AI and the rise of the universal entertainment app
AI and the rise of the universal entertainment app
AI 与“全能娱乐应用”的崛起
All the big entertainment apps are starting to look the same, and that’s not an accident. For a decade, platforms fought over who would dominate a single format: music, video, podcasts, audiobooks. Now, powered by AI, they’re fighting over something bigger — becoming the app you default to whenever you have time to kill, no matter what form the content takes. 各大主流娱乐应用正变得越来越像，这绝非偶然。过去十年里，各大平台都在争夺单一领域的统治权：音乐、视频、播客或有声书。如今，在人工智能的驱动下，它们正在争夺更大的目标——成为你消磨时间时的首选应用，无论内容形式如何。
There are several reasons why this is the case. The market for entertainment apps is reaching maturity, so growth has slowed, pushing companies to compete on time spent and revenue-per-user instead of new sign-ups. In addition, today’s creators often work across formats, so it makes sense to provide a home for all their content, not just one piece of it. AI adds a third reason. It makes it easier for a single company to build and run several formats well, and the wider the content mix, the more time users spend in the app, which in turn drives both ad revenue and subscriptions. 造成这种现象的原因有几个。娱乐应用市场已趋于成熟，增长放缓，迫使企业将竞争重点从“新增用户数”转向“用户时长”和“单用户收入”。此外，如今的创作者往往跨平台创作，因此为他们的所有内容提供一个统一的归宿显得合情合理。AI 则是第三个原因：它让单一公司更容易构建并运营多种内容格式，而内容组合越丰富，用户在应用中停留的时间就越长，进而带动广告收入和订阅增长。
Image Credits: Netflix 图片来源：Netflix
Netflix is one clear example of this trend, as the service over the past several years has added gaming, live sports and other events, and, more recently, short video clips and podcasts. The idea is to capture more of users’ time, even when there’s not a TV or movie they want to watch, as well as to find a way into the smaller bits of free time that people usually fill with scrolling social media, playing casual games, or watching TikTok or Reels. Netflix 是这一趋势的典型代表。过去几年里，该服务增加了游戏、体育直播及其他活动，最近又引入了短视频和播客。其核心逻辑是占据用户更多的时间——即使在没有想看的电影或剧集时，也能填补用户通常用于刷社交媒体、玩休闲游戏或观看 TikTok/Reels 的碎片化时间。
Spotify has also been expanding its footprint beyond its original premise as a home for streaming music. After adding podcasts, the company added support for video podcasts, social features like Q&As and commenting, stories, and messaging, as well as different types of content like fitness classes, audiobooks, narrated magazines, and even physical book sales. Spotify 也已超越了最初作为流媒体音乐平台的定位。在加入播客后，该公司又增加了视频播客支持、问答与评论等社交功能、快拍（Stories）和消息功能，以及健身课程、有声书、有声杂志甚至实体书销售等多种内容。
Image Credits: Spotify 图片来源：Spotify
Meanwhile, YouTube, originally the home to longer-form creator content, moved into short-form content to compete with TikTok, while also adding dedicated space for podcasts, gaming content, music, movies and TV, sports and news, shopping, and more. Now, you can watch free movies and TV, supported by ads, stream live content, or rent or buy TV and movies to add to your library. At this rate, folding YouTube TV and YouTube Music into YouTube proper — and selling tiered access to the whole bundle — looks like a matter of when, not if. 与此同时，最初以长视频创作者内容为主的 YouTube，为了与 TikTok 竞争，也进军了短视频领域，并为播客、游戏、音乐、影视、体育新闻、购物等开辟了专门板块。现在，你可以在 YouTube 上观看广告支持的免费影视剧、直播内容，或租赁/购买影视作品存入个人库。照此发展，将 YouTube TV 和 YouTube Music 合并进 YouTube 主应用，并以分级订阅的形式打包销售，似乎只是时间问题。
Even TikTok, largely known for short videos, offers support for long-form content and other features, like travel planning, shopping, local exploration, buying tickets to live events, and more. It even has its own standalone app for microdramas and another called TikTok Pro Events for sporting events — like the FIFA World Cup — plus music festivals, and more. 即便是以短视频闻名的 TikTok，也开始支持长视频内容，并增加了旅行规划、购物、本地探索、现场活动购票等功能。它甚至拥有独立的短剧应用，以及名为“TikTok Pro Events”的体育赛事（如世界杯）和音乐节直播应用。
Image Credits: TikTok 图片来源：TikTok
