She's 25 and Got Abu Dhabi Royals to Invest Millions

Audrey: The Royal family from Saudi Arabia invested in your company, and Abu Dhabi invested in your company. Yes, exactly. After we went to the UAE, we found that it's just like China 10 years ago. And we told them that we have the AI technology that we can create an incredible AI digital human to help you replace yourself. But we think we have lots of time because we don't need to work. They feel so bored.

Thomas: Welcome to the Asiabits podcast. And today's guest, I'm a big fan of hers, is Audrey Quan. And she does crazy stuff. She's very young. She is from her own province in China. But the product she makes is even a favorite of the Abu Dhabi royal family. And we had a lot of fun, a lot of interesting stories.

Michael: Yeah, I was really impressed. And what stood out for me is like, how fast Shenzhen people think, how they develop ideas and how fast they pivot. That's crazy. So looking forward to today's episode. And if you want to stay up to date on what's happening here in Asia when it comes to technology and innovation, subscribe to Asiabits. We deliver the newest developments to your inbox every day from Monday to Friday. asiabits.com. And now let's go.

Thomas: So here we are. Two Germans and one Chinese speaking in English.

Audrey: A little bit nervous, but it's very exciting.

Thomas: And also, we are very excited to have you here on this podcast because maybe you and your company will change this environment so that in the future, everybody can talk in different languages without being nervous.

Audrey: Actually, we launched the product named InnoAIO, which can support different people and different speakers in all languages. So maybe next time, instead of just a Chinese person saying something, you guys just speak German and everybody can understand each other immediately.

Thomas: So maybe you can start with telling us this story. I mean, you are still very, very young and you already have a very successful company for 10 years. So when did you first have the idea to say I have to start a company?

Audrey: Actually, when I said I have this company, we have lots of stories because at that age, I'm still in college and my major is communication, mass communication. And what do we do? It's just like filming a movie or editing a video, just like a professional. You need to learn and to be a professional person in this industry. And one day my partner came to see me, I want to create a very useful tool to help users who don't have any professional skills to generate their own ideas into a video. And I think that's a good idea that we can do together.

Because you know, in college, I was still thinking about my career. But at first, we didn't build this platform immediately because we thought we wanted to use animation style to express our ideas. So that's why the first clients from the industry maybe were from the oil industry because if they want to film advertisements, videos, you need to shoot very, very real-time things. But with those things, animation style would be better than filming the real things. That's why we wanted to use this style to express their brand story. That's why we got lots of clients from the industry.

Thomas: So you started as a software company?

Audrey: Software. Yeah. We just provided customized services for making videos for our clients. We just got money for the company.

Michael: But you were not using any form of AI? It was just, because it's 10 years ago, there was no AI back then.

Audrey: We just used very, very professional tools to help our users design the brand, the story. And after that, we got income. We had the money. And that's why we buy lots of copyrighted pictures and animation data and things like that. And then we set up our own platform and help users generate videos by themselves. This platform was set up in 2018, but our company was set up in 2015. So after three years, we got this platform.

And there are lots of users from maybe education, from finance institutes, institutions, or maybe government. If the government wants to explain their policies to the audience, most of the policies are very official and most people cannot understand them. So that's why they want to use animation style to explain it more clearly so everybody can understand it.

Thomas: And then you made a little money with the software and then you said, we want to make big money and started a hardware company because what InnoAIO does is a hardware company, right?

Audrey: Yeah, that's because this is step by step. First of all, we just customized the videos, using professional tools. And after three years, we got the animation platform and we got the tools and we got the software and they just subscribe to our membership and use our tools. And since 2022 when AI came out, we wanted to put AI technology into our platform. So we just updated our platform. And after that, we think that we can give a real role to broadcast your content, so that's why we added AI digital humans to our platform. So you not only can generate animation videos, but also can clone your own gestures, movements and your face and your voice.

You can also transfer your real AI digital human to an animated one. And so you can choose different styles of it, maybe a digital human, maybe an animated avatar and put it into your videos. So it will be hosted and can speak anything that you want. And after that, we got lots of users from outside of China and our users, maybe from different countries, speak different languages. So that's why we think our AI digital human needs to speak different languages.

And after that, our company becomes bigger and bigger, we need to go outside, right? So we go to the Middle East, we go to Germany, we go to France and lots of places. And we go there and we find the thing that we cannot speak their languages. So that's a big problem. And my partner of this company, Bruce, cannot speak any English, only can speak Mandarin with Dongbei accent.

And that's why we buy lots of machines for translating. And we buy lots of hardware for translation with us, but it didn't work out. Maybe because of the data quality.

Thomas: So how was it when you go to your client from Saudi Arabia and then you have this machine?

Audrey: Yeah, because the first country we go to is in the Middle East, we go to Abu Dhabi, we go to Dubai and Saudi. And you know the Arabic in UAE or Saudi is very different Arabic. But most of the machines won't have one Arabic. So if it works in UAE, maybe it's not working in Saudi. So everybody just cannot communicate with each other.

So we have to figure out how we can sell our products to the Middle East to these kings, princesses and princes. At that time we were still selling them the software, the AI. We believe we have the most popular AI technology because we can transfer your real human to AI digital human. And we told them that we have the AI technology that we can create an incredible AI digital human to help you replace yourself. Because you don't need to film by yourself. You can just use the AI digital human to do advertising videos.

But they have lots of time because they don't need to work. They feel so bored. If there is a chance to take a video, I would like to film by myself not my AI digital human. So when we talk about AI digital human, they don't know what it is. And the second is why I need to use AI digital human to replace me because I don't work.

Thomas: Why did you choose the UAE as the first market?

