Introduction
Chinese short-video app operator Kuaishou Technology is offering a monthly subscription to its Sora-like artificial intelligence (AI) video generating service, as China’s AI players step up efforts to monetize the cutting-edge technology.
Subscription Plans
Kuaishou, the major domestic rival of TikTok’s sister app Douyin, charges 19 yuan (US$2.66) for the first month and 58 yuan per month thereafter under a “gold member” plan for video generation services based on its Kling AI model. This plan is claimed to be “the lowest price among similar products”, supporting the generation of around 3,300 photos and 66 videos per month.
Market Context
The move marks the latest effort by a Chinese Big Tech company to step up commercialization of products in the hotly contested AI video generation market. San Francisco-based OpenAI, which pioneered text-to-video generation with the announcement of Sora in February, has yet to make its model available to the general public. In comparison, OpenAI charges US$20 per month for its ChatGPT Plus plan, which includes the DALL-E3 text-to-image generator, but not video generation.
New Features
Kuaishou also unveiled two premium plans which allow users to generate 15,000 photos and 300 videos under the “platinum plan”, and 40,000 photos and 800 videos under the “diamond plan”. Released in June, Kling can process text into video clips of up to 2 minutes long with 1080p resolution, while supporting various aspect ratios.
Challenges in the Market
Kling, released after Kuaishou’s KwaiYii large language model (LLM) and text-to-image model Kolors, shows how Chinese AI players are finding it increasingly difficult to make money in the overcrowded market. A heightened price war broke out for commercial AI services, with ByteDance’s Doubao models priced 99.8% less than OpenAI’s GPT-4.
Future Prospects
When Kuaishou released its second quarter earnings earlier this week, co-founder and CEO Cheng Yixiao stated that the company would strive to achieve “commercialization scale” for the Kling model as soon as possible. Kling has more than one million users and has generated over 10 million videos.
Innovative Content
The company has also launched the first-ever AI-generated fantasy short drama in China – Legendary Mirrors of Mountains and Seas – which attracted over 50 million views within two weeks of its release in July.
Conclusion
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century.
