The AI clone of Liu Qiangdong, CEO of JD.com, as appeared in a video published on the company’s official WeChat account, April 15, 2024. /WeChat
The AI clone of Liu Qiangdong, CEO of JD.com, as appeared in a video published on the company’s official WeChat account, April 15, 2024. /WeChat
JD, one of China’s top e-commerce platforms, is set to launch a livestream shopping session with an AI clone of its CEO Liu Qiangdong as the host, the company said on its official WeChat account.
Liu’s AI clone, powered by the company’s language model ChatRhino (or Yanxi in Chinese), will be featured on Tuesday night’s livestream.
In a video published along with the announcement, the AI Liu said that he will share his insights on “food, reading and lifestyle.”
Liu’s AI clone vividly performed detailed movements, like pinching his thumb and index finger together.
Content as an ecology for China’s e-commerce platform
Content has become a key battleground for internet giants seeking to capture market growth, with Bytedance’s Douyin (China’s TikTok) previously leading this race. However, more tech behemoths are gearing up to compete.
Southern China based Tencent sees its WeChat Channels, a video feed on its messaging and social media app, as a significant growth opportunity.
China’s Groupon, Meituan, has also recently rolled out a recruiting plan for high-quality content creators. Individual accounts can earn up to 30,000 RMB ($4,143) monthly, with special bonuses of 8,000 to 18,000 RMB per month available.
According to the annual report on China’s internet audiovisual services, China has over 1 billion online audiovisual users, with users on short video applications seeing the highest retention rate. Over 70 percent of users are engaged with short videos and livestream shopping.