyboard” has exceeded 90%. This data actually partially confirms our observations. For example, in Xiaohongshu, a platform with female users as the main body, there are actually few discussions about similar products. The only exception is the group of female anchors who need to frequently contact fans of the opposite sex. , which is also in line with the "lazy" purpose mentioned in previous user comments.

More than 90% of "Lovekey Keyboard" users are male | Source: Diandian Data

Although there is currently no way to see the users of overseas products such as Rizz and Plug AI through third-party data Portrait, but judging from its operating materials on social media platforms, it often involves men initiating ice-breaking topics, which also reflects its focus on male users. From the perspective of male users, there may be no essential difference between paying for an "AI Wingman" and paying for a Dating App. The purpose is to seek more matching opportunities. Compared with the expected revenue, the subscription price of dozens or hundreds of yuan seems quite cost-effective. .

User comments under the topic of overseas "AI Wingman"｜Image source: Reddit

The comment area of ​​an AI love input method

In fact, overseas "AI Wingman" "It is this short-term demand in the courtship stage that has been verified. The results show that paying users tend to buy short-term subscription packages and are less likely to renew their subscriptions. Therefore, with steady user growth, the category ceiling is basically locked at 30 million dollars. The situation of the domestic AI love input method is different. Through third-party data, we can see that almost every leading product has a lifetime membership price of hundreds of yuan, which brings the most revenue, pointing to User expectations for it as a long-term communication aid ultimately boosted overall revenue.

This change comes from the fact that AI love input has broadened its application scenarios. During our observation, we found that this category generally regards Douyin and Kuaishou as important growth channels. Judging from the materials released, the domestic "AI wingman" is not only concerned about the communication issues of users in the ambiguous stage, but also the communication issues from the emotional to dull period. Key nodes include relationship maintenance, retention and emotional repair when the other party proposes to break up. Some products will even penetrate into workplace communication scenarios, quietly completing the transformation from "wingman" to multi-ability communication consultant.

An advertisement for an AI love input method on a short video platform

When the preparations for capacity transformation are completed, manufacturers who are well versed in user psychology have also applied some in paid design "Tricks" allow users to spend more money while pursuing cost-effectiveness. As mentioned above, AI love input methods generally have higher payment points.And the gradient settings are "unreasonable". Generally speaking, the price of the lowest subscription membership is more than 38 yuan, and users can enjoy membership benefits for one week or one month. In comparison, the pricing of 100+ lifetime memberships is undoubtedly more "cost-effective", and the subscription interface will also be "careful" Di helps users calculate the cost of single-day use, further reducing the psychological pressure on users to pay, and helping to complete the conversion of a high unit price subscription.

Pricing of several AI love input methods

The author actually does not think that most users pay because of their amazing three-time trial experience, but that manufacturers understand how users can use them in key scenarios. The emotional investment psychology will be amplified, so it uses "providing instant, almost omnipotent social assistance" as its selling point to arouse users' curiosity, and under the "clever" payment design, it drives users to impulse consumption and cost-effectiveness. Place orders with passion and quickly convert paying users. None of the above insights have anything to do with AI, and have been combined and applied time and time again in mature business practices.

It’s just that when users’ feelings are ignored, the high revenue of AI love keyboards is usually unsustainable, and lessons from the past have already appeared. The apps we mentioned above, such as “Love Keyboard” and “Mi Xiaoyu”, which are currently dominating the best-selling list, are not the first batch of products to catch on. Typical examples include “Love Keyboard” which was very active in the first half of this year. ”, it launched a batch of advertisements targeting the sinking market on the short video platform, and its monthly revenue once approached US$300,000 by selling lifetime memberships. However, it got out of the high-revenue cycle in just half a year. Active users are also declining rapidly. Is the logic of AI love keyboard to meet the long-term needs of users really tenable? Is the user experience really guaranteed? Some clues may already be seen from the growth trajectory of the first-generation products.

"Lianzhi" revenue (top) and monthly activity (bottom) curve change chart｜Source: Diandian Data

Written at the end

The process of observing these domestic “AI wingmen” , the most intriguing moment was seeing the AI Social players are sharing conversations with characters using the AI ​​love input method. People can’t help but imagine the extreme situation in a real-life scenario where one party uses AI to flirt, and then receives a response from the other party’s “AI wingman”. With the blessing of AI, all kinds of words and techniques become more and more accessible, and everyone may sincerely hope for "less routines and more sincerity."