Ten Years Against the Current of Rebirth

Chapter 228 Speech recognition, foreshadowing of National Day investment

As early as 1994, the QR code technology was invented in the Sakura Country on the other side.

It's just that the popular barcodes at that time had already occupied the vast majority of the market. Although the newly born QR code also had its own performance advantages, it did not have overwhelming capabilities when faced with the stable situation of barcodes.

Especially before the advent of the mobile Internet era, the advantages of the QR code itself, including the greater amount of information it carries and the wider coding range, cannot help it break through the market blockade.

It was not until the advent of the mobile Internet era and the emergence of more personal application scenarios that QR codes truly took the center stage of history.

WeChat is not the first company to use QR codes.

Just in the middle of this year, Taobao's Alipay has already tried to introduce the QR code payment model and promoted it on mobile phones for the first time.

However, due to the sensitivity of payment itself, most users may be more likely to use credit cards and other methods, and are not used to QR code payment methods.

Therefore, Alipay's QR code payment is mostly operated in the B2B mode, that is, transactions between enterprises. Alipay will recommend the use of QR codes.

The fundamental reason for this is very simple. Mobile smartphones have only been around for a short time, and most people are still conservative in how they pay via mobile phones.

But what Liu Huan didn't expect was that WeChat found a new usage scenario.

Not payment, but business card.

The form of a business card does not involve money and is relatively less sensitive.

People nowadays may be worried if they are asked to use QR codes to pay, but if they just use QR codes to make friends, their willingness will be much stronger.

"Actually, there are many application scenarios for QR codes, but the mobile era has just arrived, and many things have not been adapted to it yet." Xu Xing took the initiative to say to Secretary Zhao at this time, "Although QR codes are good, they also have their own hidden dangers.

."

"Oh?" Xu Xing took the initiative to reveal some information, and Secretary Zhao immediately asked with interest, "Do you have a lot of research in this area?"

"It's just some small ideas." Xu Xing said modestly, "Just like today's press conference, if some other things are to be displayed, the screen cannot play the PPT content at all times."

"Then we can first display the QR code on the big screen, which contains today's PPT content, and the audience can get it after scanning the code with their mobile phones."

"In this way, even if the big screen on stage is used to play other content, the audience in the audience can still find the corresponding PPT page on their mobile phones at all times and keep up with the speaker's rhythm."

Secretary Zhao listened carefully and nodded slowly: "Interesting."

"To put it simply, QR codes are useful in any scenario involving information dissemination. The greater the amount of information and the more types of information, the more obvious the advantages of QR codes."

Xu Xing continued, paused, and then said, "However, there are still some hidden dangers here."

"for example?"

"For example, the leakage of personal information." Xu Xing pointed to the WeChat press conference podium on the stage and said, "Everyone has their own WeChat QR code business card, so if the personal QR code business card is leaked, it may

It can cause all kinds of problems.”

"Well, that's true, but the impact isn't that big, right?" Secretary Zhao said, "And it's not impossible to solve it."

"Yes." Xu Xing nodded, "So WeChat's QR code business cards are randomly generated every time. The generated effects will only be retained for a week and will be automatically eliminated at that time."

"However, the information carried by the QR code business card itself is not particularly private, and the stakes are not high."

"In comparison, the security risks related to payment may be greater."

Hearing this, Secretary Zhao's brows twitched, his expression was slightly playful, he stroked the armrest next to him with his palms, and smiled softly: "It's indeed interesting."

Xu Xing didn't go too deep, he just smiled and finally added simply: "As QR codes are used in more and more application scenarios in the future, relevant laws and regulations must also keep up."

"That makes sense."

The two people explained it in simple terms and did not continue chatting on this topic.

After Liao Qinyu on the stage demonstrated the effect of the QR code business card, he moved on to the second function display.

"Now that we have added WeChat friends, of course we have to try to communicate on it." Liao Qinyu said while reminding Zhu Rongzhen, "Mom, please send a message."

