Generative AI is sweeping the world at an alarming rate. In just two years, this “all-around assistant,” which can read financial reports, write copy, write programs, make PPTs, and even do research has become the “god teammate” of many white-collar workers in the office, and has also brought golden opportunities to countless AI startups.
In this highly competitive field, the AIGC company PixelBloom has quickly stood out. The AI PPT tool of the company AiPPT.com was launched one year ago and has already reached 10 million registrations and over 9 million visits per month. In the AI PPT field, AiPPT.com ranks fourth globally and first in China in terms of traffic, emerging as the fastest-rising dark horse.
PixelBloom was founded in 2018, primarily to provide content productivity tools and content management services for enterprises and individual users. Its products include AiPPT.com, the AI mapping tool isheji (isheji.com), social editing software 365 Editor (365editor.com), AI website tools, and “Readlecture” (Readlecture.cn), which can condense a two-hour video into a five-minute graphic summary, among others. Each of these tools is a lifesaver for content workers and job seekers.
Simply put, PixelBloom is a treasure trove of AI productivity tools, even a new generation of AI workstations. “Our product is – use it early to finish work, use it early to get a raise, and use it early to find a partner!” said Steven Chao, the founder and CEO of PixelBloom, with a smile. “Finish your PPTs early, so you’ll have time to fall in love!”
Steven Chao has extensive experience in the industry. In 2011, he rolled up his sleeves to start his own business during the rise of social media, and 13 years have passed since he embarked on that journey. Starting with the new media business group Microdreams Media, followed by the launch of iSheji, and now PixelBloom, Chao has accumulated valuable resources and partners along the way, which have become the key driving force behind PixelBloom’s rapid expansion.
The product AiPPT.com, which has recently gone viral, is the flagship product of PixelBloom. The concept of “making PPTs with AI” may not be particularly new in the age of AI, and there are a lot of powerful competitors around. What makes AiPPT.com stand out?
Choosing the Right Market for PPT Tools
First of all, it is because of the right market. Chao recalled that when product positioning was first discussed internally, they set three main criteria: “First and foremost, the product must utilize our accumulated core technology – image processing. Second, it has to create value for existing customers. Third, the product must have an excellent conversion rate to payment.” The intersection of these three things led to the birth of AiPPT.com.
“If you look at Microsoft’s three major document products – Word, Excel, and PowerPoint – you’ll find that PowerPoint is the most profitable of them all,” Chao analyzed. They keenly saw the huge potential of the PPT production market and decisively invested in positioning the product on the high-value track, which set the foundation for AiPPT.com’s success.
Minimalist User Experience, Targeting “PPT Newbies”
Chao firmly believes that the success of internet products depends on user experience and product power. Chao further explained that what sets AiPPT.com apart from other PPT tools is that it primarily targets “PPT newbies” first, namely those people who are not familiar with PPTs at all. “But that doesn’t mean we’re neglecting professional users; rather, we are prioritizing the broader public,” said Chao. “In the future, 95% of people will be making PPTs with generative AI instead of opening a blank page and designing it from scratch like they did in the past.”
Based on this positioning, AiPPT.com’s product design is centered on “intuition” and “simplicity.” Simply enter a topic (or upload a PDF file), and AI will generate a preliminary outline for fine-tuning. AiPPT.com then provides a rich selection of templates. Users only need to choose a suitable template, and the system will utilize RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) technology to automatically complete the matching of content and materials, and generate a graphic and logical PPT in a few minutes. The easy-to-use operation of AiPPT.com creates a clear difference between AiPPT.com and its competitors such as Gamma, Slidesgo, and Prezi.
PixelBloom’s “Partnering with Giants” Strategy: The Key to Rapid Expansion
“We are a new company, and we know that going it alone isn’t enough; you can’t just cling to one big player—you need to grab as many thighs as you can!” Steven Chao said with a laugh. In Chinese, this is humorously referred to as “clinging to the thigh”. By “partnering with giants,” he explains, PixelBloom has built a growth strategy centered around forming strong partnerships to accelerate product adoption through a robust ecosystem.
For example, one of the investors of PixelBloom is the largest image material company in mainland China, Visual China Group, whose 500 million officially licensed images have become a powerful tool to differentiate AiPPT.com from its competitors. Other prominent investors include Zhipu, China’s version of OpenAI; 36Kr, a publicly traded media group; and Wang Chuan, cofounder of Xiaomi.
