I use AI to help 1,000 expectant mothers predict their babies' appearance, selling each order for 9.9 yuan

While large companies are exploring the commercialization of AI models, many small and medium-sized businesses have begun to explore the space for small businesses. Some businesses have begun to use AI painting software such as Midjourney to provide users with AI avatars, AI wedding photos, appearance deduction and other services. Let's take a look at the description and analysis in the article.

ChatGPT (Generative Dialogue Robot) has been in public beta for 8 months, and all the major domestic and foreign technology companies have launched their own AI models during this period. However, the commercialization of these AI models is still in the exploratory stage.

Compared with large companies exploring big businesses, small Chinese businesses are always able to cleverly find space to do small business during the process of technological iteration.

AI grassroots entrepreneurship has low barriers to entry and simple logic. Small businesses are good at squatting under the wind and picking up coins. The ChatGPT craze has supported a group of people who promote mirror GPT. Now, they have quickly captured business opportunities from "Midjourney" (the world's largest artificial intelligence painting platform).

With the help of Midjourney's image generation capabilities, merchants set up stores or accounts on Taobao and Xiaohongshu to attract customers and provide services such as "real-life to cartoon avatars", "four-dimensional color ultrasound to predict the future appearance of the baby", "AI wedding photos", etc. The single product with the highest monthly sales is priced at 66.6 yuan, and more than 2,000 pieces have been sold in total. It is roughly estimated that the revenue has exceeded 100,000 yuan.

AI cute baby avatar customization

"If you don't consider labor costs, it's almost all profit," Qiao Chu, a user who has a lot of experience in using AI painting, told us.

There is also a service priced as low as 9.9 yuan, which is based on four-dimensional color ultrasound to help expectant mothers use AI to predict the appearance of their children after birth. Huo Shan, the merchant, said that the reason he launched this service was that before his own child was born, he used Midjourney to predict his appearance, "with an accuracy of up to 90%."

Today, his Taobao store sells over a thousand pieces of this service a month, but the money is earned through hard work. "This service itself is a 'human service', so how can it not be counted as a human cost? To produce a photo that meets the quality standards and satisfies the customer, the instructions must be adjusted constantly. I have calculated that the average time cost is about 20 minutes."

AI deduces four-dimensional color ultrasound images for prenatal examinations

20 minutes, 9.9 yuan, the hourly wage is close to 30 yuan. It seems that this "passive income business" based on information asymmetry is actually a physical job that requires constant typing of the keyboard and clicking of the mouse.

1. 1,000 expectant mothers predict their children’s appearance on Taobao

In the retail industry, women and children are the easiest to earn money from, and the same is true in the field of AI painting. On Taobao and Xiaohongshu, the best-selling "AI painting items" are almost all about "children".

"Please provide three full-body or half-body photos of your child with no filters, clear facial features and no obstructions, and inform the child's gender and age." After consulting the store customer service, we were told that because it is a virtual product, it will not be returned or exchanged after sale, so please do not make impulse purchases.

"This business model is very simple, and anyone with a certain level of technical ability and knowledge can get started." Chu Qiao introduced that to open a Midjourney membership, you usually only need to choose a mid-range membership, with a monthly fee equivalent to nearly RMB 200. After that, you can use AI to draw unlimited pictures - this is the so-called "profitable with only one investment", as apart from the rigid cost of membership fees, this small business requires almost no investment in other aspects.

Midjourney Fees

The small businessmen who have discovered this money-making model are all mature players in domestic AI painting. They are familiar with drawing instructions and can efficiently generate high-quality images.

"I started using Midjourney in April and May, which is not too early. I was quite interested in this new thing, so I signed up for membership and just played around at first. It wasn't until I used the 4D prenatal ultrasound to deduce what my child would look like and found that they really looked alike that I thought about making a side job out of it."

Huoshan had previously opened a Taobao store. After the service was launched, sales soared thanks to the precise traffic of product keywords and the search popularity of AI painting. Now he sells thousands of orders a month and is a little too busy to handle it.

He emphasized that the so-called AI painting customization is essentially a "service industry" based on physical labor. The technical and financial thresholds for this are not high, but the reason why people don't do it themselves is laziness. In particular, the AI ​​model's recognition of four-dimensional color ultrasound images will have many "bugs", which requires repeated debugging and is very labor-intensive.

"In the early stages, we need to communicate with customers about color ultrasound images and pregnancy time. We also need to check the details after delivery. For example, the photos of hands generated by AI will be rough, or even have an extra finger, or the environment may not be warm enough. These are all things that need to be repeatedly considered." Huo Shan emphasized that an order is not considered completed until the customer is satisfied and the accuracy is highest.

In addition, some photos are not what parents expect after they are generated, which may also lead to refunds. However, Huo Shan added that the return rate is not high, and generally only 1 out of 30 orders will be returned. "I usually return it if the customer is not satisfied, which is nothing. If I think the generated effect is not good, I will take the initiative to refuse the money. The vast majority of parents are very satisfied and will be very surprised when they see the photos."

Comments section for store products

Huo Shan explained that half of the energy of this job is spent on communicating with customers throughout the process. "Now I often reply to customers' messages and make pictures for them late at night, because they can't wait to see what their children look like. As a parent myself, I can understand their feelings."

Compared to making AI avatars, using four-dimensional color ultrasound images to deduce the baby's appearance is actually a thankless task. The price of 9.9 yuan is not high, but it faces a group of mothers who have extremely high requirements for baby photos. They are the most stringent consumers. However, with the attitude of treating this job as a service industry, the praise rate of this service in the Huoshan store is extremely high.

