About 20 trillion words are sold in a week. What are the new changes in AI consumption?

Recently, a new product has appeared in e-commerce live broadcast rooms - Ci Yuan, also known as Token. It is the basic unit of measurement for information processing in large artificial intelligence models and can be understood as the "fuel" of artificial intelligence. In the word element section of an e-commerce platform, domestic large-scale model computing power packages such as Alibaba Cloud, Zhipu, and Qianwen Office were put on the shelves, and about 20 trillion word words were sold in just one week.

Ciyuan entered the e-commerce live broadcast room for the first time

Do consumers pay the bill?

Ms. Wei: I think the existing web version of the large model is enough for me, because I only use it when reading literature, such as making a small data set, and the basic free version is basically enough.

Mr. Ai: In the past, if you wanted to buy word service, you would definitely search for it yourself. Now, you will definitely watch the live broadcast to buy it. It can bring more benefits to consumers in terms of cost performance.

Ms. Ran: We computer majors now all have consumer demand for word elements, which is already part of our daily expenses. As teachers, our teaching and scientific research are inseparable from AI, so we must buy it because it can improve our work efficiency and create better results.

Ms. Wang: I am paying attention, especially the token sales in the live broadcast room are very hot, which is a good thing. AI is used very frequently in our store every day. Each customer's order booking and meal arrangement, rider order arrangement, and receipt printing are all handed over to AI. It is a repetitive task.

Ms. Zhang: I think you still need to pay attention to it. When purchasing in the live broadcast room, you will not be able to call the customer service to ask for clarification like on the official website. When you leave a message in the live broadcast room, there is no way to give a clear reminder. You need to check the trial period for you, whether it is yearly or indefinite, how many times you can call it in a month, and whether it has any additional conditions.

Add word elements to shopping cart

How to buy? How to use it?

During the interview, the reporter learned that some consumers believe that free artificial intelligence services can meet their daily needs, while others are willing to pay to improve work efficiency. So, how to buy word elements? What can ordinary consumers do with it?

For ordinary consumers, one of the most direct values ​​of purchasing Ci Yuan-related services is improved efficiency. For example, use artificial intelligence to organize meeting minutes, write a video script, or quickly refine the key points of a long report.

With the launch of the word category on e-commerce platforms, consumers have more convenient channels to purchase AI services. On e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.com, users can search for "Token" to find related products and services launched by many large model manufacturers for one-stop shopping. At present, there are two main ways for ordinary consumers to purchase word elements: one is to buy pay-as-you-go recharge coupons, which are similar to phone bills, and you can buy them after they are used up; the other is to subscribe for a fixed amount per month or year, similar to monthly cards and annual cards.

The reporter saw that the preferential package purchased in the live broadcast room of an e-commerce platform allows users to use the basic model unlimitedly for a month, and also gives 500 points, which can be used for complex multi-modal tasks such as generating pictures and making videos.

Qianwen office market brand expert Zeng Sicong: You can understand Ciyuan Service as an AI assistant that can do work for you. The specific work refers to work scenarios, such as writing PPT, writing documents, doing Excel, and doing in-depth data analysis. It can help you realize these work functions that you actually need to open the computer to operate.

Many consumers may ask, since some large models already provide free services, why do they need to spend extra money to purchase them? In fact, daily information query, simple question and answer and other needs can usually be completed through the free version of the large model. However, for complex task processing such as video generation and data analysis, there may be certain restrictions on the usage quota or functions of the free service. Whether payment is required depends on the actual needs of consumers.

Wang Wei, Director of the Data Resources Research Department of the National Data Development Institute: When you buy a Token, you are not buying a physical product, but an overall service provided by the data model and computing power behind it. Therefore, the word element services provided by different manufacturers and different platforms may also have differences in performance or areas of expertise. Therefore, it is recommended that everyone purchase the corresponding CiYuan services based on their actual application needs and truly use their money wisely.

Word elements become commodities

What are the new changes in AI consumption?

From volume-based purchases to monthly subscriptions, there are more purchasing options for Ci Yuan-related services. So, why did the word element, which was originally mainly targeted at enterprises and developers, start to enter the shopping carts of ordinary consumers? What are the new changes in industry and consumption behind the scenes?

According to data from the National Data Bureau, in March this year, China's average daily word usage exceeded 140 trillion, an increase of more than 1,000 times in two years compared with 100 billion at the beginning of 2024. Experts said that the biggest advantage of word elements becoming commodities is that they can be used on demand, can be priced, and can be compared.

Wang Wei, Director of the Data Resources Research Department of the National Data Development Institute: As a commodity, word units have another significant benefit, which is that they can be chosen in a transparent market. Nowadays, many different manufacturers provide Tokens with different fee levels, which can be compared horizontally on the same page. The platform can also be packaged according to different scenarios such as learning, research, entertainment, etc., and translate technical language into consumer language.

Why will the word element service enter the shopping cart of ordinary consumers at this time? Experts analyze that this is driven by advances in artificial intelligence technology and declining service costs, as well as multiple factors such as the continuous expansion of application scenarios and the growth of consumer demand.

Wang Wei, Director of the Data Resources Research Department of the National Data Development Institute: The inference cost of large models continues to decline rapidly, and AI services are ready to be put on the shelves at affordable prices. The e-commerce platform provides traffic, payment and price comparison scenarios, transforming the procurement of data, models and computing power into digital products that ordinary people can understand, place orders and renew. Ciyuen service is becoming a new daily digital consumption and a typical representative of the digitalization process of the service industry.