After raising US$39 million from its Nasdaq IPO in March, Xiao-I is ready to make its way to the world stage, founder and CEO Yuan Hui says.
When Yuan Hui launched his company’s first chatbot two decades ago, the world had yet to catch up on the potential of conversational artificial intelligence (AI). Today, Shanghai -based Xiao-I Corp is worth more than US$400 million, listed on the Nasdaq, and gunning for a global market finally waking up to the technological prowess of ChatGPT and similar services. For Xiao-I chairman and chief executive Yuan, who sat down for an interview with the South China Morning Post in May, fresh from his company’s US$39 million initial public offering (IPO) in March, it all began with a speech by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates . As a marketing employee at the US tech giant, Yuan attended a conference in Atlanta, where he heard the billionaire entrepreneur speak. Inspired by Gates’ experience, Yuan quit his job a year later and founded Xiao-I in 2001. The idea of developing a chatbot came to Yuan in 2003, when the Sars outbreak hit China. “At that time, many people could not leave their homes, which contributed to the popularity of instant messaging tools such as MSN and [ Tencent Holdings -owned] QQ ,” he said. “One boring night, when I found no one to chat with on the messengers, I felt I could work on a chatbot that I could talk to at any time, on any topic.” In January 2004, Xiao-I released what it called the world’s first chatbot, which could be accessed via MSN, QQ and other major messengers. It proved highly popular among users. By 2007, Microsoft’s MSN designated Xiao-I as its only partner in robots. By 2008, the number of users of Xiao-I products surpassed 100 million globally. But there was one problem: the company had trouble finding a way to earn money from its technology. Consumers were happy to use its chatbot for free, but if they had to pay for it, Xiao-I would need to come up with something much better.
