As early as 1994, the technology of QR codes was invented in the cherry blossom country on the other side.

It's just that the popular barcode at that time has occupied the vast majority of the market, although the newborn two-dimensional code also has its own performance advantages, but in the face of the stability of the barcode, it does not have an overwhelming ability.

Especially before the advent of the mobile Internet era, the advantages of the QR code itself, including the advantages of carrying a larger amount of information and a wider range of encoding, cannot help him break through the blockade of the market.

It was not until the advent of the mobile Internet era that more personal application scenarios appeared, which made the QR code truly take the center of the historical stage.

WeMessage is not the first company to use QR codes.

In the middle of this year, Taobao's payment pass has tried to introduce the QR code payment model and promoted it for the first time on the mobile phone.

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

Therefore, the QR code payment of Alipay is more in the B2B model, that is, the transaction between enterprises and enterprises, and Alipay will recommend the use of QR code.

The fundamental reason for this is very simple, the emergence of mobile smartphones is still too short, and most people are still relatively conservative about the way to realize payment through mobile phones.

But what Liu Huan didn't expect was that Weixin found a new use scenario.

It's not a payment, it's a business card.

The form of a business card does not involve money, and the sensitivity is much less.

Nowadays, people may have concerns if they use QR codes to pay, but if they only use QR codes to make friends, the willingness will be much stronger.

"In fact, there are many application scenarios of QR codes, but now the mobile era has just come, and many things have not yet been adapted." Xu Xing took the initiative to say to Secretary Zhao at this time, "And although the QR code is good, it also has its own hidden dangers." ”

"Oh?" DifficultyXu Xing took the initiative to reveal some information, and Secretary Zhao immediately asked with interest, "You are very interested in this aspect?" ”

"It's just a little idea." Xu Xing said modestly, "For example, today's press conference, if you want to show some other things, the screen can't play 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 the stage is used to play other content, the audience can still find the corresponding PPT page on the mobile phone at all times to keep up with the rhythm of the speaker."

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

"To put it simply, there is a place for QR codes in all scenarios involving information dissemination, and the larger the amount of information and the more types of information, the more obvious the advantages of QR codes."

Xu Xing continued, and after a pause, he changed his head and said, "However, there are still some hidden dangers in this. ”

"For example?"

"For example, the leakage of personal information." Xu Xing pointed to the podium of the WeChat press conference 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 lead to all kinds of problems." ”

"Well, that's true, but it's not that big, is it?" Secretary Zhao said, "And it's not impossible to solve it." ”

"Yes." Xu Xing nodded, "So the QR code business card of Weixin is randomly generated every time, and the effect after generation will only be retained for a week, and it will be automatically eliminated at the point." ”

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

"In contrast, the security implications related to payments may be greater."

Hearing this, Secretary Zhao's brows jumped, his expression was slightly playful, his palm touched the armrest next to him, and he smiled softly: "It's really interesting." ”

Xu Xing didn't go too deep, just smiled, and finally added simply: "In the future, with more and more application scenarios of QR codes, relevant laws and regulations must also keep up." ”

"Makes sense."

The two of them went into simple terms and didn't talk about this topic anymore.

After Liao Qinyu on the stage showed the effect of the QR code business card, he took the opportunity to enter the second function display.

"Now that we've added a WeChat friend, of course we have to try to communicate on it." Liao Qinyu reminded Zhu Rongzhen as he said, "Mom, you come and send a message." ”

"How?" Zhu Rongzhen clicked into the chat page with her son according to his instructions, and tentatively clicked on the chat box, "So? What to send? ”

"You can say whatever you want to me." Liao Qinyu said patiently, "You use this typing first." ”

"Uh-oh." Zhu Rongzhen nodded, trying to type in the nine-square grid.

Previously, it took nearly a minute just to type the word "Weixi", but this time Zhu Rongzhen typed 11 words, and everyone waited for three or four minutes, watching Zhu Rongzhen type this sentence-

[Son, when are you looking for a girlfriend?] 】

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

Liao Qinyu was also embarrassed for a moment, but seeing that the audience reacted so well, he clicked on his chat page and sent a message to Zhu Rongzhen.

[Now it's more important to work, and my girlfriend is not in a hurry. 】

Although the number of words is more than Zhu Rongzhen, Liao Qinyu basically completed typing in about ten seconds, which is far faster than Zhu Rongzhen.

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

"Yes, after you press it, you look at this chat box again, is there a prompt on it [press and hold to speak]?"

"And then you're like me." As he spoke, Liao Qinyu pressed the voice chat button and said, "As long as you press and speak like this, let go after you finish speaking." ”

"It'll automatically send your voice over."

"Look, that's it, do you see if you have it over there?"

Zhu Rongzhen watched her son press the button to speak and then let go, and 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 can try this too." Liao Qinyu reminded.

