BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Could These China Tech Companies Dominate The Future?

This article is more than 5 years old.

© 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP

China's technology sector and its continued advances never cease to intrigue. On one hand, the region offers impressive innovation in the emerging tech space of Artificial Intelligence, blockchain and more. On the other, there is the challenge of freedom of expression by individuals across certain tech platforms. Indeed, as many companies from China displayed new advances at the recent, mammoth Consumer Electronics Show(CES), news reports swirled simultaneously about the detention of citizens in China by officials merely for posting on Twitter.

Dichotomies abound when it comes to China, and the future is uncertain. But in the midst of CES two China tech companies of particular note emerged in terms of innovation. However, given the current climate, within which is a confluence of economic and cultural elements, navigating a competitive, global future could present a daunting challenge.

First, Pacific Future, a company that specializes in the integration of light field, image recognition, motion tracking and other algorithms is busily working to leverage such elements to build the first virtual 3D human. 

The intent of the company is to offer an individual the ability to clone him or herself both off- and online. The company's founder and CEO Kien Lee says that the advantage of having such an extension will save people time, space and cost.  "We believe that people are connecting now over social media via text and simple images," explains Lee, "but soon people will crave something much more interactive with depth. This will be about being able to connect people on entirely new levels. You will want a full representation of yourself on-screen via future devices. Essentially, you will need another you."

Image courtesy of Pacific Future

Previously such a feat was extremely expensive to execute.  To create motion tracking needed for 3D imaging of a human body, tech costs started and $20,000 and continued upward. However, Pacific Future utilizes a camera to achieve the same goal that expensive sensors attached to the body offer.

Yet the gains made in costs are certainly made up for in work at the company. The task is extremely difficult to execute and is steeped in mathematics via a team of nearly 38 engineers estimating every single joint movement that is possible with the human body.  Afterward, artificial intelligence is combined with both the mathematical solution and physics in order to estimate force of movement. It took one year to create the algorithms that now allow a simple webcam that typically offers 2D image to now be translated by algorithm into 3D, and voila, you have a virtual you that moves exactly as you do in real time.

"Our company differentiator is that we are not scanning whole body," explains Lee. "It's about the movement only so that the  'best you' is seen,  like what we all typically present on social media.  We make possible the transfer of human motion from 2D to 3D in a way that works for today's communication style."

Pacific Future has left nothing to detail.  Even the shadows cast from the image match real-life and use authentic, as opposed to virtual light, in order to offer the most realistic experience.

Lee inspiration to create the company came from his love of various films that utilize special effects. He believes that the need for the technology offered by Pacific Futures will be driven by the impending 5G introduction across mobile devices and more.

Image courtesy of Pacific Future

But unlike many startups, the company is already generating revenue.  Pacific Futures had to actually build its own hardware devices in order to test the algorithms.  The results were so impressive that organizations such as the Malaysian Tourism Board saw them and asked if the company could make such items to offer a companion virtual experience for various museum-goers in the country.  Now Pacific Futures has a thriving rental business in this region and others providing historical education on a new which capturing valuable tourist data for the tourism organizations. And given the fact that Lee says that there are five billion tourists in China alone, the company is in a key position for generating even more revenue.

If Pacific Futures has its eye firmly set on 3D destiny as a new company, Sogou is working to bring new meaning to Internet usage, search and various related applications to it as an established behemoth. Currently, the company is the fourth largest Chinese Internet company, ranked only behind Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba.  The company reports that it is China’s second largest search engine by mobile queries with over 560 million monthly active users globally.

Sogou is also the leading Chinese language input software in the world in that it occupies 99% desktop market share and 70% mobile market share. Indeed, the company says that Sogou Mobile Keyboard has 405 million DAUs (daily average users), up 32% year-over-year. As China's largest voice app, it processes up to 500 million daily voice requests.

Under the direction of Xiaochuan Wang, the current CEO of Sogou, the company is becoming one of the most watched of its type in China and beyond, for it is a publicly traded company (NYSE: SOGO)

Image courtesy of Sogou

The company was first developed as a mere portal for its parent company-at-the-time, Sohu, as a search engine to compete against Baidu. Wang was brought on as CTO of Sohu in order to launch the endeavor. To do so, he recruited top talent in China, but the company became so large so quickly that Sohu soon spun Sogou out as its own company naming Wang its CEO. Even Alibaba got in on the action for a time when it sought to be part of the search engine game and invested in the company. However, since that time Alibaba has withdrawn its interests and, currently, Tencent and Sohu are Sogou's biggest shareholders, and Sogou shows no signs of slowing down.

Part of the reason behind the company's ability to scale at such a rate was that  Wang cleverly created both a browser and search engine together simultaneously for Sogou. At the same time, Tencent made the content in its WeChat official accounts searchable exclusively via Sogou. Sogou then further deepened the partnership with WeChat by providing additional search services such as the encyclopedia and interactive Q&A platforms. That means extremely valuable numbers.

Yet there are still many hurdles to overcome in surprising ways. "In China," Wang explains through an interpreter, "ads in healthcare are big business, yet they are not reputable. So one of our next main goals is to make authoritative search." Thus the company is applying artificial intelligence to improve accuracy and vetting so that users see ads from only those offering the most reputable care. To ensure success in this area, Sogou is also partnering with such companies as WebMD and the MayoClinic to further vet and categorize. "There are easily at least 40 million searches across Sogou per day about health, " explains Wang. "So getting this right is extremely important to us."

In addition, Sogou wants to help not only obtain the information they need but also to use technology to better express themselves.  The intent is to use artificial intelligence to advance communication in a number of ways including upping the ante by enabling search via voice and image recognition. "Currently we have over 400 million searches that are answerback via a link. In the near future, voice will answer you back," explains Wang. " For next generation of AI, the objective is to have the technology gather, read, and suggest all in real-time."

Yet amidst such developments by both Pacific Future and Sogou, business outlets such as Bloomberg predict a rocky road for such companies based on US-China trade conflict, decline in advertising and more.  There is also the question about what part such companies will play in the growing tensions around cultural norms in the country, particularly when it comes to the wishes of the authorities and more vocal citizens. For now, it's full speed ahead in innovation, and many will continue to track the progression closely.

 

Follow me on LinkedInCheck out my website