Audrey: Actually, it's a trend and at that time the UAE gave a national vision in 2018. They wanted to set up new companies with high-tech and that's why lots of Chinese people would like to find business opportunities for AI. But we were the first Chinese company to go to the UAE and after we went to the UAE we found that we could do a lot of things because it was just like China 10 years ago.

But when we hung around in Dubai, you know there are big frames. Those golden, golden frames. They're very famous and attractive and lots of people go there. And we thought about that. How about putting our AI digital human in the frame? If Middle Eastern people really, really like frames and would like a hundred pictures on the wall. And because in public areas, there are a lot of frames which have their King's pictures printed on them. And if you go to hotels, you see all the pictures.

So we thought if they don't like AI digital humans to make videos for them, how about putting an AI frame into it? Make it a product. So we found the business opportunity. And the most interesting part is they believe if we can have a frame that talks, this can be their national gift to other countries' presidents. If you visit our country, that's how we show we're very honored and respect our distinguished guests.

So that's why the Royal family has investment companies. They chose one to set up a joint venture with us. The Royal family from Abu Dhabi, yes, to set up a new company with us. And after that, they tell everybody the AI frame is from Abu Dhabi. That's our national gift.

Thomas: So you have the WhatsApp of the Abu Dhabi king?

Audrey: I can't tell you the number!

Thomas: Now, after the software, after the picture for the royals, you started a new product, which is a hardware product, the translation product - the InnoAIO.

Audrey: Yeah, actually, it's a magnetic AI translator. At first, we had totally no idea about creating an AI translator, which was to think about how we can communicate with our clients. We bought lots of translators in the market, brought them to different countries to communicate with our clients. But they didn't work well because they speak different Arabic.

So we have so many clients, users on our platform, and most users are from all over the world, they use their own language to generate animation videos. And we also have the digital human, and our digital human can already speak 150 different languages. Why not? We can use this data and our AI technology to set up a new product to do the translation.

Thomas: So let's describe it to the people who don't watch us but listen to us. This is small, like a coin.

Audrey: Yeah, it's as big as a coin. Very light. And you just put it on the back of your phone. Magnetic. And it needs to connect with the phone through Bluetooth. For the hardware, as a first option, I just have software and most translation can be done with the software. But we still need the hardware because it's a trigger to work across all social media. This hardware helps you, whether you use WeChat or Instagram Messenger or WhatsApp, whatever, it helps you to put the text or the voice you input into your app, put it directly in the platform.

And this hardware has an AI accelerator chip that can speed up your translation in real time. And in the meantime, it can also store your data locally. So every translation data will be saved on the little machine. So which means you don't need to copy, no need to paste, and just press the button. And you just speak your mother language and release the button and everything will be translated immediately. And it will automatically paste to your text bar.

Thomas: So before it was like this, I wanted to send a text message to my Arabic client. And then I go to Google Translate, put it inside, then copy it, paste, right? But with your hardware, what I can do is I just press the button and I talk in German and then the Arabic will automatically appear in WhatsApp.

Audrey: Yeah, exactly. And also, I can send a voice message with my voice but speaking Arabic to the Arabic client. So I just keep my own character. But I show respect to my client.

Thomas: So this device basically stores your voice, everything from you. And then it automatically translates or uses your voice clones in order to generate the languages.

Audrey: If you have this little machine, first of all, you go to the settings. And then you go to your voice. You just record online. It's 40 seconds. And after that, your voice will be cloned in three to five seconds. So in no more than one minute, you will have your own voice.

Michael: Which product drives the most revenue right now?

Audrey: Because our animation platform has already been around for 10 years. So that has the most users and clients for this product. But this little machine has only been around for two years. But its revenue is growing faster. Because that's the first product we made for individuals. For this Double 11 festival, its sales GMV got the top one on JD.com, Tmall, TikTok, Red Note, and all these platforms. GMV was top one in the industry of AI translators.

Thomas: But also you managed to get a lot of people to invest a lot of money in your company, right? What was your pitch to them?

Audrey: Maybe it's our charming character. So our team, maybe that's the first reason. Because you need to let the investors see your passion. And the people behind it. See the vision and you need to do good things and insist on doing good things. From the beginning, we had the vision that we want all people to be able to express their ideas. And to this day, we still insist on what we do. And we want every language to be understood. Because every language has a specific and unique culture behind it, they deserve to be understood.

And first, we just participated in lots of competitions. We joined lots of competitions. Different competitions have different requirements. If you have the chance, you can meet lots of investors. And after that, maybe the government will invest in you too if you join the local government's competition. So we joined lots of competitions in the first, second, and third years from 2015 to 2018.

Michael: Chinese consumers are more willing to pay for hardware than for software?

Audrey: Exactly. We don't have the habit to pay every month. So that's why we just use hardware. This can be a gift, it can be a real thing that I can touch, and I pay for this, and it's already connected to the subscription of some software. They want to buy this and immediately use it all their life, even though they won't use it twice.

Thomas: How many people do you have right now?

Audrey: We have around 200 employees, but we are a company that doesn't need so many people, and most of them - 50% - are IT guys. And the other people support our products, maybe for sales, maybe lawyers and lots of things.

Thomas: So the goal for the next few years is a big IPO?

Audrey: Yeah, go public. Hong Kong. That's why I'm supporting the local market in Hong Kong. We just have distributors in Hong Kong and we want to set up our brand story in Hong Kong.

Thomas: We're looking forward to it and it was so interesting. Very crazy story. Thank you so much for being here with us.

Audrey: Thank you. It's my pleasure.

Thomas: We learned a lot and hopefully in 10 years we will also go IPO.