AutoNavi Product Manager: Good voice navigation is definitely not just for Lin Chiling and Guo Degang

Recently, AutoNavi Map released a funny version, the biggest feature of which is the enhanced voice navigation module. In addition to being able to routinely broadcast basic navigation actions such as "slow down, turn, arrive at destination", it can also provide further real-time traffic information based on real-time scenarios using the unique teasing language of Guo Degang, a famous domestic crosstalk actor.

At a time when Internet products are increasingly required to be cross-border, interesting and fresh, the cooperation between AutoNavi Maps and Guo Degang has become a brilliant tutorial case for Internet products and marketing, and the product logic behind it is also worth discussing. The following is an article based on the oral content of "Hua Ku Cha" (what's that name), one of the product managers of AutoNavi Maps, and is shared with you here.

Why is Guo Degang?

Driving navigation has now become an important channel for people to interact with mobile maps. Due to the uniqueness of driving scenarios, voice navigation has become an important function of mobile maps to play a guiding role. We have signed Lin Chiling as a spokesperson before and created the concept of "celebrity voice navigation". As a "goddess" spokesperson for AutoNavi Maps, Lin Chiling's unique voice navigation has helped AutoNavi Maps improve the reputation of many brands, but many female friends have also expressed the need for new voices besides Lin Chiling.

Driving is often a very boring thing, especially in Beijing. If Lin Chiling's standard "baby voice" is not your cup of tea, you may need a new navigation voice to "refresh your mind".

Our cooperation with Guo Degang started in the second half of last year. Choosing Guo Degang is actually a win-win situation: as a travel map application with more than 300 million users, Guo Degang's endorsement is a strong bonus to its own exposure; and for AutoNavi, Guo Degang's identity as a famous crosstalk performer is consistent with the characteristics of the product - professional and funny. Internet tool applications have developed to this day, and there are no major differentiated functions in basic capabilities. Humanization, entertainment, and personalization have become new ways of differentiated competition, and Guo Degang is undoubtedly an excellent choice that can produce a chemical reaction with AutoNavi Maps.

I remember that at the end of last year, Baidu Maps held a vote for celebrity selection for navigation voice, and Lin Chiling and Guo Degang won the first and second place respectively. In fact, before Baidu Maps started the research, we had already done relevant research, and combined with the product features of navigation voice, we had already foreseen such a result. There are not many artists who are suitable for navigation and have appeal, but it also proves that the two we signed do represent the needs and voices of users.

On December 18 last year, AutoNavi Maps held its Happy Navigation Conference. On that day, we witnessed AutoNavi Maps’ DAU hit a record high. The whole city and major social media were talking about Guo Degang providing voice navigation for AutoNavi Maps. We knew at that time that we had made the right decision to sign Guo Degang, and AutoNavi Maps became another successful Internet product endorsement case. Since the two parties announced their cooperation on December 18, 2014, AutoNavi Maps’ product activity has continued to rise - the rate of new users has increased by 230%, and the number of daily active users has increased by 36%. AutoNavi Maps’ highest ranking on the Apple App Store list once reached No. 2.

How to “put” Guo Degang and Lin Chiling into Gaode Map?

Many users are wondering why Guo Degang and Lin Chiling can read such complex place names, roads and navigation action voices to us. In fact, we use a TTS speech synthesis technology.

In the early stages of production, we recorded some fixed sentences of celebrities in the studio. There are about 2,000 key sentences of this kind. Lin Chiling took three days to record while receiving an IV drip in Taiwan, and Mr. Guo also recorded for nearly three days, which was very hard. Afterwards, we will analyze their sentences and extract their respective pronunciation rules, voiceprint details, tone and intonation, and perform speech synthesis through a series of complex algorithms to fill in the missing "variable words" in the navigation voice, thus forming a complete and fluent celebrity voice navigation sound.