"How to send it?" Zhu Rongzhen followed his instructions, clicked into the chat page with her son, and tentatively clicked on the chat box, "Like this? What do you want to send?"

"You can say whatever you want to say to me." Liao Qinyu said patiently, "Use this to type first and take a look."

"Oh." Zhu Rongzhen nodded and tried typing in Jiugongge.

Previously, just typing the word "WeChat" took nearly a minute. This time, Zhu Rongzhen typed a total of 11 words. Everyone waited for three or four minutes, watching Zhu Rongzhen type this sentence.

——

【Son, when will you find a girlfriend?】

It was obviously a very boring time, but when the audience saw this sentence, they burst into laughter.

Liao Qinyu was also embarrassed for a moment, but seeing such a good response from the audience, he took advantage of the situation and clicked on his chat page and sent a message to Zhu Rongzhen.

[Work is more important now, my girlfriend is not in a hurry.]

Although there are more words than Zhu Rongzhen, Liao Qinyu basically completed typing in about ten seconds, which is much faster than Zhu Rongzhen.

At this time, Liao Qinyu said: "Mom, look at the button on the left and press it like me."

"Yes, after pressing the button, look at the chat box again. Is there a prompt on it [press and hold to speak]?"

"Then you are like me." As he spoke, Liao Qinyu pressed the voice chat button and said, "Just press it like this to speak, and then release it after you finish speaking."

"It will automatically send your voice over."

"Look, that's it. Do you think you have it over there?"

Zhu Rongzhen watched her son press the button to speak and then release it. A voice message immediately popped up on the screen of her mobile phone.

After clicking, what Liao Qinyu said just now will be played in real time.

"Mom, you should try this too." Liao Qinyu reminded.

"Okay." Zhu Rongzhen nodded, tentatively pressed the voice button, and then asked cautiously, "Do you have a suitable girl in your company?"

"Hahaha!" There was another burst of laughter from the audience.

Liao Qinyu coughed twice in embarrassment, then pretended not to hear anything, and introduced to the audience: "The text communication and voice communication just now are the chat methods of WeChat in version 1.0.

."

"Then everyone has seen that, in the same sentence, for those of us who are used to typing, the effect is actually about the same."

"But for people like my mother who don't usually use their mobile phones to type, the difference between typing chatting and voice chatting may be several times or even ten times longer."

"For some older users, they may not understand Pinyin and cannot use the screen writing function, so such a button-based voice input chat function has become the best choice."

"This is also our effort to eliminate communication barriers."

Speaking of this, Liao Qinyu paused, picked up his mobile phone again, pressed the voice button and said: "However, during version 1.0, we also noticed one thing, that is, voice chat also has certain limitations.

sex."

"Although sending voice messages is more convenient for the person sending the message, for the person receiving the message, they must listen to the complete content of the voice."

"This is not like text, where you can identify the specific content at a glance. Instead, you need to listen carefully to fully understand what the other party is going to say."

"This means..."

When Liao Qinyu said this, he released his finger on the button, and the long string of words he just said was sent to Zhu Rongzhen's mobile phone, "Look."

"A full 30-second voice message, if the enunciation is slightly unclear or the speaking speed is slower, may become a long voice message of forty to fifty seconds or even more than a minute."

"In situations like this, the barrier to communication changes from sending messages to receiving messages."

"Therefore, our WeChat team has reached a cooperative relationship with Tingyunsheng Company in Kyoto, and both parties have made certain efforts on the speech recognition text function."

"WeChat version 2.0 will launch [WeChat Voice Assistant] to help everyone perform direct text recognition of speech."

"Just like this."

Liao Qinyu instructed Zhu Rongzhen to press and hold the voice box with both hands, and an option to "convert to text" popped up.

After clicking, the long string of words that Liao Qinyu just said will jump below the voice box, and then a piece of text will be displayed.

"Of course." Liao Qinyu then added, "This function is not perfect yet. It only supports Mandarin recognition. And you can also see that there will still be some misjudgments in the recognition process, but at least you can understand the general outline at a glance.

mean."

