騰訊將借人工智能和游戲發(fā)力廣告業(yè)務(wù)

Chinese internet giant Tencent aims to increase advertising income by using artificial intelligence and branded virtual costumes in video games, but is reluctant to put more advertising on its flagship WeChat social network, according to the group’s executive in charge of digital advertising.

中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭騰訊(Tencent)負責數(shù)字廣告的高管表示，該公司力求通過利用人工智能以及視頻游戲中的品牌虛擬服裝來增加廣告收入，而不愿在其旗艦微信(WeChat)社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)上投放更多廣告。

Ad revenues drive earnings for most of the tech world, but not in China. Tencent’s WeChat network is approaching half Facebook’s 2bn users, but digital ad revenues this year are forecast at under $7bn, compared with the US social media group’s $36bn-plus, according to eMarketer.

廣告營收驅(qū)動著大多數(shù)科技公司的盈利，但中國的情況有所不同。根據(jù)eMarketer的統(tǒng)計，騰訊旗下的微信在用戶數(shù)量上接近Facebook 20億用戶的一半，但今年其數(shù)字廣告營收預(yù)計在70億美元以下，遠低于Facebook這家美國社交媒體集團的360億美元以上。

Tencent, the world’s eighth biggest company by market capitalisation, generates most of its revenues from video games such as the smash hit Honour of Kings — the world’s top grossing title — but hopes to shift towards advertising, now less than 20 per cent of revenue.

按市值排列為全球第八大公司的騰訊，大部分營收來源于視頻游戲，例如世界上收入最高的手機游戲《王者榮耀》(Honour of Kings)，但它希望增加目前在總營收中占比不到20%的廣告收入。

“For internet companies, the most popular model all over the world is advertising . . . so we are working on that,” Steven Chang, a Tencent vice-president, told the Financial Times.

“對互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司來說，世界各地最流行的模式是廣告……所以我們正在這方面發(fā)力，”騰訊副總裁鄭香霖(Steven Chang)告訴英國《金融時報》。

He cited data showing China’s overall advertising market will grow about 4 per cent this year, while digital ad growth will be about 30 per cent, suggesting that — as in other parts of the world — digital platforms are drawing spending away from traditional media.

他援引的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，今年中國整體廣告市場將增長約4%，而數(shù)字廣告增幅將達到約30%，這似乎表明，就像世界上其他地方一樣，數(shù)字平臺正從傳統(tǒng)媒體奪走廣告支出。

“Digital is getting bigger and we are one of the big players in digital. So obviously we will be getting more [advertising] budget, from TV budgets or whatever.”

“數(shù)字業(yè)務(wù)越來越大，而我們是數(shù)字領(lǐng)域的大企業(yè)之一。所以很明顯，我們會獲得更多的(廣告)預(yù)算，無論是從電視廣告預(yù)算還是從其它什么預(yù)算。”

With its top mobile games attracting tens of millions of players each day, “lots of marketers would like to work with games. We are looking at different angles of developing game-related solutions,” said Mr Chang.

鑒于騰訊的頂級手機游戲每天吸引數(shù)千萬玩家，“許多營銷者都想與游戲合作。我們正在研究從不同的角度開發(fā)游戲相關(guān)解決方案，”鄭香霖表示。

He cited the example of a BMW-branded “skin” that is worn by virtual characters in Honour of Kings, which Tencent says was adopted by professional gamers and, as a result, seen by about 500m viewers of live-streamed tournaments.

他舉了《王者榮耀》中的角色所穿戴的寶馬(BMW)品牌“皮膚”的例子。據(jù)騰訊表示，這款皮膚被專業(yè)游戲玩家所采用，因此在現(xiàn)場直播比賽中被大約5億觀眾看到。

The company’s online content services, such as a video-streaming site similar to YouTube and news feeds accessible via the WeChat platform, account for most of Tencent’s advertising revenues, said Mr Chang.

鄭香霖介紹說，該公司的在線內(nèi)容服務(wù)，例如與YouTube類似的一個視頻流網(wǎng)站，以及通過微信平臺可訪問的新聞資訊，目前占騰訊廣告營收的大部分。

The company is using AI to target advertising, for example at basketball fans. “If you are hungry for that, we keep feeding more NBA related information to you, at the same time possibly you are the one that we can provide Nike shoes for . . . we are providing this technology to clients already," said Mr Chang.

該公司正在利用人工智能來定向投放廣告，例如針對籃球迷。“如果你對那方面的信息情有獨鐘，我們會不斷向你輸送更多的NBA相關(guān)信息，同時你可能屬于我們可以推介耐克(Nike)鞋的人群……我們已經(jīng)在向客戶提供這種技術(shù)，”鄭香霖表示。

But Tencent is reluctant to place more adverts on Wechat’s Moments service, which is similar to Facebook’s news feed. “WeChat is still very young so how to cultivate users and create a good user experience is number one, it’s not the advertising revenue,” he said.

但是騰訊不愿在微信的朋友圈(Moments)——類似于Facebook的新聞Feed——投放更多廣告。“微信還很年輕，所以要把培養(yǎng)用戶、創(chuàng)造良好的用戶體驗放在第一位，而不是廣告營收，”他說。

Companies buying online advertising in China and overseas have complained about widespread fraud from automated programs generating fake viewer numbers.

在中國和海外購買在線廣告的企業(yè)抱怨自動化程序存在普遍欺詐現(xiàn)象，產(chǎn)生虛假受眾人數(shù)。

At a conference in Shanghai on Tuesday, Tencent’s chief operating officer Yuxin Ren complained of fraudsters who, “through control of many different IP addresses, can imitate a huge number of real users”, thus inflating their ad revenue.

周二在上海舉行的一個會議上，騰訊首席運營官任宇昕抱怨說，“羊毛黨他們通過掌控大量不同IP地址的機器，模擬成大量的真實用戶，可以瞬間把商家在網(wǎng)上做營銷的禮品領(lǐng)走”，這種行為會抬高他們的廣告收入。