Compared with Lin Chiling, Mr. Guo's voice navigation version also adds various funny jokes, such as "There are vehicles merging in front, don't hit the car you shouldn't hit!", "There are many accidents ahead, and tanks have been knocked over!", etc. Therefore, Mr. Guo's workload is also very large. The content of various jokes is also the result of brainstorming by various departments of our AutoNavi Map and the majority of netizens. With the participation of Mr. Guo Degang, we determined the jokes to be included in the navigation voice, shortened them to an appropriate length, and decided in which navigation actions they should appear.

At the same time, we have also launched several popular dialect navigation voice packages. This is indeed a personalized demand for some users, but according to user feedback, the synthesis effect of Lin Chiling, Guo Degang and dialect navigation voice is still very good, especially the celebrity voice, which has celebrity characteristics and a high degree of synthesis restoration. Fans of Lin Chiling and Guo Degang also like it very much and are very confident in our technical level.

At present, AutoNavi is also the only Internet map manufacturer in China that can provide celebrity voice navigation throughout the journey. Competitors are indeed lacking in this regard. They spent a lot of money to sign celebrities but only used 7 sentences of their voices, switching back and forth with the standard female voice for voice guidance, which sounds very disjointed.

There is another episode: In this upgrade of Guo Degang's navigation voice laughter version, we not only strengthened the quantity and quality of Guo Degang's jokes, but also added a random joke function in various important navigation scenarios. For example, in the sharp turn prompt scenario, a total of 5 prompt jokes in the voice library are randomly selected and played, which can add more fun and make users feel happy. But such a seemingly simple change puts a lot of pressure on R&D: the addition of the random voice function requires major changes or even rewriting of the traditional SDK architecture and logic. As a PM, I have been under great pressure, but in the end, the R&D team completed the launch of this function under the spur of cans of X cows (and PM) - so, a good voice navigation also needs a motivated and hardworking team.

What are the criteria for a good voice navigation?

Recently, when Lin Chi-ling participated in the Dragon TV program "Sisters Over Flowers", she was teased as the "navigation goddess", which surprised us who had not invested in this program at all. Therefore, celebrity endorsements should be like this: they can achieve a win-win situation for both the celebrity and the product's brand power, that is, to establish a strong association with the public, and each becomes the attributive and label of the other.

But at the same time, I also think that a good voice navigation is not just about Lin Chiling and Guo Degang. On March 13, when AutoNavi released the Guo Degang version of the voice navigation, Dong Zhenning, vice president of AutoNavi, said: "If we want to make a professional voice navigation, we must pay attention to four key points. The first key point is precision; the second key point is intelligence; the third is humanization; and the fourth is entertainment." We believe that the "fourizations" should be a progressive relationship: precision means that the underlying data supporting the navigation module must be complete and accurate, which is the foundation of the product. AutoNavi has nearly 13 years of professional experience in this field; and on the basis of accurate data, it can use big data technology to achieve "intelligence" and provide pain point functions such as avoiding congestion and route selection planning; humanization is the pursuit of the ultimate in experience, such as the voice prompt is just the right time and the user's understanding threshold is low. And the last entertainment is to introduce various elements such as celebrity fun voices, so that users can feel happy from the bottom of their hearts while enjoying professional services.

A few days ago, I saw the self-media person Guo Jing mentioned in the article "Voice becomes the "hotbed" of map navigation innovation" that map navigation has been developed in China for more than ten years, and the route it has always taken is a machine route, especially the stereotyped and lifeless robot female voice. It is an innovation for AutoNavi Map to incorporate the distinctive voices of celebrities such as Lin Chiling and Guo Degang into map navigation. After the release of AutoNavi Map Happy Edition, it is like setting an industry standard for map navigation. Of course, we dare not say that AutoNavi Map voice navigation is an industry standard at present, but in fact, AutoNavi Map is the only map product that can provide full celebrity voice navigation.

Dialect version navigation voice, Lin Chiling voice, Guo Degang jokes, Guo Degang laugh version, what else will Amap have in the future? This is the question our PM has to consider, and these demands come from you - user experience is the foundation of Amap.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.