While there are still some differentiators between the services today, there’s an obvious trend toward convergence over a similar set of features focused on providing users with access to content to watch, listen, play, or shop. This is also where AI comes into play. With format no longer a differentiator, the value these apps offer comes down to how well they connect users with what they want next. 尽管目前这些服务之间仍存在差异，但它们正明显趋同，功能集高度重合，核心目标都是为用户提供观看、收听、娱乐或购物的综合入口。这正是 AI 发挥作用的地方。当内容格式不再是差异化竞争点时，这些应用的核心价值便取决于它们能多好地将用户与他们“下一个想看的内容”连接起来。
AI’s role in building the entertainment operating system of the future
AI 在构建未来娱乐操作系统中的角色
AI makes content recommendation across formats easier, sharpening personalization while also giving users more direct control over how those recommendations get made. Spotify, for instance, is testing a tool that will let you edit your Taste Profile, its AI-built model of your preferences. It’s also building AI features that let users chat with AI directly about what they want or build playlists of things they like — and not just music. AI 让跨格式的内容推荐变得更简单，在提升个性化精准度的同时，也让用户能更直接地控制推荐逻辑。例如，Spotify 正在测试一项工具，允许用户编辑其“品味档案”（Taste Profile）——这是该平台基于 AI 构建的用户偏好模型。它还在开发 AI 功能，让用户能直接与 AI 对话表达需求，或创建他们喜欢的播放列表，且不仅限于音乐。
Image Credits: Spotify 图片来源：Spotify
Netflix has made a similar case. Co-CEO Greg Peters told investors in the company’s first-quarter call that new model architectures are improving personalization and letting the team iterate faster. AI-assisted coding is also speeding up how fast these companies can build and launch new content areas in the first place. Plus, generative AI can be used for content creation, though the subject remains controversial as artists worry that AI tools will use their work for training purposes or even put them out of work. Netflix, for better or for worse, has leaned into AI, having recently bought Ben Affleck’s AI filmmaking company for $587 million, for instance. Netflix 也采取了类似策略。联席 CEO Greg Peters 在第一季度财报电话会议上告诉投资者，新的模型架构正在改善个性化体验，并让团队迭代速度更快。AI 辅助编程也加快了这些公司构建和推出新内容板块的速度。此外，生成式 AI 还可用于内容创作，尽管这一话题仍具争议——艺术家们担心 AI 工具会利用他们的作品进行训练，甚至导致他们失业。无论好坏，Netflix 已经全面拥抱 AI，例如最近以 5.87 亿美元收购了本·阿弗莱克的 AI 电影制作公司。
YouTube AI creation feature, Dream Screen YouTube AI 创作功能：Dream Screen
YouTube has used generative AI to launch more creator tools, but also to improve its search engine, add conversational AI features, build playlists, and expand its content’s reach with auto-dubbing, among other things. Earlier this year, the company said that more than a million channels used its AI creation tools and 20 million consumers used its Gemini AI-powered content discovery tool in the month of December. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has framed AI as central to the YouTube experience for creators and viewers alike. YouTube 利用生成式 AI 推出了更多创作者工具，同时改进了搜索引擎，增加了对话式 AI 功能，构建播放列表，并通过自动配音扩大了内容的覆盖范围。今年早些时候，该公司表示，在 12 月份，有超过 100 万个频道使用了其 AI 创作工具，2000 万消费者使用了其基于 Gemini AI 的内容发现工具。Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai 将 AI 定位为 YouTube 对创作者和观众体验的核心。
TikTok has assembled its own version, with an in-app AI chatbot, AI video-creation tools, AI-driven search and recommendations, and AI-powered accessibility features. TikTok 也构建了自己的 AI 生态，包括应用内 AI 聊天机器人、AI 视频创作工具、AI 驱动的搜索与推荐，以及 AI 辅助的无障碍功能。
TikTok AI creation feature, TikTok AI Alive 图片来源：TikTok
All four are, of course, also applying AI to their ad stacks, helping marketers write ads, target audiences, price placements, and measure results. For consumers, this convergence means fewer reasons to switch apps at all. Whichever one you land on gains an advantage — more data on your habits, more lock-in — making it harder to leave even if prices climb or quality drops. As the lines between music, video, podcasts, books, and games blur, the coming battle is no longer which format will win, but which app will become the place to go for entertainment, regardless of what form that comes in. 当然，这四家公司都在将 AI 应用于广告系统，帮助营销人员撰写广告、定位受众、定价投放并衡量效果。对于消费者而言，这种融合意味着切换应用的理由越来越少。无论你最终停留在哪个平台，它都获得了优势——掌握了更多你的习惯数据，增强了用户粘性——即使价格上涨或质量下降，你也更难离开。随着音乐、视频、播客、书籍和游戏之间的界限日益模糊，未来的竞争不再是哪种格式会胜出，而是哪款应用会成为娱乐的首选目的地，无论内容以何种形式呈现。