In the era of AI large models, network disks are no longer silent?

(Text/Observer.com He Xige Editor/Lu Dong)

What is the network disk used for? For many individual users, it is just a tool for storing and backing up data files.

About 7 years ago, the domestic network disk industry began to undergo a major reshuffle. Many network disk companies, including Sina, Xunlei, Kingsoft, UC, etc., successively announced the closure of some functions or simply transformed. This era of Internet cloud technology was born. The market has experienced a roller coaster ride.

The mainstream players that remain include products from major Internet companies such as Baidu Cloud Disk and Alibaba Cloud Disk, Telecom Tianyi Cloud Disk and Mobile Hecaiyun backed by telecom operation giants, as well as Huawei Cloud Space and iCloud. mobile phone manufacturers.

For a time, the development of network disk seemed to have stalled, and users’ understanding of network disk remained at the level of simple storage and access.

However, the remaining players have not stopped writing the story of the network disk. With the phenomenal popularity of ChatGPT, major manufacturers have announced their own large models and products, and users' impressions of the network disk may be changing.

At the Vientiane Conference held by Baidu not long ago, Baidu Netdisk announced that it will conduct a comprehensive upgrade based on the Wenxin large model.

Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, said: "There is a view in the industry that the era of large models has arrived, so every product deserves to be redesigned.". But who ends up actually remaking everything? Baidu hopes to be the first company to remake all products, not to integrate or connect, but to remake and reconstruct. ”

"AI Netdisk", the story of Netdisk may also turn to a new page.

What does an AI-powered network disk look like?

"I often collect a lot of knowledge but don't read it." This is something that resonates with many netizens.

Wu Tianhao, general manager of Baidu Intelligent Cloud Network Disk Product Department, gave an example by himself: "Each of us may use 'collection', for example, I collect on WeChat, Zhihu, and Bilibili. After collecting, It may not be used or opened again, which is very common. The same is true for network disks. Some users don’t use them after saving them.”

"But we hope to combine technologies such as large models to turn information into knowledge, so that this sleeping information can one day be used by us."

How to make it work for us?

The path given by Baidu Netdisk is that through natural dialogue with Baidu Netdisk’s “Yun Yiduo” intelligent assistant, users can quickly find information in massive information and realize the functions of converting documents, finding pictures, summarizing, and translating .

In the past, to read a report, the tools needed were browsers, office software, and if it was an English version, some people also needed a translator. Later, it became more convenient and you can use products such as ChatGPT and Wenxinyiyan. "Be lazy". If you need to convert PDF to Word format, you need to find other format conversion tools and put in a certain amount of effort. Just looking at the tools used, the process is still a bit complicated.

With the upgraded Baidu Netdisk of the large model, these processes can be completed with one click, and documents can even be converted from pdf to word format.

Baidu Netdisk "Yunyiduo" automatically analyzes documents and returns Chinese results

Many people have had the experience of swiping their phones to find a certain photo among the vast number of pictures. The new Baidu Netdisk can find the photos or files you want in just one sentence.

For example, you can help me search for recent food photos or photos of company team dinners last year. With the help of large models, Baidu Netdisk can understand and analyze more complex semantics, and use image recognition technology to quickly find target files, including photos, documents, invoices and other content.

Baidu Netdisk "Yunyiduo" quickly finds pictures

The capabilities of "Yun Yiduo" can also be applied to video files. For example, in a learning scenario, when the course video speaks too fast or cannot be heard clearly, "Yunyiduo" can also add subtitles to the video, generate all subtitles into a manuscript with one click, and refine and add content for each piece of content based on the manuscript. title.

Baidu Netdisk revealed that in addition to text commands, Baidu Netdisk "Yunyiduo" can also realize voice interaction, and related functions are currently under internal testing.

Netdisk has changed from a simple tool for storing and backing up data files in the eyes of individual users in the past to an "assistant" that can provide more possibilities. The large model has brought the development of Netdisk to a new stage.

Network disk deepens to "B"

This technological advancement of large-scale models not only further narrows the distance between individual users and artificial intelligence, but also has a profound impact on B-side enterprises.

In Wu Tianhao’s view, users now generally have three types of needs: one is the professional data processing needs of enterprises or professionals; the second type is daily office learning, which is semi-professional needs and has a certain degree of professionalism. , but it is not a very professional B-side demand, but the demand of individual users; the third category is non-professional, that is, life-oriented needs.

Wu Tianhao concluded, "For professional needs, one word can be summed up as 'saving', saving costs and improving efficiency."

So how to reduce the cost of professional needs and increase efficiency?

On the one hand, Baidu Netdisk Enterprise Edition is upgraded, including upgrading the two major applications of intelligent knowledge management and intelligent multi-modal processing; on the other hand, it is upgrading the open platform to provide developers, ecological partners and enterprises with technical capabilities for development Solutions for multiple scenarios, including photography, education, e-commerce, life sciences and other key industries.

