Short Essay 1_WANG XIN (1155222150)

 

Utilize technology to open up blue ocean: A case study on BuzzFeed’s adoption of generative AI

 

BuzzFeed, founded in 2006, is a news aggregator from America, known for its viral-spreading content such as pop quizzes in the early days. On January 26, 2023, it announced the use of ChatGPT to help create personalized content, leading to its shares surging nearly 120 percent at the same day. At the beginning of 2023, ChatGPT remains a new product with tons of potential to discover. While BuzzFeed bravely utilizes it to transform its content creation pattern, opening up a new blue ocean.

 

In the year of generative AI first coming to the stage, most competitors in the news content creation industry mainly made investment in four directions. First, many media companies were investing in digital technologies and tools to improve the efficiency and diversity of content creation. Second, those competitors were introducing big data analytics to understand user preferences to generate more engaging content. Third, they invested in UX optimization, including the interface design of websites and applications, to enhance user satisfaction. Fourth, the press was also keen on integrating multiple platforms, such as social media, apps, and streaming services, to expand the reach of their content. In summary, what they competed and employed resources into are still tools to help humans create targeted content and reach out to users.

 

On the contrary, according to the ERRC grid, BuzzFeed completely eliminated the repetitive manual labor and content creation bottlenecks. By using AIGC technology, BuzzFeed cut off the process of manual content creation, checking, and editing, dismissing its specialized news department, thus getting rid of its reliance on human resources. Besides, what had also been erased were the time and energy limits caused by human labor. AI was online every second and minute, catching up with every news snap, calculating the suitable theme, and maximizing the efficiency of content creation.

 

Besides, BuzzFeed also reduced the attitudes and emotions buried in manual creation, as well as the labor cost. The public attributes of news and the opinionated character of commentary are being cut back, with subjectivity playing an increasingly weaker role. Instead of hoping to win over users with similar opinions, timeliness and efficiency were highlighted by objective statements of fact. Meanwhile, the fixed cost of hardware and software was apparently more economical than hiring a large number of writers.

 

On the other side, BuzzFeed was also devoted to raising content diversity and user engagement. The ability of AI to generate all types of content, from news stories to entertainment jokes, had greatly enriched BuzzFeed's content diet. Moreover, through interactive content, BuzzFeed improves user engagement and stickiness.

 

Due to the adoption of AI, BuzzFeed also offered something journalism had never offered before. AI technology had enabled BuzzFeed to create new forms of content, such as personalized quizzes and auto-generated stories. For example, a test of romantic comedy film preferences might start with questions like "Choose a scene for your romantic comedy" or "Tell us one of your endearing flaws." Based on users’ responses, the test would generate a unique, shareable article with totally different plots and endings.

 

BuzzFeed’s adoption of AI also propelled users to action by reorienting their focus from customers to noncustomers of the media industry. It played an active role in transforming “soon-to-be” noncustomers who were on the hedge of your market waiting to jump ship. With immediate response to hotspots, it could easily attract users with high expectations of timeliness. Besides, its new content formats, such as auto-generated stories and interactive quizzes, were attractive to “unexplored” users who were not interested in traditional media.

 

Although technology evolves rapidly, we can refer to BuzzFeed’s story two years ago for reflections regarding the strategic use of new technology. The use of AI has the potential to revolutionize the media industry by enhancing the quality of content while reducing the time and effort required for content creation. With every new technology coming to earth, it is attractive yet challenging to build a new business model completely based on it. Under those circumstances, the blue ocean strategy is an essential tool to pick up what to focus on and what to cut off.