Is the boss of this Internet company not a 'human being'? Is AI management a gimmick or...

Virtual idols, virtual anchors, virtual assistants, virtual finance... Digital people are already common in these application fields, but have you ever seen a virtual boss? Recently, the official WeChat public account of NetDragon, a Hong Kong-listed Internet company, announced that it will appoint digital man Tang Yu as the company's rotating CEO, responsible for organizational management affairs and strategic execution, as well as the construction of the Yuanverse organization.

This is the first time in China that a virtual digital person serves as CEO. However, it can be seen from the announcement that this is not the first time that this virtual digital person has held an important position. In September 2017, Tang Yu worked for NetDragon and served as NetDragon's vice president. The open letter answered the question of "why her and what she will do in the future", stating that she will assume two responsibilities in the future - speaking out for the Metaverse organization externally and disclosing NetDragon's strategies and results; and continuing to promote "AI management" internally. model to improve organizational efficiency.

It is understood that as early as 2017, NetDragon has introduced a large number of AI in enterprise management, and in 2018 it began to work hard to create an "AI management" model. Up to now, NetDragon's internal "AI employee" team, represented by Tang Yu, can be responsible for the approval of various documents, intelligent project tracking and management, employee performance evaluation and rewards and punishments, company system and culture training, etc., with more than 30 approval forms. It has issued nearly 500,000 event reminders and early warnings, completed 1,288 internal rewards and punishments, and trained employees on knowledge and skills for more than 40,000 people every year.

Judging from the content involved in the introduction, the content that Digital Human CEO Tang Yu is responsible for is relatively process-oriented and does not involve complicated work.

Nandu reporters found that virtual people are accelerating their penetration into all walks of life, including fashion blogger AYAYI, Tsinghua female student Hua Zhibing, beauty expert Liu Yexi, virtual idol group A-SOUL, bank beauties Assistant Xiaopu, Mango Channel intern host Xiaoyang... At the end of last year, "Cui Xiaopan", a digital employee of Vanke Group's Finance Department, also attracted market attention and discussion when he won the Outstanding Newcomer Award.

The "China AI Digital Human Market Status and Opportunity Analysis, 2022" report released by IDC Consulting shows that the scale of China's AI digital human market is showing a rapid growth trend and is expected to reach 10.24 billion yuan by 2026.

Industry insiders said that in the era of the metaverse, virtual people may become a portal for interaction. Everyone must have their own digital avatar to move around in the metaverse. There are not only commercial application scenarios, but also modes. It can form a closed loop, which is why enterprises and investment institutions currently value it. However, the appointment of a CEO may be more about setting up a banner of "developing AI and the metaverse in the future", which is more obvious as a gimmick. After all, the digital human industry still has pain points such as technology, cost, and ethics.

Nandu reporters noticed that the appointment of Digital Man CEO is not the first time that NetDragon has shown interest in the Metaverse. In its 2021 financial report, NetDragon stated that the Metaverse game field will usher in 2021. The huge opportunity will be to plan the first blockchain metaverse game based on its IP Neopets. In August 2022, the first Web3.0 game "Neopets Metaverse (Neopets·Metaverse)" will release a closed beta version.

At the beginning of 2022, NetDragon took the lead in launching the "Educational Metaverse Organization". Recently, NetDragon spent US$130,000 to purchase BAYC#6708 (Boring Ape) and officially joined the "Boring Ape Yacht Club". As one of the most well-known and influential projects in the field of digital collectibles, the "Bored Ape Yacht Club" ("BAYC") has 10,000 non-repeating, anthropomorphic ape images, each of which corresponds to a unique number. .

Currently, NetDragon has established a wholly-owned IP operation subsidiary, Fuzhou Tiannuo Network Technology Co., Ltd., and established the "Boring Ape" digital IP operation team In the future, Tiannuo will combine the metaverse strategy and gaming and education business to explore and apply BAYC#6708 in various aspects, including but not limited to peripheral product development, IP incubation, Boring Ape live broadcast, Boring Ape AMA (Ask Me Anything), etc. .

According to data, NetDragon was founded in 1999 and listed on the Hong Kong stock market in 2007. Its main businesses are games and education. In the first half of 2022, online revenue increased by 26.3% year-on-year to 4.2 billion yuan. Among them, the education sector contributed 56.8% of revenue, a year-on-year increase of more than 70%, and the game sector revenue was 1.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.9%. However, it is still the gaming business that makes money. Data show that the overall operating profit in the first half of the year was 745 million yuan, of which the operating classified net profit from the game business was 1 billion yuan, while the education sector suffered a loss of 35.7 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 86%.

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