"In the future, we will also strengthen our cooperation with Tingyunsheng Company in this regard. In addition to Mandarin, we will also add recognition functions including Cantonese, English and dialects with large audiences in various places, so as to help more users."

Tingyunsheng is a company that researches and develops AI artificial intelligence voice.

As early as when Xu Xing went to Kyoto for the National Day, he invested in this company and completed the preliminary angel round investment. In December, he followed up on the Series A financing just like Didi Taxi.

In addition to the founder, Qunxing Investment is currently the second largest shareholder of Tingyunsheng Company.

Tingyunsheng is also happy to reach a cooperative relationship with WeChat, which means that their AI speech recognition function has a large number of application scenarios, which will not only be of great help to subsequent research and development, but also provide a part of the company's income, allowing their

The company data looks better.

It is also conducive to further subsequent financing plans.

Secretary Zhao had carefully read the information of Qunxing Company before, and also knew which companies Xu Xing had invested in before during the National Day.

At that time, he looked at Xu Xing's investment targets, which were scattered and mostly start-up teams. He thought that Xu Xing was just making a fortune and had too much money to spend.

But after meeting Xu Xing, he knew that things were not that simple.

Now the combination of Tingyunsheng and WeChat's speech recognition function finally gave him a clue.

"So, you had already considered this matter when WeChat was first launched?" Secretary Zhao asked curiously, "Is it possible that the other projects invested by Qunxing Company also had corresponding strategic purposes?

?”

"It's just a matter of buying the tickets in advance." Xu Xing said with a modest smile, "In the future, fields including AI, cloud technology and big data will be battlegrounds on the Internet. The earlier we lay the groundwork, the less likely we will be fooled by others.

Stuck in the neck."

"It's amazing." Secretary Zhao shook his head and sighed, "You seem to have always been very sure of your judgment, as if it really happened."

"It's just the confidence given by more money." Xu Xing is not proud at all, but is very cautious in his words and deeds. "When a person has confidence, his vision will be broadened, and he will naturally be able to find future possibilities. All he has to do is place a bet.

"

Secretary Zhao put his hands together on his lap, smiled and said, "What you said is quite simple."

"Actually, we also have research in this area, right? I remember that there are many official laboratories and research institutes in Shanghai." Xu Xing chuckled, and then he couldn't help but reveal his true thoughts, "Secretary Zhao, are you

You know, I am still a college student after all, and my technical strength is not very strong."

"But now I have some spare money, and I hope to help some scholars and promote our development in Internet technology."

"If we can seize the development trend of the mobile Internet, we may have a great opportunity to overtake others around the corner."

Secretary Zhao turned to look at him in surprise, then turned back and fell into deep thought: "You really can talk."

"Secretary Zhao thanks you for the award."

"Min University itself has quite a few laboratories," Secretary Zhao said after thinking for a moment, "You can give it a try first. I also want to see what results can be achieved."

"Well... I remember..." At this point, Secretary Zhao touched his chin and began to think, and then said, "Didn't Min University invite an academician to be the vice president before? It seems to be in the computer-related field."

"Yes." Xu Xing nodded immediately, "Academician Mei Hongmei."

"Ah, yes, that's him." Secretary Zhao was reminded by him and immediately remembered, "I remember that he has several laboratories and research institutes under his control. Well, you can wait until I go back to study it, or you can do it in advance

Let’s get in touch and see how we can work together.”

"Okay." Xu Xing nodded vigorously, with a satisfied smile on his face, "I feel relieved with your words."

During the exchange, the two people in the audience preliminarily finalized a cooperation.

On the stage, after sharing the function of "Eliminating Communication Barriers", Liao Qinyu entered the third link.

"The first two links are just an enhancement of WeChat version 1.0, including new ways to add friends and new functions for voice communication."

Liao Qinyu said this, pressed the remote control in his hand, and the PPT in the upper left corner of the large screen behind him also began to change.

"Then, the third new feature of WeChat 2.0 will bring users a new way to [share personal life]."

(End of chapter)