"Okay." Zhu Rongzhen nodded, tentatively pressed the voice button, and then asked cautiously, "Then is there a suitable little girl in your company?" ”

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

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

"Then everyone has seen that in the same word, 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 gap between typing chat and voice chat may be several times or even more than ten times the difference."

"For some older users, they may not know pinyin, and they can't use the screen writing function, so such a button to enter the voice chat function has become the best choice."

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

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

"Although sending voice is more convenient for the person sending the message, for the person receiving the message, it is necessary to listen to the voice content completely."

"It's not like text, where you can identify the specific content at a glance, but you need to listen carefully to fully understand what the other person is going to say."

"That means ......"

When Liao Qinyu said this, he let go of his fingers on the button, and the long list of words he had just said was sent to Zhu Rongzhen's mobile phone, "Look." ”

"A full 30-second voice message, if the speech is a little unclear or slow, is likely to become a long voice of forty or fifty seconds or even more than a minute."

"In such a situation, the barrier to communication changes from sending messages to receiving them."

"Therefore, our WeChat team has reached a partnership with Tingyunsheng Company in Kyoto, and the two sides have made certain efforts on the speech recognition text function."

"Weixin version 2.0 will be launched [Weixin voice assistant] to help you directly recognize the text of your voice."

"It's like this."

Liao Qinyu instructed Zhu Rongzhen that after pressing and holding the voice box with both hands, an option of [Convert to Text] popped up on it.

After clicking, the long list of words Liao Qinyu just said jumped below the voice box, and then a piece of text content was displayed.

"Of course." Liao Qinyu then added, "This function is not perfect at present, it only supports Mandarin recognition, and everyone can see that there will still be some misjudgments in the recognition process, but at least you can understand the general meaning at a glance." ”

"In the future, we will also strengthen our cooperation with Tingyunsheng, and 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 research and development AI artificial intelligence voice company.

As early as when Xu Xing went to Kyoto for the National Day, he invested in this company, completed the initial angel round investment, and in December, like Didi Dache, followed up with a round of financing.

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 voice recognition function has a large number of application scenarios, which is not only of great help to subsequent research and development, but also provides a part of the company's benefits and makes their company data look better.

It is also conducive to further financing plans in the future.

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

At that time, he looked at Xu Xing's investment objects, which were scattered and most of them were start-up teams, and he thought that Xu Xing was just a simple idle sum, with a lot of money and nowhere to spend.

But after coming into contact with Xu Xing, he knew that things were not so simple.

At present, the combination of the voice recognition function of listening to the cloud and the voice recognition function of Weixin finally made him see a clue.

"So, when WeChat was just launched, you already thought about this matter?" Secretary Zhao asked curiously, "Is it possible that the other projects invested by Qunxing Company before also have corresponding strategic purposes?" ”

"It's just a matter of buying tickets in advance." Xu Xing smiled modestly, "In the future, including AI artificial intelligence, cloud technology and big data-related fields, will be a must for the Internet. ”

"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 to give more money." Xu Xing was not a little proud, but was very cautious in his words and deeds, "When people have confidence, they have a broad vision, and they can naturally find the possibility of the future, and all they have to do is to place bets." ”

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

"Actually, we also have research in this area, right? I remember that there were quite a few official laboratories and research institutes in Shanghai. Xu Xing laughed, and then couldn't help revealing his true thoughts, "Secretary Zhao, you know, I'm still a college student after all, and my own technical strength is not strong." ”

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

"If we can seize the development of the mobile Internet, we may have a great opportunity to achieve corner overtaking."

Secretary Zhao turned his head to look at him in surprise, then turned his head back again, and fell into deep thought: "You can really speak." ”

"Secretary Zhao has won the award."

"Min University itself has a lot of laboratories." Secretary Zhao pondered for a moment and said, "You can try it first, I also want to see what results can be achieved." ”

"Hmm...... I remember ......" Speaking of this, Secretary Zhao touched his chin and thought about it, and said, "Didn't Min University invite an academician to serve as the vice president before?" It seems to be a computer-related field. ”

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

"Oh 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 hands, well, you wait for me to go back and study it, or you can also contact in advance to see how to cooperate with it." ”

"Okay." Xu Xing nodded vigorously, with a satisfied smile on his face, "I'm relieved to have your words." ”

In the exchange, the two in the audience preliminarily finalized a cooperation.

On the stage, after the function sharing of [Eradicating Communication Barriers], Liao Qinyu entered the third link.

"The first two sessions are just one of our enhancements to the 1.0 version of WeChat, including a new way to add friends and a new feature for voice communication."

Liao Qinyu said here, 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.

"Next, the third new feature of Weixin 2.0 will bring users a new way to [share their personal lives]."