In addition, hardware companies such as Lenovo, Huawei, and Honor, and network companies such as 360 and DingTalk, are all partners that AiPPT has entered into arrangements with in a short period of time. Taking the cooperation between PixelBloom and Lenovo as an example, all AI PCs shipped by Lenovo this year are equipped with AiPPT.com. When users need a PPT, Lenovo’s AI assistant “Lenovo Xiaotian” can directly launch AiPPT.com to help complete the production.
AiPPT.com’s collaboration with Kimi, the intelligent assistant of AI unicorn Moonshot AI, allows Kimi users to directly utilize AiPPT.cn’s functions to generate PPTs with a single click.
In terms of overseas markets, AiPPT.com is also actively expanding. For example, Felo, an AI search engine that has attracted much attention in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, has accessed AiPPT.com’s API. After generating a PPT outline on Felo, users can produce a complete PPT with just one click.
Market Insight and Agile Response: AiPPT.com Claims No. 1 Market Position in One Year
PixelBloom’s ability to stand out in the fierce competition for AI applications today comes from Chao and his team’s past accumulation of technology, keen observation of the market, and agility in responding to emergencies.
Prior to starting his own business, Chao worked at Sina Weibo, where he was responsible for managing the advertising platform for social media influencers. With the rise of social media, he sensed the business opportunity and founded Microdreams Media in 2011 to provide integrated new media marketing services for enterprises.Riding the wave of social media growth, Microdreams Media successfully helped several internet giants in mainland China achieve user growth, and it was listed on the New Third Board in 2016, accumulating a strong market reputation and industry trust.
In 2018, as the era of exponential social media growth came to an end, Chao quickly adapted by leading his team to help corporate clients boost conversion rates through content marketing. This shift also inspired the development of tools such as 365 Editor and iSheji to enhance production efficiency. This experience has not only enabled the team to become comfortable with the technology, but has also laid a solid foundation for future AI applications.
In recent years, generative AI has swept the world. When Chao and his team first encountered this technology, they promptly conducted a round of market research. “We have a value called ’embrace change,’ so the team immediately invested in market research and experimentation,” Chao laughed. “We ran around and found that none of the AI projects were making money, so at first, we thought that AI had nothing to do with us.”
However, the team didn’t stop trying. They tested the AI function in the iSheji PPT module, and the results were amazing. Unexpectedly, they found that the conversion rate of user and customer acquisition efficiency increased several times. As a result, Steven Chao decided to increase the budget and resources to fully focus on this direction. He also registered the domain names AiPPT.com and AiPPT.cn in advance to quickly build brand awareness with a highly consistent product name and domain name.
This choice proved to be a great success. Since its launch in August 2023, AiPPT.com has received more than 9 million domestic and international visits, and not only is it the no. 1 smart PPT market in mainland China, it is also no. 4 in the world.Looking specifically at browser-based AIGC tools in mainland China, AiPPT.com ranks 8th globally, showcasing its explosive growth.
Tapping into Overseas Markets with a Global Perspective
Not content with its success in the mainland China market, PixelBloom is rapidly expanding overseas. Currently, the overseas version of AiPPT.com is available in more than 30 countries, including Thailand, Korea, India, and Malaysia, and it has achieved initial success. Chao is optimistic that, in the future, AiPPT.com’s overseas revenue should surpass that of mainland China and become the primary growth engine for the company’s business.
Chao believes that the AI era will bring new changes to the way people work and learn. “The next decade will be the golden era of AI-driven advantages. This period will surpass the internet era in speed and intensity. I believe that almost all existing applications can be revolutionized with AI, unlocking even more innovation.”
PixelBloom Aims to Be “The Next Generation of AI Workstations for Individuals and Businesses”
Chao positioned PixelBloom as an incubator for AI office tools, dedicated to transforming new technologies into products that address real-world needs. Currently, the company has successfully incubated six products and plans to further expand its product line to cover more areas in the future.
The next decade will be a golden age for AI to reshape creativity and efficiency. Chao leads PixelBloom with keen market insights and agile strategies, driving the company from technology accumulation to global expansion. Their vision is to make AI a powerful assistant for work and learning, with PixelBloom positioned to create “AI workstations for a new generation of individuals and enterprises.” The company aims to help enterprises and individuals harness the benefits of this technological shift and explore more possibilities.
This article has been contributed to AsiaTechDaily.