For example, the "shoot and select" service for the photography industry can realize functions such as one-click upload, AI photo editing, automatic layout, and generation of network disk link sharing.

Niu Xiaoming, founder of Suxuan Technology, an imaging digital service company, said, “In traditional photography agencies, a photo involves 13 steps, including photography, preliminary editing, color correction, card guide and film selection, with an average of 15 people involved. "He said that based on the instant pick-up solution, the traditional five-day service time is compressed to 15 minutes, the cost of single customer service is reduced by 75%, and the efficiency is increased by more than 30 times.

At the same time, smart hardware manufacturers can also integrate network disk capabilities to connect users’ network disk data and knowledge, and empower smart speakers, readers, hearing machines, and dictionaries with the network disk’s voice transliteration, video to audio, and other capabilities. Pens and other hardware. Zhong Lei, general manager of Xiaodu's application and service business department, said that Baidu Netdisk's audio and video value-added services have been introduced into Xiaodu's membership system, and other Netdisk capabilities will also be covered in Xiaodu's new series of devices.

Guo Yifei, CEO of Niu Tingting, a children's enlightenment education platform, said that Baidu Netdisk has been fully integrated with Niu Tingting system. Parents can directly filter content suitable for their children on their own Netdisk, and can also synchronize the latest teaching content of teachers' Netdisk. , remotely pushed to the child's early education machine with one click, completely getting rid of the sense of fragmentation in product use.

According to previous investor estimates, developing a model similar to GPT3.5 requires an investment of at least US$100 million to US$200 million, taking into account existing public resources. Baidu Netdisk also faces cost issues when accessing large models.

Tang Haihao, general manager of Baidu Intelligent Cloud Network Disk Technology Department, said that Baidu Network Disk is currently making technical reserves in terms of large model costs. In addition to relying on the cost optimization of Baidu's large models themselves, it also includes new models and terminals of the business itself. Cloud XPU collaborative computing and scheduling, fine splitting and miniaturization of large model tasks combined with business scenarios and other technical measures continue to reduce the cost of a single AI task.

"Who can better meet the needs of users and who can better seize the opportunities of the new era"

At the same time that Baidu Netdisk announced that it will be comprehensively upgraded based on the Wenxin large model, Microsoft announced that Windows 11 will become the first PC platform to provide customers with generative AI. Earlier, Microsoft also announced that it will provide artificial intelligence services. Embed in Word, PowerPoint, Excel and other Office software.

It can be seen that major domestic and foreign manufacturers are exploring how to gain advantages in the era of large models. In this context, it is not surprising that Baidu Skydisk will be upgraded with large models.

Most users purchase network hard drive products mainly to obtain larger storage space and faster upload and download speeds. iResearch survey data shows that the main reason why 59% of the surveyed users pay is to increase download speed, and 45.1% of users pay for storage space expansion.

In the competition of personal network disk, Baidu network disk is in the leading position. According to iResearch mUserTracker monitoring data, the concentration of the personal network disk market tends to be fixed, and the proportion of monthly independent devices of the top five mobile service providers is as high as 99%. Baidu Netdisk accounts for 81% of the market share, and its average monthly usage is also among the best.

However, it should be noted that from March 2021 to February 2022, the growth rate of China Mobile Internet users has slowed down, and the growth rate of APP cloud disk users has also tended to be stable.

Data source: iResearch

The overall structure of the personal network disk industry has stabilized, but the membership payment market is developing rapidly. New value-added services, such as novels, games, learning and advertising, have become a new source of income for Netdisk in addition to basic membership service income. As of 2021, the payment amount of personal network disk members has reached 2.03 billion yuan, and value-added service revenue has also reached 1.5 billion yuan. It is estimated that the compound annual growth rate will remain at 30.9% until 2024.

In the fiercely competitive stock market, network disk manufacturers will jointly choose to explore more diversified value-added services. The arrival of the era of large models has brought more possibilities for this kind of exploration.

Shortly after Baidu released Wen Xinyiyan, Alibaba Cloud launched the large model Tongyi Qianwen in April and announced that "all Alibaba products will be fully upgraded with access to the large model in the future."

Alibaba Cloud Disk came out in the spring of 2021, and has occupied the minds of some users with its high cost-effective strategies of "unlimited speed" and "permanent 1TB". It is foreseeable that Alibaba Cloud Disk will also explore more functions and services around large models.

Network disk manufacturers have never stopped competing for users, and the arrival of the era of large models has brought this competition to a new stage.

Wu Tianhao believes, “What should native applications look like in the AI ​​era? Based on AI native thinking, we can inspire and create needs that will become completely different from the original ones because of AI. This is what we continue to think and look for. ."

According to Wu Tianhao, there are many players in this industry, and there are many people providing services. Therefore, I think those who can meet the needs of users and seize the opportunities of the new era will be better able to provide this service. ”

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