2. A headshot sold for 69.9 yuan per piece for 100,000 yuan

Compared to technology, the ability to acquire customers is the core factor that determines whether this business can make money.

Huoshan has a Taobao store and has a customer acquisition foundation. Some pure AI painting players will build an account matrix on Xiaohongshu and cast a wide net.

"Apply for 3-5 Xiaohongshu accounts, use ChatGPT to batch generate promotional copy and keywords, and then use some effect photos to publish four or five notes every day to get traffic, and try to convert users to your own private domain, such as WeChat groups. In the early stage, you can use the gimmick of "free graphics" to get traffic, and then slowly charge in the later stage." Qiao Chu told us that he has joined some communities that teach side job skills, and this business was introduced in them.

On Xiaohongshu, the most popular AI painting service is "avatar making", such as cute baby avatars, couple avatars, etc. Generally, it is a "photo to cartoon" or "photo to painting" mode, and most of them are Disney style and Pixar style.

"The avatar market is always the largest. After all, modern people have so many social media accounts, and everyone needs an avatar, which is a direct display of self-image." Qiao Chu explained. We also observed that before the emergence of AI avatar customization, Taobao and Xianyu platforms already had similar products such as "hand-painted avatars from photos", with monthly sales of thousands of pieces.

AI avatars may take away the business of hand-painted avatars

Unlike Taobao, the price range of this service on Xiaohongshu is quite wide. There are some accounts that provide free pictures, but also a large number of products priced as high as 50 or 60 yuan. For these high-priced services, merchants will emphasize "providing PS post-production fine-tuning" and "changing until you are satisfied" to increase the added value of the products.

"I've tried it, and the quality of the photos is about the same. I guess it's because there are more female users on Xiaohongshu. Some mothers see cartoon versions of baby photos and think they are cute, so they place orders immediately without worrying too much about the price. On e-commerce platforms like Taobao, you will naturally compare prices and look for the most cost-effective one."

"I will also put AI customized avatars on the shelves later. I have done tests myself. It takes about 20-30 minutes to make a relatively detailed picture, and it still requires a lot of post-production polishing." Huo Shan explained that AI pictures are highly random, so it is generally necessary to constantly make pictures and adjust instructions to optimize the facial features while retaining the core features of the child. Some customers will also request to change the surrounding scenes, such as changing the person who was originally in the bedroom to the beach, which is time-consuming.

In addition to making money, many people on Xiaohongshu also use gimmicks like "free AI drawing" to gain traffic and users and incubate accounts. But no matter what, the AI ​​drawing services provided by merchants are highly homogenized.

"Since we are using the same products and the instructions are publicly available for reference, the results will of course be similar," Qiao Chu added.

"I will think about some possible innovative ideas myself, such as making AI avatars into animated images or videos, but I am still thinking about what application scenarios there are." The store in Huoshan not only sells "AI four-dimensional prenatal color ultrasound to predict appearance", but also supporting services such as AI naming.

What we have observed is that currently, domestic small businesses have leveraged Midjourney’s capabilities to resell a wide range of AI painting services, such as “AI wedding photos” and “AI work dress photos”, with styles ranging from Disney, Pixar, and Hayao Miyazaki.

But at the same time, the features that merchants come up with with great effort will be quickly adopted by their peers within just one day.

"On the one hand, everyone is making money by using information asymmetry. But on the other hand, any information asymmetry in this industry will be quickly eliminated," Qiao Chu concluded.

3. People who pick up coins under the wind

Whether it is selling AI avatars or doing four-dimensional prenatal ultrasound simulations, these are actually not new services.

At the end of 2022, when AIGC just began to become popular, a “magic avatar” APP “Lensa” launched by the foreign imaging company Prisma was once popular in Europe and the United States.

It can use AI technology to transform users' photos into various "artistic styles", whether it is Van Gogh, Da Vinci, cyberpunk, or Disney princesses. At that time, the service fee of this software was not cheap: the annual subscription fee was US$35.99; you could also purchase 50 avatar generation rights separately for only US$3.99; 100 avatars were priced at US$5.99.

Lensa generated avatar style

According to data from app analytics company SensorTower, "Lensa" earned approximately $16.2 million in 2022, of which $8 million was earned in December after the "AI avatar" was launched.

Among Chinese companies, whether it is Douyin, Meitu XiuXiu, or TikTok, they have already launched similar functions to "AI avatars", and all of them provide free services.

"In the short term, this market is in short supply and everyone can make a little money. But in the long run, each of the major domestic Internet companies has hundreds of millions of users. In fact, if any national-level APP launches some AI painting functions, it will be difficult for many wild players to do avatar customization business." Qiao Chu still emphasized that the information gap in this market is very fragile.

"I am applying for a trademark and want to open a maternity and baby products store, and then use these AI painting services to accurately direct traffic to the store," Huo Shan introduced.

But just like the merchants we have interviewed who make money from ChatGPT, everyone knows that AI is a long-term trend, but they are not "pigs on the wind" who can neither fly nor worry about falling.

They are just small people picking up coins under the wind. No matter how much or how long they can make money, it is enough as long as they make money.

Author: Shen Songnan, Editor: Si Wen

WeChat official account: E-Commerce Online (ID: dianshangmj), see sharpness and insights, and focus on innovative media on the Internet and new business.